Keeping a boat ready in Poole Harbour, all year round

Poole Harbour is one of the best places in the country to keep a boat — and one of the easiest places to let one quietly deteriorate. A boat that sits untouched between visits tells you about it in spring: flat batteries, wet bilges, covers worked loose in the gales.

The fortnightly run-up

Our checks are short and always the same: shore power and charge state, bilge and pumps, lines, fenders, cover and canopy. Engines are run up regularly so seals stay wet and problems announce themselves early — at the pontoon, not off Old Harry Rocks.

Laying up for winter

Before the season turns we arrange lift-outs, engine servicing and covers, and agree a winter routine that suits where the boat lives — Salterns, Cobb’s Quay, or a swinging mooring in the harbour.

Ready for the first warm weekend

The whole aim is simple: when the first good forecast lands in May, your boat starts on the button and the day is spent on the water, not on the phone to an engineer. That is what our vehicle and marine service is for.