Ponderings

[sooz]

Hello hello,

 

Just a few ponderings I've been having and I'm hoping people will be able to help me work out the practicalities around these particular issues.

 

Firstly, prices of second-hand boats. Yes, we have looked (my word we have looked!) at lots of adverts (online, at brokerages, in free publications, in other literature etc) but it is very difficult to gauge any sort of 'average' price for a 'typical example' of what we are after (ready-to-go, 53' - 58' semi-trad, in brief). Of course it all comes down to condition of the boat, both inside and out, but I wondered how much of a factor geography is with regard to prices? Having not been studying adverts for years it's hard to be certain of a trend, but it does seem that prices for two very similar boats will vary quite considerably depending whereabouts in the country they are lying.

 

Secondly, for those who use their boats for recreational purposes, how far away do you live from yours? Our closest bit of 'proper' canal is a two and a half hour drive from us. At the moment all we can talk about is how we'll be on the boat at least every other weekend and for longer whenever we can (unfortunately my partner was diagnosed with children eleven and six years ago and now this has a great bearing on our leisure time). However, I'm concerned that living so far from the mooring, making the journey will soon become tiresome and reduce either our enjoyment of the boat or the frequency with which we visit it.

 

Lastly (for this hour, anyway), it would be hugely appreciated if anyone could share their experiences (good and bad, please) of marinas on the Kennt and Avon (via private message is quite fine if needbe). We've visited a few and our impressions of each of them have been very different, however it would be most reassuring to hear others' experiences.

 

Many thanks =]

 

[Guest]

 

Secondly, for those who use their boats for recreational purposes, how far away do you live from yours? Our closest bit of 'proper' canal is a two and a half hour drive from us. At the moment all we can talk about is how we'll be on the boat at least every other weekend and for longer whenever we can (unfortunately my partner was diagnosed with children eleven and six years ago and now this has a great bearing on our leisure time). However, I'm concerned that living so far from the mooring, making the journey will soon become tiresome and reduce either our enjoyment of the boat or the frequency with which we visit it.

 

 

You are right to consider this - it's an important issue.

 

We live in the North East and although there are canals and rivers closer we initially based our boat in Derbyshire 147 miles from our home. From memory it normally took just over 2,5 hours as it was virtually all motorway and dual carriageway. However sometimes the M1 would snarl up on a Friday afternoon and it could take much longer than this (I think the 'record' was over 4 hours after a pile up and the subsequent lane closures).

 

It did become a bit wearing even when we gave up work and were not restricted about when we could go boating.

 

So we moved North last year initially to near Leeds but now at Pollington. Again it is virtually dual carriageway and motorway all the way but a journey of only 80 miles and just over 1.5 hours.

 

We could come even further North to Ripon but that would put us at a 'dead end' of the system and our boat length is better suited to the longer locks a bit further south.

 

That said I do know people travel much longer distances to get to their boat (our neighbour at our last mooring came from Australia to his ) but it all depends how far and how often you are personally comfortable travelling)

[GUMPY]

Secondly, for those who use their boats for recreational purposes, how far away do you live from yours? Our closest bit of 'proper' canal is a two and a half hour drive from us. At the moment all we can talk about is how we'll be on the boat at least every other weekend and for longer whenever we can (unfortunately my partner was diagnosed with children eleven and six years ago and now this has a great bearing on our leisure time). However, I'm concerned that living so far from the mooring, making the journey will soon become tiresome and reduce either our enjoyment of the boat or the frequency with which we visit it.

 

I would say that is to far!

we have had some long distance commutes to various recreations on a regular basis

A sea side flat in North Devon in the begining was every other weekend. Just under 3 hours each way, gradually slipped to being every six weeks then we put a tennant in and finally sold it this year.

A Yot on the east coast about 2 hrs away again the same thing happened and we sold it last year.

A Cruiser about an hour away, apart from this year as the river was in flood for 2 months, it gets used quite a bit

 

So dont underestimate how much the travelling will put a dampner on it.

