How old is too old

[Bromleyxphil]

Going to look at some boats this weekend.  I see on some advertisements that the boat is being sold as the owner has reached an age where boating has become too much.  A child of the 60s I am no spring chicken, it’s going to be for leisure not liveaboard so……how young is too old to start 😀

[Jerra]

4 minutes ago, Bromleyxphil said:

Going to look at some boats this weekend.  I see on some advertisements that the boat is being sold as the owner has reached an age where boating has become too much.  A child of the 60s I am no spring chicken, it’s going to be for leisure not liveaboard so……how young is too old to start 😀

I am past my mid 70s and still cope well with boating.   I did however start decades ago.

[Naughty Cal]

We were out with friends on their boat at the weekend. They are both approaching 70 and still enjoy being on the water.

 

A lot will depend on how fit and healthy you are rather than how old you are.

[Col_T]

I bought our boat as a 61st birthday present to myself. Go for it!

[zenataomm]

Old is the same number as the length of a piece of string.

[magnetman]

I started living on a boat when I was 20. This was too old I should have started sooner. 

[LEO]

Hey. I grew up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, had the great days of boating........it's changed now, got more expensive, you need a good pension to pay for mooring, licence and maintenance.........and GOOD Health, got those, it's still fun, but before you planned in decades, now it's months, good health is the thing and that can change rapidly.

[Alan de Enfield]

53 minutes ago, LEO said:

good health is the thing and that can change rapidly.

 

Add the 'availability of water and failing infrastructure' to your list (particularly on the Northern canals)

[system 4-50]

I gave up at 75.

[Bromleyxphil]

cheers guys, so at 61 with good health I should get 10 years in!  The biggest problem at the moment is finding a boat that looks value for money.  My gut says that I don’t think many are selling at the prices advertised despite the salesman’s patter.

[sueb]

You can never tell. Hubby had a stroke 10 years ago at 75, which ended our boating. I'm now 80 and so far fit. We did have 25 years boating .

[Slim]

2 hours ago, system 4-50 said:

I gave up at 7cf,tç5.

In my case 76. Book hauling a 55' fully loaded and kitted out was no fun. Humping 25kg bags of coal onto the roof----impossible. etc,etc no fun. When the time comes the time. 

[ditchcrawler]

7 hours ago, Jerra said:

I am past my mid 70s and still cope well with boating.   I did however start decades ago.

I think that last bit is probably the most important, I am 75 but been at it for over 30 years, after that time you don't do things the hard way

[Slim]

2 hours ago, Bromleyxphil said:

cheers guys, so at 61 with good health I should get 10 years in!  The biggest problem at the moment is finding a boat that looks value for money.  My gut says that I don’t think many are selling at the prices advertised despite the salesman’s patter.

Don't know the current 'patter' but I got the full genuine valuation ( no survey) six months ago. It was somewhat more than I had it insured for.

[roland elsdon]

I started at 22  the easy way with a then modern boat. Far too easy. Since then its been the hard way.

We have had motor boats with no electrics , hand cranked engines and paraffin stoves.

Now we have a Rolls Royce of narrowboats. Electric lighting and engine commencement.

It charges the phone .

However in spite of all that it is hard and heavy, sharp corners buts of old iron everywhere and a 4’6” lift to get anything bike ,coal, gold bars out of the hold.

I have new cuts bruises and gouges daily, as I age and wobble.

 

[LadyG]

7 hours ago, Jerra said:

I am past my mid 70s and still cope well with boating.   I did however start decades ago.

I started narrowboating when I was seventy two but had sailed for many a year otherwise I would not have dared take on such a lifestyle change. The best transferable skill was rope handling (this helps when handling from the shore ,as I don't have the strength of my youth. It did not stop me getting a rope round the prop fairly early on 😄.

I also singlehand which makes mooring and locking quite a bit of a faff.

 

 

18 minutes ago, Slim said:

In my case 76. Book hauling a 55' fully loaded and kitted out was no fun. Humping 25kg bags of coal onto the roof----impossible. etc,etc no fun. When the time comes the time. 

But I have my coal and logs delivered, logs inside and coal on the well deck so I never actually lift anything heavy. I remove the gas cylinder when empty and the guy drops the full one in the locker.

My main issue is lack of "sprightlyness".

I should be fighting the ageing proces by going to the gym, doing yoga and walking a few miles every day, I know I should but I haven't got round to it, yet. 

I am very careful not to slip or fall, and I don't do twenty locks and twenty miles in a day! 

