Staying on my swinging mooring all year round?

[lw395]

It can be more worthwhile staying afloat all winter if you are in a club (or maybe informal group) which 'cruises in company', a winter outing to the fairly local places which are crowded in summer can be good fun. Treat yourselves to a marina and take the fan heater.
ISTM that when a boat is out of the water, it's costing me more money and is often at greater risk from weather and other damage.
Obviously the mooring hardware needs to be trustworthy.

 

[FairweatherDave]

It is all interesting stuff, this debate. Much centers on definitions of "winter" and cold as far as sailing goes. And I'm not planning anything extreme. My main motivators are economics and desire for a change of routine. As said already for me I am talking about a period of five months. Waste of a premium price mooring. And if I'm not doing much winter maintenance ashore that's a wasted opportunity and money too.
If the weather is nice enough I can sail. Result. But the amount of sailing will be a lottery and in a sense is secondary to the economic argument for me. But if I get a couple of day sails or an overnight in a marina with a fan heater and hot food I'm pretty sure that would be pretty memorable. Meanwhile I would have saved enough to install a proper heater.
I'm not oblivious to the risks on a swinging mooring but I can see plenty of benefits too, notably the stresses on everything with the wind on the beam in the yard.
Finally the unknown factor for me is how I will spend the time I could have been doing maintenance in a chilly boat yard. I will be seeing the boat less for short spurts of work nearby. Looking forward to that challenge.

 

[[70521]]

I am tempted to try one winter and get out of my comfort zone (literally) but should the swinging mooring be a deciding factor against the plan. Interested what people think.

Last January I went to visit a friend in Plymouth who had moved his boat to a marina. As Baldric in Black Adder would say "I have a cunning plan" and that was to move the boat down to Plymouth for the winter and back to her swing mooring on the Exe in the summer.

Having looked at the logistics and finances I actually moved the boat to Plymouth permanently! and am looking forward to a winter's sailing.