 

Oh and 37.5k is way overpriced for a 1970s ex hire boat

[Pentargon]

My boat is in Northampton and my 'home' in Essex. 2hrs and much too far away. I'm in a position now to bring it south and am doing just that. How far are you from the Bridgewater and Taunton canal system? the Kennet and Avon is lunatic soup. (Stand by for inbound rocket fire. Boom Boom)

[Paul C]

We are lucky to be not-too-far from a good piece of the canal network. Our boat is moored 50 mins from home, but 20 mins from my work (so home - work - boat - home is a good trip, and I work part time).

 

Prices? I don't think you can read too much into advertised prices, there are lots of boats out there which remain unsold but the owners/sellers really don't have a proper idea of its true value, or are simply too optimistic in their asking price. I guess some sellers just don't want the money that much?

[john6767]

I too would agree that the distance does become a pain, particularly when you are often travelling Friday and Sunday evenings when the traffic is bad. We used to have a static caravan in South Wales, 3 hours from home ,and it did eventually get a pain. With that in mind, for the boat we set a limit for no more than 1 hour from home, and at the moment it is 45 mins away, which works fine.

[Tesla]

We are 15 minutes from our mooring, it makes a massive difference, to the point where I now try and work from the boat and every weekend is boat time, even if we have to do the parent taxi thing...

 

ETA: it makes a massive difference to when we used my fathers boat on the broads, that was a 2 hr plus drive and therefore infrequent.

Edited September 5, 2012 by Tesla

[Tesla]

Numpty post

Edited September 5, 2012 by Tesla

[sooz]

Okay, thanks for all the thoughts on this one. We've chatted lots about the distance and read all the replies with interest, but we can't help wanting to stick our fingers in our ears and go *la la la la la* on this one. We've both reached a point in our respective lives where sticking two fingers up at the world and running away every couple of weeks is the most appealing thing to us!

 

=]

[ceilauren]

Sooz

 

To may be complicate your musings, have you considered mooring on the Gloucester Sharpness Canal?

 

Mileage may be a little more but by staying on the motorways longer you could save time, for example Saul Marina is 5 minutes from the M5.

 

We started in Northampton and moved to Saul in March much better.

 

There are two reasons I tentatively suggest this:

 

1. One of the owners of the boat near us in the marina do exactly this, they live in Devon and moor here.

 

2. We looked at various marinas on the K & A and whilst probably fine for some we found Saul Marina to be the best. Good facilities, average price, excellent location and in both the marina and the surrounding area some fantastic people.

 

Ok maybe a third reason The Stables Cafe, just across the bridge from the marina, their bowl of cheesy chips and bacon is just the way to recuperate from working on the boat :-)

 

Good Luck with your choices

 

Kevin

[sooz]

Amazing how a simple comment can open up a whole lot of possibilities, isn't it?! Thank you, Kevin, you have expanded our minds considerably!

 

Because of our location we hadn't really considered anywhere other than the western end of the Kennet and Avon and we were already a little glum at how isolated it is from the rest of the UK's network (we want to explore it all, but 'real life' constraints such as jobs, children, reptiles etc are rather limiting). It hadn't occurred to us that any other canal was actually closer, and even though it's still one extremity of the system at least there's a variety of routes that can be taken from the Gloucester and Sharpness.

 

(Oh, and the cheesy chips with bacon definitely helped sway t'other half!)

 

Rethinking caps on...!

 

=]

[MoominPapa]

but 'real life' constraints such as jobs, children, reptiles etc are rather limiting

OK, you've made me feel better. I was just sitting here bemoaning the fact that jobs, children and etc are severely cramping my boating style at the moment, but at least I don't have to cope with reptiles too!

 

MP.

[Athy]

but at least I don't have to cope with reptiles too!

 

MP.

I wonder, is there some connection between reptiles and MPs?