Marie-Claude Tremblay

Hi everyone! I was away for the week-end but now that I am back, I have read all of your replies. @Bewildered: hiring a boat would be great. If only I could go to England right away to do a search and meet boaters on the spot! Not sure I'll be able to do it for work, but this is something I am considering for a personal trip to England, at least trying a hotel boat if I am too nervous to steer it. @Peter-Bullfinch: thank you for sharing and for the picture as well! @Ray T: I did watch a few videos from the vlog Cruising the Cut. It was helpful! @NB Lola: thank you for the summary of your day! @David Mack, @Mike de Boilerman : a hotel boat sounds nice and probably more affordable for my wallet. I will definitely look that up for my next stay in England (I am planning to go back sometime next year). I will continue to work on my script this week. Thank you again for your help!

OK, thanks! I was not sure. The first time piloting a narrow boat must be a bit scary, especially if there is a lot of boats around. I would not want to break anything. Do you need a permit to take command?

Thank you Jim Batty! I am learning indeed! :-) Your input is interesting too. And Bewildered, I would love to book a hire boat when I visit the UK again. However, I doubt I have the budget for this! A hire boat means that someone else (the operator) is "piloting" it? Again, thank you everybody for your swift and detailed replies! And have a great week-end on your canal boats!

What a nice surprise to find these replies this morning in Quebec! Thank you so much Bewildered for your detailed explanation. I really appreciate it. And I do realize my inquiry was too general. I have a lot of things to learn about boaters and canal boats. Thank you also magictime, Mike the Boilerman and everyone. All of this is really helpful, just to know what the basic tasks are about, etc. I have a lot to work with! One thing for sure, next time I am in the UK, I will seek the canals to observe narrowboats for sure! I went to London and Bath 10 years ago (already) and was not aware of this way of life. It sounds like a lot of work but like a lot of fun and freedom as well. Many thanks! :-)

Hello everyone, Thank you for your replies! This is enlightening. I am a non boater indeed plus I live in Quebec where canals and waterways such as the ones you have in the UK are not common at all. I thus have zero knowledge when it comes to the types of boaters! But your answers and what I have read so far helped me begin to understand what it is like. I still have a lot to learn but I think it is fascinating. And should we go ahead with a filming in the UK (which would be lovely!) I would keep that in mind for sure (the fact that there is no typical day in the life of a boater, as there are no typical boaters) for an official pre-interview with a boater. I probably should have been more specific from the beginning that what I had in mind was a person who lives on a canal boat year round or almost. The writing of my script is going well so far. Many thanks again (especially to Tony).

Hi! My name is Marie-Claude Tremblay and I am a researcher for Groupe PVP (www.pvp.ca/en), a TV producer in Quebec, Canada. We are currently developing a documentary TV series about various kinds of boats linked to the way people live and use them in different countries. It is a co-production with France. I would like to have a better understanding of the day to day life on a canal boat, in order to break it down in a script for our TV series. I have read quite a lot of article about the topic and watched a few videos online as well but I thought I might find helpful answers on a form such as Canal World. So here I am! How would you describe a typical day (let's say in winter and in summer) on board a canal boat? What do you have to do when you get up in the morning (in relation to the boat) and before you go to sleep? What kind of maintenance does one have to do? What are the most common problems one can face on a canal boat? What are the challenges (positive and negative) of living on a canal boat every day? If you have any stories or experiences to share, I am interested! Thank you! Marie-Claude Researcher mc.tremblay@pvp.ca