TotalNovice

Thanks for the replys all. The visit to the mooring went well, they have confirmed that I can liveaboard with no problem. Generators or engines can be run between 8 and 8 for battery charging. Its open and clear so I think both wind generators and solar panels should be fine, I will certainly be investing in both. Its on a river and I will be on a floating pontoon so hopefully no problems with the levels rising and falling. They have given me until Sunday to decide, all I need to do is work out if I can cope without shore power. I really think it will be fine but am sure that the learning curve will be steep. That said as this will be the first boat I have owned the learning curve for it all will be steep. I have a 40 inch LCD television, an Xbox and a laptop, other than that with the exception of lighting and boat bits I won't really have anything else that uses power. I would prefer a multi fuel stove and in an ideal world a Rayburn or similar for cooking. I believe I won't need to use the fridge in winter (a cool box on the deck should suffice?). In the summer I'm hoping solar and wind power should be sufficient to run the fridge and heat water? Its all very exciting and finally I can start to look for a boat to buy in earnest. Will definately get survey on anything I buy, almost of all of this will be new to me so I need to make sure I don't take any chances.

So been thinking about living afloat for a while now. Been reading the forum for a while whilst searching in vain for that elusive place to park the boat. Tomorrow morning I am going to view a mooring that has just become available, it allows me to liveaboard and is exactly where I wanted it to be. All sounds perfect, there is a downside there is no shorepower on this particular mooring. The marina does have them and I can go on the list once I move in. Not lived on a boat before (don't own one yet but can now start looking). I think I can cope with no shorepower but would be interested in the opinions of those who have or are currently living like this. I work full time and will be on my own in the boat, so finding time to charge the batteries between 8 and 8 might be interesting certainly in the week. Is having no power a major chore or just something that you get use to, having got it wrong a few times and having to spend the night sat in the dark!!

Thanks for the replies so far. The mooring I am looking at will only accomadate a narrowboat but I think thats a good start, hopefully over the next year I'll make up my mind what I want and where and with a little bit of luck will find it!! All I have to do now is decide on whether to put in an offer for the boat that needs no work and is therefore much more expensive or take the punt on the much cheaper one. If I go for the cheaper 1 I will need to some work on it, could be interesting as the name implies I am a total novice. But the fun is surely in the learning and making and correcting the many mistakes I'm sure I'll make along the way. My intention is to put in an offer tomorrow.

Hi everybody Been lurking around in the background for a while now, spending my time reading posts and searching for a mooring. I'm looking for a liveaboard, my preference is for a widebeam. However, I have been unable to secure a mooring until today. If I buy a boat from my local marina I can get a mooring, the only snag is they only have narrowboats for sale. I'm thinking that as a complete novice this might not be such a bad idea, narrowboats are smaller so I guess are easier to handle? I will be single handed so this seems like a good option to cut my teeth on, furthermore if I am living aboard and getting to know boaty people my chances of finding a widebeam mooring in the future will probably improve a little?? Have spent the day looking at boats a couple have taken my fancy, so in theory I could make an offer tomorrow and could move in relatively quickly. Just need to decide if I can live in a corridor!! The idea is that in a year or 2 I could sell the narrowboat and find a widebeam. Does this sound like a reasonable plan or would you expect me to lose to much money on selling up so quickly? Any thoughts much appreciated. Thanks

First post, so sorry for answering your question with a question. I am looking for a boat of similiar size, dutch barge prefereably. Just curious what is the air draft of your boat? Some of the boats I like the look of have air drafts of 3 m or greater. I live in Nottingham at the moment so the Trent will become my regular stomping ground. Do you happen to have a pic or your boat that you can post. Thanks