New to barging, help desperately needed!

[Angie Palmer]

Both my husband and myself are researching purchasing a live aboard wide beam barge. We are complete novices and apart from a weekend trip in a narrow boat years ago have never managed to afford an extended stay in a widebeam. My husband subscribes to barging videos but we really need to speak to someone who is experienced and skilled. Ideally, we’d like to spend an afternoon on board to get a Feel for it and experience managing the locks. We are not yet retired and therefore need to be within commuting distance of our jobs in north leeds. Ideally we would like to moor along the Leeds Liverpool Canal but not in a city.

Perhaps we are just being naive, but like a lot of other people we are just seeking a better quality of life!

Thank you for reading, happy to receive any replies.

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Angie Palmer said:

Both my husband and myself are researching purchasing a live aboard wide beam barge. We are complete novices and apart from a weekend trip in a narrow boat years ago have never managed to afford an extended stay in a widebeam. My husband subscribes to barging videos but we really need to speak to someone who is experienced and skilled. Ideally, we’d like to spend an afternoon on board to get a Feel for it and experience managing the locks. We are not yet retired and therefore need to be within commuting distance of our jobs in north leeds. Ideally we would like to moor along the Leeds Liverpool Canal but not in a city.

Perhaps we are just being naive, but like a lot of other people we are just seeking a better quality of life!

Thank you for reading, happy to receive any replies.

Bear Boating not far from you offer training and they have wide beams,

 

http://www.bearboating.co.uk/

[TheBiscuits]

1 minute ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Bear Boating not far from you offer training and they have wide beams,

 

http://www.bearboating.co.uk/

 

I was going to suggest exactly that.

 

It's around £350 per person to do the full Inland Waterways Helmsman course, but if you are realistically thinking of spending £80,000+ on a boat it's not a bad course to try first!

[Sea Dog]

8 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Ideally, we’d like to spend an afternoon on board to get a Feel for it and experience managing the locks.

If you're hoping to do this by private arrangement, its quite a big ask in the light of the worsening Covid situation and the imminent tightening of restrictions, particularly in your part of the world. The company mentioned above will, if currently running their courses, be geared up to dealing with the pandemic  safety requirements, and the money you spend in learning to helm the beast will pay you back in spades if you go ahead. 

 

In addition, you should consider hiring a wide beam in the winter months. A life afloat looks rosy from the towpath on a sunny day, but reality has a habit of biting hard when less than ideal conditions are set for a long stretch ahead.

 

Also, if you don't already have a deep love of boats and the canals, you're taking a leap of faith into an area where many with similar dreams and aspirations have come unstuck. I'm not trying to put you off, but do make sure that those rose tinted specs are firmly locked away when looking at this.

 

[Tracy D'arth]

Find your mooring if you are not CCing before you buy.

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

If you're hoping to do this by private arrangement, its quite a big ask in the light of the worsening Covid situation and the imminent tightening of restrictions, particularly in your part of the world. 

How come you managed to attribute that quote to me??? It was the original poster who said that.

Edited September 12, 2020 by The Happy Nomad

[Sea Dog]

15 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

How come you managed to attribute that quote to me??? It was the original poster who said that.

I've got no idea!

 

Perhaps I took the bit quoted from the quote in your post by accident instead of from the original? I certainly didn't mean to lump you into it! Apologies if you feel badly done by.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

4 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I've got no idea!

 

Perhaps I took the bit quoted from the quote in your post by accident instead of from the original? I certainly didn't mean to lump you into it! Apologies if you feel badly done by.

 

 

So easily done,

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

I've got no idea!

 

Perhaps I took the bit quoted from the quote in your post by accident instead of from the original? I certainly didn't mean to lump you into it! Apologies if you feel badly done by.

 

 

No worries, I was just a bit mystified really.

[Momac]

This is for sale ..........

https://www.farndonmarina.co.uk/brokerage/boat-listings/257-piper-49m-carpe-diem

 

I don't know why you are waiting for retirement. Driving a boat is not like driving a car and it take s a while to become reasonably competent.

Wanting a large (liveaboard) wide beam as a first boat seems to me a bit like jumping in a the deep end ..... but good luck.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, MartynG said:

This is for sale ..........

https://www.farndonmarina.co.uk/brokerage/boat-listings/257-piper-49m-carpe-diem

 

I don't know why you are waiting for retirement. Driving a boat is not like driving a car and it take s a while to become reasonably competent.

Wanting a large (liveaboard) wide beam as a first boat seems to me a bit like jumping in a the deep end ..... but good luck.

Stunning boat, (Diesel stove aside).

[dmr]

Living on a boat is only a better quality of life if you really like boats and boating, otherwise it can just be unpleasant hard work. The fact that you want a widebeam might suggest that you still "have your house head on" and are not totally convinced about boating. In my very limited experience those who succeed at living on a widebeam have very often owned narrowboats beforehand.

