Dumb question for Scots cruisers

Robin

Robin

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In a search for possible solutions to overcome Brexit cash crisis and Trump politics USA we are thinking of returning to the UK and just saw a nice 40ft displacement trawler style mobo in Clyde MarIna that looks affordable and feasible, but what is the climate like up there? are there other places like the Crinan canal that are better for live aboard. ARE liveaboards even allowed? I posted on SB for hopefulyy swifter responses than from the more exotically located on the Liveaboard forum. Are English folk ran out of town ( I have not perfected a Yankee accent), is haggis edible? ( sorry!)

TIA.
 
Robin said:
In a search for possible solutions to overcome Brexit cash crisis and Trump politics USA we are thinking of returning to the UK and just saw a nice 40ft displacement trawler style mobo in Clyde MarIna that looks affordable and feasible, but what is the climate like up there? are there other places like the Crinan canal that are better for live aboard. ARE liveaboards even allowed? I posted on SB for hopefulyy swifter responses than from the more exotically located on the Liveaboard forum. Are English folk ran out of town ( I have not perfected a Yankee accent), is haggis edible? ( sorry!)

TIA.
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Weather is unpredictable, but when it's Good the west coast is chust sublime
. A trawler yacht is am ideal liveaboard there. Most ,if not all , marinas will be happy to ignore you living aboard, and the Clyde itself takes a long time to explore.
Winters can be cold.and wet but nothing a good heater can't cope with.
You will note however that I'm in Portugal---
 
thanks Ludd, just found climate data, not a deal breaker SWMBO says but right now she shivers sub 75F so I doubt it. How much is red diesel these days? this particular boat uses 5 gph it says, but it may well be gone before we could do anything, it is the idea that is good rather than the specifics right now .
 
Well, at the moment it is gusting to SE10 and pissing it down here, about 100 miles south of the Clyde, but I suspect it will be the same there, and will be like this until 31st March next year.
After that it will be just cold and relatively dry until July, when it will start pissing it down until mid September, when we will have 6 weeks of mixed predominately benign but cool weather, then back to the beginning.
You will be loved by the yachties in the marina, but the rest of Clydeside will hate you and possibly attempt assasination.
Crinan worse.

No, Ludd is the sensible one, go to Portugal.

Good luck. (No smiley intentional)
 
I'd worry about the wind more than the temperature. And think about where you can winter to shelter from frequent F9's +. I was on the west coast in the 1990,s when it was accepted that it would be wetter and colder than further south. More recently however the long periods of strong winds has put me off wintering there.
 
There are liveaboards in East Loch Tarbert a few miles south of Crinan. Even though it's approx 56 DegN we have palm trees, albeit rather dwarfish ones.
The humidity is a lot lower than Florida as all the moisture condenses out as semi-perpetual rain, which arrives more horizontally than vertical.

The west of Scotland has a fairly mild climate, though the weather can be bloody awful.

Midges. A friend of mine has a few hundred acres of prime Louisiana real-estate, seven acres of which are above water. He assures me Scottish midges are far worse than his Louisiana mosquitoes.
 
Its bloody brilliant here, you should move immediately.
Weather: Mild extremely windy with a good dose of rain. When the sun shines, however it is stunning. A good year has 5 or 6 months of blisteringly hot, a bad year has an 18 month winter.
Food: Outstanding (lets ace it, if you cook or your self it shouldnt be anything but)
Drink: Lots and lots and lots.
Natives: If you just want to be here to live it marvellous, if you bring an attitude you wont last.
Native food: Pizza supper (deep fried pizza, you must try it) sums it up, some do, most dont. A good haggis is to die for and Stornoway black pudding melts in your mouth.
Daylight: Now this is where it goes pear shaped. Too much bloody light, in summer its almost never dark, in winter if there is any kind of moon then its as bright a day. Ok, so I spent a fair bit of time in music and as a sun dodging goth but... too much light!
Social life: From the Clyde northwards is traditional Scottish music central, hundreds of fantastic local musicians.
Local flora and fauna: We'll skip quickly past the midges......
West coast sailing: The best by fa in the whole of Europe.
 
" There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers"

Read on...

A good hardy few live aboard here all year round. Summer and autumn can and frequently are stunningly beautiful.

Winter can be and frequently is, miserable.

