Mooring my wide-beam in Somerset or Devon

[Phil. Jones]

May I please draw on all your invaluable knowledge. I have a residential wide-beam 60’ long home that I would like to move (by road) to a new Somerset or Devon location to be closer to my Son. Marina or riverside are on my radar. This will be a permanent relocation. Hope you can help my quest. Thank you….

[Tracy D'arth]

Is Somerset or Devon big enough for fat boats?

I would encourage you in your endeavour. Can you take a dozen or so other fat boats with you for  permanent relocation down there please?

[nicknorman]

10 minutes ago, Phil. Jones said:

May I please draw on all your invaluable knowledge. I have a residential wide-beam 60’ long home that I would like to move (by road) to a new Somerset or Devon location to be closer to my Son. Marina or riverside are on my radar. This will be a permanent relocation. Hope you can help my quest. Thank you….

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I can’t help you with your question but just felt the need to apologise for the previous poster’s unhelpful rudeness.

[BEngo]

Somerset comprises the Bridgwater and Taunton as far as navigable canals goes.  There are no moorings suitable for a wide beam, at the moment, though Bridgwater docks may eventually

 

Devon has only the Exeter Ship Canal, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a mooring.   The Tamar above Saltash might be a possibility.  Kingsbridge  might be a possibility but is likely to be a drying mooring.

 

N

[Bee]

This is a real challenge. There are places where you might, eventually, find somewhere. Bristol, the Western end of the K & A but it will be difficult in the extreme. Apart from that you are looking at coastal marinas. The cost of marinas in the South West is kind of out of most peoples range and that is for smaller boats. A sixty foot boat is up in the superyacht size and that will be expensive and difficult. Falmouth and the river Fal might be possible. Apart from that you will really have to get in a car and spend time travelling around and asking but you might find this a hard task.

[howardang]

2 minutes ago, Bee said:

This is a real challenge. There are places where you might, eventually, find somewhere. Bristol, the Western end of the K & A but it will be difficult in the extreme. Apart from that you are looking at coastal marinas. The cost of marinas in the South West is kind of out of most peoples range and that is for smaller boats. A sixty foot boat is up in the superyacht size and that will be expensive and difficult. Falmouth and the river Fal might be possible. Apart from that you will really have to get in a car and spend time travelling around and asking but you might find this a hard task.

Agreed, and if you decide to take this advice, please make sure that when sizing up suitable moorings you take into account the need for occasional drydocking, repairs/alterations and if your chosen new location is able to offer you some peace of mind with regard to mooring longevity, i.e. can you rely on being able to stay there long term.

 

Good luck in your search.

 

Howard

 

 

[Tony Brooks]

Although the boat is probably a fat narrowboat, the OP does not say so, it just might be a proper boat shaped boat. I am not sure how the lumpy water marinas would view a wide beam narrowboat. I suppose a fatty would take to the mud better thatnmany other shapes, but there seems to be a question about how readily it would refloat as each tide come in.

1 minute ago, howardang said:

s you take into account the need for occasional drydocking, repairs/alterations

 

Especially as a fat narrowboat would probably not be up to popping along the coast to such facilities.

[Phil. Jones]

23 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Welcome to the forum. Unfortunately I can’t help you with your question but just felt the need to apologise for the previous poster’s unhelpful rudeness.

Not a problem to a guy of my age and worldliness at all….. thank you.

[PeterScott]

50 minutes ago, BEngo said:

Devon has only the Exeter Ship Canal, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to get a mooring.   ...

 

 

Exeter earlier this year. ForeverSummer looks to be less than sixty feet, but shows the principle of mooring in the basin. Run by Exeter Council, who quote fees here and multiplying the numbers gives an annual fee of just over three thousand five hundred pounds. But it doesn't look encouraging for residential use.  Here is a boat moored on the canal - presumably a private boatyard with hard standing. Just outside Exeter city centre.

