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Is it possible to liveaboard your boat in Shetland?


gringo97
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I live on board my boat and hope to make it to the Shetlands next summer. Is it possible to live on a boat there? Where are there places with safe moorings and facilities (electricity hook up, toilets/showers etc) please? Is it viable/allowed to be a liveaboard dweller in the Shetlands?

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ok, Shetland, not Shetlands. Sorry.....And the boat is a 33ft Colvic motor sailer, and I've been to France, Belgium, Holland and Denmark in it so far. Oh, and across the Irish Sea to Ireland.

I know it is cold there in the winter and the sea can be rough. I have heating in my boat. The main purpose of my question was to see if you are allowed to live on your boat there, some local authorities make it difficult, some don't allow it at all. Apart from looking like a lovely place to live (yes, I have been on holiday before now) it could be a great stepping off place for trips to the Faeroe Islands or perhaps Norway.

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There is a more up to date guide to marinas here.

 

http://www.shetlandmarinas.com/marinas

 

I am sure I have heard of people living on boats in Shetland but I think it would be quite interesting if there was a gale blowing in the wrong direction! And remember you can get a gale at any time of year in Shetland. According to the Fair Isle's weatherman the wind gusted to 45 knots yesterday.

 

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^ Several of Shetland's harbours are fine 99.9% of the year, but given the changeable, unpredictable and extreme nature of Shetland's weather no place is ever going to be 100% safe 24/7/365.

 

Its a fact of life that when the right combination of wind direction, strength and tidal conditions come together, as they do reasonably regularly due to the changability and extremes of Shetland weather, there's going to be at least one day/night during a winter that you'll have to stand by your boat and probably have to bend on additional mooring ropes and/or move your boat to a more favourable location or similar.

 

We experience gusts of 60-80mph regularly most winters, and have gales in excess of 100mph once a decade or so. Often weather systems coming off the Atlantic merge as they meet cooler air coming down from Iceland or off the Continent resulting from time to time in us having almost continuous Force 8 -10 weather conditions for anything up to two to three weeks at a time. When we do an extreme swell results, and combined with such continuous winds, you'd be fine if you were in any one of the more sheltered spots and everything held on and survived okay, but if anything starts giving way under such strains, effecting a suitable repair can be extremely difficult.

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Given your experience and your boat, I'd say that what you are talking about is do-able.

 

However, as pointed out by Ghostrider and others, there are always going to be situations where if you are on a swinging mooring then it could get very interesting.....

 

There are marinas all around Shetland ( and they're nice, modern sensibly priced ones), I don't know of any full-time liveaboards on them, but it would certainly warrant further investigation. Plus there are a number of privately owned/working piers that you may be able to tie up for an extended period on with a bit of negotiation.

 

If you are serious - go for it - but plan every last detail and be prepared to accept that you may not get a permanent berth...although I would guess a swinging mooring could be easier to sort if you are prepared to pay for the ground tackle laying.

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... According to the Fair Isle's weatherman the wind gusted to 45 knots yesterday.
That would be worrying as a gale that strength would reduce my craft to tinderwood in seconds.....

 

Hmmm. MuckleJoannie's info was not to say there had been a lot of wind, but rather to note that there had been a relatively blustery day during the summer. 45 knots is nowhere near the limit here. We've had over 150 knots (but the high readings have not been accepted as UK records due to the equipment not being found for post record verification).

 

 

Are there no fully sheltered harbours there then, not even the one in Lerwick?

 

Not sure what you mean by "fully sheltered." Lerwick harbour is generally considered one of the best natural harbours, indeed I've heard it described as one of the best in Europe. Still can get very shoogly.

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Whatever you do gringo97 it might be best you avoid the southern tip of Shetland for your moorings. Lest we forget, this is a reminder of what mother nature threw at us Feb 4th this year. Feel free to browse the full set of photos :-

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8497/8448819516_e3611ec28d_c.jpg

Burgi 2 by Ronnierob, on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8447729997_dc4fe3d87e_c.jpg

Burgi 9 by Ronnierob, on Flickr

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... According to the Fair Isle's weatherman the wind gusted to 45 knots yesterday.
That would be worrying as a gale that strength would reduce my craft to tinderwood in seconds.....

 

Hmmm. MuckleJoannie's info was not to say there had been a lot of wind, but rather to note that there had been a relatively blustery day during the summer. 45 knots is nowhere near the limit here. We've had over 150 knots (but the high readings have not been accepted as UK records due to the equipment not being found for post record verification).

 

 

.

 

Just to amplify the above Dave Wheeler noted the wind speed as it was the strongest it had been in recent weeks, but it was not considered anything out of the ordinary by the average Shetlander. The Shetland climate does not have extremes of heat and cold, or of rainfall. The almost constant wind is the most noteable feature.

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