Didne

No not at the sides … at the front … bit tricky to see but here’s some photos …

I recently met a boat (‘Coffin Dodger’ by Bluewater boats, apparently it was featured at crick show last year) with an enclosed bow to accommodate a full size bed … but to allow emergency and occasional access to front deck, it had been fitted with the same style of door and sliding roof hatch that you get at the back of the boat … you had to climb over the bed to use it, but the couple who lived on board seemed very happy with it … don’t know if water tank or gas locker were in the bow but I guess accessing those services would be easier for having the door … xxx

Also, once you actually start going onboard some boats, you may find what looks great in the photos isn’t so great in real life … for me I’ve discovered that any with really narrow squeezes of thin corridors along one edge of the boat is just too uncomfortable to spend any amount of time on (but then I’m not so skinny !) … I’ve been in enough tight ones now to recognise from the photos the ones that just won’t do for me, and it’s all personal taste, but it can be hard to judge from photos alone until you’ve managed to get on board a few … I’m not trying to put you off, just saying try a few different styles of layout before making up your mind what you want … Wilton let me go aboard every boat they had and it was quite an education … Happy hunting … xxx

Yes I agree that’s the conclusion I’ve come to as well … I won’t be taking mum boating …

Hi Janey ! … I might have … I’m loosing track … I’ll check it out … Lovely to see you on here ! … xxx

Hi Jimmy … I’ve no experience of this but … with an official residential home mooring I’d imagine that signing on would be a similar to procedure as for anyone living in a house, ie sign on every couple of weeks or so (when I last had to they kept shifting the days around … been a long while though it might be different now) … but anyone ‘of no fixed abode’ had to sign on daily … I believe that without a home mooring you’d be classed as ‘of no fixed abode’ … that might present something of a logistical problem considering you’d need to stay close enough to the employment office to get there regularly, while at the same time moving on every 14 days to satisfy your constant cruising licence … no idea whether you can just keep changing employment offices as you go along and just present yourself at the nearest one … common sense says to me that one of the great things about living in a home that moves is that it allows you to easily expand your job search into other parts of the country so I feel you ought to be able to do that … but this is officialdom we’re talking about so maybe it doesn’t work that way … Anyone able to add any proper knowledge to this ? … as my thoughts are just conjecture … Im very disappointed to see how much judgement is going on here … this is information that any of us might be in need of one day … Good Luck with your job and housing situation Jimmy … xxx

OR I can only assume the husband has said "sell the damn thing" so she's deliberately taken the worst photos possible. "Well I posted it on line darling, but no-one seems interested

Ohhh Thailand … fabulous … I was there for three years … really need to go back … xxx

Simple camper-van solution to doing the laundry … get a sturdy one of those clip-up waterproof dry bags … the sort used for canoeing and paddle boarding … they can keep water in just as well as they can keep water out … put your washing powder and hot water and your dirty clothes in it … then seal it shut and leave it in the most vibrating spot while you’re on the move … the vibrations will agitate the water and by the time you get where you’re going your clothes have had a good wash … all you need do then is rinse them out (by the same method if you want to) … wring dry, and hang up .… simples … xxx something like this https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=dry+bag+extra+large+boat&crid=3HRNGWJEE5Z9J&sprefix=dry+bag+extra+large+boat%2Caps%2C177&ref=nb_sb_noss

yes … i was beginning to have misgivings about that too … not that it matters now …