 

Exmouth Marina, which is a sea-going coastal marina looks as if it might have the space, and quotes an annual mooring fee for a sixty-foot boat of just over seventeen thousand pounds. 

[Phil. Jones]

Thank you for a very detailed and informative reply. I really appreciate the details. Kind regards….

[GUMPY]

Plenty of free drying moorings in the Taw and Torridge estuaries. Some are even Bankside 😉

 

Good dry dock at Appledore, possibly a bit big for your needs🤔

[Peanut]

Costal moorings and marinas will be salt or brackish water, which may affect the rate at which the hull and stern gear corrode.

[Tony Brooks]

Just now, Peanut said:

Costal moorings and marinas will be salt or brackish water, which may affect the rate at which the hull and stern gear corrode.

 

That is why the OP should change his anodes and possibly fit a shaft anode when spending longer times in such waters. Othewise, his magnesium ones will erode at a much higher rate until they stop protecting the metalwork.

[Peanut]

The hull would also benefit from five coats of two-pack epoxy below the waterline for protection.

[Rob-M]

There are several wide beams permanently moored in Portishead marina.  This does give the opportunity to boat in to Bristol and up to the Gloucester Sharpness, the Severn and the Avon.

[GUMPY]

10 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

There are several wide beams permanently moored in Portishead marina.  This does give the opportunity to boat in to Bristol and up to the Gloucester Sharpness, the Severn and the Avon.

Their website says prices from £1784 per metre per year. That's the same per metre as I paid for 18metres for a full year.

[Rob-M]

3 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Their website says prices from £1784 per metre per year. That's the same per metre as I paid for 18metres for a full year.

I didn't say it was cheap but plenty of boats in there.

[Alan de Enfield]

36 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Their website says prices from £1784 per metre per year. That's the same per metre as I paid for 18metres for a full year.

 

 

That is ridiculous - the vast majority of coastal marinas we have used are in the £300 -£600 per metre per annum.

 

My current marina (North Wales) charge is £330 + VAT per metre per annum 

[John Brightley]

The Grand Western Canal might be a possibility if you can find a mooring. 

https://www.friendsgrandwesterncanal.org.uk/

[Rob-M]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

That is ridiculous - the vast majority of coastal marinas we have used are in the £300 -£600 per metre per annum.

 

My current marina (North Wales) charge is £330 + VAT per metre per annum 

When a one bedroom flat over looking the marina is around £500K - £750K I expect they feel justified in charging such high prices.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

Probably of no use to you, but when passing I noticed that there was a wide beam moored on the Bude Canal

 

It is however a Cafe boat

[David Mack]

On 16/06/2023 at 08:17, Phil. Jones said:

May I please draw on all your invaluable knowledge. I have a residential wide-beam 60’ long home that I would like to move (by road) to a new Somerset or Devon location to be closer to my Son. Marina or riverside are on my radar. This will be a permanent relocation. Hope you can help my quest. Thank you….

I think you may have to accept that Somerset and Devon are not counties with much canal mileage, and so moorings are going to be limited, and as has been suggested, costly. Go coastal/estuarial, and you get all the salt water issues as well as having to pay 'yachty' prices, because to a yachty, 60 ft is a very big boat.

[GUMPY]

30 minutes ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

Probably of no use to you, but when passing I noticed that there was a wide beam moored on the Bude Canal

 

It is however a Cafe boat

It's quite good as well, have been in there a couple of times.

[Wanderer Vagabond]

49 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

It's quite good as well, have been in there a couple of times.

Sadly, by the time I'd walked there from Crackington Haven, they were shut so I didn't get a chance to sample their wares.

 

The next time I'm up walking the Coast Path I'll be closer to your area having now crossed the Devon/Cornwall border so I'll be just a couple of days from Bideford/Barnstaple.

[GUMPY]

Between Appledore and Bideford the coast path goes past the end of our road. 🤔