Patience On The Move - How to choose a mooring

Patience is heading away from the peaceful River Nene with her lovely mooring at Oundle Marina towards the Big World of Real Canals and The Grand Union.

How did you decide on your current moorings? Was it nearest to home, in a delightful setting, where there is access to your favourite places, or just where the boat was when you bought it?

Next to your choice of boat - and your boating partner - your long term mooring is probably the most important boating choice you will make. However the decision to move to a new mooring can usually be made logically and in your own time. With luck you'll be able to make a seamless transition from where you are to where you want to be without either being homeless or paying for two moorings at once.

First decide what kind of boater you. Are you keen to travel extensively, to take mainly short trips or to pootle around the marina? How long are you going to spend in the marina? How often will you travel to it?

From that decision you can say the marina is just a convenient staging post you return to from time to time, the centre of your day trips or your main home.

When you’ve decided that, you can look at your other preferences, ranking them in order of importance:

• Distance / travel time from home (including whether accessible by train or bus or car)
• Canalside, basin or marina
• Convenient facilities (pump out, diesel, shower block, pleasant loos, chandlery, workshop)
• Environment - picnic space and established trees, pubs and shops nearby, historic places of interest
• Choice of waterway
• Friendly caretaker and neighbours, boat club and clubhouse
• Cost (usually calculated per foot per annum but can vary in weeks, months and metres)

       Make your mind up about these important options and come back to read the next post.