Newbie cant wait to get back into boating

[BIGCOL1]

Hi all,

I have been looking at your forum with interest.
I started boating some 18 years ago, using Poole as my weekend base with a 21 ft boat, we progressed up to a 40 foot princess moored in southampton. Our family luved it. but our daughters grew up and left home.Our travels on our boats took us along the south coast as far as plymouth across to the chanel islands from st malo, holidaying in Belgium and france.
4years ago Moorings were getting expensive and we were fed up with the 50 hour working week so we sold up and moved to Spain 4 years ago.

As the saying gos the grass is greener on the other side!!.

We miss boating, and me having been dianosed with tesculer cancer 6 months ago getting over a operation and chemo, I want to come back and live on a boat being based in the same country as my daughters and 4 grandsons.

We have a ltd buget, but am looking at a motor boat very much like a trader 41*2.

The only way we can aford to come back to the Uk is to tie in our living arrangments with our love of the sea.

I have found all the posts on this forum amusing and very interesting and have been a member of the RYA and just renewed my ICC cert.

Although my wife knows somthings going on, re convinceing her that living on a boat can be achieved. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Im working on her slowly, shes more concerned with life on board in the cold of winter, but hey wots she worried about she has me!!!!!

I hope to be a busy member of this forum, and please forgive me if i keep asking stupid questions and learning from you all.

Over the last few months, i have been looking at residential moorings, as and this is proving to be a nightmare.
My daughters live in the beds bucks area, so we can have our mooring on the east, south or west coast, as my family have cars and we will be buying a ourselves a little car as well. so Folks please help me realise our dream and give us some pointers.

So any sugestions for residential berths please??

We are looking for a pontoon berth and a dog friendly enviroment, we use to moor in a working boatyard so we are not choosy,marina,rural, or along side.

Also I know the diference between a normal berth and a residential but looking at other forums is this really important?

Thanking you all in advance

And please remember Life is short, so if you have a dream follow it, Live your dream!!

Col x

Can anyone offer advice

[paulclan]

Hi BigCol1,
Year round liveaboarding is just about feasible on or near the Med, the Camargue,Carcassonne, and on French Canals.What has changed is the cost of fuels.If you can afford a new build narrow/wide boat, superior insulation could overcome your high energy loss and subsequent high fuel outlay, in a UK winter.Might be as well to consider a shore base somewhere to retreat to in the most inclement times. As I write from Dublin, it is pouring rain and is forecast to do so all July, see wwwweatheraction.com for long term prognosis (no connection).If you are a competent sailor, a houseboat may not fulfill your needs. Consider also a small sailing vessel from the 70's say a Seamaster 23 or dozens of other similar boats. Small outlay , same fun. Living aboard in a humid climate is not very much fun at all! you get to pick your weather days with a small vessel, and if it is good enough you can stay onboard anyway.good luck with your planning!

[Abigail]

Hi, if I get you right you want to liveaboard in the UK, somewhere commutable from Beds/Bucks

You can in some marinas get away with living aboard if it is NOT your address - eg if your kids can be your address of record. In others, you can make it your address (which is of course more convenient.) Others have prohibitions on the amount of time (consecutive) you can spend there, which is of course impossible to police if you have an annual contract. So in picking an area its worth nosing about, asking here, wandering teh yard to find out what your options are in different marinas.

Another choice is to move everfy year, especially if you have got a seperate address of domicile, but that might make continuity of medical attention more difficult.

From Beds Bucks, you could look at the East coast, which has lots of options (see the E Coast forum on these boards) - we were v happy in Ipswich for 2 years. It will be much cheaper than the S Coast, but the further north you go, the cheaper it will be.

On the cold - the secrets are ventilation, insulation and a heating source. If you don't ventilate, the condensation will destroy your stuff. Insulate as much of the hull as you can; we stuck 9mm closed cell foam everywhere and its worked well. 6mm would have done and been easier to manage. We have an Eberspacher, which has worked well for us, but also small oil filled radiators. This is an economics issue, depending on you generate and/or are charged for power and fuel.

It's all very doable, so go for it and good luck!

[Robih]

Have a look at the Gt Ouse at Ely. Much cheaper than most locations in Southern England and might fir the bill for you.

[BIGCOL1]

Hi all

thanks for the advice,i promise im taking it all in!!

.I would like a berth nr the coast, and the east coast will work out cheaper than the south.It will be new cruising ground which will make it all the more exciting, till we get use to the new boat.I have looked at the river ouse but will be a problem with air draft as my boat will be a trader trawler type boat?? as i would like to adventure across the pond once use to the equipment etc.I dont mind mooring inland as long as its easy to get out there in the salty stuff.

Ps my wife is slowly coming arround!! but being black mailed as she wants a new little car.

No probs just let m,e back on the water

Many thanks all keep em coming and any names of marrinas or moorings that are livaboard value for money please advise as I think I will aquire the mooring as soon as i can, due to residential being hard to come by, although Abigail has given me memories of folks in cobbs quay living on their boats, and if they take a cruise or a week away or even weekends they were not classed as residential. Is this true??


Again thanks all

Col


Col x

[Abigail]

There are at least two different definitions of residential at play here.

(i) what the marina/moorings will tolerate. As I said, that's very variable and may in some cases be a blind eye but in others (eg Brighton when we were there) be welcomed for security reasons. Many marinas, even if they don't mind liveaboards, do expect you to be able to move your boat and to actually do so occasionally! But it's not always a requirement.

(ii) official purposes, particularly those identity issues requiring an address, and Council tax. On the former, we have had no problem, even with companies house, with Roaring Girl, such & such a marina, and their office address. On the latter, the Valuation Office Guidance (last time I looked and you should check for yourself) said the liability of a 'boat hold' depended on certain tests which could define the boat/mooring as a hereditament (the taxable unit). These tests include whether you move the boat at all, is it self-contained for sanitary, cooking and plumbing, is post delivered to the boat (as opposed to the marina office or elsewhere). I've never heard of them using a phone line to the pontoon as evidence of it being taxable (and we had such a line in both Brighton and Ipswich) but it would be another piece of evidence I suppose.

In my experience, I don't know of sea-going boats in marinas being charged CTax, except where one lass claimed housing benefit on her mooring fees. (She got a large chunk of it, but not all as they said her 10m boat was big enough for two and so she couldn't get all the rent!) I have heard of canal boats attached to moorings actually owned by the boatie being charged it.

Finally you need to convince nice doctors etc that you can go on thier lists. We found a marina address no problem, and indeed are still registered with that doctor cos she's lovely and ignores our wanderlust tendencies.

Hope this helps. You can also search council tax and things on here as people have discussed it before.

[jamie_Cacique]

Hi it is possable to get moorings in Plymouth ( S W England) for free. If you are mot too fussy as to where you want to moor ypu can lay your own mooring but you will need a dinghy to get to the shore and there is no mains electricity or water etc.