Crewcut

Apart from everything else, if it is (and it looks that way) the boat on ebay, it's too small. Not many individuals could happily live on a boat that size let alone couples...

I think I'd be buying a ball pein hammer and getting underneath with it myself and hammer testing as much as you possibly can. Do it and come back here with how it went. Also as already spoken about get under the floor inside in a few places. By the sounds of it you might struggle to get comprehensive insurance with the existing survey and it's likely that another survey would leave you with the same issue. I wouldn't worry unduly though, plenty of people are insured third party and FWIW I (and others) wouldn't have had a survey and would likely have done a hammer test and looked under the floor wherever feasible. Boat ownership is pretty daunting at the start, you will if you're normal worry about things that down the line you'll come to realise there wasn't really anything much to worry about. If you do what you reasonably can, learn how to do things yourself & are prepared to get stuck in and have a go in all likelihood you'll be fine...

I'm reminded of this... Seriously though, was the surveyor using a hammer to test the hull in addition to using a meter?

There are easier ways for an individual to make money than trying to rent out a narrowboat to random people. Not worth the hassle, even if it is done genuinely just to try to offset some of the costs of a hobby that you are passionate about. In my humble opinion...

The most popular and hence the (potentially) most "overpriced" size would be 57ft 'cos they'll be able to navigate the whole system. You can (potentially) get "better" value by going up to 65/70 because this size is considered too long for some of the locks on parts of the system. Or you might get the same by going smaller. Or you might by going for a tug style because not as many people want that design. You will get better value by buying in the north rather than darn sarf but it's all moot really, you buy what you want to buy, if you paid less for a particular design or size you'll likely get less for it when you sell it & vice versa...

I'd forget the purple and that shade of blue is horrible. Out of those I'd go with the darker green on top, orange under. The turquoise with the darker shade on top are quite good as well. Good shout going for white roof...

The marina where I am which granted is on the sea, has 8m fingers in the 8-10m berths, 10m fingers in the 10-12m berths, etc. We pay according to LOA of boat. Mobos park stern to so they can get off the back, sailyboats tend to park nose in & climb off where their boat is widest, in the middle somewhere... The longer the fingers the more awkward it will be to park...

There's a lot to be said for allowing some time to see how you get on with what's already there/how the boat is already set up before you start messing with things. If you're new to all this you'll have enough to think about without creating work where there's really no need, especially so if things are working as they should. Down the line if you really want to you can make some changes. Personally if it were me I would view the diesel stove as a bonus & use it as intended. Unless, as somebody else said, you have access to free wood or something, even then it still has to be stored and ash disposed of... Good luck with your new boat...😃

Assorted avian apertures...

Dunno if you've seen the waterside moorings site but there's a residential mooring at the bottom of this list in Horbury for £3500pa for up to 57feet. I don't know Horbury at all or whether there are transport links that you could use but that's a pretty good price for an official residential mooring. You'd pay council tax with it being residential, so band A for the local area, single person discount if you're on your own, call it another £1k. That's your rent and council tax for £375/month. Your bills will be quite high in the colder months for heating (work on up to a couple of hundred) but really quite small in the warmer months. Then there'll be your license fee, insurance and ongoing maintenance costs like engine servicing - much cheaper if you can DIY & it's not rocket science. Try to have a contingency fund of a few thousand and start learning about diesel engine maintenance and troubleshooting, basic 12v electrics, etc. Somebody else already said but I'll repeat, go see some boats to start getting an idea what you can get, definitely go and have a look at the one Jax mentions. Good luck with it all...

Have a look in the usual places for Montague folding (full size) bikes, I got an as new "urban" for £500 off ebay, QR front wheel, whole frame folds, I added QR pedals. Their paratrooper folding mountain bike would be great for the towpath...

Not very many do have a watermaker actually, those things cost thousands and need careful maintenance. Carrying bottled water is how most small boats supplement what they have in their tank or tanks which will usually be no more than a couple of hundred litres. We are extremely careful about how we use water when on passage. Some use part sea water for cooking the likes of pasta & spuds, e.g...

For the boater witl less room aboard a speedy stitcher sewing awl is a handy thing. Once restitched sprayhood windows with whipping twine with mine, it took a while but did a good job & was very satisfying...

Couple of boats I've bought where I said I'm not even going to try to haggle because the price is fair and this has the added advantage that the existing owner is kept very much on side which can sometimes be useful. Not so much if you're buying off a broker though. Too many boat sales have fallen through over what, in the grand scheme of things, is not that significant...

An option could be to spend, as already suggested, as little of your existing pot of cash as possible to get a liveable boat, say £40-£50k, invest the rest and you could probably afford when/if the time came to buy a little so-called retirement/over 60s flat. These do usually come with service charges so would be more expensive to live in than a property that you simply owned outright but if you had a half decent pension income (i.e. not solely reliant on state pension but having some occupational pension as well) you'd probably be okay. These flats usually have some kind of on site support so if your reason for moving back to land is health/mobility related you'd have that as well. I've been living full time on boats for 14 years and I still enjoy it, still working FT & still adding quite significantly to my savings pot. This is kind of my plan B...