But that depends on your attitude, outlook and pastimes.

I can surf surf or ski all through the winter in good conditions, if I pick my days.

Part of the joy joy is the weather that folk moan about forgetting that if the weather was always good the place would be over run and over developed....
 
dylanwinter said:
The east coast - particularly the Moray - is drier and sunnier than the west and in places just as lovely

D
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THe question re the West coast arose because I saw a single engine trawler mobo on line in the area that looked good which we could always move or have moved east or south but its current home looked good on paper forgetting climate or midges
 
Porthandbuoy said:
we have palm trees, albeit rather dwarfish ones.
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I wouldn't get too carried away with that. They're cabbage trees, aka Torbay palms, native to NZ, including the chilly, wet south. They've had 15 million years to get used to a climate like Scotland's, which is probaby more than Robin can spare. Unlike him, they cannot tolerate hot climates.
 
I would live aboard in Scotland only if I really had to. There are not many redeeming features of a Scottish winter. The word dreich is particularly descriptive.
Donald
 
I've always said that I wouldn't move anywhere else, I would stay in Scotland, if only we had decent weather. The scenery up the west coast in particular is wonderful. I think the weather this year hasn't been too bad really. We had bits and bobs of summery stuff, and September / October was ok, and I always feel that if you can get through October without it being too wet and miserable, the winter at least feels a bit shorter.

I echo the points made about daylight: more the lack of it in winter where the days are very short. It's great in the height of summer as long as you have good black out curtains or blinds.

Certainly for sailing, there are endless possibilities to explore...
 
dylanwinter said:
The east coast - particularly the Moray - is drier and sunnier than the west and in places just as lovely

D
Click to expand...

Agree the weather is better on the east. But the sailing, music, landscape, craic, are better on the west. I've lived on both and a few years back we were forced to choose one or other, for work purposes. We chose west.

Some people don't last a second winter here. You have to be active, go out, get involved.
 
You get 4 seasons in a day. When it is good, it is great - long summer days at 56degN, excellent visibility. But then it blows and rains, but then it gets better again.

Winter days are short. And it can be chilly, but the W coast is 'blessed' by the Gulf Stream, so it is not below freezing for that long.

I would think that living aboard a 40ft trawler style boat, tied up to a pontoon, plugged into the electricity, is doable. I do know a couple who do the same in a Moody Carbineer (45ft?) and they seem quite comfy.

I don't know if Clyde Marina allow liveaboards; its some time since I have been there. Then is was OK living aboard when fitting out ashore, but do not know for longer periods. If they do not, there will be (probably smaller) yards on the Clyde that do, or elsewhere on the west coast.
 
I moved from London to Edinburgh.

I would imagine living aboard over the winter would drive you mad fairly quickly. Nit necessarily because of the weather but because of the lack of daylight.

My favourite website: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/edinburgh

7 hours between sunrise and sunset on the shortest day. 9 hours 37 in Faro.

As soon as I am able I will be spending November to March somewhere further South.

The rest of the year is great.
 
While Scottish Canals are trying to encourage liveaboards they have failed to provide the infrastructure to support it on the Crinan, it would be a lonely existence, a better and drier option in a city is Inverness. One of the Clyde marinas or East Loch Tarbert would be better than Crinan, with a shop, pubs etc within walking distance, public transport available and someone to say hello to most days even in winter.
It does rain a lot but when the sun does make it through it is a pretty place but the Canal is in rapid decline, there are few reliable power and water points, rickety unsecured landings and operating hours out of season are extremely short.
 
They say if you don't like the weather, wait 20 minutes. It can go from a blizard to a warm summer day in that time.

I am one who chose to live on the East, for the dryer (but colder) climate and fewer midges. I agree Inverness would be a good place to base yourself in the winter, and go wandering in the summer? That's what the Calley canal is for to link the east and west coasts.
 
I'm a few miles from ProDave, and fully agree. Caley Canal is well provided for, and I believe that Liveaboards are actively encouraged at Seaport Marina, the Inverness end of the canal. From there, once out into the Firth, there's beautiful scenery, with an abundance of Dolphins and seals. Inverness is a good base, with many good amenities, as would be expected of a major regional city, but without the crowds! We moved here 3 years ago, and haven't regretted a moment of it.
 
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