Dekazer

Hi Neal, I know Dagenham's a bit of a way out of London, but if you have transport, or could arrange a day trip from college, it might be worth heading to the London Canal Museum - http://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/ They organise canal walks and other events that may interest you and your colleagues. (It's 2 tubes away from Dagenham - it's near Kings Cross). This forum is also a good resource for information about modern boating, from holidays to liveaboards, and everyone here's pretty approachable. If you have specific questions you could send people private messages, or post a new thread. Welcome to the site, I hope you have a good time working on your project! Lucy

Well done! We were nosing around Whilton at the weekend and saw Kismet - lovely looking boat! - hope you will be very happy

How exciting for you both We've just taken the plunge (no pun intended) and made the first payment on our new used boat, and will hopefully be moving onto our mooring in April. We're both novices as well, so although I can't offer much advice, do feel free to message us with questions. We found our mooring first, after following a lot of advice from people on here and in the real world... We needed a residential mooring, which seem to be scarcer than leisure moorings, so it may not take you too long. In the end we had to go through the BW tendering system to get ours, but you may find a private one in your area. In retrospect we probably did let our hearts have a say in our choice of boat, as well as our heads. However, we did view A LOT, which really helped us decide on the type, layout, added extras etc we wanted. It also gave us good ideas for modifications we can make to our own boat. It remains to be seen whether we have bought a proper value-for-money- bargain, or a money pit, but the excitement of putting down the deposit will keep us going for a while! We found the various magazines pretty useful for inspiring us to keep looking (it took us about a year all in), and this forum, and other websites have been invaluable for guides to getting afloat. I hope you have a really good time looking around, and good luck finding a mooring, Lucy

Oooh, y'know this is scary. We've now paid just over half of the money for a boat, remainder to be paid when some agreed work is completed! I'm feeling rather nervous and superstitious about it all, so will refrain from posting more details until the tiller is firmly in my hand and we're floating (not sinking!). Never thought it would all happen so fast so we're still reeling, but we've taken all the precautions we can with regard to the survey and brand new boat safety certificate... The boat's out of the water as we speak, and we're hoping to go and have a look at it being worked on very soon. Might even get my hands dirty and do some of the blacking Watch this space, and with a bit of luck we'll have made it home to Northolt by mid-April, and hopefully up to the Rickmansworth festy in mid-May - hopefully get to meet some of you there Lucy & Rob Soon-to-be-NB *hush hush* all-being-well!

Something I've seen quite a few times lately is boats with the kitchen right up at the front. I think that, whether you position your galley at bow or stern, having main access straight through the kitchen seems a bit daft. I'd hate to have dinner guests clambering through the chaos when they arrive, and as for their grubby little feet...!

Thanks all We're after a narrowboat (not too fussy on style, although prob trad/semi), at least 45' although the dream would be a bit longer. Budget's under £25K without too much work to be done, although we do have a few friends and family who know enough about boats to help a wee bit. Tomorrow's going to be busy as we start trawling the web and local places for second hand boats - and we've put out a few feelers on the grapevine. We're staying with family at the moment so we're not under huge time pressure, although obviously we're so excited we want it all tomorrow!! Patience is a virtue though Thanks for the kind wishes, I'm sure we'll be back with daft questions a-plenty! Lucy and Rob xxx

It's all relative - you should see our rent now! Mooring, CT and boat payments combined will be less than current rent alone. Not expecting a cheap lifestyle though

Well we've done it now! Mooring found (subject to paperwork and payment etc), now we just need a boat! I feel a bit like I've just jumped off a cliff with my eyes shut, but nothing ventured nothing gained. Nice to be back in the fold

Oh my goodness! We just found out that we've secured a permanent residential mooring (on tender, could have been cheaper but not too awful) - pending paperwork etc. Now we need to find a boat! We've been on the lookout for a mooring for about 9 months so we've done lots of research and looked at soooo many boats, but now it's a reality it's all a bit scary! Lots more research and viewing planned for the next few weeks... We had got a bit disheartened with all the waiting, and stopped posting on and reading the forum, but we'll be back here with a vengeance making the most of all the brilliant hints and tips. Nice to be back amongst you all, Lucy and Rob ANY ADVICE WELCOMED AND GRATEFULLY RECEIVED!!!

