Client Testimonials

March 2023

Thank you for your kind attention for the past few months for SY Penelope.

You will have noticed we left on Tuesday as we had indicated and we left a mooring line that you had temporarily placed in addition to ours on the pontoon for your recovery.

Once again, I can only praise what I have long thought, Berthon are the best marina I know and the standard of service and helpfulness are second to none. My sincere thanks.

Best Regards

Bruce Coward

I wanted to write and express our gratitude to your team for looking after us during our stay, you accommodated our last minute request on A pontoon looking up the estuary to the town quay, Gary and Pete were great, made us welcome and moved us when a mooring became available to C pontoon where we enjoyed access to the Solent, superb facilities and spent time with family.
A great weekend was had by all until Sunday morning when we were preparing to leave! Unfortunately, water was accidentally put into the diesel tank!
Thankfully we were in safe hands, a visit to the Marina office and a chat to Luke who assured us all would be ok and tried to put us at ease! Tom visited us and arranged for Nathan and Emma to be on board at 6 am Tuesday morning to empty the tank and sort the problem, they did a great job were courteous, knowledgeable and reassuring. Now refuelled, we were on our way just a couple of days later than planned with no long term damage, just a dent in the bank account and pink with embarrassment! We made it back to Chichester just in time to cross the bar and back to work on Wednesday morning.
Thanks again for helping us out in our moment of need, hopefully, we will be back to see you in 2022.
Regards
Matt and Sarah.

Always friendly, always helpful. My go to Marina for the Western Solent

On Friday one of our crew managed to loose his footing and ended up falling into the bottom of our boat.

I called an ambulance and tipped off the dock masters that an ambulance will call into their office and could they please direct them to our berth. When we arrived back at our berth we were met by Luke and his college who helped take the lines.

More importantly they were both so professional in helping assess the problem and helping with what could have been a major incident. The ambulance crew were given a complete briefing  by your boys as to how to tackle the problem. They were all fantastic & one couldn’t ask for more  care and attention .

A very big thank you to all.

The final outcome was that after about two hours and a lot of morphine gas & air  we managed to get the casualty out and he is now recovering at home.

Thank you again, your team were amazing.

Tyne and Wear Fire & Rescue VT Halmatic MkIII Rigid Raider - Fire Boat

I wish to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude for the works you have undertaken on Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service’s behalf for the refurbishment of our Fireboat “Fossway”.

This project had, as you are aware, many unforeseen problems commencing at first with the outbreak of COVID-19, then the number of unexpected defects that you came across as the project progressed.

I am especially grateful to you for the regular communications with us, keeping us up to speed on how the works were progressing.

On the day of the trials, my colleagues and myself were greatly impressed by the facilities at your yard and of the thorough workout of the vessel and the speed that the issues identified were addressed.

The professionalism and communication throughout the project have been second to none. In conclusion, please forward my thanks to your team for their contribution to making this project the success it is.

Tom Greer, Tyne and Wear Fire & Rescue Service Technical Manager

Berthon were pleased to welcome the Tyne and Wear Fire Boat to our Marine Services Big Blue Sheds this summer for a comprehensive life extension refit, prolonging the service of the boat. Read the full article here.

September 2020

HMS EXPLOIT, P167 P2000 - ARCHER CLASS

Dec 2019

To the team involved

I write to express my gratitude to all those involved in the ship’s work package over the last 6 weeks. The feedback from my ship’s company couldn’t be more positive, and all of the work has been completed to the highest standard. Because of your hard work and professional attitudes, ‘EXPLOIT’ can return to Portsmouth and full operational capacity knowing that we will be ready for whatever comes our way.

We will no doubt see you next year when we return for another ASRP, but until then thank you, fair winds and following seas.

Yours,

James,

LT Rn, Commanding Officer HMS Exploit

HMS SMITER, P272 P2000 - ARCHER CLASS

Feb 2020

Berthons,

On behalf of Heslup’s company and myself, I would like to thank you for all your hard work on SMITER during her ASRP.

The level of support we received and the quality of the work was fantastic and, despite the maintenance period being extended, it was nice to see the level of motivation did not drop.

The ship is in a great material state which will serve us well during the following year, and we are very proud to call her our ship; as you should be proud of the contributions you have made.

All the best,

Looking forward to seeing you all next year,

Lt LDL Jones RN

HMS EXPLOIT - Letter dated 14 Dec 21

I would like to take this opportunity to thank both yourself and your team for the excellent work conducted in EXPLOIT’s recent ASRP.

Where the maintenance package at first did not appear overly substantial, I am very aware that it contained multiple moving parts which needed careful management and oversight from yourself. What was particularly pleasing was the Trials Week and CAD were all conducted on time, enabling us to return to Base Port and resume Operations as part of the Coastal Forces Squadron.

The ASRP was not without a few engineering challenges along the way, however, I was highly impressed with the conduct of the Berthon’s team, particularly when it came to overcoming the emergent issues and defects. The adaptability and resilience of your entire enterprise was key to the success. The swift rectification of the defect causing water ingress into the Tiller Flat is a fine example of this, and was crucial to the timely completion of the ASRP.

