Semi Liveaboard

[Cockatoo]

Long story short, we are thinking of buying a boat and living on it for probably 8-9 months of the year.

 

Debs is still at work, I've semi-retired (doing a bit of agency work to stop me getting into trouble). Originally we were looking at canal boats, maybe to live on full time, but have decided that we would rather have something with a bit more room generally. That, plus the fact that I am originally a 'Norfolk Boy', means we are looking at the Broads.

I know there is a shortage of true residential moorings but would that sort of use class as residential? We'd still have our place here in Waltham Abbey, paying council tax and whatnot, indeed Debs would still be using it a couple of nights a week to save on travelling and for three or four months a year we would be here full time.

Are we shooting at the stars?

 

Steve

[Smoggy]

Sound great to me, if you have a permanent mooring in a marina and a home address I don't see that as residential at all, just a long holiday or a well used boat.

[Meantime]

Most marina's that don't have any official residential berths require you to have a home address, which you would still have. In truth there are no limits on how often you can visit your boat, or how many nights you stay on board, in or out of the marina. So whilst you intend living on your boat for long periods, I think you would just fall into the "very" frequent visitor category for most marinas, rather than a liveaboard.

[Cockatoo]

7 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Sound great to me, if you have a permanent mooring in a marina and a home address I don't see that as residential at all, just a long holiday or a well used boat.

For sure the mooring would need to come first. Starting a week Saturday we've got three weeks spread between Moonlight Shadow and Thunder so it will give us a chance for a leisurely look around.

 

ETA I can also see what seasonal work is available.

[dnks34]

For your requirements I wouldnt even mention the words liveaboard or residential when looking into moorings.

no need to complicate matters when you will only be taking extended visits and your not technically living aboard (permenantly!) 

[Islander]

Hi Steve, if you are keeping your place in Waltham, continue to have post delivered there and remain on the electoral roll then I don't see you will have a problem with the boatyards. Just explain you will be spending a lot of time on your boat as semi retired. 

Colin 

[Cockatoo]

18 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Sound great to me, if you have a permanent mooring in a marina and a home address I don't see that as residential at all, just a long holiday or a well used boat.

 

18 hours ago, EastCoastIPA said:

Most marina's that don't have any official residential berths require you to have a home address, which you would still have. In truth there are no limits on how often you can visit your boat, or how many nights you stay on board, in or out of the marina. So whilst you intend living on your boat for long periods, I think you would just fall into the "very" frequent visitor category for most marinas, rather than a liveaboard.

 

8 hours ago, dnks34 said:

For your requirements I wouldnt even mention the words liveaboard or residential when looking into moorings.

no need to complicate matters when you will only be taking extended visits and your not technically living aboard (permenantly!) 

 

7 hours ago, Islander said:

Hi Steve, if you are keeping your place in Waltham, continue to have post delivered there and remain on the electoral roll then I don't see you will have a problem with the boatyards. Just explain you will be spending a lot of time on your boat as semi retired. 

Colin 

Thanks guys, you've all told me what I want to hear :-)

Indeed Debs will be back here one or two nights a week and the BCE (see sig) will flit between the two depending on whether he fancies a pint of AK or a pint of Ghost Ship.........

[ChrisB]

Hi Steve,

I don't want to rain on your parade, honestly! But whilst it might suit you needs at present if Debs gives up work I think you will get pretty bored on 120 miles of rivers if you are here for 8 months.

Long term I think your narrowboat Idea is much better . Just look where you may wander:-

 

[Islander]

On the other hand. We've lived on ours for the last 19 years and have not become bored yet. Still lots to see and do. It all comes down to what rocks your boat really.  

Colin 

[MauriceMynah]

I see your point Chris, but don't agree with it, or perhaps more accurately don't see it in that way. The amount of waterway available isn't really an issue.  When a visitor comes to the broads for the first time Life is very different from the norm.  Life is afloat and with new and variable things to see. If that visitor returns many times his/her experiences change with each visit. The first time getting everywhere seeing little, the 20th time going to fewer places but seeing much more. The more frequent the visits, the lower the mileage.