 

 

[Slim]

1 hour ago, LadyG said:

I started narrowboating when I was seventy two but had sailed for many a year otherwise I would not have dared take on such a lifestyle change. The best transferable skill was rope handling (this helps when handling from the shore ,as I don't have the strength of my youth. It did not stop me getting a rope round the prop fairly early on 😄.

I also singlehand which makes mooring and locking quite a bit of a faff.

 

 

But I have my coal and logs delivered, logs inside and coal on the well deck so I never actually lift anything heavy. I remove the gas cylinder when empty and the guy drops the full one in the locker.

My main issue is lack of "sprightlyness".

I should be fighting the ageing proces by going to the gym, doing yoga and walking a few miles every day, I know I should but I haven't got round to it, yet. 

I am very careful not to slip or fall, and I don't do twenty locks and twenty miles in a day! 

 

 

What I didn't mention is that last year after mooring up opposite the Pig Place (South Oxford) I tripped on an uneven bit of the towpath. Getting up  was a bit of a struggle (understatement). Sitting in the cockpit later in the day I realised that in the previous 2 hours I had not seen a single person walking past. I then realised just how venerable I was. The rest is history.

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

1 hour ago, Slim said:

What I didn't mention is that last year after mooring up opposite the Pig Place (South Oxford) I tripped on an uneven bit of the towpath. Getting up  was a bit of a struggle (understatement). Sitting in the cockpit later in the day I realised that in the previous 2 hours I had not seen a single person walking past. I then realised just how venerable I was. The rest is history.

Venerable with age, but also vulnerable at times.

[Bacchus]

As one child of the sixties to another... I don't think you can put a number on age... I "semi-retired" a few years ago and have more time for exercise, more time for healthy eating, and less stress; I feel the youngest I have felt in twenty years. Quite happy to single hand my boat all day every day, but I am Thames based, I think it's easier than the canals (usually, obviously it has its own issues when in spate, but I know it fairly well)

 

friends of mine have just gone off on their boat for a (Thames) cruise both aged 79.

 

I was part of a small group which took a party of visiting Americans out last weekend. One of their number, a seemingly agile chap in his late sixties jumped from the quay --against the instructions of the skipper-- onto the swim platform of the small cruiser in front of me. Only a couple of feet, but he landed awkwardly and fell into the river. The screams of pain as they hoiked him out were because, as it turned out, he had broken a femur in two places. Proud of the NHS - the ambulance was there within minutes, and not, as they would stateside, asking for his credit card or medical insurance before treating him, but filling him with morphine and getting him to a hospital. Skipper says the screams will still haunt his waking hours...

 

So how old is too old? Only you will know, but as you get more brittle, take fewer risks...!

[Mad Harold]

Too old is when you get hold of the ground and can't let go. 😜

[Tony Brooks]

You will know when it is time to sell, your body and boat will tell you. We sold an about 75 after 20 odd years of leisure boat owning. You will find maintenance becomes unenjoyable and actual boating seems more like hard work than fun.

[furnessvale]

When the pain outweighs the pleasure, it is time to give up.

 

As the pleasure is a different concept to each individual this cannot be assessed as a "one size fits all" thing.  For example, my pleasure was visiting historic boat shows which meant long days and many locks.  A different concept to living abourd and moving every 14 days.

 

With me and the wife in the mid to late 70s, I have just sold up.

[Slim]

17 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

You will know when it is time to sell, your body and boat will tell you. We sold an about 75 after 20 odd years of leisure boat owning. You will find maintenance becomes unenjoyable and actual boating seems more like hard work than fun.

|Tony, you posted a similar comment several years ago when you gave up. It kept running through my mind as I made my decision. 

[Arthur Marshall]

At 73 with a dodgy back I can no longer get down into the engine hole to fettle anything, though it feels daft having to go to a yard to get someone to tighten up the engine drain plug. I'm also a lot more careful round locks, and a bit slower. However, while I can still shin up the ladders I reckon I'm ok.. what will make me too old will be when life just gets too short to be bothered with the endless system breakdowns and closures these days , which have made the last few years cruising impossible to plan and cause a constant niggling worry as to whether you're going to get back to the mooring or get stuck (for me) in an unaffordable marina mooring somewhere miles from home.

For the last five years I've been saying "let's see if I enjoy next year better". If my wife didn't insist on her few weeks on the boat every year I'd have packed it in those five years back.

[pete.i]

I bought my first boat when I was 60. I gave it up when I got to 70. I'd had 3 boats in that time. I enjoyed the time I had but a move to South Wales, where I was a long way away from a canal and the roads to the nearest navigable canal were basically cart tracks, made the decision to give up permanently for me. I will admit that my age, 72, did play a significant part in that decision.