Livaboard at the Hamble?

[CalmSkipper]

I'm considering trading in my second home in the southampton area for a decent yacht, mooring it on the hamble and living aboard...but there's so much I don't know and would love some feedback/advice

Most of the time unless I'm sailing it would be just me living aboard 2/3 nights of the week, so I'm after the smallest yacht that has a heads with a shower - so I guess we're looking at 40 footer?

After the initial purchase, what would the annual running costs for something like that amount to? Would I still have to pay poll tax (as a second home?). Do berths have power access - how practical is to heat in the winter..and what is the harsh reality of living on a boat in winter like?

What questions should I have asked?!!!!!!

 

[Richard10002]

40ft sounds good.. I wouldnt want to live on anything much less, although you will find heads and showers on much smaller boats, and you may find some smaller boats, maybe upwards of 36ft comfortable.

I'm budgetting around £7k p.a. for mooring around the Med.... Pwhllelli in Wales is around £3k, and I could guess that the South Coast may be double that if you want all the comforts of home.

My father spent many comfortable 2/3 day periods on rogue over a few winters in Wales.. get the heating on, and maybe add an electric fan and/or convector heater... toasty.

TV, DVD, Internet, and phone, (mobile), is now very feasible and reasonably priced on boats.

I'd go for it.. particularly as a second home!

 

[ccscott49]

If you stay in a marina, you wont need a shower, so you can have a smaller 36' boat. But if on a mooring, you will have problems with water supply, electricity (ie none) and heating, unless you want to stay camping.

 

[roly_voya]

Are you in danger of falling into the trap of thinking 'live-aboard' means big? Any cruising boat is designed to 'live-abord' for periods up to a couple of weeks, including full crew so for one I would say you dont need anything above 30ft. There is a rule of thumb I have always found works reasonably - fron 28ft every 3ft extra length doubles all the cost!! The other thing tends to be that fun can decrease as size increases. In places you can chuck a 30 footer around and have fun sailing a fourty footer may be under engine and restricted to a chanel because of her extra depth and slower handling. So if you are only looking at long weekends I would say go for the boat you will get most fun out of and that you are cofortable sailing solo in local waters, that way you will gaet lots more sailing and have enough left in the bank to charter for a fortnight in Greece when you want to!

The reason most long term livaboards are a bit bigger is not extra facilities but extra junk - you have to store the winter woolies on board as well as tools etc if you have no shore base

 

[CalmSkipper]

when not sailing I would average 3 nmights a week on the boat - just me, but would want a few creature comforts and would prefer a shower on board for convenience. Very grateful for the feedback so far as I'm very inexperienced and hadn't thought about the dissadvantages (other than cost) as the boats get larger

 

[Richard10002]

You need to have a look at several boats of varying sizes, to get a feel for how much space you will need to feel comfortable.

I visited the Southampton boatshow in 2003, and very quickly decided i needed more than 40ft to live on, and less than 45ft to handle. This was mainly because I wanted a reasonable sized lounge, (saloon), and bedroom, (cabin).

If you do something similar, you will reach your own conclusion, which will probably be different to mine.

What's your budget, both for purchase, and annual costs?

Clearly a smaller boat will cost less to buy and keep.

 

[gilbertM]

I've just bought a classic Motor Yacht and I'm going to be moving it to the Hamble in the next month or so and living aboard 2-3 nights a week.

I've bought a 48 footer, I really want my space to make it feel like a home rather than being cramped into something smaller, also I will be working from the boat quite a bit and need room to work.

I've been round all of the Marinas to check them out and have decided on Universal for the following reasons:

It's the cheapest - £7,000 pa compared to £10,000+ at Port Hamble.
Mercury had no room for my size (so no idea how expensive)
It feels a bit quieter and more tranquil, one of the main reasons for this is to escape the rat race (the other nights of the week I'll be in London) so this is important to me.

I went for a Motor boat as I do shed loads of sailing on other peoples' boats and also it'll act as a great mother ship at regattas.

Service wise, all the marinas seem to have electric and wireless broadband.

Good luck and, if you're in Universal look me up - 'Smurf', an old Wooden Rampart 48.

 

[CalmSkipper]

Budget for buying would be about £60-70k. Running costs I would like to minimise but am assuming I would get much change out of £7k pa. Also (and I have a horrible feeling this is a really dumb question), do 'livaboards' keep their boat in the water all year round?

Thanks for all the responses - it really is helping me

 

[gilbertM]

You can get yourself soemthing really nice in the 40 foot range for that money - have a troll through the listings here.

You should be able to moor it for £7k if you look around the marinas - as I said it's a little over £7k for my 48 footer on Universal.

As far as keeping her in, taking her out, depends on what she's made of and condition, most grp boats prefer to come out for a month or so each year to dry, get cleaned and re-anti-fouled.

Wooden boats come out for a couple of days for re-antifouling and then are straight back into the water where they're happiest.