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Can I realistically do a live aboard with 25k?


Pablo Blanco

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37 minutes ago, NewCanalBoy said:

Living in a marina would have to be experienced first - not everybodys cup of tea !!

 

Can be quite expensive, uncomfortable at times, noisy, nuisance wildlife, windy, etc,etc !!

This is a good point. One plus point of a sewer tube ( There arnt many ) is the ability to find moorings in more locations. Whilst I have on occasion on  a needs must basis found myself in a marina, without exeption every other mooring on line have been vastly better. An online offside mooring with facilities and very few boats is the best if available. Boat shaped boats though do give a better interior space for living and of course when boating are far superior.

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15 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

What's wrong with Liverpool Marina, Douglas Marine at Hesketh Bank, Preston Marina?

 

All do "proper" boats, all do liveaboards and all are commutable to Haydock.

 

OK, Preston marina is 25 miles away not 20, but it's half an hour straight down the M6 to Haydock.

I'm not sure about a coastal marina. We lived aboard our lumpy water boat for 3 years and coastal marinas can be very 'lumpy' at times. It is far quieter on the canals. I've not tried any of the marinas on the Lancashire coast but have experience of many Scottish and Irish marinas in very poor weather and it wasnt nice. Not all are well protected from all directions of wind.

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2 minutes ago, Dr Bob said:

I'm not sure about a coastal marina. We lived aboard our lumpy water boat for 3 years and coastal marinas can be very 'lumpy' at times. It is far quieter on the canals. I've not tried any of the marinas on the Lancashire coast but have experience of many Scottish and Irish marinas in very poor weather and it wasnt nice. Not all are well protected from all directions of wind.

Where we are (N Wales coast) we are on a half-mile long inlet which was a slate loading wharf, protected on both sides by steeply sloping 'mountains' and a lock to get out to sea

 

Port Dinorwic Marina Summer Party Saturday 18th August | The ...

 

 

 

Liverpool marina is almost 'inland'

 

Liverpool Marina in Liverpool, Merseyside GB, United Kingdom ...

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Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Liverpool marina is almost 'inland'

 

Don't let that fool you.

 

We were in Salthouse dock in March 2019 when the vicious storms blew through, and the wind gets funnelled through the buildings and along the docks.

 

At one point they were logging >80 mph wind speeds with nearly 3' wave heights and a narrowboat swamped on it's mooring in Albert Dock.  It didn't sink, because the floating jetty kept it (mostly) afloat, but you can be sure they pumped it out before untying the mooring lines!

 

Salthouse dock was a bit more sheltered for us as we were tucked in near the ramp on S moorings, but the big pontoon with the tent on it looked like it was going to take off on several occasions, and that jetty was bouncing a couple of feet up and down.

 

I don't know exactly what Coburg Dock (Liverpool Marina) was like that night, but I certainly wasn't going for a walk or a cruise to find out!

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2 hours ago, NewCanalBoy said:

.

 

Hi all,

   Apologies for my absence from the discussion..........I am working through corona time and was on nights last night.

   I am overwhelmed and humbled by the help and responses from all you good people not to mention how impressed I am by your positivity..

   Going to complete my ablutions and then study the info so far given.

   Speak soon.

                   Pablo

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9 minutes ago, Pablo Blanco said:

Going to complete my ablutions and then study the info so far given.

   Speak soon.

 

There lies another debate :

 

"What form of toilet do you prefer" ?

 

There are a number of options :

 

1) Pump-out-tank which collects your 'output' an you take the boat every few weeks to be 'pumped out' at a cost of £20

2) A bucket that is partly filled with sawdust and once filled you keep under you bed for 6 months whilst it composts

3) A cassette toilet, your output drops into a plastic suitcase (cassette), which you trundle to the emptying station once every 5 or 6 days (1 person) Cost to empty £0 (nil)

 

Option 3 is by far the most simple, and cheapest.

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19 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

 

1) Pump-out-tank which collects your 'output' an you take the boat every few 3 - 4 weeks to be 'pumped out' at a cost of £20 14

 

Corrected for you to show what ours is. :D

 

 

...and that's for 2 people so 6-8 weeks for one.

Edited by Dr Bob
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16 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

There lies another debate :

 

"What form of toilet do you prefer" ?

 

There are a number of options :

 

1) Pump-out-tank which collects your 'output' an you take the boat every few weeks to be 'pumped out' at a cost of £20

2) A bucket that is partly filled with sawdust and once filled you keep under you bed for 6 months whilst it composts

3) A cassette toilet, your output drops into a plastic suitcase (cassette), which you trundle to the emptying station once every 5 or 6 days (1 person) Cost to empty £0 (nil)

 

Option 3 is by far the most simple, and cheapest.

