Real costs of living on a narrow boat

JennyP

jacko74 wrote: »

Someone once said if you want to experience what it's like to own and live on a boat just sit fully clothed in a bath of cold water ripping up £20 notes.

I'll give that a try! Anyone fancy joining me? I'll provide the water, you provide the £20 notes!!! :rotfl:

JennyP

nine9feet wrote: »

This is almost one of those "how long is a piece of string?" questions!

I'd like to work out the length of the piece of string before I plunge in!!!

nine9feet wrote: »

Lots of costs are based on boat length. If your boat is, for example 50ft (~17m) you will generally pay less than I do for my 58ft. Examples of these kind of costs are blacking, mooring and licencing which are usually priced per foot.

I know my mooring costs based on a 58 foot boat which is the favourite one of the ones I've seen so far! It's all perfectly legit re living there. I'm not up for doing the "turning a blind eye" option. That would make me nervous!!!

nine9feet wrote: »

For licence costs refer to Canal And River Trust (CRT).

Will check that out.
[/QUOTE]

nine9feet wrote: »

I could go on but I am sure everyone is already bored so I will just suggest that you join two forums : Canalworld Discussion Forum (CWDF) (suggest you read and use search before posting anything here!!) ; also the livingonanarrowboat forum which was set up by Paul Smith who has put together comprehensive info on costs - some is free and some he sells. This forum is much softer than CWDF.

No, please go on! Anyone who's bored and look at a different thread! Or watch telly!

I've already joined livingonanarrowboat and was wondering about buying the package from Paul Smith. I just wondered was it really worth it? Sometimes you pay for information in ebooks online only to find you've bought a load of information that was freely available anyway.

Please tell me a bit about the other costs. This isn't just about cost for me - I think the lifestyle would suit me and I really love boats - but cost is a big factor. I seem to read loads of people saying how it's actually really expensive to live on a boat and doesn't save much compared with living on land. However, I met a load of people earlier this year on a marina in Essex who were living really cheaply on boats, some of which were like floating luxury flats! They were half an hour from central London and living in a flat like that so close to the city would have been unaffordable.

There was also a couple who were continuously cruising who were living on a ridiculously low income quite happily! So when I see these stories about it not being as cheap as you think, I'm puzzled! That's the opposite of what I've heard!

P.S. Sorry, could not get links to work so taken out

John
NB Samsara[/QUOTE]

nine9feet

The cost of living on a boat works the same as living in a house. You can live frugally like camping at one end of the scale or live on a luxurious widebeam with all mod cons. It's a question of lifestyle and what you can/want to afford.
There are also significant cost differences between living in a marina and continuously cruising - I do the latter.
Simple examples. I shower every day so I need to heat water in quantity. That costs money, although I normally get it "free" as a by product of travelling because the engine heats my hot water cylinder. If plugged in to electricity supply in a marina obviously you will have to pay the electricity cost but you can then use an immersion heater. My boat has both those options plus I have a Webasto diesel heater which as well as heating the water supplies the central heating.
The other heating option I have is a multi fuel stove. I burn smokeless coal at about £12 a 25kg bag which lasts 3 days. My stove is burning continuously from around mid October to May. Last 12 months I bought 50 bags. Some people burn wood instead and some of those forage for wood so pay nothing for their fuel. There is a downside to that approach, however.
Another considerstion is use of gas. Some boats have a water heater that burns gas. They get through a bottle every few weeks. Some boats have their central heating gas fired. They probably get through a bottle a week! I am talking about the standard 13kg size here. Expected current price for 13kg gas is £27.25. I bought two over the last year.

I hope by now you are seeing the difficulty for anyone else to tell you what costs will be. To get meaningful figures you need to describe your boat, it's facilities and your expected lifestyle, plus what maintenance you will do yourself and which you expect to pay for.

I can only give you my numbers. They relate to me, my boat and how I use it. Having said all that there is good info on the livingonanarrowboat forum as I hope you are finding. I am user nine9feet on there and same user name on CanalWorld forum.

John
NB Samsara
At Anderton Lift waiting to go up!

BigAunty

Continuous cruising sounds a tough and transient way to live unless you happen to be able to earn a good living working from the boat. Can you work remotely?

I can't comment on costs but my liveaboard friends were iced in for weeks one winter.

Generally properties appreciate over time but that's unlikely to be the case with boats,is it? In 20 years time, a 100k flat might be worth 150k but what will a 100k boat be worth?

JennyP

Thank you.
Yes, I realise it would depreciate. I was told about £1K per year on the £40K boat I've been looking at. So I did think I could try it for a year and see how much it worked out at and whether or not I liked it.
Those heating costs are much, much more than I thought they'd be!

Linton

We have a 57ft narrowboat cruising about 5 months a year. Total cost including mooring, fuel, heating, maintenance, blacking etc etc is around £5500/year. But being a fair-weather sailor I am warm and cosy in our house during the winter. When it is cold we also use a multifuel stove. I would agree with nine9feet's figure of 2-3 bags a week.

Its a great life moving in good weather, but if I was stuck in a 57 foot corridor in a bleak marina for 3 cold and wet winter months I would start twitching.

JennyP

Linton wrote: »

We have a 57ft narrowboat cruising about 5 months a year. Total cost including mooring, fuel, heating, maintenance, blacking etc etc is around £5500/year. .

That's really helpful, thank you.

Could I please be really nosy and ask how much of that £5500 is mooring?

Linton

JennyP wrote: »

That's really helpful, thank you.

Could I please be really nosy and ask how much of that £5500 is mooring?

£2400, normal for over 100 miles from London. Prices can be much higher in the London area.

JennyP

So about £3100 a year for everything else?
So if I reckoned on another £300 per month on top of mooring fees, that'd be about right?
That IS more expensive than I had thought so it's really useful to know.

ampersand

L. is moored not far off and installed a woodburner, does not pay for fuel. Loads of wood, scrap about here. He lives with partner, so costs are not solo.

However, along river bank, security can be iffy compounded by adjacent landowner trying to 'dissuade' moorers, hoping to sell land for building with proximity to water.

This may not be your case now, but more pre-election year sweeteners. esp. with Fat Controller Pickles about the place.......who knows?

We ran a boatyard too, so I've known both sides - inc.a year's small boat living in France, during mature Uni.
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It's splendid that nine9feet has posted after >7 years on board MSE and the even keeled Samsara....great reading, thankyou from me.
Hope you're up and through Anderton by now.
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JennyP - one thing for solo woman/sailor to consider is fresh water refill. I'd go to the Capitainerie weekly, drift in gently alongside, do some nifty foot and rope work to tie up for'ard first[always:-), n.b. one hand for yourself, one for the boat, but you know this old one, I'm sure], then fill[double skin steel hull] -took a good hour. Job done for another week, such a good, good feeling. One also learns to avail self of land facilities where poss. Think water economy and whether there'll be someone on hand to take ropes etc, if you are unsure or rain lashing/gale howling, stern swinging. Linton's corrective is not gloomy, just wise, but I'd never want a serried ranks 'marina' as such. Don't think you do either.

Would you have a 4-foot friend aboard? Woof or miaow? Also, are you looking at a complete life/income change? Would you keep a small car/ bicycle? Look forward to reading all input and your own progress.
I've contributed nothing re: costs: your actual ?, but remembered own experience over many years.

Very best wishes, subscribed:-)