London/near London area affordable residential yacht mooring

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Catyans
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London/near London area affordable residential yacht mooring

Post by Catyans »

Hi all,

I am currently an avid Sailer and compete crewing a friends boat every weekend, but now am left with a thirst for my own boat, that I also believe will suit my lifestyle for the foreseeable future and even enhance it.

I am going to be sitting the Day Skipper this year too.

The main plan is to move to the London area to study and work, but flat rent prices are huge and the thought of being able to sail out of an evening if I wanted, or see the fireworks from the Thames has me reeling with hope for such experiences whilst being within reach of the center of the city by road the rest of the time.


I am looking for advice on a residential mooring, distance isn't too much of an issue and outside of Londons center, even out to Middlesex is fine. As long as its never more than maybe 30 - 45 mins drive by road, traffic dependent. (Motorbike).

It would be a live aboard yacht, so canals and places the mast simply could not fit nor the keel survive are out.

Apologies for my inexperience, I have looked at numerous marinas but none seem to go for this particular market and finding an example that isn't solely for canal boats is proving difficult. In general though do I stand to make a saving and have the opportunity of owning my own yacht, or would it be better to drop the pipe dream and find a flat like everyone else?

Thanks for any information.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

I'm in the middle of relocating to my boat for the rest of the year so only have a mo for a quick reply, but...

you will struggle to find a bone-fide residential mooring. They are like hens teeth.

But - have you thought about living in St Kats Dock? It was about £600pcm and not officially residential when we were there, but there were lots who were living aboard, and once in, the berth is yours till you leave. Good facilities and free laundry. And in the nicest part of London, very close to the city.

Not super easy for an evening sail though - but not impossible by using the holding buoys outside the lock. It's 200 metres east of tower bridge - north side. Probs your only realistic option - but the option i would take even if there were other options.

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Catyans
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Post by Catyans »

Thanks Jeff!

Just looked over their website....seems too good to be true?? Basically.

Amazing.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

Thats what I thought. You do need to book in advance for entry. We lived there for a month. Pics in my forum around aug 2010 I think.
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Post by Jeff »

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KMyran
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Post by KMyran »

A friend of mine lived in Limehouse Basin for years and loved it there. They are about £750 a year I think, but officially residential so you don't have to live in fear of being caught :) Looks like a decent mix of yachts, barges etc too...
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Post by Jeff »

Wow £750 a year is cheap!! Bet they're full - with a waiting list!!
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KMyran
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Post by KMyran »

Well, that's what he paid, or claimed to pay... He was Irish and married to the manager's sister so might not have been quite the standard deal :)
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Post by Jeff »

Hehe perhaps not :)
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Catyans
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Post by Catyans »

Beautiful pics Jeff, really not helping my bug, I'm so enthused to do this now, been looking at used yachts and seems to be hard to find the mix between "will be happy living in" and "can afford"

All the ones with nice interiors and at the right size (35ft 37ft+ it seems) are late 70's to early - mid 80's, but I wonder at the services, plumbing etc and all the hidden things.

I.E - http://www.theyachtmarket.com/boatimage ... 421&page=2 (and in the states!)

Or they're the right size and price but look like a shed inside.

Doesn't help that I dont know much about yachts as far as technical and build quality

Again, amazing pics, thanks.
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Post by Jeff »

Glad you like the pics :) Thank you :)

Boats...

There's a lot to learn if you're going at it from scratch, but fortunately the net now has so much information available and people willing to help that you don't have to learn the hard way any more.

I may be wrong but I think it's now very difficult to buy a boat in the US and bring it to the UK as a result of CE conformity - I may be wrong - might apply only to new boats or boats newer than some arbitrary value - but you need to check before considering a US import. Similar considerations for any imported boat TBH.

Also take care to ensure VAT paid proof is available - or that the boat's price is low enough to cover a potential 20% bill... this is super unlikely to be a problem in practice but will affect future re-sale price and can cause concern when leaving UK waters in the future.

I think the only real bargain boats are those which aren't the usual bermudan sloop. If you can find a cat ketch or junk rigged boat they are often amazingly good value... but they so rarely come on the market. Again re-sale may be an issue.

Buy are you sure you need something that big? It's a heck of a big boat to start off with for close quarters handling, and the costs of mooring and maintaining will also be considerably higher than with a smaller boat. We lived very happily for over 2 years, including UK winters, on a 30.7 foot Westerly Tempest (pics earlier in the blog).


Best thing to do is start visiting boatyards and marinas and look round as many boats as you possibly can. Pictures on the internet are SO different from the reality for every boat we ever visited. Also we found that most boats, for some reason we couldn't put a finger on, didn't appeal - even though on paper they really did. Then along came one which wasn't exactly what we thought we wanted, but we felt like we just _knew_ it was the one. That happened on all 3 of our boats we've now owned.


If you find one you really like, post details in here and on other forums and people will tell you precisely what are the pros and cons of that make/model of boat - and what to look for. Quite often someone will know the actual boat in question. It's a surprisingly small community.


Good luck!!! See you on the water soon :)
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Post by Jeff »

PS that boat at $20,000 USD seems a bit too good to be true!
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Catyans
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Post by Catyans »

You're right about size, think I was missing out on some make and models that really squeeze out the space, IE ever since I searched your Westerly, i've seen 30 - 35 boats from the Tempest to the Oceanquest to the Corsair, and while both the Ocean and Corsair are around the 35ft area, will that extra 5ft really make a huge dent in my bank account every year on upkeep and rent? Rent wise St Kats seems to generalize that area where there's a category of 30 - 35 who pay the same? (Corsair is 36, yes, eesh).
There's a lot to learn if you're going at it from scratch, but fortunately the net now has so much information available and people willing to help that you don't have to learn the hard way any more.
and i'm very appreciative.

If it's anywhere relevant, I grew up on a farm, and in a basic sense am very good at maneuvering large vehicles in tight spots, with and without trailers, but this is obviously different in many ways.

Finances will indeed be tight for purchasing initially, so a 30ft looks more viable.

Re the $20'000 boat, indeed, I guess there must be a huge VAT on top of it or some form of catch they aren't mentioning.

p.s For some reason I'd really love my boat to have a helm wheel like the Corsair....but that's neither here nor there.
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

You're possibly correct about the price but if you're unlucky it's definitely going to be more expensive to, say, re-engine, re-rig, re-canvas a 35 footer as opposed to a 30 footer. But if you get one in decent condition from the outset, and sell it before any of those things need doing, and if you're right about that price bracket thing (I can't recall and haven't checked) then you could be right.

Our Westerly is for sale still btw, by my friend who bought it from us. It's in Malahide, Ireland at the moment but is coming back to the UK shortly as nobody is buying anything in Ireland at the moment. See ad in the for sale section of this forum.

Offers on the asking price are likely to be considered.
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Catyans
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Post by Catyans »

Your Tempest looks ideal, love the Christmas picture, and she has the shower and onboard toilet which I was hoping for, but then you said St Kats has great facilities too, possibly including shower.

I also caught your old Centaur pictures and while less ideal, I also saw your old asking price and think that's going to probably be more affordable for my price range.

Think the boats i've been looking at are all very old 70's rigs that will be needing everything replaced every other month. I don't think I could spend much over 10k, to begin with for my first, and it would do the job in the end till my situation improved and I could take the next step up to something great looking like a Tempest.

P.s i'm 6'4", and noticed the bow beds always seem worryingly short.
Last edited by Catyans on Thu May 09, 2013 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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