Costs of living on a boat

[ditchcrawler]

I am sure some boaters keep full details of their spend, I am not sure if its been published on here

[Ianws]

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/media-centre/news/view.app?id=1369783539618

 

Liveaboards need a licence if watching or streaming live tv or watching bbc iPlayer. It says they can email you a licence for your boat.

[MtB]

4 minutes ago, Ianws said:

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/cs/media-centre/news/view.app?id=1369783539618

 

Liveaboards need a licence if watching or streaming live tv or watching bbc iPlayer. It says they can email you a licence for your boat.

 

Ok thanks, just tried it. But as I thought, I can't buy one without giving the postal address to be licenced. 

 

Here's the screen when I try to pay:

 

 

 

 

Nothing about a boat!

 

 

 

[robtheplod]

8 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Ok thanks, just tried it. But as I thought, I can't buy one without giving the postal address to be licenced. 

 

Here's the screen when I try to pay:

 

 

 

 

Nothing about a boat!

 

 

 

Easiest thing is to not have one. Don't watch live TV (you should be living the boat life anyway!) and don't use iPlayer.... bingo that's £152 saved.

[Ianws]

As well as saying a licence can be arranged for your boat and emailed to you, it might have been useful to say how to go about doing that.

[The Welsh Cruiser]

Averaged over 7 years it's cost me just under £2K a year to live on my 35ft boat. I don't have a mooring. I haven't included internet etc. but it does include having the engine lifted out and a top end rebuild, and the cost of all the improvements I've done to the boat, mostly by myself.

[David Mack]

3 hours ago, David t said:

Thanks that helps a lot I've been looking but some info I've seen or been told on here doesn't marry up .

 

Hardly surprising given the varying circumstances of different people who have posted their costs here over the years. You have to assess other people's info and see how it relates to your own situation.

[mrsmelly]

7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Hardly surprising given the varying circumstances of different people who have posted their costs here over the years. You have to assess other people's info and see how it relates to your own situation.

Spot on. It's an impossible question which is why a very rough ball park figure I reckon is 5k but there are far too many variables to give a complete answer. 

[Slim]

6 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Far too many variables.

 

The oft quoted figure is £5000+ per annum + Mooring costs.

 

Are you going to keep it well maintained, or, "run it into the ground" and just mend it when it breaks ?

 

Some years it may be £3,000, odd years it will be £10,000 (engines and gear boxes need replacing, bottom need blacking every 2 years, boat may need painting  every 5-7 years)

Annual mooring costs between £2,000 - £3,000 (North / Midlands) and £15,000 London

I subscribe to the 'just south' of £10,000 school, Including moorings but excluding absolutely major, major things like engine. Anyone saying £5K is either skimping on repairs/replacements or just looking at a fairly short window. My figures are with full DIY.

[TheBiscuits]

2 minutes ago, Slim said:

I subscribe to the 'just south' of £10,000 school, Including moorings but excluding absolutely major, major things like engine. Anyone saying £5K is either skimping on repairs/replacements or just looking at a fairly short window. My figures are with full DIY.

 

Can you break that down a bit please?

 

Alan gets grief for his £5000 figure, but you are saying twice that, so how it's calculated would be of interest.

[Alan de Enfield]

8 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

Can you break that down a bit please?

 

Alan gets grief for his £5000 figure, but you are saying twice that, so how it's calculated would be of interest.

"Mine" is £5k excluding moorings, whilst Slim is "just South of £10k Including moorings" so possibly not a huge difference between us.

[The Welsh Cruiser]

33 minutes ago, Slim said:

I subscribe to the 'just south' of £10,000 school, Including moorings but excluding absolutely major, major things like engine. Anyone saying £5K is either skimping on repairs/replacements or just looking at a fairly short window. My figures are with full DIY.

Really? Mine: £750 for licence, £250 for gas, £250 for coal, £100 insurance, £100 for diesel, £50 for petrol, £500 for maintenance.

[Tony Brooks]

I suspect mine was an average of £4000 a year but that was in one of the cheaper south midland marinas and everything DIY apart from a little welding once.  Trouble is that unless the OP gives far more details about his plans everything is a guess.

[Alan de Enfield]

23 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Really? Mine: £750 for licence, £250 for gas, £250 for coal, £100 insurance, £100 for diesel, £50 for petrol, £500 for maintenance.

No wonder everything is so low - at £100 a year for diesel  you aren't moving very far. You are running the engine for around 50 hours per year (1 hour per week) 

[The Welsh Cruiser]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

No wonder everything is so low - at £100 a year for diesel  you aren't moving very far. You are running the engine for around 50 hours per year (1 hour per week) 

No, my little engine does over 2 hours on 1 litre. I do a range of around 50 miles, which is far enough for me. And others, it seems.

[Alan de Enfield]

27 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

No, my little engine does over 2 hours on 1 litre

That interesting - what engine is it ?

[The Welsh Cruiser]

25 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

That interesting - what engine is it ?

Vetus M2, 500cc twin pot. 3 hours on a litre charging the batteries, don't do this much, prefer the gennie, 2 hours cruising unless I trash it.

[Alan de Enfield]

15 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Vetus M2, 500cc twin pot. 3 hours on a litre charging the batteries, don't do this much, prefer the gennie, 2 hours cruising unless I trash it.

Very economical, almost 'unbelievable' but I guess you know your boat.

 

Presumably the petrol usage is for the Jennifer.

[The Welsh Cruiser]

8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Very economical, almost 'unbelievable' but I guess you know your boat.

