Moving to Reading

[Terence]

Hello to one and all,

 

We really need some help. (I'll get straight to the point)

 

We are moving to Reading and are finding it difficult to locate a Residential Marina within 20 miles of the University there. Can anyone help?

 

Terence

Edited June 7, 2011 by Terence

[luctor et emergo]

Froud's Marina, near Aldermaston?

[Terence]

Froud's Marina, near Aldermaston?

 

Hi,

Have tried Froud's, they don't do residential. But thank you anyway.

 

Terence

[Guest]

Hi,

Have tried Froud's, they don't do residential. But thank you anyway.

 

Terence

 

Terence - a lot of marinas, if not the vast majority don't as in 'officially'.

 

If you ring and ask that question they will give you the 'official' line. However if you just ask do you have any vacancies? - you may have more luck.

[WJM]

Yip, if they have a total blanket ban on overnight occupancy then that is not what you want. Other marinas allow, say, four nights a week or less on board. That is perfect for students because obviously your hectic lifestyle means you are away most weekends, nudge wink nudge ;-)

[GSer]

Its certainly a 'no no' at Frouds.

 

I'd try the Thames and Kennet Marina but you might need a comfey place to sit when they tell you the price!

 

Many marinas on the K&A have the odd one or two livaboards but very few (if any) are official, for the last couple of years there have been moorings advertised opposite Tescos I'm not sure if they are linked to the Thames and Kennet though.

 

Good luck, you might even have to join the K&A's numerous CCers, the rail connections between Reading and Great Bedwyn are quite good (most of the time)

 

Paul

[Terence]

Its certainly a 'no no' at Frouds.

 

I'd try the Thames and Kennet Marina but you might need a comfey place to sit when they tell you the price!

 

Many marinas on the K&A have the odd one or two livaboards but very few (if any) are official, for the last couple of years there have been moorings advertised opposite Tescos I'm not sure if they are linked to the Thames and Kennet though.

 

Good luck, you might even have to join the K&A's numerous CCers, the rail connections between Reading and Great Bedwyn are quite good (most of the time)

 

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

Tried Frouds again as Martin suggested (always worth a try) and as you said a complete no no.

Have tried Thames and Kennet Marina. They don't do Residential as such. You have to have an address somewhere else, you can stay on your boat as long as you want. They have the right to move you around the marina when ever they need to. If you decide to take your boat out for the day you may not get your same berth back. There is an electrical hook up for £20 per kw. And you get all this for as little as £5000 give or take (paid up front).

 

Oh hum

Terence

[carlt]

Purley Gardens?

[MtB]

Hi Paul,

Tried Frouds again as Martin suggested (always worth a try) and as you said a complete no no.

Have tried Thames and Kennet Marina. They don't do Residential as such. You have to have an address somewhere else, you can stay on your boat as long as you want. They have the right to move you around the marina when ever they need to. If you decide to take your boat out for the day you may not get your same berth back. There is an electrical hook up for £20 per kw. And you get all this for as little as £5000 give or take (paid up front).

 

Oh hum

Terence

 

 

I'm in Thames and Kennet and put it this way, I've found them willing to negotiate on the headline price. I'm just a poor plumber and there is no way I could afford 5k a year to moor there Go and have a chat face to face.

 

Re the residential thing, I'd say 50% of the boats in the narrowboat section of T&K are liveaboards. Probably 25% of the crusier section is too.

 

Another place to try would be Norman at Burghfield (Kennet Cruisers). He has about half a mile of on-line moorings on the Kennet at one third of the price of T&K and again, they are unofficial residential. About 50% occupancy I'd say, having moored there myself too ages ago. I doubt you'll get him to admit on the phone or in writing that resisential is ok, but just go and look...

 

http://www.kennetcruises.co.uk/moorings.phtml

 

Cheers, Mike

 

(Edited to add the link)

Edited June 7, 2011 by Mike the Boilerman

[GSer]

Purley Gardens is for River Cruisers only, IIRC no room for a narrow boat. There are a few EOG's on the Thames but it's 'dead mans shoes' stuff, Shillingford Hotel at Shillingford Bridge has a few moorings you can stay for long periods of time, might be worth a call, as would Better Boats at Caversham. There was a plot of land above Cleeve for sale with mooring perhaps that's still available.

