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Constant cruising


Jon Cartwright

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11 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

CC'ing and having a permanent job are really mutually exclusive. You need to find a home mooring. You will mess it up for the rest of us. Home moorings are easy to find but will cost you. Living on a boat is not cheap.

This isn't even remotely true.  There must be hundreds of miles of canal within a commutable distance of Solihull.  There are numerous continuous cruisers around the Birminghama area, with permanent jobs, not causing any concern to CRT.

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7 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

This isn't even remotely true.  There must be hundreds of miles of canal within a commutable distance of Solihull.  There are numerous continuous cruisers around the Birminghama area, with permanent jobs, not causing any concern to CRT.

I live in Solihull, snd that is absolutely correct.  If you have a car you are within a hours drive of perhaps 500 miles of canals.

 

i see no issue in CCing and commuting to Solihull.  

 

The only issue is the traffic, but that is an issue irrespective of having a mooring or a house.

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4 hours ago, Chris Williams said:

Surely the big question (and this applies to many people) is - Are you interested in canals and boats, or are you just looking for a cheap home?

If the latter then you could buy an old bus and forget the waterways.  

Are they interested in classic buses or should they just buy a tent.....

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On 25/02/2019 at 23:03, Dr Bob said:

CC'ing and having a permanent job are really mutually exclusive. You need to find a home mooring. You will mess it up for the rest of us. Home moorings are easy to find but will cost you. Living on a boat is not cheap.

I would hate to see the BCN become like London.

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30 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:

I would hate to see the BCN become like London.

That is what I am afraid of.  Boats that are owned by people who have no intention of moving further than they have to.  That is not what the waterways are for.

Equally a converted bus, but they do seem to get around. 

 

A Bus Conversion:

living-in-a-converted-bus-home[1].jpg

Edited by Chris Williams
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8 hours ago, Chris Williams said:

Surely the big question (and this applies to many people) is - Are you interested in canals and boats, or are you just looking for a cheap home?

If the latter then you could buy an old bus and forget the waterways.  

 

So assuming he's not really interested in canals and boats, then using your logic the next "big question" would be: Are you interested in roads and buses? ?

Edited by blackrose
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Also it's perfectly possible for people to develop an interest in boats and the waterways after they get a boat. I bought my first boat to live on 20 years ago knowing virtually nothing. I've learned a few bits since then including that most canal boaters don't really know very much about boats or the waterways at all, especially since most have never ventured off the canals.

Edited by blackrose
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9 hours ago, Chris Williams said:

That is what I am afraid of.  Boats that are owned by people who have no intention of moving further than they have to.  That is not what the waterways are for.

Equally a converted bus, but they do seem to get around. 

 

A Bus Conversion:

living-in-a-converted-bus-home[1].jpg

Always interesting to see interior decoration by colour blind people ? [sorry if that offends, it's not bad really]

There is a NB on Ebay at the moment which is challenging to the OCD among us, but has a great Pirate's Den.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Narrowboat-Kara-liveaboard-546-in-West-Yorkshire/392246845260?hash=item5b53bbdf4c:g:VAkAAOSwqHFccnQB:rk:9:pf:0

 

Edited by LadyG
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1 minute ago, system 4-50 said:

Is it possible to acquire bus/train seats from anywhere?  With my particular back problems the most comfortable seats I have come across have been on London Midland trains. Strange but true.

For a small down payment you could probably buy the whole railway but you would have to pay the debts off.

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4 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Is it possible to acquire bus/train seats from anywhere?  With my particular back problems the most comfortable seats I have come across have been on London Midland trains. Strange but true.

I like Virgin First Class myself. Thinking of a Pullman diner, it would be pretty cool.

I would write to them and ask, must be spares somewhere. 

Edited by LadyG
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Including Birmingham and the Black Country, the population is about a quarter of London.  There are also more canals than in London.  But even more important is that cheap housing is far easier to find in the Birmingham area than it is in London.  The stark truth is that continuous cruising is arguably the cheapest housing option in London, but that's far from being true in Birmingham.  The cost of renting or buying property in London is so high that many people simply have no option other than to look at things like boats.  In Birmingham the cheapest way for a young person to live is to rent a room in a shared house, or be a lodger.  That's not true in London.

 

So there's pretty much no prospect of Birmingham becoming like London.  If you have no interest in boating, you're unlikely to become a cc'er in Birmingham but you might well do in London.

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57 minutes ago, system 4-50 said:

Is it possible to acquire bus/train seats from anywhere?  With my particular back problems the most comfortable seats I have come across have been on London Midland trains. Strange but true.

You can d

get outside stuff  http://www.gwrbenches.co.uk/

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1 hour ago, LadyG said:

Always interesting to see interior decoration by colour blind people ? [sorry if that offends, it's not bad really]

There is a NB on Ebay at the moment which is challenging to the OCD among us, but has a great Pirate's Den.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Narrowboat-Kara-liveaboard-546-in-West-Yorkshire/392246845260?hash=item5b53bbdf4c:g:VAkAAOSwqHFccnQB:rk:9:pf:0

 

Crikey!  A pretty standard spec boat, overplated, in Yorkshire, odd layout...£33,000!!!!!  10 years ago they'd have been lucky to get £15-20k for that.

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8 hours ago, blackrose said:

Also it's perfectly possible for people to develop an interest in boats and the waterways after they get a boat. I bought my first boat to live on 20 years ago knowing virtually nothing. I've learned a few bits since then including that most canal boaters don't really know very much about boats or the waterways at all, especially since most have never ventured off the canals.

Yep this about sums it up. Further more most buy a " Go anywhere " 57 footer and never go up north were the shorter locks are ?

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19 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

Crikey!  A pretty standard spec boat, overplated, in Yorkshire, odd layout...£33,000!!!!!  10 years ago they'd have been lucky to get £15-20k for that.

Yes, but wot about the dÉcor?

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10 minutes ago, p6rob said:

I do exactly this and work full time in Birmingham.

My route for the last four years has been:

 

2 weeks at Cambrian Wharf

2 weeks at Shirley Drawbridge

2 Weeks at Hockley Heath Wharf

2 Weeks in the long pound at Lapworth between locks 5 and 6

2 Weeks at the Black Boy

Used to do 2 weeks at Lady Lane Wharf - but don't now it's closed.

Then back in to Birmingham

Every few laps I'll reverse the route but usually tie that in with a month long winter mooring.

 

To be honest, I'm getting a bit bored of this route now, so am thinking of going either onto Stratford or up towards Tardebigge on the next lap.

Before that I worked in Coventry so did laps of the full Warwickshire ring.

 

Up until last December I've never had any enforcement issues while cc'ing. That time I was in Cambrian Wharf, then found I had to do an unplanned business trip to Thailand, couldn't get a winter mooring, or space at Sherborne, so moved back out to the towpath and had an email saying I hadn't moved far enough. I explained the situation and moved when I got back 10 days later and that was that. I sent an email to confirm, as promised, I'd moved out of Birmingham and renewed my licence without issue this month.

CCing around Solihull is dead easy as there's decent transport links for most of it, the only 'issue' is doing the locks between Birmingham and Knowle. Actually, thinking about it the worse issue are the two swing bridges if you're solo.

 

 

Rob

 

 

Do you mean the whole place or just the clubhouse/bar?

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1 minute ago, doratheexplorer said:

Do you mean the whole place or just the clubhouse/bar?

Just the bar but as a visitor, you can't use the car park. I heard on the grapevine it's officially re-opening soon but only as a marina.

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