I reckon I feel just like prisoners do when one of their close pals inside is coming up for parole... Strange mixture of unutterable jealousy and complete joy for you! Have a ball

Haha! I read the Metro at 06:15 so it must just feel like yesterday!! Time for some lunch methinks...

Alas I can't find an online version, but in one of the freebie London papers yesterday there was a tiny article about an incident where BW had sent operatives (hehe) to clean some graffitti off a bridge, but they had been under-resourced so had only cleaned off the worst words, leaving the rest of the graffitti in place! The local council and residents (I'm afraid I can't remember where) were none too impressed! Not all publicity's good publicity I guess

I saw this thread and thought I'd just bung my tuppenceworth in As far as the price goes, I suspect that it reflects your own expenses (cost of boat, maintenance and mooring fees), and is therefore your minimum. However, as someone who might consider renting a boat, I would find it rather expensive. What it comes down to is that we currently pay around £1000 per month, before council tax and bills, for a very smart 2 bedroom flat, complete with en suite in one room, in Zone 3 in East London. Travel (each) is £109.10 per month. To live in your boat would probably cost us around the same for rent and bills, but would increase our travel costs by around 300%. Although we would probably consider renting a boat while we get ourselves to the point of being able to buy our own , at that price we couldn't afford to. I suppose my main point is about who you target/hope to find as tenants. Living aboard is quite a commitment, and you simply may not find anyone who was prepared to rent at that price when they could rent a pretty nice flat, or buy their own boat, for the same ££. I think they'd need to be pretty well off Best of luck though, and should you decide to move it further into London and drop the price a bit, drop me a line (NB This is meant to be funny rather than rude!) Lucy xxx

<jealous> Hooray, congratulations! </jealous>

Having accidentally allowed the other half to view and COMPLETELY FALL IN LOVE with a boat on Saturday, my advice (which I will be following myself) is keep buying the lottery tickets!

Aww, I feel you for - it's sooooo frustrating when you really fall in love with something. However, I would have thought that now of all times it should be clear that people who over-stretch themselves financially are extremely vulnerable to the vagaries of the economy, and can come a cropper very easily. I reckon you have a few choices: 1. As many have said, choose a cheaper boat. You wouldn't expect your first stone dwelling to be a mid-range semi in a nice suburb - you'd more likely go for a small flat in a slightly less desirable area, and then work your way up. Take the same tack and have fun doing it! 2. Save more money. (I'm a big fan of Martin's Money Saving Expert website - it's straightforward to save yourself LOADS of money without really feeling the pinch). Saving for a bit longer, or a bit harder, will enable you to amass that larger deposit, thus entitling you to better finance deals. 3. Earn more money. If you're really keen on getting into expensive boats, maybe you could find a job that pays better! (That or a rich partner ) We're going for a mixture of 1. and 2. (both having failed to find a rich partner!!) and we're determined to get there by our chosen deadline - good luck getting afloat! Deks xx

It's so difficult isn't it?! We're planning on moving onto a boat in the New Year, and trying to plan everything to coincide is really hard. I think that, so long as you have a roof over your head that you can afford, the mooring's more important. Well, for us anyway. I'm reasonably tied to my local area because of my job, so the location is more important to secure. I'd rather not pay double rent for long, but it wouldn't kill us for 2 or 3 months. I guess the price of the available moorings will influence this decision! However, I would have thought that if you're more flexible about location it'd be easier to find the perfect boat and then cruise until a suitable mooring came along. Horses for courses I guess. Also, maybe I'm being overconfident, but I'm reasonably happy that we'll be able to find a boat we like within a few months (Fingers Xed!), whereas moorings don't come up very often where we live (London). We're heading up to Daventry next weekend for the Braunston festival (any maybe a nosy round the marina) so hopefully we'll learn a bit more then! I've been scouring the forum for tips though, so I'll be keeping an eye on more posts in this thread! Deks xx

Hi all, What a relief to have found this forum! We're late 20s/early 30s Londoners and at the early stages of all the research (!) and hoping to get afloat early 2009. It's all very daunting but everyone here seems to have such a can-do attitude to it all - I'm looking forward to getting to know you and hopefully picking your brains! (I promise that in a few years' time when I've figured it all out I'll still be around helping the newbies ) Deks (AKA Lucy) xx