I can think of a simpler option, but I don't recommend it.

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5 hours ago, mark99 said:

 

Is this worth moving back to Mold?

 

You could crane in both botes.

 

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-90635780.html

 

 

To OP- depends what happens after the virus issue is played out. I can imagine two scenarios:

 

1) Lots of bankrupted people looking to move onto cheap boats to live - increased price

2) Lots of pepole needing to sell their boat - reduced price

 

Gawd knows how it will outturn.

Interesting point this and one I have given some thought to........would hate to spend my “entire estate” on a boat, spend countless hours making it into a home and then find it has halved in value due to a world recession.

  The way I see it though is by comparing it to the car market.......a 10 year old mondeo will be pretty much of the same value before, during and after a recession.......a 2 year old Range Rovers value will however drop through the floor as soon as the financial jitters begin.

     I am in the mondeo market I believe.

    Thoughts? 

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24 minutes ago, Pablo Blanco said:

Interesting point this and one I have given some thought to........would hate to spend my “entire estate” on a boat, spend countless hours making it into a home and then find it has halved in value due to a world recession.

  The way I see it though is by comparing it to the car market.......a 10 year old mondeo will be pretty much of the same value before, during and after a recession.......a 2 year old Range Rovers value will however drop through the floor as soon as the financial jitters begin.

     I am in the mondeo market I believe.

    Thoughts? 

If you're looking to buy a boat as some sort of sensible investment, then I suggest you turn on your heels and quickly skidaddle in the opposite direction from all boat related things.

Edited by doratheexplorer
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15 minutes ago, Pablo Blanco said:

Interesting point this and one I have given some thought to........would hate to spend my “entire estate” on a boat, spend countless hours making it into a home and then find it has halved in value due to a world recession.

  The way I see it though is by comparing it to the car market.......a 10 year old mondeo will be pretty much of the same value before, during and after a recession.......a 2 year old Range Rovers value will however drop through the floor as soon as the financial jitters begin.

     I am in the mondeo market I believe.

    Thoughts? 

I think it might be better waiting untill this virus lock down is over.

As Mark99 has posted,boat prices could go either way.

I notice your location is in the north,so your choice of boats will be wider if you stick to northern canals.

Narrowboats,widebeams,and wider sea boats.But be careful with draught and airdraught with a seaboat.

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16 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

If you're looking to buy a boat as some sort of sensible investment, then I suggest you turn on your heels and quickly skidaddle in the opposite direction from all boat related things.

I see it more as a sensible investment in life than money but what I am really asking I suppose is what effect do you think the forthcoming financial fallout will have on boat values? 

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Just now, Pablo Blanco said:

I see it more as a sensible investment in life than money but what I am really asking I suppose is what effect do you think the forthcoming financial fallout will have on boat values? 

Bad.  Most boats aren't lived on.  People struggling financially will look to offload them.  It doesn't bother me in the least, I plan to keep mine until it falls to pieces, or I do.

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You right the boat off the day you buy it, then if you get anything back its a bonus. 

Bur really boats if a good make and well cared for hold their price a lot better than cars and worse than bricks and mortar.

If you buy a good cared for 15 year old boat, you will probably pay almost the same as it cost new.

So its held its price but inflation destroys any profits.

 

Toilets, only one way to go, proper pump out, big holding tank, best lav is  a Blakes Sea Toilet, buy one in a lifetime, no smells, no blockages, no electricity,  all spares available. Mine is 70 years old and perfect.  But nearly £5000 new!

Cassettes if you like carrying s--t around in a box and emptying it every 3rd day.

Porta potties, may as well have a tent and go camping.

Composting,  UGG!

 

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44 minutes ago, Pablo Blanco said:

I see it more as a sensible investment in life than money but what I am really asking I suppose is what effect do you think the forthcoming financial fallout will have on boat values? 

 

As Dora says, if you are doing this with half your thinking revolving around selling up in a year or three and getting (some of) your money back, then forget it. Boats are a total money pit, even given your DIY skills. My trips to B&Q to buy a little carrier bag of trivial DIY bits and pieces, each of which cost me north of £50 are probably well into the hundreds by now. Never mind any of the bigger expenses like a new gearbox or stove or LPG cooker.

 

Spend the money buying a boat and write it off. Should you change the boat in the future, selling the old one before you buy the new one when you live on it is a logistic near-impossibility, so you'll have to buy the next one first, move onto it then set about selling the old. So view anything you get for the old one as funding for maintenance of the new one... 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
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6 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

The best bargains are often to be found by walking the towpaths and looking for boats with a for sale sign in the window.

