Hoping for good advice :)

[Benny the Ball]

 

Well, I wasn't picturing you moving the boat in the evenings! Just cruising to a new commuting base every other weekend.

 

I appreciate it wouldn't be for everyone, but if you liked the idea of combining a semi-nomadic lifestyle with a settled job, I reckon you could pull it off in this particular area just because (1) Leeds is at or near the junction of several different waterways, so there's no question of having to stretch the definition of 'continuous cruising' by sticking to the same few miles of the same canal, and (2) so many towns along local waterways have direct train services to Leeds - from, say, Huddersfield in one direction to Skipton in the other.

 

I guess the whole calculation changes if you're commuting by car rather than train. Alan may well be right that a 'halfway house' is your best option - i.e. get a leisure mooring rather than looking for a scarcer and more expensive residential mooring, and spend some of your time on that mooring and some elsewhere.

 

There's no 'official' distance by which you have to move after 14 days, although a figure of 1km cropped up in some recent CRT document I believe. In practice you'd be wanting to move to another convenient spot, anyway - in terms of transport, shops, etc. - which might well be a few miles away in another town.

 

Im a tradesman and when I go to work I get my days jobs and go out and do them, so I will always be using my van, never the train or public transport. Do you know the price of a leisure mooring or does that again depend on the location?

I have a job on tomorrow morning so will do a bit of towpath viewing in the afternoon hopefully finding some people to chew the fat with

[magictime]

 

Im a tradesman and when I go to work I get my days jobs and go out and do them, so I will always be using my van, never the train or public transport. Do you know the price of a leisure mooring or does that again depend on the location?

I have a job on tomorrow morning so will do a bit of towpath viewing in the afternoon hopefully finding some people to chew the fat with

 

Yeah, the price will depend on the location. We used to pay about £70 a month to moor our 24-footer at Gallow's Bridge in Shipley (where the moorings are, or were, operated by the company that runs the marina in Apperley Bridge) - I guess that was based on something very close to £10 per metre, per month. That was for a gated offside mooring with no facilities at all - not even a water tap, let alone electricity, Elsan etc. - and probably overpriced really. The prices for a leisure mooring at Aire Valley Marina, which always looks like a nicer spot and presumably has better facilities, are very similar. Their residential moorings seem to cost about 50% more, although the price list is hard to read.

 

https://www.facebook.com/AireValleyMarina

 

So £10 per metre per month for leisure, £15 for residential, might not be a bad rule of thumb. You'll have to shop around I guess.

[Benny the Ball]

 

Yeah, the price will depend on the location. We used to pay about £70 a month to moor our 24-footer at Gallow's Bridge in Shipley (where the moorings are, or were, operated by the company that runs the marina in Apperley Bridge) - I guess that was based on something very close to £10 per metre, per month. That was for a gated offside mooring with no facilities at all - not even a water tap, let alone electricity, Elsan etc. - and probably overpriced really. The prices for a leisure mooring at Aire Valley Marina, which always looks like a nicer spot and presumably has better facilities, are very similar. Their residential moorings seem to cost about 50% more, although the price list is hard to read.

 

https://www.facebook.com/AireValleyMarina

 

So £10 per metre per month for leisure, £15 for residential, might not be a bad rule of thumb. You'll have to shop around I guess.

 

Yeah thanks. I guess some legwork is in order, think I would prefer residential then I have the security of having somewhere rather than moving every couple of weeks and not finding anywhere?

[MtB]

 

Yeah thanks. I guess some legwork is in order, think I would prefer residential then I have the security of having somewhere rather than moving every couple of weeks and not finding anywhere?

 

 

Not sure if I'm missing something, but there is usually nothing to stop you living on a CRT on-line leisure mooring. That way you don't have to keep moving, and neither do you have to pay the residential premium.