Hmmm … well … right … on Saturday I took mum to see a 55’ narrowboat I was considering buying … the whole point of looking at boats of this size is to enable mum to come for holidays and days out … which means needing space to accommodate her plus a couple of crew to help with her since I cannot look after her and the boat at the same time … having hitherto been all enthusiast, everything changed once she got on the boat … too old, too tired, likes her own bed, nothing to do (huh?!?) … then on Sunday we went out for a trip on a little day boat and all I got from mum the entire time we were out on the water was ‘when are we going home? … can we go home now?’ … hmmm … well … not much fun for either of us … hmmm … at least I’ve discovered she really feels about it before its too late … it’s just not for mum So one good thing that came of that was that the day boat was actually a little share boat … very basic, small, old, cheap and cheerful, run by a cooperative of the owners and available year round often at short notice … it roves all over the canal system wherever each owner fancies going and only has winter moorings (not so far from me) which it doesn’t return to until the end of the season, so you never know til the last minute where it’s going to be so no getting bored with the same stretch of canal … I really like that … and Its so basic I can afford it … I’ve said I’d like to go ahead and join in … and that would be great in giving me some breaks away and some boating experience without all the expense and responsibility of sole ownership But there’s another issue here … when mum either dies or goes into a care home, her house will have to be sold (she’s actually got enough savings for a few years in a care home without selling the house (unlike me … having been caring for her and unable to work I have very meagre savings) … but having been trapped here far too long already looking after her, I don’t want to remain here any longer than I absolutely have to ... plus I couldn’t afford the bills for such a big house anyway) … but that will leave me with nowhere to live … I cannot face the prospect of ending up stuck in some little flat somewhere in one permanent settled place … I love to travel, I love new experiences and discovering new places … being stuck here in this one place all this time has already been detrimental to my own mental health … and the idea of the boat was to give me somewhere to live after mum doesn’t need me anymore … somewhere that can move with me … Mum was going to fund it initially (to come out of my inheritance later) … When the house is sold I thought my one sixth share would come straight to me and that would be my money to live on … turns out it’s not like that … apparently (lifetime interest … I don’t really understand all this) mum is entitled to the interest from the sale until the day she dies meaning I have to wait until then for the money to live on … and in the interim ? So I’m starting again looking at smaller boats ... as a future liveaboard … something just for me … no need to take accessibility into account any more if mum’s just not interested … no need to have room for anyone to look after her either … but it’s going to have to be a lot cheaper to run if I won’t have house-sale money … maybe a really small narrowboat … if it ends up having to be a grp boat instead id be a bit concerned about collisions with steel boats on the canals, so I wonder about getting a river boat instead ?… if wider than 7’ I’d be restricted to wide canals but perhaps a river boat would be okay in coastal waters as a means of accessing other rivers ? … I know absolutely nothing about grp boats … I feel like I’m right back at the beginning again … Your thoughts, as always, welcome and treasured … xxx

Hmmm … well … right … Thank You Guys … you’ve made some really good points for me to consider … but it looks like it’s all mute now anyway … went on the boat again on Saturday for a second viewing … the whole point of looking at boats of this size is to enable elderly mum to come for holidays and days out … which means needing space to accommodate her plus a couple of crew to help with her since I cannot look after her and the boat at the same time … having hitherto been all enthusiast, everything changed once she got on the boat … too old, too tired, likes her own bed, nothing to do (huh?!?) … then on Sunday we went out for a trip on a little day boat and all I got from mum the entire time we were out on the water was ‘when are we going home? … can we go home now?’ … hmmm … well … not much fun for either of us … at least I’ve found out before its too late … and if that’s the way it’s going to be then I’m starting again and this time I’ll be looking at smaller boats, just big enough for me and nobody else … I had people lining up to take care of her on boat trips … I’m sure they’ll be a whole lot less eager to do it at home … so back to square one ... disappointed to say the least … I know you’re all eager to see the boat for yourselves so here it is … still for sale if you’re interested … xxx ‘Moonbeams and Stardust’ … she’s moored up at Fradley Junction https://www.nationwideboatsales.co.uk/shop/moonbeams-stardust/

Ricky Tropman did my first Survey for me a couple of months ago (boat failed on thin hull so I’m still looking) … he’ll definitely be my first choice for future surveys too … lovely fella and he was happy for me to attend the dry dock after the survey and thoroughly explain his findings … also really good at responding to emails throughout and afterwards answering my endless questions … good luck https://www.nationwideboatsurveys.co.uk/

Wow … that’s amazing to hear your positive views on a grp boat … I must admit I was expecting them to be viewed as ‘the poor cousin’ to steel narrowboats … my completely uneducated and novice thinking is that they look rather fragile in comparison … and for heating (and I know this sounds stupid) they look like they might melt if you put a solid fuel stove on board (?!?) … but I do rather like the look of that one … and maybe it’d be well suited to rivers too ? … I know absolutely nothing about grp boats though … even less than I do about narrowboats (and that’s saying something ! ) … if that were a steel narrowboat I’d be a bit freaked out by its age 1986 … that’s because I already had a 1991 narrowboat drastically fail a survey due to thinning of the baseplate steel so now I’m rather wary of older boats … do grp boats have surveys too, and at what age do grp boats start developing age-related problems ? … I think I need to start learning about them … xxx A really good point about learning about boats and boating in general too, by starting off with a ‘beginner’s boat’ … xxx

Actually yes I was pondering on that idea too … wondering if maybe a cheap and cheerful grp boat might even do ? … xxx