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Continuous short term mooring around Osney, Oxford


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I will soon be living modestly in a small 10-15ft boat. I aim to constantly (long-term) move between short-term mooring around Osney Island (or anywhere between Iffley and Port Meadow). I've read a bunch of great threads (>2yo) on similar topics, and am seeking advice on the practicalities of this approach. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Motivation:

My wife and I have recently separated - we both want her and the kids to continue to living in our flat near Osney Island, but this leaves me no money to find my own place. I'd like to live nearby with minimal cost so I can continue seeing my kids every day. I believe constantly moving between short-term mooring locations offers the ideal solution.

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To be honest, any kind of living on such a size of boat would be purgatory imho. CART will chase you a little on the canal if you just bob about ignoring their rules but the Thames bods seem to allow people to moor for ever without moving on the river in Oxford. There are several boats I know of that havnt moved for many years.

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5 minutes ago, Hugh Dictyostelium said:

I will soon be living modestly in a small 10-15ft boat. I aim to constantly (long-term) move between short-term mooring around Osney Island (or anywhere between Iffley and Port Meadow). I've read a bunch of great threads (>2yo) on similar topics, and am seeking advice on the practicalities of this approach. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Motivation:

My wife and I have recently separated - we both want her and the kids to continue to living in our flat near Osney Island, but this leaves me no money to find my own place. I'd like to live nearby with minimal cost so I can continue seeing my kids every day. I believe constantly moving between short-term mooring locations offers the ideal solution.

 

 

Before making the final decision it may be worth checking with C&RT that your movement plans are sufficient to 'satisfy' them.

 

If they are not satisfied that you either :

a) have a permanent mooring, or

b) are moving sufficiently to justify a 'cc licence

 

Thenn they can remove your licence and impound your boat.

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3 minutes ago, Hugh Dictyostelium said:

I will soon be living modestly in a small 10-15ft boat. I aim to constantly (long-term) move between short-term mooring around Osney Island (or anywhere between Iffley and Port Meadow). I've read a bunch of great threads (>2yo) on similar topics, and am seeking advice on the practicalities of this approach. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Motivation:

My wife and I have recently separated - we both want her and the kids to continue to living in our flat near Osney Island, but this leaves me no money to find my own place. I'd like to live nearby with minimal cost so I can continue seeing my kids every day. I believe constantly moving between short-term mooring locations offers the ideal solution.

This sounds like a recipe for disaster.  The places you mention are on the Thames where continuous cruising is nigh on impossible.  By "short term mooring" I assume you mean visitor mooring, which would be 48 hours at most.  Also the area you'd be covering is far too small.  You'd be better off on the Oxford Canal, but you'd still need to cover a distance of probably Oxford to Banbury on a regular basis. 

 

Also, do you have any experience of living on a 10' boat?  Once you've allowed for the rear deck and bow, you'll have roughly 6' of interior space, which is a good description of a coffin.

Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Before making the final decision it may be worth checking with C&RT that your movement plans are sufficient to 'satisfy' them.

 

If they are not satisfied that you either :

a) have a permanent mooring, or

b) are moving sufficiently to justify a 'cc licence

 

Thenn they can remove your licence and impound your boat.

It's not CRT waters.

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1 hour ago, doratheexplorer said:

 

It's not CRT waters.

 

Thats true but I was expecting that during his meandering he may be doing some time on the canals.

 

The thread sub-title is "Oxford Canal"

 

If he stays on the River then you are correct - he can ignore my post

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Thats true but I was expecting that during his meandering he may be doing some time on the canals.

If he stays on the River then you are correct - he can ignore my post

His stated intention is to cruise a maximum range of Iffley to Port Meadow.  That's a total of about 3 miles.  If he's desperate he could try joining the boat-squatters on the Castle Mill Stream or Duke's Cut, but they might be a bit territorial and I believe they're constantly battling against eviction from Oxford Council and the EA.  Or he could get a permanent mooring, which are hard to come by in Oxford.  Or he could cruise the canal between Oxford and Banbury, but the canal has become far less continuous cruising friendly in recent years, especially at the Oxford end.

 

Personally I think he'd be better off in a camper van.

