Does you boatyard let you sleep aboard when ashore?

[nauticalnomad]

I dont understand why you need to tell them.. Theyll say NO! then.. If you dont tell them they wouldnt even think about it.. I lived for 5 years in a boat yard on the East coast who didnt take liveaboards.. You never ask.. Define living anyways I dont have a wife, 2.3 kids, a swimming pool and a swingset..

during my journey I have been amazed at the way the attitude towards sleeping aboard varies from place to place

in some it is perfectly accepted

in others the given reason for it not being allowed is insurance and H and S

I wonder if sleeping aboard and boiling the odd kettle in a yard is any more of a fire risk than using power tools, volatile paints, varnishes or heat guns

many of the yards had at least one old bloke living in a boat right through the winter - which I assume was good for security


At wells they let me sleep in the boat while I was fixing it but I understand that now they prefer you not to do it


I like sleeping aboard ashore - I feel ubersafe and secure and sleep extremely well

 

[dylanwinter]

I dont understand why you need to tell them.. Theyll say NO! then.. If you dont tell them they wouldnt even think about it.. I lived for 5 years in a boat yard on the East coast who didnt take liveaboards.. You never ask.. Define living anyways I dont have a wife, 2.3 kids, a swimming pool and a swingset..

Honesty...

it really is best to completely honest - especailly doing what I do. Word will soon spread from harbour master to harbour master that a dishonest bloke is heading their way.

I always pay as soon as I can - I ask for the bill wherever I go.

Dylan

 

[Conachair]

I can think of 3 round Thames estuary, more towards the "scruffy" end OK for a few nights but I've done it for months at a time before, gets a bit dull after a while.

 

[johnalison]

Honesty...

Sums it up really. I don't see how one can enjoy cruising knowing that you are cheating.
We slept on board one night at Hamble Point during a lift-out for some work.

I suppose there may be implications if people are living on board and not paying Council Tax etc.

 

[prv]

Sums it up really. I don't see how one can enjoy cruising knowing that you are cheating.

I agree if we were talking about something like dodging marina mooring fees. But the issue of living aboard is a complex one, often with a "nod and a wink" understanding involved. A mate of mine has been trying to find a liveaboard berth in Southampton; one of the places he tried was Dyer Bros, which we went and had a look at from the nearby bridge. Clearly several people living there, including a barge with a static caravan on top, patios front and rear, rotary washing line and barbecue. Ideal, he thought. Phone them up and ask, though, and they say no living on board allowed, nobody is currently doing it, but if he wants to keep his boat there they can offer him a berth next door to "the barge with the caravan on top". Clearly a situation where the management are turning a blind eye, but I understand their lease from the council doesn't allow liveaboards, so in answer to any direct question they will always deny it.

Pete

 

[bitbaltic]

I'm another with the yard close to home so there's not much incentive to sleep aboard out of season (when she is in the yard). And I'm not sure I'd want to as the boat is usually in a state of flux if ashore with half her gear in the forepeak bunks. but I do think marina/yard rules on this sort of thing are silly. Your boat is your own private space, and part of the business of berthing or storing it is that you can do whatever you like in it, so long as you don't impinge on others. Simples.

 

[TQA]

As a full time liveaboard cruiser I ONLY haul at yards that allow you to liveaboard but nearly all do. Some charge an additional fee which is fair enough as out here in the Caribbean many need A/C at night to sleep in most yards.

In Florida they often limit the length of time you can liveaboard on the hard. Indiantown do but I think Green Cove don't.

 

[PhillM]

I live close so no need to.

But I would worry about going up and down ladders on a cold frosty (slippy) night.

Falling from the boat onto a pontoon (6 inches lower) is quite different from falling from a ladder 2m above a nice hard concrete floor. Also nobody around to hear my screems. Perhaps I am a wimp but it doesn't appeal to me.

 

[GrahamM376]

Have slept aboard at Hamble Point and Swanwick but the best is Bruce's yard in Faro. Some people live aboard permanently there and never launch!

 

[Victoria Sponge]

We've slept in the boat ashore at Ipswich and at Southwold. I didn't like it to be honest, it felt wrong. I was really pleased when the boat was back in the water.

 

[phantomlady]

Our local boatyard has no problems with liveaboards but does charge a bit extra...for toilet and showers etc I suppose.
Lived aboard at Hamble Point for 6 weeks once whilst renovating. Was okay but woke up one night by some local lads stealing out of date flares from the trailer under the boat!
Lived aboard on the hard in Jolly Harbour, Antigua and Bobbys, St Maarten. Flippin' mossies were terrible

 

[Lucky Duck]

We've slept in the boat ashore at Ipswich and at Southwold. I didn't like it to be honest, it felt wrong. I was really pleased when the boat was back in the water.

