Lady Muck

I think people like sites that have a proper app for their phone, Facebook might be popular now but the yoot are using Snapchat. I know that when people started using Facebook in numbers, that some forums had their membership and page viewings go down. Now its established, that's changed a bit. I don't like the single thread format on Facebook, all the info gets buried and is hard to access. In fast moving groups it can be a problem as requests for help drop off the page and are missed. And as has been pointed out, Facebook is full of scams and fake accounts, you have to be careful.

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The thing with this is, people don't generally think, 'oh I can't afford a flat, I'll get a boat.' I've barely met anyone like that, infact probably no one. Boats still attract the same sort of people they always did. Recently locked horns with a journo on Twitter who wrote a really nasty piece about people 'having to bring up kids on boats with no hot water' Doesn't seem to understand or comprehend that people are living this way as a choice, they are not being forced. Yes I think the housing market makes people think differently, but I don't think anyone does it because they have no other choice. Its a decision. There is a global trend for downshifting, having less, experiential purchases over status symbols, this is why it's getting popular. People don't want to spend their lives working like slaves just for the sake of buying a house. They'd rather get something modest and have a life full of experiences, maybe be freelance (like we are). In London that means people might choose canal boats, in the USA you've got the tiny house movement. http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/ There are probably a lot more people living like that in the USA but in our overcrowded city and small space that is the canal it probably looks like a lot more of the population than it actually is - just 5000 people out of 8.7 million.

Theres a massive luxemotor and a ginormous Tjalk double moored almost opposite my neighbours humongous Tjalk, right now. Ok the Lea and Stort are barge canals, so we can do widebeams pretty well, but they didn't really need to double moor. Widebeam boats don't bother me, don't want one, despite having one of the rare London moorings that would fit one, but I wouldn't fancy my chances trying to shuffle one around what CRT calls the central area. I do wonder when I see newbies heading down from Watford if they've actually thought this through. We can't all live onboard in Angel all at once, infact most of us will never get a chance to have a go! People buy them because they don't feel they can live on a narrowboat. If you're not interested in cruising the narrow canals then it's understandable. That's the main reason I hear. my neighbour bought a little dutch barge and her reason was, 'I want to be able to have house furniture.' Fair enough. But then from living in London I know that people also want to get Dutch barge type boats that will go on the tideway and beyond, up the Medway, even coastal. Because it's not that difficult to do that from here. My friend bought a barge two years ago, he went across the channel last month and he's spending the summer in France, as is another friend. My neighbour with the Tjalk declared he's never going through town ever again after a disastrous trip to drydock where he broke his prop. It's not so much the overcrowding, it's the lack of dredging. I think the marina at Roydon now has no space for any more widebeams, but someone just created some new private moorings at Rye house but I've not been up there yet this year. Been stuck on mooring trying to paint <shakes fist at clouds> But I don't know what the future brings, its beginning to be double moored around here (when it never was before). Numbers are still going up.

Without the endless bottomless pit of maintenance spend, yes. My last drydocking came to about £4k in total once I'd added everything up.

Thing is, people seem to be only ordering the widebeams, thats why he commented and that's what he sees at his yard. So we will see them back down here if they want to stay out of enforcement then?

Try Roydon marina, they usually have spaces for narrowboats and sometimes for widebeams, plus there are always a few on brokerage there. I think you'd pay around what I pay, say about £4k a year for a narrowboat of a decent size, pets are permitted, there is lots of parking but don't know if they charge for it, no council tax to pay. http://www.roydonmarinavillage.co.uk/berth-boat-sales.asp There's also various private moorings up there, but I'm of the opinion get a mooring then you usually get to hear about other moorings. Because the private ones don't tend to get advertised, there isn't the need. You need to be on the river to hear about these.

The Stort isn't tidal, its a canal all the way up.a river has to go directly out into the sea with no locks to be tidal.

She just came past us this aft, headed to Roydon I presume?

No one thinks to comission a surveyor, to oversee the build, that's for sure, these complaints are exactly what a surveyor friend has been saying, that the widebeams that are built to a price aren't great. Its not one builder, either, it's more to do with the price.

Dobbs Weir, its been like this for years, as you've discovered Lea locks aren't the easiest.

its shocking isnt it? This time last year we were at the Tring summit and it was a proper heatwave, a friend was staying with us. I actually had a really bad asthma attack when we worked through Berko as it was so damn hot. I recall our dog, who usually hates getting wet, wading in the shallow bywashes outside Hemel to stay cool. I'd love a heatwave, I want to be swimming in the lakes up the river, not sulking on my home mooring. So would the dog, hes been sitting by our firepit/bbq sulking and looking at it and us, 'why haven't you switched on the meat burning machine?'

our policy with swiftcover states the truth of where our car is kept and that its different to our postal address

I have heard the odd genuine request like this, for instance, was at a boaters party on the Lea. A woman and her son approached the party at around 3am, wanting to know the way to Harlow, was most dismayed when we told her it was a few miles walk.

we use Switfcover, the car is insured as being kept at our mooring, which is different to our postal address.