Description

MV Moritz is a pretty and very well maintained Groniger Tjalk, built in 1923, which has been thoughtfully and tastefully upgraded over the past 20 years to work equally well as a floating home or liveaboard cruiser. She has always been on the Thames, initially on a mooring in Weybridge, before i moved her to Central London where I lived on her for about 15 years. More recently I moved her upstream to an idyllic island mooring near Hampton where she has remained as my weekend retreat. A recent house purchase and growing family means I'm now reluctantly selling.

The island has a mix of leisure and residential boat owners, and it is very friendly and relaxed. There is a boat yard with slipway so repairs out of the water can done locally, in addition to a number of workshops offering other services such as carpentry, fabrication etc. A diesel boat regularly visits the island, and the very well stocked chandlery at Shepperton marina is a quick trip upstream. There island has a CCTV monitored private carpark, and good transport links into London. The mooring is currently a leisure mooring at a cost of approximately £500 per month which gives almost unrestricted use of the boat (there are no absolute restrictions on number of days / overnight stays etc), but it can be upgraded to a full time liveaboard for a small additional premium. The mooring is transferable to the new owners by arrangement with the mooring owners.

Entrance is via the beautiful teak wheelhouse recently fitted with reclaimed American walnut solid wood flooring. Benches to rear provide ample seating and have very useful storage compartments underneath. Stairs lead to an open plan galley and saloon area. Two large teak skylights and 11 side windows provide lots of natural light and ventilation. The open plan galley / saloon was at some point partitioned into a further 2 berths, and this area provides scope for the new owner re-partition to their requirements if they wish, or leave it open plan as it is currently.

The kitchen is newly fitted, and was custom built from birch and melamine faced birch ply with solid birch cabinets, with a reclaimed iroko worktop. There is a General Ecology Seagull water purifier and mixer tap, and plenty of power outlets. Oven, hob and fridge were newly fitted, and all gas appliances have flame failure protection.

The master cabin is to the front of the saloon with a teak framed kingsize bed, wardrobe and walk in wardrobe and plenty of under bed space for additional storage.

The bathroom is off the saloon, which has recently been part renovated with a new sink and vanity unit, which was also bespoke made from birch ply and furniture linoleum. There is a tiled shower cubicle with mira mixer and adjustable high pressure shower head.

Throughout the galley and saloon is teak engineered flooring over marine ply, and the ceiling is finished in walnut veneer ply.

The engine room houses a beautiful vintage bolinder engine which powers Moritz quite comfortably up and down the tidal and non tidal thames, and has taken her across the channel on more than one occasion. She handles very well, and it only took me half a day of training to get the hang of sailing. I'm happy to give the new owners some time out on the water to get a feel for her.

The WC is currently installed in the engine room, which is an arrangement that has worked well for me, but the next owner may wish to relocate back to the original WC compartment next to the shower room. A washing machine is housed to the rear of the engine room, and there is space for a full size tumble drier. A generator is also installed, which is currently decommissioned, and would provide additional useful space if removed.

A very high specification Victron Multi 24/3000/70 inverter switches through mains power from the shore, or provides up to 3kw of power from batteries / solar / engine whilst cruising. Whilst on supply, a power assist function can supplement shore power, which means you don’t have to worry about whether you can turn the toaster on whist boiling a kettle whist on a 16 amp hookup (as she currently is). A very high specification Rolls battery bank provides 10kwh of battery power, and as the vessel has been on shore supply for 99% of the time since installation, have seen very light cycling and should provide many years of service. A 6kw Victron isolation transformer is fitted for safety and to protect against galvanic corrosion.

She currently has 600w of solar, which typically provides a useful 2kwh of power per day in the summer months, but could easily be increased with extra panels and an upgraded solar controller. She is a lovely warm boat, very well insulated thoughout and with plenty of power from the boiler and a morso squirrel in the lounge which are on the same heating circuit, but both can work independently. The engine cooling system can also divert through the radiator / calorifier circuit to provide additional heating and hot water whilst cruising

To the bow, there is a large hold and chain locker which could be converted to living spaces, or retained as storage / workshop space as they are currently. The hold houses a very large water tank (approx. 2000L) and gas locker (2x13kg propane). I did contemplate relocating the water tank and converting this hold into living quarters, and I’m happy to discuss my ideas for this to any prospective buyer.

The hull was overplated around 2005 by MSO marine, and found to be in excellent condition during her subsequent surveys in 2014 and 2023. In 2014 she was stripped back to bare metal using UHP and the bitumen coatings replaced with a Hempel epoxy system. The hull was attended to again in 2023 with some localised welding required around the rudder, and anodes replaced where required as well a fresh paint job. A full history file with photographic is available on request. Her boat safety certification was done in at the same time, so still has a few years to run.

There is lots of mid century furniture (Gplan table and chairs, Heals sofa, bo concept lounge chair, Lombok teak bed) which can be part of the sale for a negotiated price.

Please note, main picture was taken whilst on a visitors mooring, and is not the current location. All other photographs were taken in her present location.

Specifications

Location Map