Updated Nov 2022
Severn Estuary at Dusk (Frampton)
Well its time for a different page! Times they are a changing.
Travelling Doubts 2019
Were not planning the Waterways trip this year, or the next two, either, that we thought we would. Due mainly due to covid restrictions, quarantine etc. There is no way in Hell we want to get involved with all that. but as soon as we think that its OK, we will start some UK exploring. in Trusty, our Camper. So we will wait for this to blow over although I doubt well get back to anything near normal for a couple of years..or more. No travel in the Shenzhen zone for more than 90 days in 180 ) Which is a pain for us.
(Update 2022) Most of Europe has now dropped proof of covid jabs, but at the moment we are still not venturing there. and concentrating our time on the Narrow Boat and Trusty, and exploring The UK.
So in this next section, I have writtensome tips on buying and refurbishing a narrow boat, or at least ours.
So A Bit About Boating Pros, Cons, Tips, Etc
What type of boat should I buy? and a bit on Narrow Boating after owning 3 different ones over many years
The answers to this are many and varied. First of all it will very much depend on what you want to achieve. For instance, do you want to live-aboard permanently or just keep her as a day boat. Your budget and where you want to go.
Low end or high end. We went for a low end boat to fit our needs. size does matter, but we found that a smaller older boat would suffice. and as it has turned out, it has very well. Bigger boat. more cost. much bigger boat? much bigger costs. Licence fees. blacking, dry docking, mooring fees. all are calculated on length. Now CRT has brought in charges for width as well, mainly for wide beams, but fibre glass cruisers and some steel boats qualify for this rip off, as well. I can see the need on Narrow canals, but most of these type of craft wont go on them, But?? the Gloucester and Sharpness?? built for ships this one, so a wide beam is small. A 57 foot narrow boat is the ideal length for a boat according to most, especially if you want to cruise all the canals. Anything bigger will not do all the waterways. 55 foot is probably the best all rounder for cruising the system. It is all very much a matter of suitability and budget.
There is not much space in a narrow boat (the name gives that away) It does not matter how well you choose on this account, there never will be. Trying to cram the half the contents of even a bed-sit would give problems. Not including furniture either, and is nigh on impossible. None of your house furniture will really fit, and if it did. on most boats, you wont get most of it through the doors. so when your viewing boats, keep this in mind.
The layout of the boat is important in many ways, suitable amount of cupboard space, wardrobe space, the bigger the better if you have a Lady living with you. We find our open plan combined with our heating package, is ideal, and of course the length of the boat also factors in, a 70 footer has much more space, but is much more costly and difficult to heat than a 35 footer. Is the kitchen big enough ? does the shower suit your needs. Headroom throughout the boat, no good if you have to stoop in it, because then it becomes a low top van on water. Voyager our boat, has a 5 foot nine-ish headroom. which is ideal for us, as were under 5.7 but would not suit a 6 footer or more.
Internal layout has a big effect on the warmth of the boat and how easy it is to keep all the parts warm. Open plan is better than bulkheads every where. It allows the air to free flow around the boat. Bulk heads can make the bow warm and the stern cold, or vice versa.
Heating systems. We took out our Multi-fuel stove, infact it was never fitted correctly by the previous owner. As most of the time our boat is on the Marina, we opted for Diesel Blow air heating, run on heating oil (kerosene) and infra red electric panels (2) Although, one is more than sufficient normally. for our boat. The diesel air heater is Brill. Although this suits us. I would advise a solid fuel stove if you are going to continuous cruise in winter as a back up. if your stuck in the middle of no where iced in. could be a life saver.
Some of the costs
Living aboard is not expensive or at least isn’t if you don’t make it so, but of course its no longer as cheap as was when I first started boating 35 years ago. The Boat license for instance, used to be for a 55 foot boat, was around 350 quid. now over 3.5 times that. A big difference there alone. I know things have to go up, but it gives you an idea of just how much boating and boating costs have increased. Back in the Days. Insurance was not compulsory, and the boat safety certificate was none existent. Although its a pain, Im all for it, there were some pretty dangerous boats about before it. People died.
Live aboard boating, is still way cheaper than living in a house or flat. Living afloat has is advantages and disadvantages. But for us, its the way to go at the present time, its possible in the future, we may decide not to do it anymore. That is the way of the nomadic life we lead now.
Our Insurance is £65 a year, Third party, and a word of advice here.. Most boats as old as ours, 42 years require a full hull survey every time you insure with some companies, and every three years with others. As does anything over 20 years old. Very very expensive. and not practical at all. and as boats don’t often sink or catch fire, its not necessary in our case, also its an individual choice. Pretty essential when buying the boat, as you need to know the ins and outs of the hull state, before parting with your hard earned dosh, but otherwise a waste of our money. Also our boat was out of water when we bought her, and I know what im doing. I have the meters and tools plus know how, not everybody is this fortunate and its pretty essential to get a good hull, everthing else is just paint and paper if your refurbing, so to speak.