Edited September 4, 2015 by Mike the Boilerman

[Benny the Ball]

 

 

Not sure if I'm missing something, but there is usually nothing to stop you living on a CRT on-line leisure mooring. That way you don't have to keep moving, and neither do you have to pay the residential premium.

 

Cheers Mike, how does one go about that? Sorry to sound naive but that's exactly what I am at this stage

[MtB]

 

Cheers Mike, how does one go about that? Sorry to sound naive but that's exactly what I am at this stage

 

 

They get auctioned here:

 

https://www.crtmoorings.com/auctions/search.php?search_type=basic

 

Have a browse of what's available!

[Benny the Ball]

 

 

They get auctioned here:

 

https://www.crtmoorings.com/auctions/search.php?search_type=basic

 

Have a browse of what's available!

 

Thanks for the link, although I tried to use this a few days ago and also just now and it turns up nothing!! I will try and get to talk with someone face to face or on the phone at some point. I always seem to go down cul-de-sacs using the internet! I have googled looking for the answers to my questions but cannot find anything that actually answers them!!

[MtB]

 

Thanks for the link, although I tried to use this a few days ago and also just now and it turns up nothing!!

 

 

There are LOADS for auction on there!

 

Here's an unrefined search showing them all:

 

https://www.crtmoorings.com/auctions/search.php?search_type=basic&keywords=&min_length=&min_width=&county=&waterway=&mooring_use=&postcode=&distance=&vacancy_type=2&sort_by=0&sort_type=asc&vsearch=Start+search

[Benny the Ball]

Cheers Mike. So, I notice most are leisure moorings going up to and around £2000 and I saw a residential mooring for £5000. If you do not have to leave a leisure mooring, where or what is the difference between the 2?

[magictime]

Other people will know better than me, but I believe plenty of private mooring operators/marinas turn a blind eye to people living aboard on leisure moorings too. So you're not necessarily limited to CRT moorings.

 

And as Alan was saying in an earlier post, you could be spending part of your time on your mooring and part of your time elsewhere, so that your use of the mooring really was non-residential - in which case there'd be no need for anyone to turn a blind eye.

[Benny the Ball]

Other people will know better than me, but I believe plenty of private mooring operators/marinas turn a blind eye to people living aboard on leisure moorings too. So you're not necessarily limited to CRT moorings.

 

And as Alan was saying in an earlier post, you could be spending part of your time on your mooring and part of your time elsewhere, so that your use of the mooring really was non-residential - in which case there'd be no need for anyone to turn a blind eye.

 

Ah right, so does CRT have marinas like private owners do? Or are CRT moorings the ones you find along the remote parts of the canal along the towpath? Or both?

 

This will be my last question . . . for tonight

[Alan de Enfield]

 

Ah right, so does CRT have marinas like private owners do? Or are CRT moorings the ones you find along the remote parts of the canal along the towpath? Or both?

 

This will be my last question . . . for tonight

 

C&RT have a subsidiary company called BWML (British Waterways Marinas Ltd) who operate 20 odd marinas around the country, each marina seems to have slightly different T&Cs / mooring definitions but at 'our' marina you can use a 'leisure' mooring pretty much continuously (ie liveaboard) if you meet two criteria :

 

1) Have a Council tax bill in your name ( to prove that the boat is not you primary residence)

2) Do not spend more than 28 concurrent nights on the boat, in the marina. ( ie stay with a friend for 1 night per month, or, take the boat out of the marina and moor just outside the entrance for one night per month)

 

Check out BWML for locations and prices at :

http://bwml.co.uk/our-marinas/

 

They have two in the Bristol / Bath area - and - if you want it they do offer fully residential moorings.

 

Edit to add :

C&RT operate directly the 'bank-side' moorings and they are auctioned on the C&RT website. Very few are 'legal' residential / liveaboard moorings. People do use the 'leisure' moorings as residential but it is a risk. Can your lifestyle 'live with' the possibility of being told to move and having no where to go ?

Edited September 5, 2015 by Alan de Enfield