 

Most of the summer you could just bridge hop around the area between Abingdon and Henley (ish), the EA are less agressive than BW IME and unless you take the pee, you should be left alone. Eventually you may find a mooring on a lock island or indeed an EOG mooring to suit. Above Mapledurham lock there are a few long term moorings on the off side just above the weir (I know one was vacated recently).

 

I'd put my efforts into finding a place on the Thames as There are few places on the K&A within 20 mins of the uni. that I would fancy staying for a year or two, plenty of overnight stops but few safe long term spots online.

 

In Winter take a BW winter mooring on the K&A perhaps and resign yourself to travel further.

 

Paul

[Speedwheel]

Slough Arm? I think Iver, Langley and Slough Stations connect to Reading? Don't know how long it takes though.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Speedwheel

[Steilsteven]

Purley Gardens is for River Cruisers only, IIRC no room for a narrow boat. There are a few EOG's on the Thames but it's 'dead mans shoes' stuff, Shillingford Hotel at Shillingford Bridge has a few moorings you can stay for long periods of time, might be worth a call, as would Better Boats at Caversham. There was a plot of land above Cleeve for sale with mooring perhaps that's still available.

 

Most of the summer you could just bridge hop around the area between Abingdon and Henley (ish), the EA are less agressive than BW IME and unless you take the pee, you should be left alone. Eventually you may find a mooring on a lock island or indeed an EOG mooring to suit. Above Mapledurham lock there are a few long term moorings on the off side just above the weir (I know one was vacated recently).

 

I'd put my efforts into finding a place on the Thames as There are few places on the K&A within 20 mins of the uni. that I would fancy staying for a year or two, plenty of overnight stops but few safe long term spots online.

 

In Winter take a BW winter mooring on the K&A perhaps and resign yourself to travel further.

 

Paul

 

 

IIRC, that plot of land at Cleeve was going for c.£250,000.

 

Mapleduram don't allow living aboard.

 

BW might have a vacancy at Tyle Mill, not residential but people spend a lot of time on boats there,if you know what I mean.

Also, there are usually spaces at Reading IDR moorings which are the cheapest in the area but no facilities.

 

Keith

[Daftmare]

There are three marinas at Newbury (all owned separately now, I understand).

 

Ham Manor Basin

Greenham Island

Greenham Lock

 

Jo.

[Terence]

Firstly, thank you to all that passed on help I much appriciated it.

The outcome up to now (after many phone calls) is, Purley (No), Caversham (No), Better Boating (No), Hobbs (No), Val Wyhatt (No), Froud (No), with all roads leading back to Thames & Kennet Marina a Yes (not a simple yes, but a yes all the same). We will be paying them a visit.

There were others but all a No.

 

Mike, I sent you a PM, I hope you got it (Forum system having problems). I contacted Norman and had a chat he asked me to forward our details incase something came up and he would call us.

 

I'm in Thames and Kennet and put it this way, I've found them willing to negotiate on the headline price. I'm just a poor plumber and there is no way I could afford 5k a year to moor there Go and have a chat face to face.

 

Another place to try would be Norman at Burghfield (Kennet Cruisers). He has about half a mile of on-line moorings http://www.kennetcruises.co.uk/moorings.phtml

 

Cheers, Mike

 

 

Thanks for this Jo, I will look into it.

 

There are three marinas at Newbury (all owned separately now, I understand).

 

Ham Manor Basin

Greenham Island

Greenham Lock

 

Jo.

 

Terence

[JDR]

Try calling this number-07980692161, end of garden residential moorings in Newbury opposite West Mills. I went past these about a fortnight ago and still not occupied but I believe the guy in question is still in the process of getting planning permission. There may already be a waiting list.

