Livaboards in Britain

Hadenough

Hadenough

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You may all think us mad but we are on the verge of thowing it all in and living aboard ------- in Britain! I'm talking about aboard a Motor Sailer and cruising probably based in the west coast of Scotland. Why not the Med or Carribean you ask? Simply because neither of us can stand the heat and love the isolation available in Scotland. We already have a 30' motor sailer on the south coast so know what is is like to exist on a small boat. The intention though is to upgrade to a larger (up to 40') enclosed wheelhouse boat. This will require us to sell up completely and not have the fall back of a house base (but that is another issue).
Why the post? We can't seem to find any info about people doing the same thing. There is lots of info on canal living and going through the French canals etc but we assume that there must be cruising livaboards out there who concentrate on British shores. Is there anybody there? cos if so we have loads of Q's
 
Hi & welcome to the forums.

Yes there are lots of us living here on our boats, e.g. around 200 of us here at Brighton Marina, more "working liveaboards" than cruising ones though. One of the big issues is that a lot of places don't allow liveaboards, "officially" anyway, but if you are a cruising liveaboard then that won't be so much of an issue. There's been a lot of discussion around this on the Liveaboard forum. Learn to use the search facility and you will find lots of useful info. Also if you have specific questions post them and you'll be sure to get a reply...:)

Edit: Oh and by the way, just ignore any naysayers, you won't find many on here anyway...
 
Last edited:
djbreeze said:
Hi & welcome to the forums.

Yes there are lots of us living here on our boats, e.g. around 200 of us here at Brighton Marina, more "working liveaboards" than cruising ones though. One of the big issues is that a lot of places don't allow liveaboards, "officially" anyway, but if you are a cruising liveaboard then that won't be so much of an issue. There's been a lot of discussion around this on the Liveaboard forum. Learn to use the search facility and you will find lots of useful info. Also if you have specific questions post them and you'll be sure to get a reply...:)

Edit: Oh and by the way, just ignore any naysayers, you won't find many on here anyway...
Click to expand...

NAY,NAY,AND THRICE TIMES NAY!:eek: I wintered in Largs 2009/2010 and it was COLD!
On a serious note,the west coast of Scotland takes some beating,but you need to know where to run to when the brown stuff hits the fan. There are quite a few liveaboards scattered around Britain--good heating,good ventilation and loads of books are a requirement .I may return to the NW eventually,but at the moment I'm cruising the Algarve (no I'm not,I'm in my son's house in Cheshire,the boat's in Lagos,but I'll be there tmoro:D) and I can stand the heat! NW Spain for summer I think.
4OFT Motor Sailer is a good choice for NW Scotland ----good ground tackle and an electric windlass essential!
Cue anchor suggestions----but it must BE A BIG ONE!
 
Hi I live aboard a 27' motorsailor in the UK. It is generally on rivers and canals, because, they are generally cheaper moorings than coastal marinas. Pay £150 a month including electric. Though I shall be moving to a mooring closer to the coast in the spring. You could keep the house and move on board, letting the house and making a bit of money to buy the larger boat at a later date. That way you could retain the house as an income source for the future. That way you get the best of both worlds. If you can't live together on a 30' boat, there is no chance living on a 40', they are not that much different. Try the liveaboard life on the 30' next summer, if you can manage and let your house for 6 months, if it is in a holiday area, consider holiday lets.
 
Thanks for the replies and PM's everyone. Good to know that we are not alone and possibly not as mad as we thought. Now that we've found you we will come back with more specific Q's.
 
Whilst I haven't managed to get on the water yet I will be living aboard in the NW UK in the coming couple of years. I imagine that there will be issues (Reading the Nathan's blog on Kudo in the cold of winter makes you shiver) but I am confident they can all be overcome.

Let us know how you get on!
 
We do too

Hello

We are into our 5th year living aboard on the west coast of Scotland.
No house as back up, just our boat. We bought the boat instead of a house and haven't regretted it for a min....
But I think you have to get the right boat for the job and have it kitted out to deal with living aboard...

small examples:-

Fully insulate your boat and sort out and understand how to ventilate, this will put an end to condensation

Fit a very reliable heating system which works without the use of shore power, if you rely on shore power for heating and the power goes down your stuffed, and believe me power failures in some marinas are common.

