Help & Advise Zero Budget Liveaboard Essex

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5W33P3R

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Hello everyone.
I'm brand new to sailing, only sailed a one man Pico boat about seven times and went on a Competent Crew course for five days after buying my Ohlson 38 back in July. I'm soon puting my 38 feet yacht in the water for the first time since I bought her, and I want to live off grid with zero cost. I hoped to find somewhere in, or near, the Blackwater in Essex where I could leave it anchored all year round and close enough to paddle to a local town where I would leave the car for a few days in a side street.
Does anyone know if this is remotely possible, and if so, where I could achieve it please?
 

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I can't think of anywhere sheltered on the blackwater that you could anchor long term within paddling distance of somewhere you could leave a car parked.
 
It's looking like Blackwater is a no go. I may have to convert to living on her and traveling somewhere far much sooner than I'd like, or, finding a marina affordable and running some numbers to see if I can indeed afford it. I'm not a rich man.
 
5W33P3R said:
It's looking like Blackwater is a no go. I may have to convert to living on her and traveling somewhere far much sooner than I'd like, or, finding a marina affordable and running some numbers to see if I can indeed afford it. I'm not a rich man.
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There are cheap swinging moorings on the east coast though.
Essex marina on the crouch also priors and rice and coles. There are moorings at paglesham on the roach and a few on the blackwater. Whether they allow liveabords i'm not sure. But you would probably get parking. There aren't many/any boats on them in winter though.
 
5W33P3R said:
Hello everyone.
I'm brand new to sailing, only sailed a one man Pico boat about seven times and went on a Competent Crew course for five days after buying my Ohlson 38 back in July. I'm soon puting my 38 feet yacht in the water for the first time since I bought her, and I want to live off grid with zero cost. I hoped to find somewhere in, or near, the Blackwater in Essex where I could leave it anchored all year round and close enough to paddle to a local town where I would leave the car for a few days in a side street.
Does anyone know if this is remotely possible, and if so, where I could achieve it please?
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It's a bold plan you have there. I've been based on the Orwell and can't see a zero/v low cost solution in the Harwich/Orwell/Stour area. The moorings above and below Pin Mill are probably the cheapest options.
 
Do you have a day job that requires you to be somewhere at regular times?

What you’ve described living full time at anchor will be hard graft. Just basics like provisions, water, power, doing your laundry, worrying about weather etc and looking after the boat will be a full time job in itself.

Realistically you’ll probably want to visit a marina during prolonged spells of bad weather, you could easily find it too rough to get ashore by dinghy and be trapped on the boat, or finding your dinghy missing when you get back to it ashore isn’t unheard of.

If you devote your life to it anchoring out full time is probably possible, there’s just not enough hours in the day for a job too.

If you want to live on it, find the cheapest roughest marina you can and keep your head down. Somewhere around £4k a year is starting money for a 12 m berth though.
 
Most Marinas offer cheaper winter rates that may solve your bad weather problems and purchase or rent a swinging mooring on a river of your choice possibly right outside the marina you use in winter. Most insurance companies will not insure you on a swinging mooring or anchoring between Nov and March. In my experience insurance is a waste of time anyway as they often reject a valid claim.

I much admire the Ohlson 38 as a sea going boat. One famous round the world sailor complained the rudder didn't have quite enough bight, but that may have been with wind vane steering. Shouldn't worry you as a liveaboard.
 
Its a big boat that draws nearly 6 feet, the fact that is a deep fin keel will rule out most top of the creek "marina's" simply on account of you wont be able to get into most of them unless at the top of a monster spring tide & then will find the boat laying at a crazy angle until the keel has hopefully dug a hole. Doesnt matter where you go someone will have their hand out asking for money!
 
Gargleblaster said:
In my experience insurance is a waste of time anyway as they often reject a valid claim.
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Really? You have experience of that?