 

Presumably the petrol usage is for the Jennifer.

Some find it difficult to believe the economy of the gennie as well. 4 hours on a litre of petrol. I don't use a lot of power, most of the time I'm putting 2-8 amps into the single leisure battery, so it's not working very hard. Gas fridge costs a fiver a week to run but well worth it, for the savings in engine running time, and economy when it is running.  

[BilgePump]

Next week, I'm going to set up a sockpuppet account just to ask how much it will cost to live on a 40' boat and we can run through the same comments all over again for the nth time. Keeps us occupied during lockdown! At least in this one the OP thanked those who offered some advice and wasn't a one post, nine page thread wonder

[Slim]

2 hours ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Really? Mine: £750 for licence, £250 for gas, £250 for coal, £100 insurance, £100 for diesel, £50 for petrol, £500 for maintenance.

Welsh Cruiser (and others)

 

I'll stand by my "south of £10k statement"

My 55' NB is pushing 25 years old and I've owned it from new (bare shell, own fitout). DIY throughout without much in the way of exotic extras apart from a cacooned diesel generator. Equally I've never scrimped on maintenance and try to keep it tidy. It had a back to metal repaint (professional)  just 4 years ago. It's used for recreation not live aboad or CC. It's on an Oxfordshire marina. I've never bothered or needed to keep a written record of cost.

By way of example of maintenance costs. Last September it was slipped for blacking. I had someone physically black it ffor me but I've NOT included his labour costs anywhere. Whilst it was out of the water I discovered that the stern tube and shaft needed replacing, This escalated to needing additionally a new bell housing,,adaptor plate, register plate, front mounting bracket, x4 flexible mountings,  stern gland packing, It also needed the anodes replacing X 6.I took the precaution of replacing the driveplate. With all the odds and sods all that cost me very roughly £1500 (all DIY). After I got the engine running I discovered the oil cooler had leaked all the engine oil into the cooling system. Cleaning that out together with a new cooler and associated brackets and pipework was at least £200 maybe £230. The saga continues. As I finished the above work the immersion heater failed. Only £30 for a replacement but I wasn't able to get the old one out. That's when Colvid 19 struck and I had to come home. If I can eventually get the old one out fine , otherwise it's a new calorifier and associated pipework. A slip in replacement won't be practical so I'm looking at around £400+. As a final throwaway the 4 year old paint on the roof is breaking out in rust all over so that will need an urgent repaint.    

[Slim]

41 minutes ago, The Welsh Cruiser said:

Vetus M2, 500cc twin pot. 3 hours on a litre charging the batteries, don't do this much, prefer the gennie, 2 hours cruising unless I trash it.

Quite how you equate a litre of petrol a week with using a generator to charge batteries is beyond me,. I used that much cutting my grass today. 

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Slim said:

Welsh Cruiser (and others)

 

I'll stand by my "south of £10k statement"

My 55' NB is pushing 25 years old and I've owned it from new (bare shell, own fitout). DIY throughout without much in the way of exotic extras apart from a cacooned diesel generator. Equally I've never scrimped on maintenance and try to keep it tidy. It had a back to metal repaint (professional)  just 4 years ago. It's used for recreation not live aboad or CC. It's on an Oxfordshire marina. I've never bothered or needed to keep a written record of cost.

By way of example of maintenance costs. Last September it was slipped for blacking. I had someone physically black it ffor me but I've NOT included his labour costs anywhere. Whilst it was out of the water I discovered that the stern tube and shaft needed replacing, This escalated to needing additionally a new bell housing,,adaptor plate, register plate, front mounting bracket, x4 flexible mountings,  stern gland packing, It also needed the anodes replacing X 6.I took the precaution of replacing the driveplate. With all the odds and sods all that cost me very roughly £1500 (all DIY). After I got the engine running I discovered the oil cooler had leaked all the engine oil into the cooling system. Cleaning that out together with a new cooler and associated brackets and pipework was at least £200 maybe £230. The saga continues. As I finished the above work the immersion heater failed. Only £30 for a replacement but I wasn't able to get the old one out. That's when Colvid 19 struck and I had to come home. If I can eventually get the old one out fine , otherwise it's a new calorifier and associated pipework. A slip in replacement won't be practical so I'm looking at around £400+. As a final throwaway the 4 year old paint on the roof is breaking out in rust all over so that will need an urgent repaint.    

 

That's the way it goes sometimes, you replace a screw and end up need to rebuild the boat, it the 'pleasure' of boat ownership.

[The Welsh Cruiser]

22 minutes ago, Slim said:

Quite how you equate a litre of petrol a week with using a generator to charge batteries is beyond me,. I used that much cutting my grass today. 

My solar array is overkill (375W, included within my maintenance costs) but I never run an engine between mid-February and the end of October. A gas fridge helps with this, along with a very frugal t.v., led lights etc. I put my wind turbine up in October, that helps as well, although maybe only 2 days a week on average. 

 

I did a full repaint 2 years ago (included in the cost; around £100 for materials) I skipped taking the windows out but otherwise dealt with any rust. It still looks good. If it needs doing again in 2 years no problem, another £100.

Edited April 11, 2020 by The Welsh Cruiser

[MtB]

7 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

"Mine" is £5k excluding moorings, whilst Slim is "just South of £10k Including moorings" so possibly not a huge difference between us.

 

Yes my CRT 'no services' on-line mooring is £3.5k a year now, so that makes my £5k plus moorings within spitting distance of £10k.