The problem with this advice is that if you don’t have a boat, then you really can’t secure a mooring. We soon discovered that it was a little difficult to secure a mooring when you don’t know how long or wide your boat was going to be.  Then, if you’re lucky enough that your enquiry has generated interest, you might then be asked to send in a photo.  Again impossible if you have not yet found the one!

 

Eventually, we found our boat in Holland and although we didn’t yet officially own it, we stepped up the pace in trying to find it an English home. When we started out, we were trying to find a residential mooring in London... after all that’s where we both worked. While we had homes of our own, they were badly located for our working lives. The barge seemed a very pleasant and suitable second home. Well, try as we did, it proved to be an impossible mission... we struggled to find a suitable mooring full stop... let alone a residential one. The size of our barge was a major obstacle. Of course, most dutch barges tend to to have a long life, and move moorings infrequently, so moorings just don’t come up very often.

 

In hindsight, our mooring troubles had begun way before we even owned the barge. We had planned to keep Fenrir’s dutch mooring going while the work was carried out.  Unfortunately, as the engine did not run, the barge was tugged to a local boat yard where she stayed for 5 months while she was re-plated and the engine restored. We ended up contributing to the boat yard ‘standing’ fees, even before we owned the boat!

 

 

Early on in our search, we were offered a plot of land near Sunbury but a quick sale was required.  While we were excited by the prospect of land, problems such as poor access, the lack of electricity, water and plumbing connections and a tenuous mooring history were making us nervous.  As we had invested a large sum of cash into the barge, we were unsure if would raise the money, and unsure if this was a good investment. The big fear was that if we were prevented from mooring there for whatever reasons, it would have been a very expensive mistake.  With sadness, we let the offer go.  As the months went by, we feared we had let a gem go.

 

We continued our search for a mooring and become aware of a new company with moorings available.  While we were much bigger than they had intended to have, we managed to secure a spot and soon we were on our way up the Thames to Hampton Court.  We spent 18 months with Geoff and John and we would have happily stayed there forever but living aboard was not allowed, so the boat became a casual weekend stop-over.  Barge Walk was located on an idyllic stretch of the Thames where rowers would go past most days, at some ungodly hour!  The view was always changing.  Still it wasn’t without drama.  All it would take was 2 days solid rain and the marina would flood.  Many a day you were stranded or had to wade through water to get to the gates.  It was like watching Blue Peter to see how G&J would create a new walk way out of loo rolls and sticky back plastic.

 

The ongoing costs of mooring the barge, coupled with the rent of a London flat proved too much. We started looking for some kind of solution, but our joy at finding a lovely spot on the river was being replaced with a realisation that the costs of mooring the barge was sucking us dry. We couldn’t justify it just for the odd weekend. A particularly depressing day was spent travelling up to Doyle Carte Island, where the owners of the island, having invited us there to inspect moorings, took affront that we had walked around the island and threw us off! It was truly pathetic.

 

A friend put us in contact with a chap living aboard a barge in Hammersmith. He had plonked his barge there, and claimed they were historical moorings, with some evidence. Over time, the moorings had grown up, and now it was highly unlikely that anyone could dispute the moorings. Anyway, his barge had been damaged after settling down on a large tree trunk, and he needed to move the barge to London to be repaired. He had decided to sell the mooring (presumably, as he would lose it if he moved the barge). He wanted £100k for the spot! I was shocked. This ramshackle collection of rotting boats was not what we had been after, and to hear the value that had been put on it, was truly depressing. We know he sold the mooring eventually, but we don’t know for how much. What I do know, is that anyone paying such money for a mooring of dubious legality, is taking a massive risk. This kind of thing is more common than you might imagine.

 

A family member came up with another contact... a chap running moorings in various places along the Thames. Initially the conversation were very favourable, but again, a suitable spot never materialised. At every juncture, disappointment was always round the corner.

All in all, our search had been going on for the best part of a year, and it just seemed it wasn’t going to happen. Mentally, we felt that we may have to give up with our hopes and dreams. With Skips now needing to move work, we made the brave decision to leave our friends, move out of London, renting a charming cottage in Marlow, still unsure what to do with Fenrir.  We quickly got settled and enjoying life... and of course, that’s when a new opportunity finally came up! While not a residential mooring, we would be able to share our time between our respective homes, and the barge.  While not ideal, it was a reasonable compromise that seemed to fit our need to be regularly in or near London and Marlow.

 

So, No. 1 gets to work, and sure enough, within 3 months of moving into the cottage, we have secured a mooring.  Sods Law!  We’re now contract bound to stay in the house for at least another 3 months...

 

So we finally make it on board. While we are not here for much of the year, we spend enough time here to feel it is a home of sorts and worth the investment. It has genuinely been a hard slog over several years to get to this point.  If you are looking for a mooring, prepare yourself for a lot of effort. Be prepared for numerous telephone conversations and if you leave a message expecting people to return your calls... they won’t!  Sorry, but it’s true. You will always need to have on you the details of beam (width), draught (depth below water), air draught (how high it is above water) and the length... in both metres and feet.   The best thing we did was re-paint the boat and email photos out with Fenrir looking gorgeous. It helped when the rare opportunities appeared.

 

We recently heard a story that surprised us.  All in all, we’ve spent years looking for a suitable commutable mooring, and in the end we’ve had to compromise on our aims and settle for less time on the boat. But, our ex-neighbours were more fortunate. They bought their boat and found a mooring just a few weeks after the purchase.  Well, good for them! Unfortunately, our experience has not quite been the same. Our advice would be to purchase a cheap boat on an existing mooring that suits your need, then look to find a boat that will fit on your mooring. If renting, make sure the ‘owner’ of the mooring is happy for you to swap boats. And if buying, we honestly can’t recommend spending money on a mooring unless there really is legal entitlement!

 

Good luck in your search and if we can help in anyway, please drop us a line!