Never mind losses to your own boat - that's your problem after all - but supposing you elect to sail uninsured and somebody makes a perfectly legitimate claim against you, possibly for causing them a serious injury or worse or doing thousands of pounds worth of damage to their boat and they find you're uninsured and then take you to court for redress.

What then, huh?
 
Gargleblaster said:
In my experience insurance is a waste of time anyway as they often reject a valid claim.
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Interested to hear your personal experience of having a valid claim rejected. By definition if a claim is valid under the terms and conditions of the policy it will be paid. Maybe you tried to make a claim which you thought was valid but the insurer disagreed?
 
I think a lot of your options hinge around whether the Ohlson is to be a houseboat, or whether she needs to be kept in commission. If it's the latter then you're going to be restricted. Finding a creek is simple enough but you're not going to find one where you'll be afloat all the time. The only place that springs to mind is the Pyefleet, a charming creek running along the top side of East Mersea. That provides good holding and reasonable shelter but leaving the boat semi-permanently anchored there? Not so sure. Your neighbours would probably take a dim view, and rightly so - what if, while you're away for a few days, your boat drags onto another?

The Blackwater used to have all-manner of liveaboards at one time and they mostly had one thing in common; their boats were purely a home. From the community that used to live in Heybridge Creek to the many historic MTB hulks that were along the sea wall further down. The river is far more homogenised now and, IMO, a sadder place for it.

If you want to live cheaply 'off-grid' (and I fully understand the appeal), then consider changing boats. Buy an ex-Broads cruiser and talk to the more traditional yards about a permanent mud berth tucked out of the way. Yachts don't lend themselves as good homes unless they're itinerant, that's their whole raison-d'etre. I think if you press ahead with the current plan you'll end-up frustrated.

It's a fun idea though so keep firing away with questions.........
 
Tranona said:
Interested to hear your personal experience of having a valid claim rejected. By definition if a claim is valid under the terms and conditions of the policy it will be paid. Maybe you tried to make a claim which you thought was valid but the insurer disagreed?
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I had a ship insurance broker look at the policy and he basically said that it was written in such a way as the insurance company had no obligation to pay out on anything if htey didn't want to. My problem was that GJW were prepared to pay for exterior damage to teh boat when it washed ashore after the anchor chain broke, but not for internal damage caused by water getting inside the hull through a hole in the keel caused by the grounding.

And to the other rude reply is that I now just buy third party insurance for my boat.
 
Gargleblaster said:
...I now just buy third party insurance for my boat.
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Is there much difference in the cost Gargleblaster? I got quotes from 'compare boat insurance' which was basically a load of nonsense offering either 3rd party or fully comp from the same provider and the difference was about £30.
 
Gargleblaster said:
I had a ship insurance broker look at the policy and he basically said that it was written in such a way as the insurance company had no obligation to pay out on anything if htey didn't want to. My problem was that GJW were prepared to pay for exterior damage to teh boat when it washed ashore after the anchor chain broke, but not for internal damage caused by water getting inside the hull through a hole in the keel caused by the grounding.

And to the other rude reply is that I now just buy third party insurance for my boat.
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Thanks for the explanation. Not wishing to defend the insurer in this instance because I don't know the details of why they rejected your claim, but GJW have the reputation of being one of the best for dealing with claims and their policy wording is as good as any. This does not mean there are not disputes over claims nor that insurers are always right, but in general it is unwise not to take out all risks insurance on a valuable asset like a boat if you can. Of course if it is low value and any significant claim is likely to exceed the value of the boat you might choose to assume that risk yourself.
 
More likely to achieve your aims ashore with a caravan on one of the many sites on and around the North Kent and possibly Essex coasts..
In the past a very blind eye has been cast regards folks being there 24/7/12 , despite the known caveat of only a 10 month occupation.
However this is in flux at the moment with local councils realising that thousands of folks were using the local services ie. medical facilities while not being actually being "residents".
This finally come to head on Sheppey where the owners of two large caravan sites are attempting to clear all the caravans and replace with new mobile homes.
 
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