WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO LIVE ABOARD

[valrene9600]

The discussion of is it cheaper than a house raises the subject of why liveaboards chose a boat as there home. As topic starter it`s only fair i state my case.

 

When my wife died after 20 yrs of marriage i stuck it out in the house for a few years then had thoughts of perhaps there might be a better way to live how ever many years i had left on this earth. Did i want to stay in a large house and carry on working, self employed, paying out money left right and centre in taxes and rates etc with no control on the way the beurocrats spent my hard earnt cash. It didn`t take long to make the decision and i don`t regret it.I holiday when i want, the family/granchildren are also just a train ride away for a short break.

 

Others will tell stories of divorce, job loss etc. and some reasons i have heard over the past 5yrs have been from the so called bridge hopping group amongst us and some of them have my sympathy because as the saying goes `there but for the grace of God......so my attitude to all is live and let live.

 

So come on let`s hear your `whys` fine detail not needed just an outline.

[Chertsey]

When I did it, it was to avoid having to sell the house, uproot the children from school etc. when I got a fixed term job in Huddersfield (and was living on the south coast). So I was only ever a part time liveaboard, going back to the house at weekends. If I ever get the chance to do it again, it will be because I love the boat and the boating life, and don't want to spend the rest of my life living in a dying ferry port walking the same streets every day.

[Guest wanted]

I moved onto a boat because I was getting really lazy living in a house, I hate the idea that you come home, switch the lights/TV on and collapse on the sofa until it's time to go to bed and then get up go to work and start the whole thing again. Also moving to London from Dorset was quite difficult not to be around a bit of nature.

 

I like the fact that I can see my heating in bags of coal rather than units and that if I don't fill up with water then I don't have water. It makes me feel slightly more in control of my life.

 

I don't CC and to be honest have it pretty easy on the Marina, but whilst I still work and support my other half at Uni I have little choice.

 

I have never really lived in conventional housing, lived in various vehicles and squats in my yoof. My outlook has changed slightly since then but moving onto a boat has helped keep my head in check!

 

Now, if only I could afford to give up work......

 

[Kez]

'cause I was born to it and don't know any different

 

"perhaps I don't wanna live in a row of potty li'l 'ouses"

[Lady Muck]

Kez wins the thread.

 

We moved because -

 

My partner introduced me to boating and I never wanted to leave the boat behind after a trip.

We're self employed, don't earn much, so a mortgage is out of the question (need to keep our outgoings as low as possible).

20 years of renting in the private sector in London and I'd really had enough. Still living in a shared house when you're in your thirties isn't much fun.

[Sunset Rising]

Well, since this is a spin off of my thread..... I haven't done it yet but the wife and I will be retiring in a few months and I dread the thought of a.. spending the rest of my life basically looking after a house and garden that just soaks up money and b.. never getting around to see other places. ( I cannot see well enough to drive )

 

I just want to spend a few years enjoying myself and seeing different horizons while I still can

[deletedaccount]

Because I fancied living life rather than watching it pass me by.

 

Because there's more sense of community than any suburban street I've lived on in years

 

Because I like the outdoors and enjoy lugging coal about dammit

 

Because I spent the year before in a lovely enormous house and sat in the same square metre of it every night.

[bottle]

A holiday, the boat bug bit.

 

Oh! and I am mad, I have the psychiatrist report to prove it. Manic :lol:

[Chagall]

after a life time of sharing and doing stuff for other people, it was the only way I could have something with no debt that is totally and utterly mine, nobody else's and no previous owner! what happens to it and what I do with it is my concern and I answer to nobody for the decisions I take.

 

the perfect life! .....God willing.

 

(well actually I answer to God, but he gives me plenty of leeway!)

 

Because I fancied living life rather than watching it pass me by.

 

Because there's more sense of community than any suburban street I've lived on in years

 

Because I like the outdoors and enjoy lugging coal about dammit

 

Because I spent the year before in a lovely enormous house and sat in the same square metre of it every night.

 

I like this reply, tis true for me too!

Edited January 5, 2011 by Chagall

[blackrose]

20 years of renting in the private sector in London and I'd really had enough. Still living in a shared house when you're in your thirties isn't much fun.

 

 

Try it when you're in your 40s! I kept getting p*ssed off with housemates for being such lazy, messy, noisy sods but eventually realised it was me in the wrong place.

 

After selling my narrowboat and doing that for a few years I realised that I wanted to go back to boats.

[paddy r]

Life's to short not to do things you want,and if it doesn't tick other folk's boxes well.................

[Robbo]

For me it was basically looking for a nice place to live and something different, after spending 8 years looking at houses and a few boats the boat idea became more and more appealing. I was living at my parents before hand...

 

If the idea is in your head I would seriously look into it, but don't just look at narrowboats. I have a Dutch barge but wished I looked at all types of boats...

Edited January 5, 2011 by Robbo

[Purple Fairie]

Our last 2 years in the house were absolutely horrendous, being self-employed every penny we earned went straight into the upkeep of the bricks and mortar.

In those 2 years we attended the funerals of 6 people very close to us, only one of them was over the age of 50.

Smudge has always dreamed of retiring on a narrowboat so every year we had a boating holiday (the boat depended on how much we had managed to save over the year, sometimes only a little cruiser but most of the time we did manage a narroaboat) and on the way back from the last holiday we just decided life was too short and immediately started researching living afloat.

And, as they say, the rest is history!!!

[canaldrifter]

It's been in my blood since I watched working boats going through Ricky when I was eight.

 

Although I had a boat in the early 70s, opportunity didn't arise to live aboard until after a divorce in 1998.