Have good tankage for water and diesel, water is very rare in some places, No water in Kerrera Marina for most of the summer & no water in most Scottish marinas for huge chunks of the winter, ice is plentiful though.
We hold almost 600lts of water in two tanks which keep us going until a thaw.

We wouldn’t change our life style for anything.....
There are currently 5 full time liveaboards where we are at the moment, come the spring we will be moving on to pastures new and next winter who knows, maybe Ireland.

Get in touch if you would like a chat or if you find yourself up on the west coast get in touch and come and visit.......

All the best with your plans

Doug :)
 
Number Crunching

Thanks everyone. I have been trying to crunch a few numbers today and ended up frightening myself to death. I have been trying to be too scientific I think by working up costs for fuel, moorings, maintenance, etc based on my estimates of costs, consumption etc, etc.
We will be in a position to make the move to livaboard in spring 2012. That will be house sold, no cars, good quality 37'ish motorsailer style livaboard bought outright and no outgoings other that those associated with two people and a small dog living aboard 365 days a year on the west coast. The game plan is to cruise for six months keeping mooring costs down by anchoring most of the time, probably going alongside somewhere (pontoon costs) say once a week for provisions and domestics. And then to find a marina berth for the winter for the other six months. I can do all/U]of my own maintenance and we are not seekers of bright lights, fancy restaurants etc. We don't have close family so don't have obligations that will attract much travel.
We will have a net income of around £15k /year. The bottom line is, (without prying too much I hope) is that enough?? We have read posts from others who suggest that it is but as I said my number crunching is coming up with horrific data.
 
Hadenough said:
Thanks everyone. I have been trying to crunch a few numbers today and ended up frightening myself to death. I have been trying to be too scientific I think by working up costs for fuel, moorings, maintenance, etc based on my estimates of costs, consumption etc, etc.
We will be in a position to make the move to livaboard in spring 2012. That will be house sold, no cars, good quality 37'ish motorsailer style livaboard bought outright and no outgoings other that those associated with two people and a small dog living aboard 365 days a year on the west coast. The game plan is to cruise for six months keeping mooring costs down by anchoring most of the time, probably going alongside somewhere (pontoon costs) say once a week for provisions and domestics. And then to find a marina berth for the winter for the other six months. I can do all/U]of my own maintenance and we are not seekers of bright lights, fancy restaurants etc. We don't have close family so don't have obligations that will attract much travel.
We will have a net income of around £15k /year. The bottom line is, (without prying too much I hope) is that enough?? We have read posts from others who suggest that it is but as I said my number crunching is coming up with horrific data.
Click to expand...


You should be able to live well on that, providing you sail as much as possst iible---motoring could be expensive by then.No wind=no go!
nter berthing is for six months,so you don't want to be too far from civilisation. Wintering on the Clyde ,as I did in Largs last winter.is relatively inexpensive,and if you eat on board you kep costs down. As far as travel is concerned ,SCOTRAIL do good deals on return fares for over 55s in winter--- two returns LARGS-EDIBURGH £3 for example.
 
£15k for 2 easily enough, esp. if you have practical skills, but (forgive me) can I ask why a motorsailer? If you are planning not to spend much on fuel but will be doing a lot of voyaging there doesn't seem much point having a motorsailer...
 
Costs

djbreeze said:
£15k for 2 easily enough, esp. if you have practical skills, but (forgive me) can I ask why a motorsailer? If you are planning not to spend much on fuel but will be doing a lot of voyaging there doesn't seem much point having a motorsailer...
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feed back the plan is back on the rails now. Why a motorsailer? Simply that we will not be venturing south at all and want a boat with an enclosed wheelhouse for space, warmth and comfort. Our present 30' Seadog is a good compromise. She sails fairly well, albeit sedately and admittedly not on the wind but we don't plan to hurry anywhere. We plan to upgrade simply because we have found that the aft cabin and up and over access through the canvas hooded cockpit isn't very practical in cold weather.
 
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