Working on a sailaway

[Kimadams83]

Hi all! 

 

I am looking to buy a sail away and wondering if you lovely lot can offer some advice please. 

 

I want to work on my boat and create my own feel to my boat as I need specific elements due to being an artists and using it as my studio toobut don't know whether I should be doing this on land or moored? Has anyone else have any experience of this or know of anyone who has and how they went about it please? 

 

Kim

[blackrose]

I fitted out my boat in the water at various moorings. But you have to be considerate to your neighbours with noise, etc, and also read the terms and conditions of your mooring. Some moorings operators may turn a blind eye if nobody else complains.

 

On the other hand it might be cheaper to do it on hard standing if you can find somewhere.

Edited August 22, 2021 by blackrose

[Richard10002]

Not a poll of many but I have met a few owners of sailaways in varying states of completion over the years. In most cases the owners have been fitting out for a few years, the exterior remains the same dull grey finish as when they bought, albeit with a few rust marks, and the rest of the family dont get to do much boating.

 

If you can find a 2nd hand boat that comes close to meeting your needs, I'd say that is the way to go. Maybe an ex hire boat with a couple of bedroom compartments that can be repurposed, by removing the beds and maybe partitions, to create a bigger space.

 

This way you have a boat with functioning lounge, kitchen, bathroom and a sleeping area, and not that big a job to create an artists studio.

 

just my 2 penn'orth  

[Kimadams83]

16 minutes ago, blackrose said:

I fitted out my boat in the water at various moorings. But you have to be considerate to your neighbours with noise, etc, and also read the terms and conditions of your mooring. Some moorings operators may turn a blind eye if nobody else complains.

 

On the other hand it might be cheaper to do it on hard standing if you can find somewhere.

 Ooooo I didn’t even think of hard standing! Would that be that a marina?

[ditchcrawler]

42 minutes ago, Kimadams83 said:

Hi all! 

 

I am looking to buy a sail away and wondering if you lovely lot can offer some advice please. 

 

I want to work on my boat and create my own feel to my boat as I need specific elements due to being an artists and using it as my studio toobut don't know whether I should be doing this on land or moored? Has anyone else have any experience of this or know of anyone who has and how they went about it please? 

 

Kim

Did mine on a bit of waste land down the lane where I live

[Slim]

58 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Did mine on a bit of waste land down the lane where I live

When I fitted mine out afloat from a shell many years ago I had the option doing it onshore  or afloat. Assuming you have alongside access I would recommend afloat. On balance it's easier to get heavy items on board and a large proportion of the work is below decks. It's also much easier to work out weight distribution..

[Tony1]

For a good visual of living aboard whilst fitting out a sailaway, look up 'Journey with Jono' on youtube (if you havent already).

 

My impression is that most of the folks who go down that route seem to spend at least a couple of years before they are anywhere near finished, and a few have gotten too frustrated and given it up. In fact, I think Jono himself has packed in boating, and I dont think he ever got his boat fully fitted out. 

For the first few months he sort of 'camped' inside the boat. If I remember right, I think he was literally inside a tent for extra warmth, and he had a few very uncomfortable nights with the cold before he got his heating sorted. 

 

I must admit, I thought long and hard about a sailaway 'with extras'. Having a blank canvass to design the interior, and also having a brand new engine and fittings, was very appealing. 

But impatience got the better of me. I wanted to get aboard and get cruising asap, and if I'd got a sailaway I'd probably still be working on it now. 

 

One thing that has struck me, in the limited amount of renovation and improvement work I've done, is that you need to budget for buying all sorts of tools that you never knew existed. 

Clamp meters to measure current in cables (among other things), laser thermometer to see if my alternator was overheating, a wide variety of woodworking tools, drills and bits (special bits, mind)- even a basic crimping tool for 35mm cable so that I could mess about with my batteries. 

I imagine a full fitout would need an even wider range of tools, and you often have that problem of having to buy a pack of 50 things when you only need two of them.   

So if you are putting a budget together, be realistic about the cost of tools and materials. 

