How far away from your boat do you live?

Ours is 2.5-3hrs drive away - 150 miles. Could have it a lot nearer, but we love the Devon area and cruising in the South West, so worth it in our veiw. Can be a pain when you fancy nipping down for the afternoon or you just want to check something - but we accept the trade off.
 
I have fairly mixed ideas on this, firstly, jobs are a lot harder to get done, our boat is about 60 miles from home (hour and a bit), this is a bit of a distance to do for the day but at this time of year I go down for the day on Saturday to get necessary jobs done as we have only recently bought the boat.

I couldnt imagine travelling this distance, going out for the day and then have to travel home that evening.

This then brings up the positive which is that we stay on the boat instead. When we had the boat in Swansea marina we would never stay onboard as SWMBO would say it wasnt worth the hassle of packing clothes/food when the boat is only 10 mins away.

Its nice to get away for the weekend and the cruising area is a lot better for our requirements. If the weather isnt looking to good or the tides arent right we still go for the weekend and this is when we get little jobs done.

Ian.
 
Depends on the cruising grounds where you live....

Used to live in London and keep the boat in Chichester. It was always great to head out but never good to wake up Sunday morning knowing the fight there was to get home... wouldn’t have kept it anywhere else though but it’s best if you have a easily maintainable boat.

I moved to a better cruising ground that was very close to home.
 
67 miles 1 hour 10 mins door to pontoon. To long would like to be nearer, I drive to much for work. But an overnight on board you can't be it. Oops need to get another boat just sold ours. Now were is that boat mag.
 
Changed from a day and a half getting to IOM, to 4 hours and a nasty row at Conway. Now 3 hours, 155 miles, and an easier row at poole.

I wish I was nearer for all the reasons others have said.

However, the bit that makes the long trip worse is the row out in the dinghy for 500 yards or something. If you have driven that far it would be nice to be sure of getting onto the boat. If you arrive to a gale and the boat inaccessible, it is a hellish drive home.

Marinas may have their good points.

Mike
 
Vagabond said:
Depends on the cruising grounds where you live....

Used to live in London and keep the boat in Chichester. It was always great to head out but never good to wake up Sunday morning knowing the fight there was to get home... wouldn’t have kept it anywhere else though but it’s best if you have a easily maintainable boat.

I moved to a better cruising ground that was very close to home.
Click to expand...

So you moved to New Zealand? Thats quite a hop!! ;-)
 
dmmbruce said:
(snip) and a nasty row at Conway. (snip)
Click to expand...

That was one of the reasons I moved to Caernarfon. Journey went up from 90 to 110 miles, doesn't seem much, but it adds 20 mins each way to the journey. It saved me enough to pay for club membership & an occasional crane out. We try to make the journey part of the break by stopping on route to do or see something interesting.

As others say, you need to plan your time away & generally we want at least 2-3 days to make it a worth while break. I used to be 10 miles away (lived & sailed on the Wirral) and could go out for a sail on a summer's evening tide. I can still remember some of those beautiful snatched evenings.
 
SimonA said:
I'm thinking of keeping my boat a couple of hours drive from home. At present it's about 30 minutes away, the new marina I'm looking at is 110 miles, about 2 and a half hours drive.

Are there any problems with having your boat so far from home?
Click to expand...

I live about 130 miles and 2.5 hours drive from the boat. Its never bothered me too much, as what I spend on fuel in the car is dwarfed by the fuel I spend on the boat anyway so its just part of the cost of a day out.

The main thing is that all those little niggly jobs just never seem to get done - time aboard is too precious to spend working when it could be used relaxing and socialising, so if they bother you by being left undone you end up spending extra money paying someone else to do them for you. Still, I'd rather do that than "waste" my leisure time out on the water and at least I know I'll get a professional quality job done.
 
SimonA said:
I'm thinking of keeping my boat a couple of hours drive from home. At present it's about 30 minutes away, the new marina I'm looking at is 110 miles, about 2 and a half hours drive.

Are there any problems with having your boat so far from home?
Click to expand...

Ours is 3hrs10mins away from our front door or 30secs, depending on whether we are going on the sea or river.
The proper boat is therefore too far away to make it viable for day or weekend trips. However once my commitments re. feeding some pheasants and exercising a dog have disappeared in Feb. I'll be able to look at the weather for a week ahead and immediately decide on a trip to S.Devon. Wish the forecasts were more accurate though.
The situation is an improvement on the 4hr drive that I used have to make prior to moving to Stratford. It's not made any difference to the amount of useage 'cos the Summers have been lousy for the last 2 yrs.
It would be nicer to live nearer the boat purely so that one could just nip out to sea for a few hours, as the mood took you, or do that little job that you've not got around to. I personally think that to do this you have to be within about 30mins of the boat.
 
My boat is about 500 yards

I Live in Menorca, and have my own boat and look after a few more on a pro basis. Its very quiet here in the winter so planned to move my Cranchi to Barcelona for a few months shopping and the like. As it happens after two days getting ready to go and packing the boat filling fridges etc the bloody thing decided to play up. In the last 24 hours I have put 800 Euros of fuel in the tank lost my ballance and grabbed the VHF ariel which broke in my hand. Spent all day fitting a new one. Cleaned the whole boat to the SWIMBOS standard. Finaly we got ready to set off this evening and the starboard engine refuses to turn over. Suspect starter motor? although it started fine this afternoon to take me to the fuel bay so I could spend 800 Euros.

It's been a very trying day, and as I look out of the window at the port which is like glass I'm sat here with a big glass of whiskey feeling realy peeeeed off. I could have been crusing across to Barcelona as I write this. Then eating a big full english on arrival in port Forum in the morning. It's all still in the bloody fridge and it looks like thats where its staying. she's gone to bed muttering something quite distastfull regarding boats in general. I can't even look out of the window without getting anoyed, as the sea is so flat. UGRIB and WIND FINDER upset me even more, as I have not seen such calm weather in August never mind November

So living virtualy over your boat and maintaining virtualy on a daily basis the buggers will still let you down when you plan a trip.

Think I will just have another big whisky.

So for all of you who travel hours on a weekend to visit your boats. I just thought I would let you know that even in the Med with the boat 500 yards away plans can go compleatly T--s up. and cost a small fortune.

When the going gets good I did'nt get going.
 
12 Mins by car (Portishead)

I get down to the boat 3 times a week and we have clocked 85+ hrs since May.

There is no way we would use it if there was a 2 - 3 hr car journey each way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

R
My boat trip hopefully in May Around Scotland
2 3 4
Replies
65
Views
2K
RobBradley
R

Share this page

Top