loan for a liveaboard boat

nzmegs

we are planning on buying a boat to liveaboard. We need around £40,000 to buy the boat which will need some work done to it before we move aboard. We currently live in our own home which has around £20,000 in equity.

We need somewhere to live while the work is done to the boat and so don't want to sell the house until the boat is finished. When the house is sold the equity is more likely to go towards paying some other debts.

After we move aboard we will have only the loan for the boat to pay (about half our current mortgage) and will be in a good financial situation. But what sort of loan should we attempt to get?

Would we be in a better postion to sell our home pay our debts and then apply, or keep our home as being homeowners makes us look better. We could not have a secured loan as we would be selling the house.

We know there are marine mortgages out there but we are concerned about if they will lend considering we have already got a mortgage and it will seem we are overburdening ourselves until such time as our house sells.

other issues are that my husband is self employed. We otherwise have a good credit rating - a few credit cards but no missed payments.

We have had this dream for a long time and are committed to it - it is not simply a way of living a cheaper life.

Anyone else done a similar thing?