Advice for Living Aboard in UK

[atoll]

Originally Posted by boatman61

If you are a foreigner/non-EU then council tax etc is not going to effect you as a live-aboard as your passport/visa marks you a transient.
If however you are UK/EU then just register with all the relevant Gov agencies as you would a mud dwelling.. its comes under the same category as Caravan Parks/Houseboats/canal boats... pay your dues your left alone..

we pay the lowest rate of council tax,£88 pounds a month,this pays for housing refugees/illegal immigrants,the police,street lighting,rubbish removal and the enormous salaries of council and police chiefs,and funding other non paying residents

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Zven

I think that should be "IF your passport/visa marks you a transient

Boatman is right -- when I used to come to the UK through the normal passport lines, they would mark my passport "Leave to Enter for 6 Month", every time. So that means I'm a transient. What's cool about the UK is that if you leave two days later and return another week later, you get another 6 months, and so forth. Nothing like Schengen where they count the days.

So the UK is a VERY convenient place to be based as a U.S. sailor.

After 15 years of coming and going to the UK like that, they gave me a little blue card which allows me to use the UK Citizens line at the airport, and now they don't mark anything in my passport at all. In fact I don't even talk to an immigration officer -- I just stick my passport in the machine and the gates open, easier than getting into the U.S. They keep track of who comes and spends money and doesn't abuse the system and ask for welfare or other social benefits, and extend a nice welcome to such people -- very enlightened of them

[AD 2]

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, guys. We've been in touch with a bunch of places, and have come to the conclusion that the south coast of england is really expensive, especially since it's going to be some time before we're able to permanently relocate there. So we're looking at keeping the boat across the water in France. Does anyone have any experience of keeping a a UK registered boat in France? Any likely/possible nightmares we should be aware of?

Cheers,

Billy

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by AD 2

Thanks for all the advice and suggestions, guys. We've been in touch with a bunch of places, and have come to the conclusion that the south coast of england is really expensive, especially since it's going to be some time before we're able to permanently relocate there. So we're looking at keeping the boat across the water in France. Does anyone have any experience of keeping a a UK registered boat in France? Any likely/possible nightmares we should be aware of?

Cheers,

Billy

Many Brits keep their boats in Brittany, which is far cheaper than the South Coast of England.

I don't think there are any nightmares at all -- this is a very, very, very, very beautiful, wild, fascinating place, much wilder than the English side. Did I mention how beautiful it is?

It's pretty easy to get back across using the various high speed ferry services.

Paradoxically, it's harder to get to an airport, than it is to get back to England. This is a remote place and it can be quite awkward to get to Paris.

Also there is not all that much English spoken in these places. I have been in chandleries in Brittany where 10 people were working, and not a single person could be found who could speak any one of the three languages I speak. So if you go for this variant, polish up your French (but that's an actual benefit, not a burden ).

Besides Brittany, there is also Normandy. Cherbourg for example is a large all weather, all tide port with very good infrastructure. It's the closest point to England on that coast -- 60 miles to the Needles. But oddly it is hard to get to Paris from Cherbourg. You have to take a slow local train along the coast all the way around to Rouen (passing all the D-Day beaches, by the way), before you can make your course for Paris.


Concerning the expense of the South Coast -- it is only really expensive in summer. Outside of the summer months, there is a wide choice of reasonably priced moorings. You can even have a berth in the fabled Hamble River -- if you sublet a mid-river mooring from one of the mooring holders. Apply through the harbormaster's office which handles all those sublets. It costs peanuts. These moorings belong to the Queen, who rents them at far less than the market price for marina berths. I pay a bit less than $2000 a year, for a 54' boat, which works out to about 100 pounds a month. The waiting list is 20 years, however . But you can sublet them from people like me who roam far and wide more than half the year.

[AD 2]

Thanks Dockhead, we are looking at Carentan, round the corner from Cherbourg in Normandy, between Omaha and Utah beaches. As it happens, I am a complete francophile, and do have a passing comprehension of the language, mostly thanks to my misspent youth, wasted selling doughnuts and ice creams on the beaches in the south, and getting tanned absolutely everywhere. Never been to Brittany though, but I hear it's awfully wild, and beautiful. Hopefully that'll be on the cards before too long!

That sounds like a sweet mooring deal you have there, and a pretty idyllic existence besides.

[nauticalnomad]

I left The UK last September and have been wintered over in North Biscay part of Brittany. Its beautiful and i wish i hadve moved the boat to Brittany long ago. Winters are shorter, The water is cleaner and clearer. Id never tell or ask a marina if they take liveaboards. Id moor there and stay onboard. Never had a hassle in 12 years on the East coast of The UK.

[AD 2]

Originally Posted by nauticalnomad

I left The UK last September and have been wintered over in North Biscay part of Brittany. Its beautiful and i wish i hadve moved the boat to Brittany long ago. Winters are shorter, The water is cleaner and clearer. Id never tell or ask a marina if they take liveaboards. Id moor there and stay onboard. Never had a hassle in 12 years on the East coast of The UK.

Must say, I do fancy Brittany. I imagine it as a kind of French Cornwall, which is pretty much perfect. Have you had any problems with the bureaucracy? What kind of paperwork, if any, is involved? Have you had to jump through any uncomfortable hoops, or is it more a matter of turn up with a boat and just BE there?