Cheers

John

[Gibbo]

There is an electrical hook up for £20 per kw.

 

 

...in the narrowboat section of T&K are

 

'scuse my ignorance but what's the T&K?

[JDR]

Thames & Kennett marina between Caversham and Sonning on the Thames. Some great people in the marina but the owners

knock the arse out of the fact that there are precious few moorings on this section of the Thames/Eastern K&A.

[Gibbo]

Thames & Kennett marina between Caversham and Sonning on the Thames. Some great people in the marina but the owners

knock the arse out of the fact that there are precious few moorings on this section of the Thames/Eastern K&A.

 

Ahh, I was scrambling my head trying to think of a T&K canal.

[JDR]

PS: Mike the Boilerman- I'm also a fellow inmate at T&K, I hear your Kelvin phutting occasionally, sounds great.

[nb Innisfree]

Hi Paul,

Tried Frouds again as Martin suggested (always worth a try) and as you said a complete no no.

Have tried Thames and Kennet Marina. They don't do Residential as such. You have to have an address somewhere else, you can stay on your boat as long as you want. They have the right to move you around the marina when ever they need to. If you decide to take your boat out for the day you may not get your same berth back. There is an electrical hook up for £20 per kw. And you get all this for as little as £5000 give or take (paid up front).

 

Oh hum

Terence

 

At £20 per kw we would spend about £10k a year on electricity alone, yes that's right £10,000!

 

ETA: That's with a fairly modest consumption of 1.5 kwh per day.

Edited June 10, 2011 by nb Innisfree

[JDR]

I feel loathe to defend Tingdene but it is not that bad- a fiver lasts me well over a week but then I don't run a fridge or

a telly and tend to listen exclusively to radio 4 on a DAB when I'm on the boat. I've only got one 110aH leisure battery so even that doesn't take up too much juice. Unless you intend to power the Hadron Collider from your boat then I don't think you need to panic.

[MtB]

I feel loathe to defend Tingdene but it is not that bad- a fiver lasts me well over a week but then I don't run a fridge or

a telly and tend to listen exclusively to radio 4 on a DAB when I'm on the boat. I've only got one 110aH leisure battery so even that doesn't take up too much juice. Unless you intend to power the Hadron Collider from your boat then I don't think you need to panic.

 

 

I agree. There must be a mistake. Most of the liveaboards there have a shoreline permanently plugged in and several have 30A connections as the service there really IS that big to every mooring.

 

If the leccy was particularly expensive I'm certain no-one would use it much and there would be plentiful moaning about the price of it, but there isn't.

 

I find £50 lasts a couple of months in freezing weather with two 1Kw background heaters running 24/7 with the thermostats set to about 5 degrees C, if that helps gauge the price!

 

Mike

[nb Innisfree]

I agree. There must be a mistake. Most of the liveaboards there have a shoreline permanently plugged in and several have 30A connections as the service there really IS that big to every mooring.

 

If the leccy was particularly expensive I'm certain no-one would use it much and there would be plentiful moaning about the price of it, but there isn't.

 

I find £50 lasts a couple of months in freezing weather with two 1Kw background heaters running 24/7 with the thermostats set to about 5 degrees C, if that helps gauge the price!

 

Mike

 

I am certain the OP has got his price wrong, £20 per kw (I assume he means kwh) is so expensive it is ridiculous (and highly illegal) more like 20p per kwh would be correct.

[Laurie Booth]

I am certain the OP has got his price wrong, £20 per kw (I assume he means kwh) is so expensive it is ridiculous (and highly illegal) more like 20p per kwh would be correct.

I think it must be £20 per month for the hookup then pay extra for the electric at the rate the marina pays for it. As you said to add money to the electric is now illegal.

Edited June 10, 2011 by Laurie.Booth

[Guest]

I think it must be £20 per month for the hookup then pay extra for the electric at the rate the marina pays for it. As you said to add money to the electric is now illegal.

 

Which still seems steep to me - we pay an annual service charge way less than that would work out at - separate to our mooring charges and then get the electrickery at cost...