RhiannonBryony

Wow, sunken bath- now I like the sound of that! That ticks a lot of boxes for us, will check it out if its still around when we both get time in the UK -Thank you. Listening to music for a living sounds like a great job If only I could find a way to chef from home! I am currently being an idle bugger on a much needed holiday.

Wow, thanks Mike, that is plenty to be going on with, I really appreciate your help. googling like crazy Thanks He is one of my heroes too, I know he would have been hugely supportive of our boaty plans. I need to re-read Voyage into England, havent read it in a whie.

I can imagine! We are both really excited about this plan, itching to get started. I have been looking at Liverpool boats in our price range, and there are not many at the moment, any tips on other builders worth checking out? How risky is it buying an older boat?

Thanks IanM, thats great.

Exactly As we will be cash buyers, and no need for finance, realistically how quickly would we be able to own a boat once we find 'the one'? Taking survey etc into account? We are planning to start a family in the next few years, are there many people cruising with baby's? Is this a terrible idea? My mother spent her early years living on a boat so I imagine its not completely crazy (although my grandparents were definitely considered unconventional- my grandfather wrote several books about travelling the canals- http://www.faber.co.uk/catalog/voyage-into-england/9780571294725) Obviously this would need some changes to our work- I can imagine it might be difficult for me to manage baby and boat if Stephan had to go on tour!

I guess that we will have to hope that as we will not be on board when the boat is in the marina, and when working away do not have any expenses (food and lodging and travel are all provided) and we wont be using any fuel- that this balances out. As long as we are within a train journey from an airport then we should be fine to steer clear of London- the appeal is countryside :when we are on board Thank you- it looks like we should be able to factor this into our budget.

Thank you! Really helpful to have some advice on this, there are so many options out there it has been difficult to narrow down. Eek that is pricey- does that price drop for weekly or monthly moorings?

Thank you, will look into this. Stephan is reasonably practical, he trained a plumber and has been driving trucks for 25 years, he is used to maintaining and fixing engines, so we are hoping that this is going to help us along the way. However the idea of solid simple electric and plumbing systems that we can fix ourselves is one we really like. Having lived on a sailing boat I am well aware of how often things go wrong with plumbing and electrics, so very keen to minimise this I dont bother with things like hair dryers and irons, but as a chef do like to use the occasional kitchen appliance- I have inherited my grandmothers antiquated but lovely food processor, which I would like to use as my only electrical extravagance.. Will keep an eye out for ex hire boats. Thanks!

Hi Athy, it is quite difficult to define a pattern, as it varies so much. I am self employed and although I can decide whether or not to take work when it is available, I cant always predict when it will be available (which makes it hard to turn it down, make hay etc) As an example, for at least the next five months Stephan is on tour in Europe, but will be home for up to two weeks at a time on four or five occasions during this tour- flying back to work when he is needed. I have two music tours lined up in the next three months, both in the UK, both moving city every few days. One is for 10 days and one is for three weeks. I may then join stephan on tour with the circus for a month or two later in the summer, cooking for clowns The work provides accommodation, whether tour bus, hotel room or Truck cab, which is how we have been able to live without a home base for so long- we have been pretty much constantly touring for the last couple of years, and while we both love the life, it is now time to make a home together and unpack our suitcases (although we cant quite bring ourselves to put down proper roots- hence the nomadic cruising plans ) Our aim is to eventually try and have a balance, where we spend as much time as possible on board, and tour when we need the cash. The ideal scenario is that we both work on the same tour for a block of time and save the money to be able to cruise for the rest of the year. It's more likely however that we have one to five weeks work every couple of months. This is probably no clearer, sorry!

Ah, just figured out the search function- scrap the solar question, I see this has been covered plenty- sorry!

Hello Mike, and thank you for the welcome. Letting the marinas know how long we need to leave the boat for should not be an issue, so this is sounding more like a feasible plan. I'm sure we are going to have hundreds of questions over the next few months, so thank you! I have been reading a lot about running costs on here, which seem to vary hugely. Obviously we would want to spend as much time on board as possible, which would mean less time on tour, which means less earnings- I get the feeling that this is something that we are going to have to work out as we go along, but any tips on a minimum monthly budget to aim for? We were looking at £1,000 a month for basics, whilst cruising- is this completely unrealistic? Also we would like to be as self sufficient as possible power wise, and good pointers re: solar? Thankyou! Rhiannon

Hi Richard, thank you, that sounds promising (and yes, many many hours have been collectively wasted in Apollo duck land over the last 12 months!).

Hello, I have just stumbled upon this forum, which is a fabulous wealth of information- really helpful, thank you all. My partner and I really want to live on the canals, and have been lusting over online ads for boats for the past year, whilst saving like crazy. We particularily want to cruise continuously, we are both nomads at heart and our work gives us the freedom to live wherever we want. I have always wanted to explore the UK by boat and although my canal experience is minimal I have lived aboard sailing boats in the past for long periods of time (for work- I am a freelance chef) and my OH has been a long distance lorry driver for most of his life (living in a cab for months at a time), and neither of us has had a base for the last five years- so a place of our own, without buying into the mortgage game, that we can move whenever we want, is extremely appealing to us. My worry is this- we both work in the entertainment touring industry, touring with musicians/circuses etc for blocks of time that can be from between a week to five weeks- sometimes we work together so there will be no one on board. Is it possible to rent short term moorings on an ad hoc basis for these periods of time if we plan our route carefully? We plan to spend some time on board before we take the plunge, so we are looking into hiring a boat in the next few months and looking into doing some courses that we have found. We plan to look at as many boats as possible in our time off- we are excited to get started as soon as possible to be honest, but having read the many tales of caution on this site we are going to try and be sensibly steady about this process We have a budget of around 25k to work with, are not 100 percent sure what size yet (hoping that spending some time nosing around will give us a better idea- but I expect we will be looking somewhere between the 50-60 foot range if we can within our budget) Any advice woud be amazing and hugely appreciated, thank you. Rhiannon and Stephan.