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Affordable Liveaboard options as close to Philly as possible
My wife and I are from the UK and looking for affordable liveaboard marinas in reasonable distance to Philadelphia. Currently living in a rented tiny house in Philly and have 2 years until my wife finishes her PhD at Temple. After this we want get cruising. The simplest option would be to carry on as we are but we're both missing the water and the challenge of a design and building project (particularly me).
Want to find out marina options before going too deep into finding suitable boat but for size requirements we're looking around the 40ft+ Bluewater capable based upon previous experience, preference and future plans.
So, we've asked a few marinas in and around Philly and they either don't accept liveaboards, don't accept boats of 40ft+ or are in really noisy areas. We'd consider NJ, but obviously not ideal in terms of travelling distance. My wife doesn't need to be at her university every day so could be doable for the right place.
Would love to hear from anyone who may have any tips or info on decent spots that might be worth checking out and what we'd expect for pay a month/year. I'm also going to put up a post with another potential plan which would cater for our desire to take on a project boat if the liveaboard plan isn't doable. Not meant to be conflicting ideas - merely working out which plan works best for us.
I already responded to your other post. We used to live in center city. Not a lot of good options real near by. Others we knew who lived in the Marina’s near the Ben Franklin Bridge left due to shoaling, poor amenities, and being waked by commercial traffic. Philly is not a very yacht friendly town including no services.
Delaware City Marina is now not officially accepting live aboards. We did live aboard there part time and being in a little town was very nice. Perhaps if you took long term dockage and just happened to be there an awful lot and there was never any hassle things would work out to your advantage.
Summit North marina in the C&D Canal does offer live aboard. But there you need a car for everything. Very protected marina.
From either marina it’s a 15-20 minute drive to Wilmington where you can get a SEPT or Amtrak train to center city. SEPTA much cheaper and a little slower.
if you want to chat send me a PM and we can exchange email and phone numbers if appropriate.
I already responded to your other post. We used to live in center city. Not a lot of good options real near by. Others we knew who lived in the Marina's near the Ben Franklin Bridge left due to shoaling, poor amenities, and being waked by commercial traffic. Philly is not a very yacht friendly town including no services.
Delaware City Marina is now not officially accepting live aboards. We did live aboard there part time and being in a little town was very nice. Perhaps if you took long term dockage and just happened to be there an awful lot and there was never any hassle things would work out to your advantage.
Summit North marina in the C&D Canal does offer live aboard. But there you need a car for everything. Very protected marina.
From either marina it's a 15-20 minute drive to Wilmington where you can get a SEPT or Amtrak train to center city. SEPTA much cheaper and a little slower.
if you want to chat send me a PM and we can exchange email and phone numbers if appropriate.
Thanks for the info hpeer. Agreed about the Marinas in the city by the bridge; having been down there it's really really noisy and not particularly nice.
I'd initially mis-read your post thinking that Delaware City was still open to Liveaboards - failed to see the "not" - good to know, thanks. Will check out Summit North though, looks like an interesting proposition.
Thanks for offer to discuss further, I'll see if I can work out how to PM.
As far as northern snow climates go, Philly would be considered tame and shorter than states bordering Canada. However, it’s real winter for a while and they most certainly get some snow. I assume the OP has considered a sturdy cover, heat and most importantly, dehumidification. One might expect a marina that permits year round live aboards to have access to fresh water and pumpouts, in freezing temps. However, how they arrange for these is highly variable. Typically, the pumpout is on a schedule, so one needs to be sure they have enough capacity to span that time. Fresh water similarly, with some requiring residents to chain up there hoses to reach all the way back to a shoreside building. Then, of course, are varying accommodations for ice on the docks.
Had a buddy live aboard in Boston years ago. The marina required everyone to fashion a permanent hose to their deck pumpout fitting and run it to an accessible location, so they could easily go around and pump everyone out. At one point, his hose detached on deck, during the pumpout. You can use your imagination from there.
I’ve often thought I’d like the adventure of living aboard in a northeast winter. I suspect it will never happen. Certainly not twice.
Oh wait, now I see that if I click YOUR icon in a post I can send you a message.
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