Jump to content

Single woman buys narrowboat to get on property ladder


David Mack

Featured Posts

Three years ago, artist Elizabeth Earle gave up on saving for a mortgage and bought her first narrowboat with her overdraft.

The 34-year-old single woman from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, renovated it from scratch and sold it for a profit.

She now owns a 1920s 70ft boat and cuts down on costs by having a "continuous cruiser" licence which means she has no mooring fees.

Elizabeth has a YouTube series documenting her life on the waterways and plans to tour the UK later this year to research the history of women in narrowboats.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-64470102

 

  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why, oh why, oh why does she insist on calling an historic boat by the somewhat silly name of Maggie?

 

It has the real name (Malvern) painted on it, so if you are genuinely interested in the history and heritage, please call it by its proper name.

 

I think her ideas on likely costs are in the land of make believe.  This boat changed hands a few years ago at a very knock down price, due to having failed a survey quite spectacularly.  I'm not sure if much steel-work has been done in the meantime, but my suspicion is that little has been fixed.  "Maggie" could end up costing her a small fortune, I think.

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish I could live on my boat for £200 pcm, not sure what costs are involved, but looking at my record of boat costs there are a few months under £200.

 January £618.75 plus the Licence of £90 pcm (paid in advance to get a discount).

 I paid out for logs £45, coal £140,   diesel £185.25,  gas £45.50, more coal £85.00, servicing engine £100. Insurance £17.50

Fortunately that is not an average month!

Good luck to her with the boat and the channel. I doubt she will be able to travel the whole network (E&W) with that particular boat,  but maybe she intends to sell that boat at a profit and buy another, it's not impossible, though somewhat unlikely.

Edited by LadyG
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A recent vlog from Foxes Afloat did a (superficial?) comparison of their costs on and off the canal and concluded that, allowing for inflation, there was not a lot between them. 

 

Others, I think, have also commented on the longer term effects of complying with CC requirements, if they are not really CCing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 This boat changed hands a few years ago at a very knock down price, due to having failed a survey quite spectacularly.  I'm not sure if much has been done...

That's alright, she will just run a crowdfunder if it sinks and buy a 5000 berth cruise liner.

  • Haha 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm surprised that, in these days of equality of the sexes, the piece stresses that she is a single woman; are they implying that, without a man to do the proper work while she concentrates on the dusting, the cute and fluffy creature is doomed to failure? We have surely come a long way since Bobby "Guitar" Bennett's 1964 song 'When Girls Do It', a splendid blues record but with lyrics "of its time". (It's on You Tube, for the uninitiated.)

 

Her obvious desire to leave Nuneaton is laudable, though.

2 minutes ago, matty40s said:

That's alright, she will just run a crowdfunder if it sinks and buy a 5000 berth cruise liner.

Perhaps she'll rename it 'Tom'.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Next months YouTube episode features a historic broom handle being sourced with the second half trying to find a screw in the engine room that fits the hole in the green brush socket.

"I cant believe that 200 years ago, someone invented a long stick to make brushing the roof so much easier."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, matty40s said:

Next months YouTube episode features a historic broom handle being sourced with the second half trying to find a screw in the engine room that fits the hole in the green brush socket.

"I cant believe that 200 years ago, someone invented a long stick to make brushing the roof so much easier."

 

 

Lol, I noticed that too. Along with the nice coat she always wears with doing some token 'boat stuff'. 

 

i can't help worrying that she thinks she's 'on the property ladder' having bought a colander of a historic(al) boat that at least one of our mutual acquaintances turned down, despite the knock-down bargain price.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

Why, oh why, oh why does she insist on calling an historic boat by the somewhat silly name of Maggie?

 

It has the real name (Malvern) painted on it, so if you are genuinely interested in the history and heritage, please call it by its proper name.

 

I think her ideas on likely costs are in the land of make believe.  This boat changed hands a few years ago at a very knock down price, due to having failed a survey quite spectacularly.  I'm not sure if much steel-work has been done in the meantime, but my suspicion is that little has been fixed.  "Maggie" could end up costing her a small fortune, I think.

Bitter. Reeks of jealousy. More power to her!

Edited by MrBadger
  • Horror 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's a strange first post from a new member. I can't see anything in Alan's post that would lead a person to think he is jealous of the owner of Maggie. Indeed he would seem to have a far better grip on reality than she does from what I read of her - it certainly is very odd to say you are interested in canal history and give a rather inappropriate new name to a boat with Fellows Morton paintwork

 

Tam

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, MrBadger said:

It is her boat, she is entitled to call it what she likes? She has not changed the name on the boat itself? Honestly, why is this community so bitter? Have you nothing better to do? Boat life is cheap, get over it lol

I agree Mr badger. Her boat. Nobody else's business. 

Edited by rusty69
  • Greenie 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Remember some of her early videos where she had big plans with a Dawncraft, amazed she sold it for a profit as she claims in that BBC puff piece, looks like Mr Barnum was right.

Depends on how she calculates profit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.