Note: We would not like to loose the boat, but it would not break the bank if we did. Hence budget boat. With surveys costing upward of 500/800 quid, you can see why we wont do it. But if your boat owes you Tens of thousands, we understand why its better fully comp. The Boat safety certificate is now around £200 depending who does it, but lasts 4 years, works out annually, around the same price as your car mot
Insurance link.
For insurance, we use this one. Insure4boats. and find it adequate, (note we don’t get any money for recommendations on this site.) Its just our opinions, although if the company reads this and gives us 50% off, we wouldn’t scream.. Cant see that happening ! can you ?
Although on the negative side, some of the costs have increase five fold in 35 years as everything does. But Boat living has an up side. Our license fees for our 35 foot boat plus the marina fees, set us back around £70 a week. Kerosene around £5 a week. Winter. Electric coupled with our solar panels, costs around £3/6 a week, and in the summer , electric costs go to around £2/3 a week. Cooking on gas, (propane) 19 kg bottle lasts a year, and I fill them myself from the auto gas stations for around £24. 19KG. So around £80 a week all in. ( at this time, Nov 2022) Only things left to buy is food and beer, and wine in a certain persons case.
No water rates. no council tax. no meter charges, no brown letters demanding money with menaces Whats not to like ?? Its still so much better for our pockets than houses or flats. and so much easier on our health and mind.Standing charges on your meters at home are 14% of our typical energy costs. around 500/ 1200 quid a year on all 3 depending what company, and who your supplier is, , and thats before you use any power, gas or water. It can be higher or lower depending where you live, and who your suppliers are. These charges saved, pay our boat license and Insurance and with £400 plus change, on the more expensive companies, and remember these charges are just for having a meter/s in your home and are incured even if you never swiched anything on or were never there. So goodbuy another rip off.
The Marina, has good clean hot showers, spotless toilets, 25 meters from the boat..no need to use ours. and the total upside is Beautiful surroundings, close to Nature, with walks and scenery to die for, peace and quiet, If you Dont like the neighbours ?? Move !! Turn of a key!! new neighbours, or none at all.
Our boat engine runs on red diesel which is currently for heating purposes, around 1.08 pence a litre (april 23) White Diesel is the only fuel legally allowed for your diesel engine and for continuous cruisers, that means a 35% increase in engine fuel costs. and a small fortune if going over to electric, thats another story.
That wont really affect us much, as we are not planning now, to do much, if any cruising very soon, and if we do we will absorb the increase. Again on the plus side our boat engine is a single cylinder 10 Horse power Vintage engine which is an absolute miser on fuel .and will go twice as far as most conventional four cylinder diesels which are mostly fitted to new boats these days. It was a great favourite years ago with the lifeboats. Like Trusty, our camper, its old tech and easy to fix, so easy in fact. it all comes apart without lifting the engine out of the boat. Red diesel will still be sold for heating the boat though.We prefer Kerosene. Much cheaper, more heat and cleaner
You will definitely need some basic skills to do most or all of this,as well as enough money to maintain the life, Road transport can be a hard thing if you are continuous cruising. Parking a car while continuous Cruising and jumping it along as you go is both impractical, and almost impossible, most times. Downright iffy in some areas, break ins are not common . But no fun coming back to your wheels and finding them broken into, or worse. Not there! Most continiuse crusers dont own one, or park it up at a friends/relative ect.
Factor into it, the cost of moorings if you want or need one..and fuel, maintenance, Dry docking, painting, blacking, insurance, license, Boat safety, Breakdowns, and much more, this all mounts up. Not a problem for some with big bank accounts. but this is not about them. its about the every day budget boaters. Not a problem if you are on a Marina mooring. Most Marinas have good security, and most of all, boaters have respect other peoples property.
You wont be able to do continuous cruising with a normal job. unless you work from a PC. or have a trust fund, or in my case and many others, a Pension. The cruising rules require you to move every 14 days. and no return to same spot . until you have covered 20 miles one way (not in one go) you cant go backwards in theory, until you achieve this, although many do. Another weird, not thought out rule the CRT have recently introduced Cycles are the norm..and a good way to get about, and good for the exercise. Although after you have negotiated/navigated 10 locks in a day, you might not have the energy to ride miles for grocery.So we have a small motorbike as well, which we carry on board when and if we do this..and not strictly legal to use on a towpath. but plenty of places you can moor and get more or less onto a road. The big super markets will deliver to a postal address, so just use a pub car park or similar and their post code and wait for it to come.
I can see the need of it for some..but the Gloucester Sharpness canal is only 18 miles long, with a sea lock at one end and River lock at the other. The latter can only be used mainly in summer.or extremely low tides. and river levels, the sea lock for obvious reasons, is a no go for narrow boats. So 20 miles here is not really possible. or safe in the winter. Anybody who has seen how quick the river rises in bad weather will know what I mean. Take heed !! stay off rivers in wet weather.
Living aboard is great for us, but can be a problem, depending where you are moored. it can be done with a permanent residential mooring. but these are like hens teeth and expensive. and to be honest, the only reason to get one, (if you can) is to be cheaper than the house you lived in, and of course the freedom and surroundings. They also come with council tax, and as normally the owners of the moorings, pay for the lights/bins etc, and is inclusive with your mooring. Its another council ripp off.
