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what comes first boat or mooring


river fisher

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Ok so Im a dreamer and i got cash for a boat and I can do some repair work etc, but on contacting marinas some on the medway ( my nearest river) there are no moorings. I didnt think this would be the first stumbling block. I envisaged having a mooring somewhere on an annual basis and then being able to go chug about ( I want an old style in board ?) up and down the river or a canal somewhere. Also everyone contacted has not been able to  help with transporting a boat should i find one on a canal up north for example. Any help or info appreciated

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13 minutes ago, river fisher said:

Ok so Im a dreamer and i got cash for a boat and I can do some repair work etc, but on contacting marinas some on the medway ( my nearest river) there are no moorings. I didnt think this would be the first stumbling block. I envisaged having a mooring somewhere on an annual basis and then being able to go chug about ( I want an old style in board ?) up and down the river or a canal somewhere. Also everyone contacted has not been able to  help with transporting a boat should i find one on a canal up north for example. Any help or info appreciated

 

Moorings in the 'South' are not easy to come by, as more and more people decide that it is cheaper to live on a boat than a flat / house the mooring situation gets worse.

It will continue to worsen as the TV and magazines run programmes / articles about how good life is on a boat.

 

Regarding transport there are a number of recommended boat transporters, when you are in a position to look for a quote, come back and ask and you'll get half a dozen suggestions.

 

As a guide last month I had my 14 foot wide boat moved by truck. It was taken 205 miles and cost £2300 BUT - it was expensive because being wide it needed an escort vehicle (so an extra vehicle and an extra driver). It was also limited at what times it could travel (Police rules about wide loads in 'rush hour')

A narrowboat for the same distance would probably be about £1000 / £1100.

 

 

It would be a lot easier (and cheaper) to get a 'lumpy-water' (Sea) boat as you have a great choice of marinas at Eastbourne, Brighton etc. 

You can 'pop-out' and go to Southampton, etc and even across to Guernsey, Jersey or France as your experience increases.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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A list of some of the moorings on the upper Medway is below.  I would be surprised if there was any great difficulty in finding a leisure mooring for a conventional boat.

 

It's a nice enough river, which like many rivers, floods sometimes, but the upper non-tidal part is both quite short and isolated from other similar navigations.  It is  perfectly possible to run round the Isle of Grain and into the Thames - but it needs a little thought, the correct state of the tide and suitable weather for your boat. 

 

 

Allington Lock (Environment Agency Moorings) - Please contact the Lock Keeper for availability. Telephone number here.

Allington Marina (01622 752057)
Approx 100 permanent moorings

Fords Wharf Boat Yard (01622 752918)

Castle Quay Boats  (castlequayboats@gmail.com)
Approx 15 permanent moorings

East Farleigh Boat yard (07860 377384)
Approx 40 permanent moorings


Bow Bridge,  (01622 812802)
Approx 100 riverside moorings and off-river pontoon berths.

Medway Wharf Marina (01622 813927)

Hampstead Lock, 
Hampstead Marine (01622 812673)
Approx 150 permanent moorings

Yalding, 
Little Venice Country Park and Marina (01622 814158)
Approx 65 bankside and pontoon moorings


Twyford Bridge Marina (01622 814378)
Approx 75 permanent moorings

Tonbridge Boat Yard Ltd (07860 789681) 
Appr
oximately 45 permanent moorings including a number of narrowboat berths

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15 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Moorings in the 'South' are not easy to come by, as more and more people decide that it is cheaper to live on a boat than a flat / house the mooring situation gets worse.

It will continue to worsen as the TV and magazines run programmes / articles about how good life is on a boat.

 

Regarding transport there are a number of recommended boat transporters, when you are in a position to look for a quote, come back and ask and you'll get half a dozen suggestions.

 

As a guide last month I had my 14 foot wide boat moved by truck. It was taken 205 miles and cost £2300 BUT - it was expensive because being wide it needed an escort vehicle (so an extra vehicle and an extra driver). It was also limited at what times it could travel (Police rules about wide loads in 'rush hour')

A narrowboat for the same distance would probably be about £1000 / £1100.