The Liveaboards (a generalisation) probably do the fewest miles yet absorbing the greatest amount of the peace and tranquillity to be had, and would, if permissible and practical, stay weeks on end in one place. (yes, I know some do, but that's another issue)

The diversity to be seen on the broads is as good as you will get for the most part on any other waterway, missing out only on the more industrial features to be found on the canals.

Another difference my parents and I found between the canals and the broads was the attitudes of people. On the broads the vast majority of people one meets are on holiday. They are all enjoying themselves, all having (or trying to have) a good time. This happiness is infectious (unless you are an angler :-)  )  On the canals, the people you are most likely to meet ashore will be normal people doing their normal things. The pubs don't have that "holiday spirit" and are full of people not on holiday and busy moaning about their day at work. (Though they do make the anglers seem a jovial crowd.)

No! give me life on the broads any day.

[annv]

Hi Steve Boatyards don't have a problem of how long you stay on board, the thing that upsets them is when liver boards start to take over the mooring with bikes sheds, garden furniture, clothes lines, flower planting etc and all the detrises that permanently living attracts,  just keep the mooring clean and tidy with no clutter on the bank and you won't have a problem. John

[Meantime]

I really must get some new glasses. I was trying to work out what a TV series about two young female friends sharing a flat in Huskisson Street in Liverpool in the 1970's had to do with Steve thinking about living on board a boat. I thought I must have missed the episode when they started taking over the mooring with bike sheds, garden furniture, clothes lines and flower planting.

[Paul]

I would be upfront about what you want to do when negotiating a mooring. There is something, somewhere that quantifies what qualifies as residential. Just because you maintain a house and postal address elsewhere does not mean that it is your main residence. If you were spending 75% of the year on your boat then that becomes your main residence I don't think it will be much of a problem but the yard might have stipulations based on it's planning and type of use that means you have to take the boat out of the yard at a minimum set interval.

56 days comes to mind, but I don't know where I got that from.

[Meantime]

How long you stay on your boat has nothing to do with the marina, bearing in mind that you might chose to take your boat away from it's berth for the odd weekend here or there. Any such times constraints imposed by The BA as planning authority would naturally be reset the moment you left your berth and be virtually un-enforceable.

Both marinas I have used past and present have stipulated a primary address and nothing more. Both marinas have what I would call "very frequent" visitors, in fact so frequent it seems like they never leave

In the terms of my current berthing agreement it states, "Long Term Stay. Boats may be used for long term stay providing the berth holder has a primary address.

[Cockatoo]

Is it possible to register at a local doctor as a frequent visitor does anyone know?

 

[Meantime]

Info below, but in practise I think you can register at a practice without having proof of address, and since 2015 practices have been free to register patients who live outside their practice boundary. Students away from home for university manage it somehow.

In brief I think it is possible, but more details below.

https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/gps/how-to-register-with-a-gp-practice/

[grendel]

I have always wondered if you owned several boats moored in different places, whether you could just move from one to another on a regular basis, and thus not be classed as a live aboard.

[Cockatoo]

18 minutes ago, grendel said:

I have always wondered if you owned several boats moored in different places, whether you could just move from one to another on a regular basis, and thus not be classed as a live aboard.

Just eccentric :)

 

[PCL023]

It’s all doable. My Grandparents did this on their boat on the broads from retirement in to their 80’s when it got just too much. They had their moorings at Richardson’s, winter in the wet shed where the boat was put to bed from November through to March/April (there was little in the way of mod cons back then on the boat making winter not so comfortable), where they were on the point where the river splits to the yard and Staithe for the rest of the season. They had their permanent home back in Ipswich. We used to meet them most weekends or  every so often on the boat some where to drop their post to them. 

Theycould of course come back home at anytime but more often than not it was only for appointments etc. 

