Wookiee

Thank you, local boat owner then :-) £5k per year, around £417 a month is still a lot cheaper than the house I'm in (mortgage alone), other 'savings' such as council tax, gas/electric, house repairs sets up the financial side quite well for me. My soon to be ex went bat sh*t when I said I'd looked at a boat and was considering it as I didn't want to be in the house (too many memories here now), so I'll need to sort the house sale/being bought out first. What I own would fit in my car (I have more tools than anything else) and I've got the offer of a couple of places to stay until I get a boat so feeling a bit more relaxed about it now. The chap at the marina said they would have a couple of bigger boats available in the near future, I think one was a 42ft and the other was slightly bigger so I'd rather wait for something bigger. After getting on board a widebeam I'd go for one of them in a heartbeat, the lounge space was bigger than my house :-)

Paid a visit to the local marina where this little boat is for sale, very friendly chap who spoke with me that runs the place. He said I can be moored up all year and not leave the marina if I didn't want to, went through all the costs involved such as mooring fees, license, cost of diesel/gas etc so have a clearer idea now of what's involved. Had a good look around the little boat, which was nicely fitted out inside and seemed to have been well cared for (current owner had lived on it for a few years and has moved onto a bigger boat). On reflection I would prefer something a bit bigger as my daughter would be staying with me for between 2 - 5 nights/days a week so a little more space on board would be better, if it was just myself I'd probably go for it. The chap I spoke with said that 2 more boats were going to be available in the coming months, a 44ft and a 50ft. So he said I'm welcome to call back anytime if i have further questions or want to see if any other boats are available to buy. Feeling a lot more certain now that I know I can stay all year round, the mooring fees, license, fuel, electric will still work out quite a bit less than the house I'm in and I should be in a position to buy outright and have some money to keep aside towards any future work that might be needed. It was a miserable day, drizzle and cold but I couldn't help but grin whilst being on that little boat, enjoying the moment. Certainly feels like the way forward.

Cheers Dave :-)

No worries, happy to post where I'm at with this. Took a walk along the towpath of the Grand Union today looking at boats, it was a miserable afternoon with the weather but not put off by the elements. Always had admiration for people that live on the water, was hoping to talk to someone but everyone was rightly inside their boats in the warm and dry :-)

Hi folks........Nope I've not buggered off shaking my head :-) Amongst all the posts there have been points raised which I need to clarify, so thanks to all that have contributed to my post. I plan on visiting the local marina where the 33ft'er is moored and listed for sale and find out from them directly with regards to obtaining the mooring, whether I need to move off after a period of time and so on & will also check the council tax status as this may be something else I need to consider. Again the posts that people have put up have highlighted things which I hadn't thought about and I will need to know where I stand before moving much further with this. On a side note I visited my big sister who lives local and she mentioned that a chap in her team lived on a canal boat not far from where I live so she's going to ask if I can pay him a visit on his boat and ask some questions, get a feel of being on a boat and so on. Someone has mentioned about maintenance, valid point for sure. I spent many years repairing old VW Beetles (flat 4 aircooled type), along with Mini's and old Fords. I have done plumbing jobs at home, recently re-wired a caravan from scratch and done my own maintenance on the motorcycles I've owned over the last few years. I wouldn't say I'm an expert mechanic but I know my way around different engines and happy to get the tools out when required. I'm also doing a City & Guilds in Welding (up to level 2 in MIG, TIG, MMA, I've just done my level 1 in Oxy Gas & MIG). Maybe this will come in handy with any future repairs to my boat :-) Thanks again to everyone that has posted, there seems to be some areas that are unclear so I guess the bets thing to do is to visit the local Marina's and see what their rules & regs are.

Thank you for your replies, this is local and advertised with a mooring; http://www.mkmarina.co.uk/used-boats/details/1107.aspx Seems to have what I need, I'm not after anything big or fancy to be honest.

Hello, I am thinking about buying a boat to live on permanently. Bit of background first, my wife and I are separating after nearly 13 years. We currently have a house together which neither of us can afford on our own, she is moving in to a rented house with a new fella in Feb and will be looking to buy a house around Feb next year. So I'm looking at alternative housing options. Before we met I was considering buying a boat to live on, not just from a financial point of view. Something about the lifestyle appealed and I've never been worried about having a big place with space, big garden and so on. I have no idea with regards to what license I would need before I could buy and live on a boat, I would prefer to have a residential mooring rather than have to be moving every few weeks due to work and so on. There is a couple of marina's locally which have some boats advertised (a couple would be within budget too). Am I better off visiting the marina's where these are for sale and asking them for advice or is it better for me to do my own research first? As said I've no idea what is involved in the purchasing side of things. This isn't a recent idea, more one that I've had for a long time and maybe the upcoming separation is a sign to make the move onto water. If anyone could get me some pointers I would be very grateful, I'm based in Milton Keynes so if there are any residential owners on here who would be happy to meet with me in person to give me some details that would be great. Thank you for taking the time to read/post.