Newbie - am I being too unrealistic?

[xyachtdave]

I've been looking at yacht clubs on the Medway and the eponymously named Medway Yacht Club seems pretty reasonable if taking one of the mooring buoys on top of membership. They offer some training too. I'm not sure if they'd accept residential use though, and I'd have to generate my own electricity, but even running a little generator in tandem with solar panels would be cheaper than the fees at one of the marinas - and good practice for actually setting out on an adventure!

Hey Steve, MYC member here.

The training is RYA dinghy courses, Power boat level 2 and Safety Boat. They occasionally hire in people for VHF and theory courses if there’s interest. Personally I wouldn’t bother with these.

Elite Sailing in Chatham Marina offer all the big boat courses locally, do a weeks comp crew and see if you like it.

With regards to moorings and living on them….

There are a couple of motor boats on fore and aft moorings at MYC but as the name suggests mainly yachts. That’s not for snooty reasons just there’s not much interest in keeping power boats on moorings. There’s also a problem with how they lay to wind and tide compared to a keel boat so not easy to place where they won’t hit anything as the tide turns.

If you joined today and wanted a 36ft swinging mooring for a sailing yacht, the answer would probably be join the waiting list. There’s not much space in that size range as it’s the most popular. Smaller boats are usually fine.

Living aboard the moorings. I don’t believe there’s a rule saying you can’t do this. There’s quite a few residents nearby who might not like listening to a generator on for hours at a time though.

Upnor village is quite insular, plenty of members live there and on St Mary’s Island. Absolutely no way you’ll go unnoticed for more than a week.

Someone was towed to MYC from Queenborough a few years ago and a decaying steel boat was tied up fore and aft.

He intended to live on it on the moorings for extended periods and made no secret of it.

It never moved and the owner was a bit of pain in the arse, dinghy break downs requiring help, always in the club office moaning, fell in a couple of times, medical emergencies and had to be removed eventually.

He was an interesting chap, I helped him out several times but probably also a good example of not moving onboard with no plan b or cash for your later years.

Unfortunately he may have muddied the waters for your idea at MYC. I’d be upfront about your intended usage and see how you get on.

Having someone permanently afloat might be a bonus for say security, so could be sold as a positive.

The general rule of not telling marinas you’re living onboard is sound, keep your head down and boat tidy and all is usually well.

The nature of the club means it won’t be a secret so no point pretending otherwise. Good luck!