 

Tone

[deletedaccount]

Plus, it's a surprising hit with the chicks

[DeanS]

We fell in love with the idea of a canal boat after proving we could run our business and home educate our kids , even while travelling around Europe in a camper van for 6mths. A canal boat is longer, slower, and you cant really get lost, and there are lots of places to pull up overnight. England's canals are unique. You can live in four walls anywhere, in any country, but living on canals , visiting towns and cities along the way holds some excitement. As others have said, having to carry coal, water, casettes etc, is so much better than sitting on a couch watching silly tv programs. I think living in a house is boring, and it eventually drives me mad Besides all that, every time we drove on the motorway over a canal and saw a boat, we went all mushy inside. Another drawcard is the idea that the canal lifestyle is more active ...at the moment I dont do anything requiring much effort...so even fixing up the boat has been a great change...sawing, painting, etc etc...

 

Of course you can be active in a house, but I'm one of those people who needs to be forced to do it:) Lastly, I spent 8hrs in the pouring rain, freezing to death moving a boat, and loved it.

[Travis]

2000 was a dreadful year for us, I lost a very dear sister to cancer and was going under with stress big style running a fleet of trucks for a company owned by a set of bastards. My wife suddenly suggested out of the blue that it was about time we built a boat to live on. We owned a narra already and had owned boats for twenty years, I'd wanted to live on one for nineteen years. I chucked the job, got another and Travis was ordered. We moved on in '04.

 

Andy.

[Bunny]

We sold our business 2005, ran away from home to have an adventure and to see the country, still looking and loving it, don't want to go home ( sold it . anyway). Bunny

[Chickadee]

After ten years of moving roughly every 6 months i'd had enough of stupid landlords and even stupider house mates. I wanted to know my money was going towards something for me. I always thought that would be a house but now I think it will just be a bigger boat as the thought of moving to the tiny sized house we could afford does not apeal.

If I won the lottery and could afford a nice house with plenty of land then maybe i'd change my mind but at the moment i'd rather live with the biggest back garden in the country. My only regret now is that we have to work and pretty much stay at our marina other than for weekends away. One day hopefully we will be CCers though.

 

I really should come on here more, before Christmas I was in a right grump over boat living and just reading these posts has reminded me why I love it.

[DeanS]

After ten years of moving roughly every 6 months i'd had enough of stupid landlords and even stupider house mates. I wanted to know my money was going towards something for me. I always thought that would be a house but now I think it will just be a bigger boat as the thought of moving to the tiny sized house we could afford does not apeal.

If I won the lottery and could afford a nice house with plenty of land then maybe i'd change my mind but at the moment i'd rather live with the biggest back garden in the country. My only regret now is that we have to work and pretty much stay at our marina other than for weekends away. One day hopefully we will be CCers though.

 

I really should come on here more, before Christmas I was in a right grump over boat living and just reading these posts has reminded me why I love it.

 

 

yes, you should come on here more. I cant leave.

 

and I second what you say about knowing your money is going towards something for you. We have rented for a while, and I keep thinking.."I'll never see that money again"...whereas I guess after CC-ing for a few years I could (God forbid) sell the boat, pay off the remainder of the loan, and have some in the bank to put towards a morgage. The thought of moving back into a house is stressing me even though I havent even got into CC-ing yet.

Edited January 5, 2011 by DeanS

[matty40s]

Used to do narrowboat holidays when a kid and loved it, always at the tiller, then got hold of Rolt's narrowboat and from then on was hooked. Anywhere I went I was looking for narrowboats,canals, then I started on overgrown and filled in canals, hidden locks and waterways being restored.

When push came to shove with the ex, I let her have most of the dosh from the house and just took enough for a deposit on my boat and arranged moorings 5 minutes from work, 20 minutes from daughter and all was hunky dory, was out every weekend. Fantastic, it was what I'd always wanted to do and Livvy loves it too, her friends have a waiting list to come down for the weekends.

 

Then 6 months in I was jettisoned as a cost saving measure, with a minimum redundancy payment, started the trawl for work, and started to really see some cruising, becoming a CC'er at first by necessity, and as I plodded along, then by choice as well.I found work eventually down South and slowly moved along closer, commuting from wherever I happened to be by bike/rail/car etc. I really wouldn't like to go back into a marina now, even if I could afford it, the canals offer so much quality of life, scenery,nature, weather, challenges every day , that being in a boat park is probably now as stultifying as being in a flat.

[debbifiggy]

Plus, it's a surprising hit with the chicks

 

 

Yep, I fell in love with a boater. I moved in with him and went cruising in the pouring rain and a big thunderstorm in a wet and cold October and fell in love with boating.

 

The rest etc etc history etc.

 

Seems a long time ago, this is my tenth winter but I'm still aboard and still in love with both man, boat and the waterways.

 

D

 

Edited because i can't count. What do you expect. I read Economics and Politics at Uni first time round, it's well known that Economists can't count.

 

Edited January 5, 2011 by debbifiggy

[Guest wanted]

Good thread op, nice to read some happy stuff! Cheers Rob

[DeanS]

Yep, I fell in love with a boater. I moved in with him and went cruising in the pouring rain and a big thunderstorm in a wet and cold October and fell in love with boating.

 

The rest etc etc history etc.

 

Seems a long time ago, this is my eleventh winter but I'm still aboard and still in love with both man, boat and the waterways.

 

D

 

Must have been a nice boat then ;-)

[FadeToScarlet]

'cause I was born to it and don't know any different

 

"perhaps I don't wanna live in a row of potty li'l 'ouses"

 

Funny, you don't look like Harry Corbett...