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9 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

To be honest, any kind of living on such a size of boat would be purgatory imho. CART will chase you a little on the canal if you just bob about ignoring their rules but the Thames bods seem to allow people to moor for ever without moving on the river in Oxford. There are several boats I know of that havnt moved for many years.

Cheers pal. I get this, but I will have the luxury of having a home to pop back to regularly - this will be more than enough for me.

I'm aware of similar boats, and they're my primary motivation for this lifestyle. My ideal situation would be to find a little spot where I live quietly without notice. Don't mind being moved on, even if it's every couple of days.

13 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

Before making the final decision it may be worth checking with C&RT that your movement plans are sufficient to 'satisfy' them.

 

If they are not satisfied that you either :

a) have a permanent mooring, or

b) are moving sufficiently to justify a 'cc licence

 

Thenn they can remove your licence and impound your boat.

This is terrifying - does "can" mean likely?

I'm happy to move sufficiently (e.g. to Banbury) every couple of weeks or so.

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6 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

His stated intention is to cruise a maximum range of Iffley to Port Meadow.  That's a total of about 3 miles.  If he's desperate he could try joining the boat-squatters on the Castle Mill Stream or Duke's Cut, but they might be a bit territorial and I believe they're constantly battling against eviction from Oxford Council and the EA.  Or he could get a permanent mooring, which are hard to come by in Oxford.  Or he could cruise the canal between Oxford and Banbury, but the canal has become far less continuous cruising friendly in recent years, especially at the Oxford end.

 

Personally I think he'd be better off in a camper van.

This is really good advice - thanks. I'm not keen to join those boat-squatters, I'm concerned they would be territorial and attract too much attention. Would love a camper van (I know of one that cruising around West Oxford) but I don't have a drivers liscence!

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24 minutes ago, Hugh Dictyostelium said:

Cheers pal. I get this, but I will have the luxury of having a home to pop back to regularly - this will be more than enough for me.

I'm aware of similar boats, and they're my primary motivation for this lifestyle. My ideal situation would be to find a little spot where I live quietly without notice. Don't mind being moved on, even if it's every couple of days.

This is terrifying - does "can" mean likely?

I'm happy to move sufficiently (e.g. to Banbury) every couple of weeks or so.

 

If you are going to be on the canals (C&RTs waters) then this gives you an idea of the sort of cruising you are expected to do (AS A MINIMUM)

 

Yes - your boat can be siezed as many have found out.

 

 

London Enforcement Manager Simon Cadek sent an email to a boater who was warned that they were on course for failing their six month restricted licence, telling them what they would need to do to pass.

The email is on public record as part of advice to boaters in the London Boaters Facebook group .

When we are looking at boat movements we are looking for characteristics of bona fide navigation, these fall roughly into four categories:

· Range: by range we mean the furthest points a boat has travelled on the network, not merely the total distance travelled. While the BW act does not stipulate what that distance is the Trust has previously said that anyone travelling a range of less than say 20 miles (32km) would struggle to satisfy the Trust that they are engaged in bona fide navigation and that normally we would expect a greater range.

. For the avoidance of doubt, a small number of long journeys over a short period of time, followed or preceded by cruising in a small are of the network would not generally satisfy the Trust that you are engaged in bona fide navigation.

· Overstaying: we look to see how often boats overstay, either the 14 day limit on the main length of the canal, or shorter periods where local signage dictates, for example short stay visitor moorings.

While we are flexible with the occasional overstay from most boaters due to breakdown, illness or other emergencies, we will look at the overall pattern balanced with range and movement pattern in order to form a view.

Overstay reminders are issued when a boat is seen in the same area for more than 14 days. While we are unable to say how far you need to travel each time you move, we would advise that you normally travel further than a few km each time.

This will prevent you from getting reminders and depending on the length of other trips you make and how many times you turn back on yourself, should increase your overall range over the course of your licence.

· Movement: Continuous Cruiser Licences are intended for bona fide (genuine) navigation around the network, rather than for a boat to remain in one mooring spot, place neighbourhood or area.

We would expect boats on these licences to move around the network such that they don’t gravitate back to favoured areas too often i.e. in a way that it’s clear to us that they’re living in a small area of the waterway.