Also, consider waiting until Spring, when you can move aboard with a good 6 months to get some basics done before it gets really cold. 

If you're on hard standing with electric hookup and access to water, that may be different.

 

I'm having a grim time of it at the moment laying vinyl plank flooring (more water resistant than wood laminate planks apparently), and even that meant buying a few more tools specially for flooring. 

I think a lot depends on how quickly you want to move aboard, how much you are prepared to rough it (eg no running water/ hot water etc), and for how long- and of course how keen you are on DIY. If you love a DIY challenge, a fitout might be great, but if like me you have no skills and even less enthusiasm, you may want to reconsider the sailaway option. 

(And apologies if I'm stating obvious issues that you've already gone through.)

 

 

[MtB]

I don't think I've ever seen a boater living on a sailaway actually completely finish their fit-out, other than Blackrose on here.

 

 

[Tony1]

11 minutes ago, MtB said:

I don't think I've ever seen a boater living on a sailaway actually completely finish their fit-out, other than Blackrose on here.

 

 

 

On a related note, I'm pretty sure I'm never actually going to finish the jobs that need doing on my boat. I seem to have been sucked into some sort of DIY black hole or vortex, where there is a new and immutable law of boating- the tasks that require my attention will expand at an accelerating rate, which will always be faster than it is possible to complete them. 

Having extra personnel would I'm sure not help- the time required for the additional cups of tea, planning sessions, and conversational cogitations would always expand at a faster rate than the new tasks appear. 

I have reached the stage of acceptance, and I now make sure that at I at least fix the things that will definitely kill me.

The things that might kill me can wait. 

 

 

[Bod]

When buying a sail-away, specify a gloss paint finish, colour doesn't at this stage really matter, it's just a case of weather proofing the hull, to prevent rusting.

Only accepting a Primer/undercoat finish, which is not weather proof, means a lot of difficult rust removal later.

Also be aware of the BSS, RCD, RCR standards, which you will have to adhere to, in case the boat has to be sold later on.

Costs will be at least 3 times what you budget, time scale, multiply by 5.

 

Bod

[Kimadams83]

This is great thank you so much everyone! 

[BWM]

There is extensive hardstanding at Debdale marine and it is cheaper than a mooring, and unless you're very lucky access for large materials will be difficult at most moorings. 

[Slim]

2 hours ago, Bod said:

When buying a sail-away, specify a gloss paint finish, colour doesn't at this stage really matter, it's just a case of weather proofing the hull, to prevent rusting.

Only accepting a Primer/undercoat finish, which is not weather proof, means a lot of difficult rust removal later.

Also be aware of the BSS, RCD, RCR standards, which you will have to adhere to, in case the boat has to be sold later on.

Costs will be at least 3 times what you budget, time scale, multiply by 5.

 

Bod

When I ordered my shell I agreed with the builder that I could spend a weekend painting it before it was delivered by road. Three friends and I slapped an undercoat and a topcoat on with no concern about finish as it was taken back to bare metal later.

Can't comment on cost as I soon gave up keeping any meaningful records. It was the odd bits that were the the problem not major components. As for time I agree fully.

[David Mack]

1 minute ago, Slim said:

When I ordered my shell I agreed with the builder that I could spend a weekend painting it before it was delivered by road. Three friends and I slapped an undercoat and a topcoat on with no concern about finish as it was taken back to bare metal later.

If you were going to take it back to bare metal anyway you might as well have left it in rusty primer. Or put on the undercoat and top coat well enough that it would just have needed flatting off for a final couple of topcoats later.

[MtB]

25 minutes ago, Slim said:

It was the odd bits that were the the problem not major components. As for time I agree fully.

 

Yes the virtually daily trip to B&Q to spend £80 on a bag of stuff but nothing specific, really mount up into a drag on finances. 

[Tony1]

Just to add to MtB's point, I would make sure you pick a location that is within easy reach of an Amazon and ebay pick up location, as well as a good DIY place like B+Q.