 

 

It would be a lot easier (and cheaper) to get a 'lumpy-water' (Sea) boat as you have a great choice of marinas at Eastbourne, Brighton etc. 

You can 'pop-out' and go to Southampton, etc and even across to Guernsey, Jersey or France as your experience increases.

Thanks for your reply, ill bear all those points in mind but not sure that i wanna be going across the sea !! I find that a bit daunting as ive had some tales to tell when weve been a bit pissed up and gone fishing out from rye harbour.

 

 

5 hours ago, Tacet said:

A list of some of the moorings on the upper Medway is below.  I would be surprised if there was any great difficulty in finding a leisure mooring for a conventional boat.

 

It's a nice enough river, which like many rivers, floods sometimes, but the upper non-tidal part is both quite short and isolated from other similar navigations.  It is  perfectly possible to run round the Isle of Grain and into the Thames - but it needs a little thought, the correct state of the tide and suitable weather for your boat. 

 

 

Allington Lock (Environment Agency Moorings) - Please contact the Lock Keeper for availability. Telephone number here.

Allington Marina (01622 752057)
Approx 100 permanent moorings

Fords Wharf Boat Yard (01622 752918)

Castle Quay Boats  (castlequayboats@gmail.com)
Approx 15 permanent moorings

East Farleigh Boat yard (07860 377384)
Approx 40 permanent moorings


Bow Bridge,  (01622 812802)
Approx 100 riverside moorings and off-river pontoon berths.

Medway Wharf Marina (01622 813927)

Hampstead Lock, 
Hampstead Marine (01622 812673)
Approx 150 permanent moorings

Yalding, 
Little Venice Country Park and Marina (01622 814158)
Approx 65 bankside and pontoon moorings


Twyford Bridge Marina (01622 814378)
Approx 75 permanent moorings

Tonbridge Boat Yard Ltd (07860 789681) 
Appr
oximately 45 permanent moorings including a number of narrowboat berths

Thanks for your information. Am I right in thinking that if i was to find somewhere on the medway then the only way to venture out wouild be to go via the thames and onto a canal ?I have tried a couple of the numbers above already and they say no go. 

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8 minutes ago, river fisher said:

Thanks for your reply, ill bear all those points in mind but not sure that i wanna be going across the sea !! I find that a bit daunting as ive had some tales to tell when weve been a bit pissed up and gone fishing out from rye harbour.

 

 

Ok, But I'd suggest that a narrowboat is not the best type of boat to have for a bit of a "chug up and down the Medway".

 

Have a look on the Medway boaters facebook page - how many narrowboats do you see ? Wondered why ?

https://en-gb.facebook.com/rivermedwayboaters/

 

Had you considered having a canal boat based on a canal a bit further away from you (you can travel pretty well much of the country in 4 hours in a car)

 

Anyway, when you find a boat just ask for recommendations on transporters.

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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31 minutes ago, river fisher said:

 

Thanks for your information. Am I right in thinking that if i was to find somewhere on the medway then the only way to venture out wouild be to go via the thames and onto a canal ?I have tried a couple of the numbers above already and they say no go. 

Yes - that's pretty much it if you discount hauling by road.  For the more pedantic, without going on to the Thames, you can reach the Swale and thus Oare, Faversham and Milton Creeks.  The Thames & Medway Canal is now closed to through traffic other than trains.

 

My Dad kept a boat on the Medway for few years in the 1970s.  Fine for weekends but not for longer holidays.  At just over 6 foot beam and a full 7hp outboard, his boat was less suitable for estuary work than a typical narrowboat.  But just the same, he would bring it round to the Thames and then to all points north.   I remember some occasions all to well, which probably only goes to show it is not recommended unless you like that sort of challenge.

 

 

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Why moor a boat on the Medway? You have hobbled yourself from day 1 if your skills are as you say.

 

You can't really go anywhere. Unless you are skilled in the estuary waters.

 

Why not get a map of the inland waterways and start looking further afield. And observing the  interconnected inland waterways.

 

 

Edited by mark99
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1 hour ago, mark99 said:

Why moor a boat on the Medway? You have hobbled yourself from day 1 if your skills are as you say.

