Mrs Mac

Hi all, We are progressing nicely with our plans to live aboard full time and have set a moving date of 31st May!!! eeeek!!!! We are renting a boat from a friend (many thanks to all on the forum who helped with my earlier posts about this process) and now have the problem of finding suitable mooring. We are on waiting lists at various marinas (Galgate, Garstang, Preston and Glasson), but there are no residential moorings available at present. As we both work full time we need a permanent residential (or Class 1) mooring where we can constantly be based from. The boat is currently at a lovely farm mooring near the Foulridge Tunnel and I wondered if there are any people out there with a mooring on the Lancaster that would be interested in a potential swap. The rent paid to the farmer is £450 a year, plus approx. £850 to CRT. Does anyone know of somebody wanting to do the opposite move to us? Are there any sites we can advertise on to help find a mooring on the Lancaster? We'll be living on a 57ft x 10ft barge so length of mooring needs to accommodate this. Any advice/suggestions greatly received!

THANK YOU!!!! All advice gratefully received and lots of thinking to do at this end. We love the concept of living afloat and the freedom it brings, but do not have the financial stability to pour money into a vessel. I need to do some more research on the costs of the large maintenance projects i.e. blacking, anodes, painting and work out if we can "save" up for it monthly. If the sums do not add up then we will just have to continue renting draughty old rental houses and holiday on the canals instead!!! Good points above about widebeams not accessing Midlands and Birmingham canals - as we live near Lancaster we'd have to go through the narrow canals at some point to get further south. Would anyone have any words of wisdom about this boat I've seen: http://www.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=268206 It doesn't mention BSC and it was last blacked in 2010. Does that imply it might need a lot of work in the next few years? Sadly not near enough to view as it's 230 miles from us!!!

Hello fellow Mac!!! Our surname is Maclean and I am often called Mrs Mac at home!!! My full user name is macleanmadness so maybe I should use that instead of shortened name!!! Nice to see a fellow Scot on here!!! We were in Aberdeen for many years before moving to Lancashire. Nae canals up north and loving the world of waterways down here in England!!! Just need to find a boat now!!!

Hello for the second time today and promise this is my final question today! If my husband and I can find an appropriate loan to buy a boat we are wondering what represents "best value for money"? I am not accountant or maths genius and struggling with the depreciation arithmetic! Is it better to buy an older boat and maintain it or a newer boat which requires less work, but will drop in value quicker??? I realise it will depend on the specification and details of each boat, but am looking for some rough ideas. Fore example, we have seen a delightful 1929 Dutch Barge for £60k and would this be better investment than a 2007 narrow boat for the same money? There is obviously more hull to maintain on a barge, but do the old boats stand the test of time? This would be a long term move onboard for us and we want to ensure we make the right decision. Any comments will be gratefully received. Emily

Thanks very much for your advice Martin - I didn't realise there were different licence and certificate requirements. Very useful to know!!! We have such a limited budget if we were to buy (circa. £25k) that I thought rental might be the way forward. Will certainly keep walking along the Lancaster and see if any boats are for sale! SO desperately want to live aboard!!!

Hello members, As this is my first post I hope you will be gentle with me!!! My husband and I want to make the move onto a narrowboat/widebeam/barge full time, but at the moment cannot financial justify the purchase cost. With the current economic climate and so many boats for sale we wondered about approaching owners/marinas about renting a vessel for 6months - 1 year while the market improves. I just wondered if anyone has any experience of rental agreements and if this is a common activity? We would obviously pay the mooring fees and boat licence for the duration of the agreement as well as monthly rent. We desperately want to live on the Lancaster Canal and it would be great to hear from anyone who has a boat or knows of anyone willing to consider this option. Many thanks, Emily