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Heavily considering boating, but i dont know if im ready.


Minimal

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Okay my bit on the living stuff, And ill just add some things to build the picture.

 

Basically I was in a relationship, Engaged for 3 years, We had a house lined up and Was actually gonna get married before the pandemic happened but thankfully didnt for a number of reasons, From my viewpoint though I did not have the energy to be the best i could be with the ex's Psychosis. So basically im sitting on my own with 2 modern cars that i cant use at once (obviously one will go soon)

 

Yes the house prices are silly regardless of what area i look at, but to get something that ill be happy with i.e not a flat and i would like a garden and a garage preferably out of town somewhere, Yes im picky, but i would put my cash into something that will be good for me instead of feeling like i need to move somewhere else a year later, and lets say i get it, i would still live my life on the last £100 to spare and i would probably feel like i need to do overtime just so i have food in my belly, Its not like ill have the cash to go on holiday if i were living in that scenario.

 

I cant tell what my future will hold, But right now i know that i want to just chill out and do things that i find cool, extremely simple things like siting in the rain on a boat is a selling point to me, I do feel that the freedom is what im after, I dont have any ties to anything and i dont see that changing for a long time, And say the difference after costs is £200 in my pocket instead of £100, i would still find it worth it as i would be less stressed upkeeping a boat than a house, if i wished to move on then it could be sold at one point that will go towards wherever the future goes.

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This is a bit of a left-field suggestion, but I wonder if it might be worth looking at a GRP boat of about 30ft or so? 

 

About a year ago I got talking to a work colleague who asked about living aboard, because his son had shown a strong interest in this lifestyle and was keen to get cruising asap- but he only had about £20k. 

My advice to him was to give some thought to a GRP boat (preferably one with a stove, if possible). As a 20-something the lad would probably be more tolerant of a slightly cramped space and fewer domestic facilities, a smaller water tank, having to fetch petrol from nearby petrol stations, etc etc, and by going GRP, he would be less likely to buy a money pit that would need another 10k spent to make it safe and reliable.

My thinking was that the son really wanted to get cruising, and  a 20k steel narrowboat would need a fair few jobs doing (and maybe a few more thousand spending on it), and he might be stuck for a few months just getting it canal-worthy. 

 

Shortly afterwards he actually bought a 32ft Viking GRP cruiser (the viking 32cc), and his dad called a couple of months later to tell me he was absolutely over the moon with it, and had done loads of cruising, 

If you buy carefully you'll lose very little, it being GRP it wont need £800 for blacking every 2 years, plus it can U turn in places that 50ft boats cannot (so a bit more freedom of movement), and it might just have the minimalist feel that you are looking for. 

 

Edited by Tony1
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1 hour ago, Tony1 said:

 

This is a bit of a left-field suggestion, but I wonder if it might be worth looking at a GRP boat of about 30ft or so? 

 

About a year ago I got talking to a work colleague who asked about living aboard, because his son had shown a strong interest in this lifestyle and was keen to get cruising asap- but he only had about £20k. 

My advice to him was to give some thought to a GRP boat (preferably one with a stove, if possible). As a 20-something the lad would probably be more tolerant of a slightly cramped space and fewer domestic facilities, a smaller water tank, having to fetch petrol from nearby petrol stations, etc etc, and by going GRP, he would be less likely to buy a money pit that would need another 10k spent to make it safe and reliable.

My thinking was that the son really wanted to get cruising, and  a 20k steel narrowboat would need a fair few jobs doing (and maybe a few more thousand spending on it), and he might be stuck for a few months just getting it canal-worthy. 

 

Shortly afterwards he actually bought a 32ft Viking GRP cruiser (the viking 32cc), and his dad called a couple of months later to tell me he was absolutely over the moon with it, and had done loads of cruising, 

If you buy carefully you'll lose very little, it being GRP it wont need £800 for blacking every 2 years, plus it can U turn in places that 50ft boats cannot (so a bit more freedom of movement), and it might just have the minimalist feel that you are looking for. 

 

In all honesty I dont know enough about GRP boats, The layout on them are typically really nice and more to what i would like and personally i would prefer a diesel engine of some sort as it would just be easier to upkeep on travels, i just get the feeling that they would be a bit too light? Im unsure, but also they look kinda tall for the canals that are local, unsure if ill just bump into somewhere with a really low bridge or something.

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20 minutes ago, Minimal said:

In all honesty I dont know enough about GRP boats, The layout on them are typically really nice and more to what i would like and personally i would prefer a diesel engine of some sort as it would just be easier to upkeep on travels, i just get the feeling that they would be a bit too light? Im unsure, but also they look kinda tall for the canals that are local, unsure if ill just bump into somewhere with a really low bridge or something.

 

I'm no expert myself tbh, but I think GRPs with 6ft 10 inch beam (like the viking 26cc or 32cc) can go anywhere a narrowboat can go, including most tunnels (although they are  banned from the Standedge tunnel I think).

They are lighter as you say and so they do bob around more in the water- so I guess when another boat passes by there is more risk of your coffee falling off the table, but I dont think they are much higher/taller than most narrowboats. 

Hopefully  someone can clarify the headroom/air draft question, as I it is important to know. 

 

In terms of engines, the GRPs mostly have petrol outboards, although I've seen a few with inboard diesels.

