Hi there, yet another newbie

[daveylad]

Hi all, first of all i,m a complete novice and never owned a narrowboat. The plan is to sell our house in Cornwall and buy a house in Yorkshire around the Sheffield, Barnsley area. Reason being that our Daughter can be nearer to her Grandparents and my girlfriend wants to be near her parents.

Also we are going to buy a narrowboat and fancy mooring it around the Alvechurch area on the Worcester, Birmingham canal. We are very fortunate that our house in Cornwall is paid off so once we,ve got a property sorted out in Yorkshire we can then start looking into getting our dream boat.

Mind you we still need to sell our property in Cornwall first and that most probably isn,t going to be easy.

[Naughty Cal]

Hi all, first of all i,m a complete novice and never owned a narrowboat. The plan is to sell our house in Cornwall and buy a house in Yorkshire around the Sheffield, Barnsley area. Reason being that our Daughter can be nearer to her Grandparents and my girlfriend wants to be near her parents.

Also we are going to buy a narrowboat and fancy mooring it around the Alvechurch area on the Worcester, Birmingham canal. We are very fortunate that our house in Cornwall is paid off so once we,ve got a property sorted out in Yorkshire we can then start looking into getting our dream boat.

Mind you we still need to sell our property in Cornwall first and that most probably isn,t going to be easy.

 

Good luck.

[Nine of Hearts]

...around the Alvechurch area on the Worcester, Birmingham canal.

 

That is a much sought after mooring location and you're probably best sorting that out first before deciding on the boat. 2 year waiting list at Alvechurch itself, when I last looked (Just over 2 years ago, funnily enough. If I'd have persisted I could have offered you my mooring, sorry ).

[FORTUNATA]

Do you plan to buy new or second hand? Prices vary. How big does the boat need to be? My guess is you're looking around 40 to 50 feet. At any rate, the thing to do is take someone with you who has an eye for boats and look at as many as you can. When you see one you like, get a surveyor to go over it with a fine toothed comb. Survey results may alter the going price.

There are boating magazines you can buy to get informed about boats as a whole and also you see boats for sale.

 

Hi all, first of all i,m a complete novice and never owned a narrowboat. The plan is to sell our house in Cornwall and buy a house in Yorkshire around the Sheffield, Barnsley area. Reason being that our Daughter can be nearer to her Grandparents and my girlfriend wants to be near her parents.

Also we are going to buy a narrowboat and fancy mooring it around the Alvechurch area on the Worcester, Birmingham canal. We are very fortunate that our house in Cornwall is paid off so once we,ve got a property sorted out in Yorkshire we can then start looking into getting our dream boat.

Mind you we still need to sell our property in Cornwall first and that most probably isn,t going to be easy.

[Dekazer]

How exciting for you both We've just taken the plunge (no pun intended) and made the first payment on our new used boat, and will hopefully be moving onto our mooring in April.

 

We're both novices as well, so although I can't offer much advice, do feel free to message us with questions.

 

We found our mooring first, after following a lot of advice from people on here and in the real world... We needed a residential mooring, which seem to be scarcer than leisure moorings, so it may not take you too long. In the end we had to go through the BW tendering system to get ours, but you may find a private one in your area.

 

In retrospect we probably did let our hearts have a say in our choice of boat, as well as our heads. However, we did view A LOT, which really helped us decide on the type, layout, added extras etc we wanted. It also gave us good ideas for modifications we can make to our own boat. It remains to be seen whether we have bought a proper value-for-money- bargain, or a money pit, but the excitement of putting down the deposit will keep us going for a while!

 

We found the various magazines pretty useful for inspiring us to keep looking (it took us about a year all in), and this forum, and other websites have been invaluable for guides to getting afloat.

 

I hope you have a really good time looking around, and good luck finding a mooring,

 

Lucy