Types of Moorings Explained: Pile, Pontoon, Swing & More

A finger berth is a pontoon berth where your boat occupies its own individual slot, with a narrow floating walkway (the 'finger') along one side. This gives you easy access to your boat from both sides, makes stepping on and off simple, and keeps your hull away from other vessels. Marina finger berths are almost always fully serviced — shore power, fresh water, Wi-Fi, and access to toilets, showers, and laundry ashore. They are the preferred choice for long-stay liveaboards and leisure boaters who want reliability and convenience. The downside is cost — marina berths in popular areas are the most expensive mooring option available, and waiting lists at sought-after sites can run to several years.

An alongside berth (also called an alongside pontoon or wall berth) means mooring your boat side-on to a floating pontoon or solid quay, rather than in a dedicated slot. You may share a pontoon with several other boats, and access is typically from the end of the pontoon rather than from your own dedicated finger. Alongside berths are generally slightly cheaper than finger berths, and are common in smaller marinas and in harbours where space is at a premium. The main practical difference is that getting on and off requires stepping across the pontoon (or over neighbouring boats in a raft situation), which can be less convenient.

A swinging mooring consists of a heavy ground anchor, a chain or rope riser, and a pickup buoy on the surface. Your boat is secured to the buoy by its bow, and swings in a circle as the wind and tide change direction — hence the name. Swinging moorings are very common in tidal harbours, estuaries, and rivers, where they can accommodate far more boats than fixed pontoons in the same area of water. They are almost always the cheapest long-stay mooring option available, and in popular sailing areas they are highly sought-after. The trade-off is that getting ashore requires a tender (dinghy) and that shore-side facilities are usually minimal — often just a dinghy dock and perhaps a basic toilet block.

Pile moorings use two or more timber or steel piles driven into the bed of a river, harbour, or estuary. Your boat is secured between the piles, usually with lines from both bow and stern, preventing it from swinging. This allows more boats to be accommodated in a given stretch of water than swinging moorings, and it's particularly common on tidal rivers such as the Thames and the Medway. Pile moorings vary in quality — some have good walkway access, others require a tender. Facilities depend entirely on the specific site. Cost is usually lower than a marina berth and higher than a basic swinging mooring.

The Canal & River Trust (CRT) manages around 3,000 km of canals in England and Wales, along which it offers both short-term visitor moorings and longer-term home mooring licences. A towpath mooring licence gives you a designated stretch of bank to moor your narrowboat or wide-beam canal boat on a permanent basis. Facilities are minimal — no shore power, no water tap at your mooring, no showers or toilets provided — and boats must be self-sufficient. However, costs are significantly lower than canal marina berths. The most sought-after towpath moorings are in popular urban locations (London, Birmingham, Bristol, Bath, Leeds) where demand far exceeds available licences and waiting lists are common.

Canal marinas are purpose-built facilities on CRT-managed or private waterways, offering the same standard of amenity as a river or coastal marina but specifically designed for narrowboats and wide-beam canal boats. You'll typically find shore power (usually 16-amp single-phase), water, Wi-Fi, pump-out facilities, an Elsan point, toilets, showers, a laundrette, and often a chandlery and winter storage. Canal marinas are the most comfortable and convenient long-stay option for inland boaters, and they represent good value compared to coastal marinas for equivalent amenity. Popular canal marinas — particularly in the Midlands and on the Grand Union Canal — have waiting lists.

A tidal berth is any mooring in water that rises and falls with the tide, rather than being impounded (held at a constant level). Most coastal and estuary marinas are tidal, as are many harbour moorings and all swinging and pile moorings below the tidal limit. The practical effect is that your boat sits at different heights at different states of the tide — pontoons float up and down with the water level, so access is usually not an issue in a modern tidal marina, but you need to be aware of tidal windows for leaving and returning if the approach channel dries at low water. Tidal berths are the norm for seagoing yachts and motor cruisers.

A residential mooring is not a type of physical mooring structure, but a legal status — a mooring site (or specific berth within a site) that is licensed or permitted to be used as a permanent home. Not all marinas allow residential use; those that do must have appropriate planning permission, and in some cases separate licensing from the local council. The distinction matters for liveaboards because it affects council tax liability, electoral registration, and what mail you can receive at the berth address. Residential moorings are in significantly shorter supply than leisure moorings and typically command a premium. See our dedicated article on residential mooring rules for full details.

Which type of mooring is right for me?