London moorings

[Lukey]

I am looking into a mooring for a 20-25ft motor boat, any one know of any marinas in london ( Action, barnes, putney area into london, either thames or canal ).

Basically looking into getting a small cabin boat to use a a crash pad for late night drinkning in london. Not liveaboard but one or two nights ( mainly weekend ) a month. At the moment it is costsing me about £50-60 to get a cab home, I would rather kip in london and then have a whores wash and crack on the next day and get the tube home in the evening

Any ideas, costs etc.

Any help appricated

[timw]

If you want cheap, then there are mid river moorings available putney area through PLA or Chas Newens.

You'd need a rowing boat to get out to them, and that might be "challenging" after a good night out.

Unfortunately most other moorings are full with a waiting list. You might try Cadagon Pier, they may have something but looking quite full.

Chelsea Harbour may have space but it's not cheap.

Upstream from there there's nothing where you can keep a boat permanently until you get up past Richmond and Kingston.

[Phil Chitty]

For that sort of money you could get a Travel Lodge.

That would take all the hard work out of maintaining the boat and would probably be warmer and more comfortable.

[Tim M]

Agreed - you can book a Travelodge for £15 if you book in advance.

[Lukey]

Yeah I have already looked into it, its never quite as cheap as that, I looked a easyhotel.com comes out at around £40-50 per night. Plus I have top be out by 10-11am next day and that not really the point. Also the idea is go out in london and just decide at the last mnute that we want to stay/ go out for a meal/go to a club etc not plan our week out in advance ( GF is a bit random, thats why i like her )

Mate lives a a marina and we stay there every now and then and it is fine, kind of like camping on water, bit of fun plus we get to use the boat to chug up and down the thames and go fishing when we like.

[John Kennett]

If you head further east you might find space somewhere like Limehouse or South Dock.

There's a slightly (possibly very) out of date list of moorings and marinas at www.thames-tideway.co.uk and there are more details on the PLA website here. It will probably be a matter of ringing everyone you can get hold of.

Assuming you can find somewhere with space, you should reckon on mooring fees somewhere between £150-200 a month for that size of boat.

Good luck!
John

[GuyP]

What about a canal boat? Believe that you can moor up around Camden for next to nothing.

[Lukey]

Originally Posted by GuyP

What about a canal boat? Believe that you can moor up around Camden for next to nothing.

I have had a look, and in chelsea it seems around £2000 for the year ( although I think this could be haggled down as there was no boats there. There is a marina in south docks ? they quoted £1200 for the year and they even turn a blind eye to liveaboards ! seemed really nice peeps as well.

Camden I thought would be a hard to find a residential spot but does anyone know of a non residential marina in that area ?, as that would be the perfect spot as thats where we like to go out.

[John Kennett]

I lived on a boat in South Dock Marina for three years, and it's not bad. Good facilites, 10 minute walk to the Jubilee Line and a water bus stop right outside.

You'll be hard pushed to find any long term mooring in Camden. Even if you do you can be certain that it won't be cheap!

The British Waterways web site www.waterscape.com might be worth a try. If you're really serious about it, then go and visit anywhere that you think might be likely and talk to people. It's not unusual for vacant moorings to go by word of mouth without being advertised.

John

[CJL]

How about Chiswick or Brentford Marina???

Reasonable parking, loads of liveaboards and fairly average prices. Plus the added bonus of not living in East London!!!

Chris