Might have found a mooring

[TotalNovice]

Hi everybody

 

Been lurking around in the background for a while now, spending my time reading posts and searching for a mooring. I'm looking for a liveaboard, my preference is for a widebeam. However, I have been unable to secure a mooring until today. If I buy a boat from my local marina I can get a mooring, the only snag is they only have narrowboats for sale.

 

I'm thinking that as a complete novice this might not be such a bad idea, narrowboats are smaller so I guess are easier to handle? I will be single handed so this seems like a good option to cut my teeth on, furthermore if I am living aboard and getting to know boaty people my chances of finding a widebeam mooring in the future will probably improve a little??

 

Have spent the day looking at boats a couple have taken my fancy, so in theory I could make an offer tomorrow and could move in relatively quickly. Just need to decide if I can live in a corridor!!

 

The idea is that in a year or 2 I could sell the narrowboat and find a widebeam. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or would you expect me to lose to much money on selling up so quickly?

 

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[sueb]

seems sensible to me.

Sue

[debbifiggy]

Hi everybody

 

Been lurking around in the background for a while now, spending my time reading posts and searching for a mooring. I'm looking for a liveaboard, my preference is for a widebeam. However, I have been unable to secure a mooring until today. If I buy a boat from my local marina I can get a mooring, the only snag is they only have narrowboats for sale.

 

SNIP

 

The idea is that in a year or 2 I could sell the narrowboat and find a widebeam. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or would you expect me to lose to much money on selling up so quickly?

 

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

I agree with Sue that it sounds like a sensible idea except that there have been so many widebeam boats launched on the K&A, GU and other wide beam canals recently that moorings everywhere are even more stuffed up than they were. I heard from a friend on who normally cruises the Lee and Stort that when he first started there were around 50 maybe 60 continuous cruisers and nobody had a widebeam. Nowdays there are around 250 so called continuous cruisers on the same stretch and a large number are wide beam (even on the Stort with it's lack of sensible moorings being a very twisty turney river) and there is no room for anyone anymore. Mooring provision has not kept up with demand and residential moorings are even harder to come by especially ih the south east, south west and London due to land prices. Anyone with any commercial sense knows that marina development has to be pretty special to work south of Braunston even now!

 

I know that the vast majority south of Brum are breaking the so called resi rules one way or another and the writing is on the wall for all of us. Maybe I should lighten up but I see hard times coming.

D

Edited May 1, 2008 by debbifiggy

[blackrose]

Make sure that the mooring you are interested in will allow a widebeam. Even though it may look like it can accommodate a widebeam the regs may stipulate narrowboat only.

[fender]

I know that the vast majority south of Brum are breaking the so called resi rules one way or another and the writing is on the wall for all of us. Maybe I should lighten up but I see hard times coming.

D

 

Is that a personal view - or one that is your official BW position?

[debbifiggy]

Is that a personal view - or one that is your official BW position?

Personal as a concerned boater ... it's amazing what you hear on the towpath telegraph

[TotalNovice]

Thanks for the replies so far. The mooring I am looking at will only accomadate a narrowboat but I think thats a good start, hopefully over the next year I'll make up my mind what I want and where and with a little bit of luck will find it!! All I have to do now is decide on whether to put in an offer for the boat that needs no work and is therefore much more expensive or take the punt on the much cheaper one. If I go for the cheaper 1 I will need to some work on it, could be interesting as the name implies I am a total novice. But the fun is surely in the learning and making and correcting the many mistakes I'm sure I'll make along the way.

 

My intention is to put in an offer tomorrow.

[Windjammer]

The problem is inevitable.

 

Young people can't afford to get on the bricks and mortar building ladder.

They can't live at home forever.

 

The inland waterways offers a more affordable home with a "romantic" lifestyle (on paper anyway).

 

Result: Young (and not so young) people attempt to live on the canals by a variety of means, which ends

up in the canals becoming clogged with people needing somewhere to live.

 

If allowed to proceed unchecked, boating will become a very stationary pastime.

 

How do you control it ?

[faithhealer]

Ive been on a waiting list for a residential mooring since april 2007

at catherine de barnes i dont know how long the list is or where

i am on it as soon as i hear from them il be selling my house &

looking for a narrowboat its something ive wanted to do for years but

couldnt until 2007 now its sit back & wait & grow old

faithhealer

[Lady Muck]

The problem is inevitable.

 

Young people can't afford to get on the bricks and mortar building ladder.

They can't live at home forever.

 

The inland waterways offers a more affordable home with a "romantic" lifestyle (on paper anyway).

 

Result: Young (and not so young) people attempt to live on the canals by a variety of means, which ends

up in the canals becoming clogged with people needing somewhere to live.

 

If allowed to proceed unchecked, boating will become a very stationary pastime.

 

How do you control it ?

 

A lot of us can't really afford the moorings either. We have scraped and struggled and taken on extra work and we have just got the money for our next years mooring, so we can get the prompt payment discount. It keeps on going up and up. But 'ccing' is going to be more expensive, once the fuel goes up, unless you never, ever move. I'd love to cruise my boat, more, but the mooring and license and fuel has gone up so much we have to stay in the marina more than we would like to. Ahh the irony!

 

I don't know how you control it.

 

We did the Lee and a tiny bit of the Stort at the weekend and there seemed to be about 100% more boats moored compared to last year.

 

Where do they all come from? But can you blame them? I've rented in London and it is ridiculously expensive, boatings still a tiny bit cheaper (or much cheaper depending on how you do it).