CO EXPLOIT

August 2024

Another reason why Berthon is my favourite boatyard in the entire world!!

July 2024

We made Norway landfall this afternoon 52 hours from Inverness. It’s the sunniest and warmest day here since my Lymington arrival On April 6. Momentum is performing flawlessly. Thanks to all the craftsmen at Berthon for her excellent refit and maintenance.

July 2024

In April the vessel flooded due to excessive rain. The flood damage was considerable, to the extent that a write off seemed possible. However, Ben Slater was a breath of fresh air. He declared immediately that the boat could be renovated.

In record time (considering we wasted a month pursuing a hopeless insurance claim), Indaba RIB is now in better condition than she has ever been in our ownership. The team at BHG have been superb in every way. All matters have been dealt with expediently, and all items were completed rapidly as well as to budget. Today on sea trial there was not one single snagging item.

Both Steve and I are delighted with the result. We will be reporting to everyone what superb work has been done by the team at BHG / Berthon – all of whom are to be congratulated for their fine refit.

PS this follows a superb renovation on my AB 11VST. That too had a minor refit – I am delighted with all the good work carried out there as well.

I would like to thank you for all the work you have done to make the re-rigging of Ganesha a great success. You managed the work very well, and kept us well informed.

We are very grateful for all your efforts to make our stay at the marina a very pleasant one.

I just wanted to let you know that I was really impressed by the lift team. They were professional, courteous, and very helpful. All in all, a pleasure to meet them and have them work on the boat.

TOCCATA FPB 64

Sue, Brian and Dominic,

As Sue knows, I am the owner of FPB 64 TOCCATA, which recently completed a two-year stay in the Lymington yard. I am writing to express my appreciation for the outstanding level of service we received from Berthon during our stay. From our arrival at the marina in November 2018 through our departure a few weeks ago, and including a surprisingly long stay in your brilliantly timed customs yard, we were fortunate to be able to take advantage of Berthon’s own craftsmen, a number of subcontractors in Berthon’s ecosystem and the overall sense of safety and security knowing that our boat was in good hands while we were thousands of miles away.

Toccata recently arrived back in the USA via ship and it was both a relief and not surprising at all that she arrived with all work having been performed well and ready to head off on her next adventure.

We regret that we were not able to retrieve TOCCATA ourselves this year but will always appreciate our time with Berthon and in Lymington itself and hope our paths will cross again one day.

Windsong Malo 36

A quick line to say that, after an uneventful trip down to Cornwall 2 weeks ago, we have Windsong safely moored at Mylor Yacht Harbour.

Now that we have left Lymington, at least for the time being, I wanted to record my thanks for the way that we have been looked after by your business over the last 18 months.

Sophie was great to deal with and very helpful on our purchase of the Malo 36; Matt Hart and Jim Catterall (and their teams) were excellent and both went the extra mile in helping to manage the re-fit of Windsong over the last winter whilst we were in Portugal – for longer than intended because of the Covid-19 pandemic; and Luke Machin and his team were unfailingly helpful and good humoured in resolving issues in the marina. Berthon rightly has a good reputation in the market and we experienced this quality across the business during the past 18 months.

Many thanks to you and everyone who helped make our stay at Berthon a pleasure.

Best wishes

October 2020

Footloose Windy 37

I should have written earlier regarding my Windy 37 to thank your staff for the help given.

I bought Footloose through your brokerage in 2006 and have since had many hours of fun. As I live on the East Coast with no shore power, I fitted a generator firstly to top up power and secondly because I have always worried about the fact that all of the batteries are shut in the engine compartment and I have never worked out a proper Plan B for access, should the batteries fail.

After sixteen years, I finally had the occasion to wish I had sorted a proper plan earlier. For the first time since owning the boat I managed to leave the batteries in the ‘on’ position and, having not fixed an issue with the generator properly over the winter due to Covid, found myself with no battery power.

I called your office for advice and was told to expect a call back shortly from the engineer who was off site; I was very happy to receive a call within fifteen minutes. Not only was it a prompt call back, but it was from Tom Wright who I understand is an engineering specialist within the Berthon group. I had managed to get myself out of ‘Jail’ by that point and will not bother you with the detail other than to say fortunately the Volspec engineer attending the boat the week before had not been as stupid as I; and had turned off the generator isolator – which was the unfinished winter job and also located in the engine compartment.

I would ask that you pass my thanks on to your receptionist who used her initiative to get Tom Wright to call me. Tom had a ready solution that I did not need to use, but which will be duly noted so that, should I be so stupid again, I do not find myself in the same position.

Many thanks and best wishes to you all in these strange times, although around here brokerage boats are flying off the shelves which I hope is the same for you.

August 2020

On Ice

Thank you very much for sorting out my generator battery problem Yesterday at such short notice.
It meant Bridget and I had an excellent day out at Osborne bay.
Your service, enthusiasm and dedication are to be commended.

Samphire

Just a quick note to thank you very much for your excellent work managing Samphire’s refit of the Raymarine suite and renewal of the standing rigging.  I am particularly grateful for your proactive service, the way you kept me informed of what was happening, and your positive approach to solving issues as they arose.