There are loads of specialised bits and bobs that even the likes of B+Q don't have a good variety of (if they have it at all) and amazon's next day delivery service is a godsend to save you hanging about for ages because you're short by one widget, or it fell in the cut/got lost, etc. 

As MtB said, the ad hoc trips and orders adds up very quickly and very largely! 

Also, if you're getting larger items like solar panels delivered, they'll need to go to a postal address (not a pick up point). 

Some marinas will let you use their office as a delivery point- maybe a boatyard would do that?  

 

I have the solar panel dilemma myself at the moment. The ones I want weigh about 25kg and are an awkward size to carry for any distance. 

My plan is to get them delivered to a friend who lives about 50 miles away, then I can hire a van for the day to go fetch them. 

Not looking forward to hauling them onto the boat though. Every yard that you can get the boat closer to a nearby road or parking place could save you a lot of sweat and hassle. 

 

 

[Slim]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

If you were going to take it back to bare metal anyway you might as well have left it in rusty primer. Or put on the undercoat and top coat well enough that it would just have needed flatting off for a final couple of topcoats later.

Maybe. Hindsight is a science. 😉

[Richard10002]

4 hours ago, Slim said:

Maybe. Hindsight is a science. 😉

 

Somebody else's hindsight could be the OP's good advice.

[Ex Brummie]

The advantage of fitting out afloat is that you can make everything fit in the boat's normal state. When having my boat slipped for blacking, the bathroom door wouldn't open. Also, you can check the ballast for trim easier whilst part completed. 

As regards finishing, is a boat ever finished whether on the hard or afloat? 

[reg]

9 hours ago, BWM said:

There is extensive hardstanding at Debdale marine and it is cheaper than a mooring, and unless you're very lucky access for large materials will be difficult at most moorings. 

What he said. 

[blackrose]

On 22/08/2021 at 20:14, Kimadams83 said:

 Ooooo I didn’t even think of hard standing! 

 

Yes you did. Your first post mentioned fitting the boat out on land.

[Puffling]

For fitters-out afloat, I think we need a gazetteer of woodyards and DIY retailers close to canals, with good loading access where, for instance, 8' x 4' sheets of ply can be rolled across to the boat easily on a hand cart. Obviously, one can painstakingly check each spot by a canalside shopping centre for suitable suppliers on Google Maps or similar, but I am imagining a list which gives specific outlets against the name of the canal. Decent mooring beside the site and ramp access to the road are a plus, of course.

Here's a start

1. GU canal - B & Q next to canal north of Aspley Marina (across a car park, level access)
2. Coventry canal - Jewson at Bridge 21 (very close, but steps for access to road?)
3. River Trent (Nottingham canal) - Brooks Bros (UK) Ltd, Lenton Lane at Bridge 13A (within sight of canal, easy access)

 

[PD1964]

5 hours ago, Puffling said:

For fitters-out afloat, I think we need a gazetteer of woodyards and DIY retailers close to canals, with good loading access where, for instance, 8' x 4' sheets of ply can be rolled across to the boat easily on a hand cart. Obviously, one can painstakingly check each spot by a canalside shopping centre for suitable suppliers on Google Maps or similar, but I am imagining a list which gives specific outlets against the name of the canal. Decent mooring beside the site and ramp access to the road are a plus, of course.

Here's a start

1. GU canal - B & Q next to canal north of Aspley Marina (across a car park, level access)
2. Coventry canal - Jewson at Bridge 21 (very close, but steps for access to road?)
3. River Trent (Nottingham canal) - Brooks Bros (UK) Ltd, Lenton Lane at Bridge 13A (within sight of canal, easy access)

 

The problem with Fitters-out-afloat as you call then on the canal side is that they tend to take over the Towpath with their tools/generators and often leave their off-cuts/mess behind or fill the nearest CaRT bins with it. If you want to do it quickly and properly you find a Boatyard with hard standing with space and facilities to work around the boat.

  The OP does not state to what stage her Sailaway will be when she gets it. Obviously the more she gets done by the builder(lined, bulkheads, electric’s, plumbing) the easier and quicker it would be, then just getting a shell with an engine.