 

But beware of this. Yes you can find some bargains but most "For Sale" signs scrawled in boat windows that I see around here, ask for the most ridiculously ludicrously high prices that even if halved would still look expensive. 

 

Sometimes I wonder if they are arrived at by the seller taking what they paid for the boat then adding on all the money they spent on it during their years of ownership, clinging forlornly to their belief that their boat was a 'good investment', and they now want their money back.

 

 

 

 

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I would be very cautious, nothing to do with cash, but to do with living non-conventionally, to some extent this may be age related and to some extent outdoor or other I interests.

I have lived in some very bad housing, when this was essentially a roof over my head, a base, but I was hardly there, busy with hobbies and work.

Having had your own place, and now less flexible, I would be concerned that living in a small tin shed would be tedious.

I also think that time spent on board doing a project up, would be better spent earning money. 

My advice would be to buy a plastic boat, something that will not lose value, and that has the basic comforts. forget marina in summer, there is a nice Colvic Watson

 35 on Applollo Duck at £29950

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by LadyG
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10 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I would be very cautious, nothing to do with cash, but to do with living non-conventionally, to some extent this may be age related and to some extent outdoor or other I interests.

I have lived in some very bad housing, when this was essentially a roof over my head, a base, but I was hardly there, busy with hobbies and work.

Having had your own place, and now less flexible, I would be concerned that living in a small tin shed would be tedious.

I also think that time spent on board doing a project up, would be better spent earning money. 

My advice would be to buy a plastic boat, something that will not lose value, and that has the basic comforts. forget marina in summer, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicely put, thank you for your advice.

  When you say “forget marina in summer”.could you expand on why? 

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Hi Pablo, welcome to the forum, and I agree with many others that you are an ideal candidate for boating!

 

I'll disagree with what many others have said though. I think that 25K + a stable income is plenty to be going on with, especially considering you're a tradesman. My wife and I did exactly this on exactly that much a couple of years ago. We bought our 65' narrowboat for 26K (in London) and I've been pouring pretty much every penny into her ever since. It has been said already but it bears repeating:

 

Do not underestimate how much maintenance costs.

 

There is always - always - another job on a boat, at least one in "our" price range. I've heard people talk about budgeting 3-4K per year for your average narrowboat but I'll go as far as saying that maintenance pretty much costs as much money as you have. As in, I have a long backlog of jobs to do that get done as and when I have the money and time to do them.

 

I thought very carefully about the financial implications of the boat buying when I purchased her, as some of the forum will remember I was really really concerned with spending too much, because I was a total ignoramus and there are a lot of dodgy deals out there. I believe that I got an excellent deal and that I'd be able to sell her on for a "profit" given the improvements I have made, but no chance have I come close to breaking even when you factor the thousands and thousands I have spent on her.

 

That said, we've saved on rent, so I'm probably about as badly off as I would have been had I got a pokey flat somewhere, and I'd not change anything about my lifestyle even if it cost double. I feel genuinely sorry for everyone who doesn't live on a boat (though, given the limited space, selfishly I'm rather glad they don't!) I can't imagine waking up every day and seeing the same thing out of my window, especially if that thing was a brick wall rather than water, fish and ducks.

 

On 15/04/2020 at 16:36, Alan de Enfield said:

Good thinking - very true, will get a much 'better' BOAT for £20k on the coast.

This is interesting. Are you talking about a sea-going boat? How come sea-going boats are cheaper than inland waterways boats?

 

We have a vague dream to graduate to a sea-going boat in a few years once we feel that we're done with the waterways. So it's heartening to hear that it might not be too expensive. Learning to sail and navigate is the biggest challenge for me, though!

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1 minute ago, ivan&alice said:

My wife and I did exactly this on exactly that much a couple of years ago. We bought our 65' narrowboat for 26K (in London) and I've been pouring pretty much every penny into her ever since.

 

She's looking good on it as a result, too. 

 

... or did you mean the boat?

 

:giggles:

 

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1 minute ago, ivan&alice said:

Every other penny into each of the two ladies in my life ?

 

A poster on here a few years back likened a NB to "a big steel pet".

 

You need to feed it, water it and love it, and the vets bills can be enormous.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, ivan&alice said:

This is interesting. Are you talking about a sea-going boat? How come sea-going boats are cheaper than inland waterways boats?

There are 300,000+ leisure boats around our coast - how many steel canal boats ? (25,000 ?)

It is a huge industry mass producing boats, NB's are a cottage industry and have no economies of scale.

Many folks are trading up every couple of years (we have had 18 boats in 30 years), so there is a continuous 'for sale market' how long do folks keep NB's ?

 

GRP cruisers are built all around the world, I have had USA built boats, French built boats & I have currently a French built boat we bought in Croatia and a UK built boat.

It is worldwide market.

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