This was back in the 80’s and 90’s. 

Cheers 

Paul 

[ZimbiIV]

My only concern would be how it could effect your house insurance, normally insurers want to know if the property is going to be empty for long/regular periods.

We usually spend 2 weeks home 2 weeks boat and nobody bothers at Cove just accept we nearly live there.

paul

 

[Cockatoo]

Well we're coming to the end of our three week stint aboard Thunder and Moonlight Shadow. We've found a few places we would be happy to moor and more importantly seen a few boats we think would fit our needs. Debs now knows what the different styles mean and we've realised that although size isn't everything too small a boat would definitely cramp our style.

When we look at a boat we are definitely both looking at it from different perspectives, Debs is seeing the the layout, potential for change and the general comfort level while I am looking at the 'nuts and bolts', hull, engine, gearbox etc.

We looked at one that we both liked, well under budget, but I am still trying to convince myself that although the woodwork inside would look lovely after a bit of TLC I really don't need twin engines, let alone twin 120s, in a boat on the Broads :)

This morning we are going to look at a couple in Wroxham. I just need to remember that we are looking for later in the year and we mustn't fall in love with one now!

 

Just need to find a job up here now :)

[Smoggy]

20 minutes ago, SteveDuk said:

I really don't need twin engines, let alone twin 120s, in a boat on the Broads :)

The plus side of that is the cruising ground it opens up to you, there are some lovely places around the east coast and you can access a lot of the other bits on that map shown earlier in the thread, obviously the narrowbeam bits are out but london/cambridge/lincoln/york/nottingham/oxford and all the bits in between are in reach with a sea capable boat.

I hear a lot of old squit about wrong boat for the broads because I can't get to geldeston/coltishall/hickling but for that small sacrifice I have a massive cruising ground to play with, apart from the thames bits I've done all the places listed above by boat without the use of a lorry and hope to add whitby this year, most of it done on my old boat at 7 knots.

You don't have to run both all the time on the rivers if you don't want to.

[MauriceMynah]

2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

I hear a lot of old squit about wrong boat for the broads because I can't get to geldeston/coltishall/hickling but for that small sacrifice I have a massive cruising ground to play with,

To a certain extent I agree, but then again maybe not, it's matter of degree.

To be unable to get under Potter is a small (ish) sacrifice. The inability to get under Wroxham and Beccles as well, would be a price too high for me. The idea of a craft unable to get under Acle gets me thinking of the "wrong sort of boat for the broads"

That doesn't mean that the owners would be unhappy with a boat of that nature, far from it, but one cannot in all honesty call it a "Broads cruiser" nor advertise it as a craft suitable for the broads, thus it follows surely that it MIGHT be reasonable to refer to a boat as "wrong for the broads" without being thought of as speaking "Squit" of any age :-)

One buys a boat to do with as one wants. If you can't do what you want, then and only then, could you start to think you bought the wrong sort of boat! 

[TheQ]

On ‎04‎/‎04‎/‎2019 at 19:02, ZimbiIV said:

My only concern would be how it could effect your house insurance, normally insurers want to know if the property is going to be empty for long/regular periods.

We usually spend 2 weeks home 2 weeks boat and nobody bothers at Cove just accept we nearly live there.

paul

 

My insurance (nothing special arranged)  stipulates no more than 1 month away at anytime but does not put a limit on how many times away..

[vanessan]

On 04/04/2019 at 19:02, ZimbiIV said:

My only concern would be how it could effect your house insurance, normally insurers want to know if the property is going to be empty for long/regular periods.

We usually spend 2 weeks home 2 weeks boat and nobody bothers at Cove just accept we nearly live there.

paul

 

I was comparing home insurance cover only recently and came across quite a variety of stipulations. One company quoted an absence from home of no longer than 30 days in one go and a total of 60 days per annum. (That one was definitely a no-no for us!) It’s definitely worth checking your policy if you do spend  long sessions on your boat.