Living on a canal barge

jillski_2

Thinking of selling house and living on the canal on a barge. Anyone out there doing this? Any tips/advice much appreciated as know very little. Have seen a boat that might be suitable and am about to get house valued. Would be able to buy boat outright - no mortgage any more - very tempting.

moonrakerz

I lived on a narrow boat "during the week" for nearly five years, it was just fine for one person.

When you say a "barge", what do you mean ? There are two basic types of canal boat:- the narrow boat (7 ft wide) and the Dutch barge (14 ft wide), the narrow boat can go almost anywhere on the canal network, a Dutch is limited to canals with 14 ft locks, but is of course much more spacious inside..

If you are going to live afloat you have to be VERY tidy and organised for a start, if that is not you - forget it.
If you buy a boat, are you going to be based in one place or constantly on the move ? If you plan on being based in one place DO NOT buy a boat before you have mooring for it - if you don't have a mooring you cannot stay in one place for more that 14 days. "Residential" moorings are particularly scarce.

Modern boats come with all modern facilities, mains power, hot and cold running water, washing machines, dish washers, central heating, etc etc. But these have drawbacks, you have to keep filling the tanks with water. You have to generate the electricity on board; if you can get the power from a shore connection you may well be limited in the amount of power you can draw, 6 Amps is a common figure. You will need insurance, a licence from the Waterways Board. It is not as cheap as it might first appear.

A modern boat can cost up to £100,000, a mooring can cost hundreds of pounds a month there's fuel to buy (there are rumours that nice Mr Brown is going to stop boat owners using cheap "red" diesel. Every so often the boat will have to be lifted out of the water for maintenance.

Having said all that - I hope I haven't put you off - it is great living on a boat, but please do your homework first, it could be a very expensive mistake. Read the boating mags, go and look at some boats (without your cheque book !), talk to boat owners, especially those who actually live on them.

jillski_2

Thanks for your reply. We are looking at wide beam boats as like the extra space. I'm doing as much research as I can on-line but will be visiting a couple of marinas soon.
The main thing I'm worried about is how much a boat would depreciate? We are looking at a newly built in a couple of weeks - cost about £89,000 and also like the look of a second hand one at £96,000.