 

You can't really go anywhere. Unless you are skilled in the estuary waters.

 

Why not get a map of the inland waterways and start looking further afield. And observing the  interconnected inland waterways.

 

 

I suggested that in post #5 but the OP doesn't seem to be very keen on that idea.

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On 08/12/2019 at 20:39, mark99 said:

Why moor a boat on the Medway? You have hobbled yourself from day 1 if your skills are as you say.

 

You can't really go anywhere. Unless you are skilled in the estuary waters.

 

Why not get a map of the inland waterways and start looking further afield. And observing the  interconnected inland waterways.

 

 

yes i would love that, exploring the canals but it wouldnt be a liveaboard so travelling involved to get to these damn canals. and where do I start, i mean it cant be easy to roam about and then moor up for weeks/months at a time ? while i drive back to near the medway

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1 hour ago, river fisher said:

yes i would love that, exploring the canals but it wouldnt be a liveaboard so travelling involved to get to these damn canals. and where do I start, i mean it cant be easy to roam about and then moor up for weeks/months at a time ? while i drive back to near the medway

It is what a great many people do with leisure boats, in the main they would go back to the marina when leaving the boat.  In the marina we are in at Napton, there are people that live on the south coast and use the boat for long weekend and holidays etc.  There are also people from a number of European countries (judging by the car number plates) who would be mostly using for longer periods to justify the drive and ferry.  Having a boat close to where you happen to live is not always going to be the best choice, a three hour drive can get you a long way and make for a better location for a boat..

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2 hours ago, river fisher said:

yes i would love that, exploring the canals but it wouldnt be a liveaboard so travelling involved to get to these damn canals. and where do I start, i mean it cant be easy to roam about and then moor up for weeks/months at a time ? while i drive back to near the medway

 

12 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Having a boat close to where you happen to live is not always going to be the best choice, a three hour drive can get you a long way and make for a better location for a boat..

 

 

We live 'in the East of England' and have one boat in Plymouth (5 hour drive) and one boat On Anglesey, North Wales (a 4 hour drive)

 

If we were to keep the boat 'at home' then, by boat, it would be a 2 week, 900 miles cruise to get to the North Wales coast.

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4 hours ago, river fisher said:

yes i would love that, exploring the canals but it wouldnt be a liveaboard so travelling involved to get to these damn canals. and where do I start, i mean it cant be easy to roam about and then moor up for weeks/months at a time ? while i drive back to near the medway

I live in Suffolk my boat was near Anderton four and a half hours away by car

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On 10/12/2019 at 19:14, john6767 said:

Having a boat close to where you happen to live is not always going to be the best choice, a three hour drive can get you a long way and make for a better location for a boat..

We live in the South West, a bit over 3 hours from the boat moored near Warwick.  We don't want to simply explore the same area we live by another means, so it's a plus for us to have a completely different cruising area.  Since getting to much of the country from home is a bit of a camel hike, it also benefits us to have a centrally located second home as a stopping off point.

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Yes appreciate that people do live away from their boats but i seem to have such a busy life and many hobbies that having to drive up to 3 hours to get to the boat seems at the moment a bridge too far, when I had stupidly thought I could tinker about on the med , just 30 mins or so from my house.

However I see that this may be necessary due to the convenience of marinas and the abundance of routes.

 

Many thanks to you all for your replies and I havent even got  aboat yet.  So can I ask what exactly is a canal boat is it a shorter version of a narrow boat. I think I would prefer the sound of the old inboard engines rather than an outboard... but what do I know

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4 minutes ago, river fisher said:

Many thanks to you all for your replies and I havent even got  aboat yet.  So can I ask what exactly is a canal boat is it a shorter version of a narrow boat. I think I would prefer the sound of the old inboard engines rather than an outboard... but what do I know

A canal boat is any boat that can sail on a canal; it could be wide or narrow. It is a very general term.

A narrow boat is any boat under 7ft wide and is generally considered to be made of metal nowadays, but could also be made of fibreglass, although these are generally called narrow cruisers.

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