Most Marinas normally have time limits on how many days you can stay on your boat in a year, again depends on their planning permission. Some turn a blind eye to living on your boat more permanently, , or overstaying, others don’t, but its not your right to do it. Local city councils cant really police it, but busy bodies are always too willing to complain. Local Parish Councils are the worst for this, but they are not alone. Plenty of busy bodies every where.Boating and Continuous Cruising, is great in the summer. Its Beautiful and very rewarding. (The Rosie and Jim effect) But winter brings a whole new set of challenges.With Ice snow, Rain, we all get that.!! but its totally different with a narrow boat. Some towpaths become almost impassable, with mud, snow ice, not good when your trying to lug a toilet cassette or a bag of coal to your boat. Iced up canals, well again a pain if you cant boat to a water or sanitation point. Heating or mechanical failure. Finding shops, Fuel and many other things you take for granted
Then the added Pleasures and woes of navigating, along the cut, in Winter, with strong winds and rain sleet and often mist or fog, makes it very interesting. Standing out in the weather , without a pram cover on a cruiser stern, (we have one) Frozen and wet, Great fun. However its a thing every boater at some point does, its all about boating after all ? Once in High summer on the K&A canal I ran into a swarm of biting horse fly’s. lasted for 3 miles. some freak weather situation made it ideal for them.. spent an hour and a half swinging a towel around my head,, like a windmill while steering the boat to get through them, Loads of other boaters got bitten to buggery, me? not a bite.
So all this brings the Rosie and Jim concept into Question. Doesn’t it ??? Not many TV series delve into the neg side. Its a great life, but I feel people need to know more about the pitfalls as well.Of course if all you need the boat for is summer, thats great but you will encounter wall to wall hire boats on a lot of canals. especially on the narrow canals, the K&A etc. Normally piloted and crewed by Idiots who don’t care about the boat, because they don’t own it..There are some good ones, but more than 70% are daft. They get an hours tuition before being set loose to bang into your boat. and laugh about it. Multi Males on a beer boat, the worst offenders. well that’s another story. Finally if you can accept some or all of this, I still recommend it to you. The marina way is the best option for us this year, but next ?? who knows??
I can see the need of it for some..but the Gloucester Sharpness canal is only 18 miles long, with a sea lock at one end and River lock at the other. The latter can only be used mainly in summer.or extremely low tides. and river levels, the sea lock for obvious reasons, is a no go for narrow boats. So 20 miles here is not really possible. or safe in the winter. Anybody who has seen how quick the river rises in bad weather will know what I mean. Take heed !! stay off rivers in wet weather. Most Marinas normally have time limits on how many days you can stay on your boat in a year, again depends on their planning permission. Some turn a blind eye to living on your boat more permanently, , or overstaying, others don’t, but its not your right to do it. Local city councils cant really police it, but busy bodies are always too willing to complain. Local Parish Councils are the worst for this, but they are not alone. Plenty of busy bodies every where. Boating and Continuous Cruising, is great in the summer. Its Beautiful and very rewarding. (The Rosie and Jim effect) But winter brings a whole new set of challenges. With Ice snow, Rain, we all get that.!! but its totally different with a narrow boat. Some towpaths become almost impassable, with mud, snow ice, not good when your trying to lug a toilet cassette or a bag of coal to your boat. Iced up canals, well again a pain if you cant boat to a water or sanitation point. Heating or mechanical failure. Finding shops, Fuel and many other things you take for granted. Then the added Pleasures and woes of navigating, along the cut, in Winter, with strong winds and rain sleet and often mist or fog, makes it very interesting. Standing out in the weather , without a pram cover on a cruiser stern, (we have one) Frozen and wet, Great fun. However its a thing every boater at some point does, its all about boating after all ? Once in High summer on the K&A canal I ran into a swarm of biting horse fly’s. lasted for 3 miles. some freak weather situation made it ideal for them.. spent an hour and a half swinging a towel around my head,, like a windmill while steering the boat to get through them, Loads of other boaters got bitten to buggery, me? not a bite. So all this brings the Rosie and Jim concept into Question. Doesn’t it ??? Not many TV series delve into the neg side. Its a great life, but I feel people need to know more about the pitfalls as well. Of course if all you need the boat for is summer, thats great but you will encounter wall to wall hire boats on a lot of canals. especially on the narrow canals, the K&A etc. Normally piloted and crewed by Idiots who don’t care about the boat, because they don’t own it..There are some good ones, but more than 70% are daft. They get an hours tuition before being set loose to bang into your boat. and laugh about it. Multi Males on a beer boat, the worst offenders. well that’s another story. Finally if you can accept some or all of this, I still recommend it to you. The marina way is the best option for us this year, but next ?? who knows?? For those who might be contemplating refurbishing a boat, this link will take you to our voyager rebuild Hope it may give you some ideas on how or how not to do it. The one underneath that, The Narrow Boat Lynton Dreams. Will take you to another boat I rebuilt in a land and time far far away, and definatley when I had more money The New Venture. The Narrow Boat. The Narrow boat Lynton Dreams The Narrow Boat Lynton Dreams. Blast From The Past* 
ICED OVER Winter 2021
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