At first glance outboards have some disadvantages- they're easier to steal, and petrol is not as easy to get at the canalside as diesel, and on each visit to a petrol station with a container, they will apparently only sell you 10 litres. 

But there is one plus- if a narrowboat engine suffers a major failure and is not worth repairing (and these sorts of failures can happen with 30 year old diesels), a new engine can cost £7k or more.

If an outboard fails catastrophically, you can buy a used (or new) outboard for a couple of thousand, and maybe fit it yourself.

 

Also you need to be really careful when starting to cruise. New boaters find it easier to bump into things, and a big hit direct on a protruding concrete bank could cause significant damage to a GRP hull. 

 

But all that said, there are many people who absolutely love the interior feeling of the space, and the mobility.

 

Edited by Tony1
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6 hours ago, enigmatic said:

But if you have the funds for a mid range boat at the £50-£60k they're changing hands now there are bricks and mortar in unfashionable parts of the UK within the range of cash purchases (not many, but there aren't many decent boats either). Ultimately its about whether you want the lifestyle of a boat compared to a small flat in a less appealing part of Birmingham or a two-bed mid terraced house in an ex-mining town.

But that depends on whether you can find work, that pays enough to keep you going, in such areas. Property in ex-mining towns tends to be cheap precisely because there are no reasonably well paid jobs, the mining or industrial jobs that caused those houses to be built in the first place having long gone.

And even the less appealing parts of cities tend to be unaffordable to those looking at the first rung of the housing ladder, unless you really want to go to areas remote from shops, other amenities, public transport etc. and where you may not feel safe walking home after dark.

Edited by David Mack
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52 minutes ago, Minimal said:

In all honesty I dont know enough about GRP boats, The layout on them are typically really nice and more to what i would like and personally i would prefer a diesel engine of some sort as it would just be easier to upkeep on travels, i just get the feeling that they would be a bit too light? Im unsure, but also they look kinda tall for the canals that are local, unsure if ill just bump into somewhere with a really low bridge or something.

If you do start to seriously think about GRP, there are several drawbacks compared to a steel narrowboat if you want to live aboard on the canals.

Relatively few GRP boats suitable to live aboard are 6'-10" beam,which of course is necessary on narrow canals.

They will need some form of heating,usually diesel blown warm air,Eberspacher,Webasto,Propex or a Chinese knockoff,or a solid fuel stove.

When you have got your heat you need to keep it in,so as the only insulation you get with most GRP boats is a thin carpet,insulation needs seeing to, and that is not so easy with the compound curves of a GRP cruiser.

They are usually outboard petrol powered and lugging a 20ltr jerrycan from a garage can be a pain.

Some of these boats do have a diesel engine,but use a Z drive (also known as transom drive or outdrive) but from what I have heard they are troublesome things and are expensive to service and repair.

There are wider beam GRP  boats with diesel engines and shaft drive,but are usually too wide,too deep, and too high for quite a lot of canals,with the added disadvantage of no weedhatch.

A GRP boat has the advantage of no corrosion,so you can buy one without worrying too much about hull condition,unlike buying a steel boat at the bottom end of the market.

You can live adequately on a GRP boat if you get one big enough,I think minimum would be 27', but anything smaller would simply be a "crash pad" and spending a lot of time aboard would drive you mad.

Don't ask me how I know this!

😜😃

The biggest advantage of GRP compared to steel is price.

For the cost of an old narrowboat with a paper thin hull,and a knackered engine,that "only"need a bit of "TLC" or a "lick of paint"or any of the other euphanisms you see in adverts,you could buy a really nice GRP boat.

Edited by Mad Harold
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Yeah i have just looked up a bit more on the GRPs but its not for me, I really think the smaller narrowboats are what im looking for at the moment, seen some nice 40ft ones with an interior style i like too, I basically want to do a good amount of touring and reflect on life i guess.

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Minimal said:

Yeah i have just looked up a bit more on the GRPs but its not for me, I really think the smaller narrowboats are what im looking for at the moment, seen some nice 40ft ones with an interior style i like too, I basically want to do a good amount of touring and reflect on life i guess.

 

Just in case you haven't sussed it, like 40ft boats, boats significantly bigger than the ideal 57ft tend to sell for far less than the price of a 57ft too. 

 

Ok so licencing costs more but the luxury of a 65 or 70 ft boat doesn't cost that much different and makes for a much nicer liveaboard experience, in my experience!

 

 

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44 minutes ago, David Mack said:

But that depends on whether you can find work, that pays enough to keep you going, in such areas. Property in ex-mining towns tends to be cheap precisely because there are no reasonably well paid jobs, the mining or industrial jobs that caused those houses to be built in the first place having long gone.

And even the less appealing parts of cities tend to be unaffordable to those looking at the first rung of the housing ladder, unless you really want to go to areas remote from shops, other amenities, public transport etc. and where you may not feel safe walking home after dark.

Areas remote from shops, other amenities and public transport sounds... just like most moorings. The moorings may have nicer countryside attached, but then they may not have electricity or the facility to empty your toilet, or they may have a monthly cost that's not thats not that much less than the rental on the cheapest flat in the area (which doesn't need blacking). If you can work remotely then canals aren't any better for you than ex mining towns (and if you can't then there's still a lot of the country where cheap flats are easier to come by than moorings) 

 

Ultimately you pick your flavour of inconvenience. I quite like it boat flavoured, but if I just wanted a cheap house I'm not sure it'd have been the best option.

 

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