Paul & Andrea

I have been thinking about all sorts of recycling options recently, and the biggest concern which has come to my mind, is the leftover food scraps. I know that it is possible to have a unit fitted under the sink, like this one, but is it safe/environmentally approved to use on boats? I have searched the forum, and did not come across any mention of these, I guess this is not the done thing... I'd love to know your views!

What a releif! He did an excellent paint job no doubt! I wonder how many people walked past holly (whilst looking for her!), thinking; nah, that can't be the same boat!.... Imagine what must have gone through his mind when the police walked up to him. Well done for finding her finally. Have a good weekend everybody

But if it's under cover is he living on it under cover too? What about his family? I just can't beleive that he hasn't been in contact with any body at all, or he's got to be really strange!!! Unfortunately we are only given so much info, of course the rest is just guess work..

Could the layout has been somewhat changed as well? On comparing the photos, I've noticed that the chimney was missing at the back where the boatman cabin's supposed to be....

He could have had several debit/credit cards??? ....the van probably not worth much to him anyway

I've just seen the news clip on the internet. Really amased that after all these sightings Holly is still not found?! http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/p...m=1&nbram=1

It looks nice on the pix, but you never know what it's really like until you have seen it! We are doing the same, and had a few disappointments too... Good luck with your boat hunting! Andrea

Hmm, certainly all worth thinking about.... The only thing is with a sailaway, how long would it take to get it fitted just for our basic needs? I have been reading Graham Booth's Narrowboat Builder's book, and it took him a lot more both in time and £ than originally anticipated. Nice idea though, perhaps our second boat will be custom built...

Thanks for your replies! Malc, could you tell me where these boats are? We only seem to be looking on the internet at the moment, as we are still getting the house ready for sale. I cannot quite decide on the price however, as this seems to be a good quality boat, both shell and fitout. It only had one previous owner, who now bought a smaller boat, and it hasn't been "messed" with. But then again it still needs £ spending on it, ie repainting...

As you may know we are in the process of selling our house, and buying a boat to live on. We have seen a few boats already, and this one below seems quite good, however we have a few concerns; - It's been for sale for almost a year and hasn't moved much from its place - It has only been used for cruising - The boat is in London and would need to be moved to the Midlands and we are rather short on holidays. - It's a bit overpriced Just curious really if someone else has seen it, and what they thought of it, or any other opinions are welcome. Little odd to be for sale for such a long time?! http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/HAR068/[/url]

Hi Kev, good to hear from you!! I'll try to answer your questions as best I can with the info we've managed to gain so far. The most important area to cover first, to those who are new to boating such as ourselves, is mooring. I know that the more experienced can set themselves up along the river with everything to hand to be self reliant but, we felt that by placing ourselves in a marina for the first year would give us time to get generators and inverters, water, diesel and, most importantly, contacts that could make our lives easier by far. After all, without experience of the day to day running of a house, you can come unstuck without friends and family to help at the beginning. In our case, we've little experience of canal boats and, without support, a greater part of surviving our first year will have to be based on forums such as this and to locals that have a great many answers to our questions. Questions questions... Pilling Marina is, so far, perfect for those that wish to sell their house and buy a boat because they're building the place as we speak. They also allow time for you to get your boat there before they charge you for mooring. For what I understand, if you put a £350 deposit down as we have, when you have your boat ready and in place, then you make the rest of the payements. Also, if for example your house sale falls through or you change your mind, they will gladly give you back your deposit in full. This is apparently because of the large amount of new boats coming into the system at a rate of around 1100 a year. With a low amount of mooring spaces as it is and, new marinas opening up at a slower rate than need, you can guess a rush is always going to be the case here. Therefore, to lose you would be no great hardship to them because a queue would have formed behind you for that space. As regards our house. We'll see around 10 to £15000 from its sale after all costs are accounted for and want to buy a narrow boat for upto and around 30k. In order to do that and save the cost of renting another place on a short term basis, we see a 'bridging loan' as the best option for this. If you consider that the average rent on a 6 month contract for a 2 bedroom house would leave us little change from £3000, this is a dent in our pockets which we would rather place into the boat. Also, the cost of a bridging loan would be expensive in principal, but wouldn't cost us £3000. Buying a boat on the proviso of selling your house would be down to the lender to make a decision on and not the seller of the boat. In a nutshell:- The mooring reserved first is something to aim for. Using Pillings Marina for this allows time as the section we've booked isn't going to be completed until late April/early May. We'll buy a boat after the house sells in principle and lawyers are setting a transfer of funds from the future owner of our house. A bridging loan will be used to pay for our new boat. The loan for the boat will be paid off after completion of the sale of the house. Seeing it in black and white sets my stomach churning to be honest. I remember the stress of buying the house we live in now though and, how it felt so out of control and unplanned and yet, all came together. At the finish of all this, we could end up with a boat we can't afford if the house sale falls through. It would mean working every hour God sent to pay for both a Mortgage and a Bridging loan whilst waiting for a new buyer for the house!!! However, this I think is the risk you take when you want to make a change in your life for the better. It has to be the answer if its the right choice and, for these choices and all choices, some modicum of risk and sacrifice have to be given. I'm worrying that certain aspects of what I'm writing may be taken as pure fact. I wish for those that read this to put into action any of these ideas by first going out and doing their own homework, rather than taking what I've written here as gospel. We have to go over many of the final details of putting plan into action and welcome anyone to offer suggestion. We're complete boat virgins and don't wish to offend anyone by assuming we know better.... We hope this info can be of some help to you. Kind Regards, Paul & Andrea