The basic principle of this is that these licences are not intended for living in an area and if it looks like a boat is habitually returning to a particular part of the waterway then this would not generally satisfy the Trust.

Within an acceptable range we’d expect a genuine movement, so for example it would not satisfy the Trust if a boat went on a 60 mile trip during the course of say two weeks, then returned to cruise in an area of say 5 miles the remainder of the time (figures are examples only).

Generally speaking, the smaller the range the less we’d expect to see boats back at the same locations. Of course people need to turn around and they’re perfectly free to re-visit places they have been to before, it’s living in a small area on this kind of licence that would cause a problem.

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2 minutes ago, Hugh Dictyostelium said:

Thanks - found a few of these from many years ago - how much worse do you reckon?

I am concerned about the winter when the river floods, the current can get really intense.

 

That's the least of your problems.  I very much doubt the EA will give you a licence without a home mooring.  You could get a gold licence but that's expensive.  If you expect to moor somewhere from which to can walk to Osney, you'll be looking at having to move on every day.  Also, floods can happen at any time of year.  Also, many visitor moorings on the Thames have mooring fees.

 

If you manage to do this and make it work, I'll be amazed.  You'd be better off focussing your efforts on getting a driver's licence.

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It may be worth you are taking a stroll and investigating the backwater from Dukes Cut down Wolvercote Mill Stream. I am sure it is EA water but the banks will be privately owned. They look very overgrown on Google so if you can find pedestrian access you might be able to tuck such a small boat away from prying eyes down there.

 

Also, probably worth exploring the myriad of backwaters  to the west of the main river where I think there are bridges and fallen trees that will prevent larger craft getting up them.

 

If you don't upset the riperain owners (of the bank) I doubt the EA will care about you.

 

However, I agree with those who say trying to iv on such a small boat, especially in winter, will be miserable. I will add very damp and cold.

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49 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

That's the least of your problems.  I very much doubt the EA will give you a licence without a home mooring.  You could get a gold licence but that's expensive.  If you expect to moor somewhere from which to can walk to Osney, you'll be looking at having to move on every day.  Also, floods can happen at any time of year.  Also, many visitor moorings on the Thames have mooring fees.

 

If you manage to do this and make it work, I'll be amazed.  You'd be better off focussing your efforts on getting a driver's licence.

Thanks guys, this has been valuable, and I'm glad I didn't just jump into it. Will have a deep think about other options

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The Thames is beautiful, lovely, one of the most beautiful places on Earth IMHO, but in winter it can be completely uninhabitable and extremely dangerous in any craft, let alone a 15' cruiser. As it happens @Hugh Dictyostelium, I did try to do something very similar - I studied for my PGCE at Oxford Uni and decided I would take my little Shetland 535 (a relatively massive 17') up to Port Meadow to stay on during the week. I think I made it to November before taking digs...

 

Beautiful pontoon moorings outside a Staines pub in summer

 

image.png.47a1a860c475a4d707da988da779f1c2.png

 

 

Not so inviting in winter (to be fair this was the infamous 2014 flood, but there is absolutely nothing to say that it won't happen again!)

 

image.png.b3f8e7fe8b17d1c4831ba4e2e4fec622.png

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Bacchus said:

The Thames is beautiful, lovely, one of the most beautiful places on Earth IMHO, but in winter it can be completely uninhabitable and extremely dangerous in any craft, let alone a 15' cruiser. As it happens @Hugh Dictyostelium, I did try to do something very similar - I studied for my PGCE at Oxford Uni and decided I would take my little Shetland 535 (a relatively massive 17') up to Port Meadow to stay on during the week. I think I made it to November before taking digs...

 

Beautiful pontoon moorings outside a Staines pub in summer

 

image.png.47a1a860c475a4d707da988da779f1c2.png

 

 

Not so inviting in winter (to be fair this was the infamous 2014 flood, but there is absolutely nothing to say that it won't happen again!)

 

image.png.b3f8e7fe8b17d1c4831ba4e2e4fec622.png

 

 

At least in a boat you won’t be flooded and get wet feet, you will literally rise above it…..

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Plenty of boats don't. 

 

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