+1

We have spent the on board twice (once when having driven for several hours to find the boat hadn't been launched as promised and the second when the boat had been hauled out three weeks early ) and didn't find it a particularly pleasant experiance

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Does your insurance permit you to treat your boat as a houseboat/caravan whilst ashore?

My own insurance allows me to sleep onboard for only 4 consecutive nights if on land. I've done this often whilst doing work aboard.

My yard does not have any rules against doing so and it is possibly happy that some do sleep aboard to enhance security.

S.

 

[Searush]

Our marina says no, but doesn't enforce it provided you keep your head down.

I guess they need to have the ban in the rules so that they can enforce it if necessary. A marina boatyard in the early spring can be very full and if a large proportion of the owners all took up residence at the same time, it could become a pretty rank place with sinks and showers being discharged onto the ground and rubbish bins getting grossly overloaded with perishable waste.

That's disgusting, there really is no excuse for such unsavoury behaviour. I was taught to take nothing & leave nothing behind but my thanks. It isn't hard either. Washing & washing up water can be kept in a bucket until poured into a drain later. You simply shouldn't be using be using toilets & drains on dry land should you?

And throwing perishibles in the bin - what's that about? Buy what you need, cook what you buy & eat what you cook, there really should be very little to go in the bin. Rinse off all containers & crush to take home for recycling if no recycling facilities near by.

 

[Zagato]

I don't understand why one thing follows from the other. Unless people are planning to sleep in the nude on deck

Pete

I think it's the other way around! Dirty old peeping toms leering into two second floor windows from the height of their boats. You should pop over at exaclty 8.20 am Pete and borrow my binocluars, she's a class act - only joking folks.... Oh make it 10.30am on a Sunday!

 

[chinita]

No problem here in Lagos; some have been living aboard ashore for, literally, years. The yard showers are arguably better than those in the marina.

They even issue a swipe card for out of hours access through the gate.

 

[snowleopard]

I slept on board at a MDL marina while we were building our boat and the staff didn't mind. One incident however gave me an insight into the mindset of some people. A nearby boat was making a racket at night with rattling halyards so I spoke to the broker whose sign was on it. When I said it was at night his attitude changed and he looked at me like something he scraped off his shoe, clearly thinking that anyone who didn't sleep in a house was a pikey or worse. It's a common attitude, I had the same reaction from a doctor's receptionist when SWMBO was ill during a canal boat holiday.

 

[AIDY]

One yard said NO.... and you must remove all gas bottles and empty the diesel tanks.......

you never know you might fall down the ladder in the dark, when you go for a peeeeeeeeeee in the night.

 

[RichardS]

When someone says "you cannot do that for health and safety reasons" I always ask them to show me the regulation. No one ever has. If they did I would ask them to prove to me why it was applicable in that particular situation.

It's a very British jobsworth thing to stop others doing what they want to do if someone hasn't been told specifically that its ok to do it. My experience is that people like that are best ignored with a Gallic shrug.

There are few specific regulations apart from those relating to mining, construction, heavy lifting etc. However, the "catch-all" regulation is that every potentially hazardous commercial activity has to be covered by a risk assessment. If there is an accident or near-miss and the HSE investigate and there is no risk assessment, then the owner / occupier / user of the equipment or premises is in the do-do.

Once the owner has done the risk assessment and decided on the best way to mitigate or minimise the risk, I can't see how the customer can get around it, other than by trying to persuade the owner to do the risk assessment again and hope they come to a different conclusion.

There is no "right of appeal" to the HSE or LA to ask them to review a business risk assessment because it is too risk-averse. Ultimately, the business carries the risk and it, and its insurance provider, decides what it is prepared to consider.

You, of course, can take your business elsewhere - that is, until everywhere else does the same!

Richard

 

[maby]

That's disgusting, there really is no excuse for such unsavoury behaviour. I was taught to take nothing & leave nothing behind but my thanks. It isn't hard either. Washing & washing up water can be kept in a bucket until poured into a drain later. You simply shouldn't be using be using toilets & drains on dry land should you?

And throwing perishibles in the bin - what's that about? Buy what you need, cook what you buy & eat what you cook, there really should be very little to go in the bin. Rinse off all containers & crush to take home for recycling if no recycling facilities near by.

Indeed - and you are the sort of responsible person that they will not notice - but they need to have the rule available to deal with the irresponsible people.