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Living Aboard - Mooring and Utility Questions


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16 hours ago, David Mack said:

Narrow boats up to 58 ft long (60 at a pinch) can go anywhere on the connected main waterways network ( England and a bit of Wales). Narrow boats 58-70ft can do the southern and Midland waterways but are too long for the transpennine and some northeastern waterways.

Wide boats are restricted to three separate chunks of the network - south (including the K&A, Thames and Grand Union Main Line up to Birmingham), North (Liverpool and Manchester across to Yorkshire, Yorkshire waterways, River Trent and Soar) and Anglian (Nene below Northampton, Great Ouse below Bedford plus tributaries and Middle Level). (And anything over 7ft beam is too wide for the main Midlands network). To get between these three areas in a wide boat you need to go by sea or by lorry. So a wide boat will be much more restrictive in terms of where you can go.

 

If you have been browsing the forum for any length of time you may have seen a certain antipathy towards wide boats. Mainly because even the nominally wide canals (in the south particularly) are not really big enough to accommodate them with ease, they can be slow moving, and are sometimes moored in places which makes passage more difficult for others. On the other hand, a wide boat in a marina which rarely moves troubles nobody.

Heating - diesel fired boiler feeding radiators and or solid fuel stove is what most people use. Having both gives you some redundancy.

Hot water - either a gas fired instantaneous water heater, or a calorifier (fancy name for a hot water tank) which can be heated by any or all of engine cooling system, diesel central heating boiler, back boiler from solid fuel stove, electric immersion heater (only when on shore line power supply).

Electricity - the biggest problem for newbies. Unlike a house or flat (or a boat with a shore line connection) you have to generate it all yourself - by some combination of your main propulsion engine, a generator and solar panels. Solar is great in summer, and all but useless in winter. And because you have to generate it all yourself you need to be much more frugal in how much you use. And between generating it and using it you have to store it in batteries. And if you don't manage the battery charging properly you will pretty quickly wreck the batteries.  Remember that batteries don't make electricity, they only store it, so everything you take out has to be put back (+ at least 10% more because the charging process is not 100% efficient). There's lots on the forum about how to manage electricity and look after your batteries, but it can all seem very daunting for a newbie.

 

Thank you!! The utility info is super helpful - I'd read bits and pieces, but never really seen a summary laid out that plain. Will read up on electricity management. Copy that on the network restrictions (and the dislike of cruising wide boats).

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21 hours ago, cherrycolouredfunk said:

Boat-wise, we're aiming for a barge. I'd be cool with a narrowboat, but I'm trying to keep things as analogous to regular living as possible (currently in a flat).

 

 

I've not read the whole thread but this jumps out of the screen at me. 

 

Boat living is NOTHING LIKE analogous to living in a flat and any attempt to try to make it even vaguely similar will doom you to major disappointment. 

 

Particular differences are the absence of mains drainage and mains gas. Also the absence of mains water and electricity supplies into the boat unless you choose to moor in a tightly packed shanty town of a marina. 

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1 hour ago, MtB said:

 

 

I've not read the whole thread but this jumps out of the screen at me. 

 

Boat living is NOTHING LIKE analogous to living in a flat and any attempt to try to make it even vaguely similar will doom you to major disappointment. 

 

Particular differences are the absence of mains drainage and mains gas. Also the absence of mains water and electricity supplies into the boat unless you choose to moor in a tightly packed shanty town of a marina. 

It's a good plan to keep the marinas filled, especially if widebeam, they pay for themselves and don't annoy people out enjoying the themselves cruising on a nice narrowboat. In time, as more electric boats come on to the cut they will need more top ups at marinas.

Edited by LadyG
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23 hours ago, cherrycolouredfunk said:

We also plan to do a weekend stay on a boat and ask some Cambs boaters about their experiences.

 

A weekend on a boat is not going to anything like adequate to get the "experience"!
In that time you won't be needing to empty the loo, or carry more gas or coal to the boat.
Even on a hire boat where the last two probably won't be required I think you need atleast a month to even scrape the surface of what it all means.

Edited by Graham Davis
Edit to remove multi posts.
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9 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

 

A weekend on a boat is not going to anything like adequate to get the "experience"!
In that time you won't be needing to empty the loo, or carry more gas or coal to the boat.

 

Or even re-fill the tanks with diesel or water! 

 

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The way to experience a year living on a narrowboat compressed in to a weekend is to take a single cheap flight to anywhere no hand luggage. Lose passport, live in airport, get back to work on Monday

Edited by LadyG
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For a 57ft narrowboat at Brighton it would cost circa £7,500 if paid annually for a standard non live aboard berth. For a heavy usage add I believe 18% to that gives circa £8850 but even that is not a livea board deal and has restrictions on the number of weeks you can use it.

Add to that in a non sea going boat you have nowhere to go.

Not surprisingly its geared towards yachts.

I lived on Brighton Marine parade many years ago, love the town but there is no way I would live in the marina on a narrow boat even if I was allowed.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, reg said:

For a 57ft narrowboat at Brighton it would cost circa £7,500 if paid annually for a standard non live aboard berth. For a heavy usage add I believe 18% to that gives circa £8850 but even that is not a livea board deal and has restrictions on the number of weeks you can use it.

Add to that in a non sea going boat you have nowhere to go.

Not surprisingly its geared towards yachts.

I lived on Brighton Marine parade many years ago, love the town but there is no way I would live in the marina on a narrow boat even if I was allowed.

 

 

Yes quite agree it would be rather expensive for a narrowboat in a coastal marina as they are geared more for your normal 25 - 35 foot seagoing boat. Although the OP did mention a barge and if this was the case would probably only be charged on length. Unlike many inland waterway marina's where anything wider than a narrowboat pays double. Also agree a coastal marina is probably not the best place as your stuck with nowhere to go. I did mention earlier about the possibility of Portishead or even Cardiff Bay. At least from these marina's it is quite feasible to leave and get onto the network. I suppose it all depends on where the OP wants to be. I did get the impression that anywhere in the South be a possibility.

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3 hours ago, Steve56 said:

Yes quite agree it would be rather expensive for a narrowboat in a coastal marina as they are geared more for your normal 25 - 35 foot seagoing boat. Although the OP did mention a barge and if this was the case would probably only be charged on length. Unlike many inland waterway marina's where anything wider than a narrowboat pays double. Also agree a coastal marina is probably not the best place as your stuck with nowhere to go. I did mention earlier about the possibility of Portishead or even Cardiff Bay. At least from these marina's it is quite feasible to leave and get onto the network. I suppose it all depends on where the OP wants to be. I did get the impression that anywhere in the South be a possibility.

They do have some Waterlodges which occasionaly come up for sale

https://www.waterlodge.co.uk/waterlodge-six-for-sale-in-brighton/

These are purchased and I assume you then pay mooring fees on top.

Only things going for this is that you should have little problem selling them when you leave and Travelodge have a number of locations which theoretically you can transfer your module too.

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