 

..............Dave

[zenataomm]

1 hour ago, Angie Palmer said:

Ideally, we’d like to spend an afternoon on board to get a Feel for it

You may have said you're prepared to invest a whole afternoon because you don't want to inconvenience a boat owner too much.

However I seriously question that anything under a long weekend for starting out novices would be of any serious use.

I agree about hiring first, especially out of season.

[Momac]

5 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Stunning boat, (Diesel stove aside).

I don't think the chief officer would like it ........but almost tempted myself. 

 

 

[Bee]

In some ways its not the boat that is the hard part. Buying it, keeping warm, lugging gas bottles, water, getting rid of the loo etc. That is the easy bit and liking it is like pushing at an open door.  Then comes the problems. Finding a mooring - major problem, good legal moorings are really hard to find. Big boats, widebeams etc. are harder to accommodate than narrowboats. It is possible to continuously cruise but it brings its own problems. It is not cheap, really, it is not. Electricity, damned hard to produce it and just as hard to store it.  Mud. In the winter there is mud, everywhere, some places are like the Somme (actually a beautiful river now) . Depreciation Boats depreciate, houses tend not too. It is not something I would do again but we do spend 3 months of the year living on board our boat so its not the boat that is the problem - its everything else.

[peterboat]

A few years ago I had a couple spend an afternoon on my boat, this year Martin bought a widebeam and loves it ex wife has gone! ?

[Bee]

11 minutes ago, peterboat said:

A few years ago I had a couple spend an afternoon on my boat, this year Martin bought a widebeam and loves it ex wife has gone! ?

Ah, that's yet another problem, you can end up with a muddy boat living with a stinky dog and no wife!

[dmr]

1 hour ago, Bee said:

Ah, that's yet another problem, you can end up with a muddy boat living with a stinky dog and no wife!

Not really a problem, you just find a wife who is at least as keen on boating as yourself, and the shorter haired lurchers are very clean dogs to share a bed with and do not smell at all doggie, just keep them well away from badger sh*t.

 

........................Dave

[ditchcrawler]

22 minutes ago, dmr said:

 , just keep them well away from badger sh*t.

 

........................Dave

Or fox

[blackrose]

8 hours ago, MartynG said:

This is for sale ..........

https://www.farndonmarina.co.uk/brokerage/boat-listings/257-piper-49m-carpe-diem

 

I don't know why you are waiting for retirement. Driving a boat is not like driving a car and it take s a while to become reasonably competent.

Wanting a large (liveaboard) wide beam as a first boat seems to me a bit like jumping in a the deep end ..... but good luck.

 

And in my experience steering a Dutch style barge will generally require even more competence than steering a narrowboat-style widebeam of the same dimensions. Also with a draft of 3ft 3in that barge isn't not going to be suitable for some broadbeam canals and will be limited to ship canals and rivers.

Edited September 12, 2020 by blackrose

[garibaldi]

There are a couple of places where you can do 1 day narrowboat experience days in the Midlands 

https://nbsc.org.uk/experience-day

https://livingonanarrowboat.co.uk/narrowboat-discovery-day/

but its not going to be the same as living one for a few days to get a better taste of things....

Edited September 12, 2020 by garibaldi
clarity

[dmr]

5 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

And in my experience steering a Dutch style barge will generally require even more competence than steering a narrowboat-style widebeam of the same dimensions. Also with a draft of 3ft 3in that barge isn't not going to be suitable for some broadbeam canals and will be limited to ship canals and rivers.

And the op wants to live on the L&L so maybe this is not a good boat to provide a link to, but I know nothing about the L&L having done no more than walk some towpath. (Except Wigan to Liverpool that I know well, I think there is one Dutch Barge type boat on a long term mooring).

 

..................Dave

[Cheese]

4 hours ago, Bee said:

In some ways its not the boat that is the hard part. Buying it, keeping warm, lugging gas bottles, water, getting rid of the loo etc.

That's a bit drastic - I usually just get rid of the contents. ?

[Momac]

10 hours ago, blackrose said:

 

And in my experience steering a Dutch style barge will generally require even more competence than steering a narrowboat-style widebeam of the same dimensions. Also with a draft of 3ft 3in that barge isn't not going to be suitable for some broadbeam canals and will be limited to ship canals and rivers.

I think it may fit on the Leeds and Liverpool ? But yes a dutch barge would be limited in its travels but potentially capable of a sea crossing.

http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1144#:~:text=The canal is trapezoidal in,1.5m depth of water.

 

20 hours ago, Angie Palmer said:

Apart from a weekend trip in a narrow boat years ago have never managed to afford an extended stay in a widebeam. 

Do you have budget for the boat purchase ?

[Momac]

I guess this would be cheap (if it was for sale)