Jump to content

Are you new to boating?? CLICK HERE

Sam

By Sam
in New to Boating?

 Share

Featured Posts

kyber Gongoozler

kyber

Posted
Posted

HI,

Welcome to the forum,

Your story is not far off the same as ours.

Fed up of corporate clap trap, we both got out of it. Bought a new boat to our own design, selling the house. On the boat now and don't want to keep going back to the bricks and mortar so looking for a buyer pretty sharpish so we can get on boat full time. Absolutely love it. The belongings we collected in the house mean nothing to us now, sold the furniture, got rid of all the knick-knacks, reduced the wardrobes by about 70%.

 

Hope you love it as much as we do and we have all that cruising to look forward to next year. So looking forward to cooking the Christmas dinner wink.png)

 

regards

 

Kim

 

Thanks Kim, good to hear we are not blazing a trail but following some established tracks.

 

It amazing how different things look when you have shifted your mind-set, and although we have a potentially difficult time ahead, we know where we are heading and that we will get through it. (A little after my initial post, my oil fired boiler split, so I am now very cold but for one small room that has an electric fire.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Phil Ambrose Veteran II

Phil Ambrose

Posted
Posted

Welcome aboard Kyber, I remember well the period leading upto our sale completion prior to moving aboard. The hardest thing was having garage sale after garage sale to. The point of camping out in. A empty house. We hired a skip for the "left overs" and on the day we moved out anything left went in the skip. That was 13 years ago and have been retired for 4 or is it 5 years, no regrets.

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites
bigrob Gongoozler

bigrob

Posted
Posted

Hi

 

My partner and I are thinking about selling up and becoming liveaboards in about 18 months time.

 

We thought best to take a couple of holidays first and also start gaining knowledge so that we buy the right boat.

 

We have both had 1 week holidays on a narrowboat about 18 years ago, so knowledge is pretty limited. I know for photography forums I am on, how useful forums are that you can avoid many pitfalls by learning from other people.

 

Our current thinking at the start of the process is to get moorings and jobs over winter to pay for summer doing cruising. How feasible that is, at this stage we are not sure.

 

So hi icecream.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bettie Boo Experienced

Bettie Boo

Posted
Posted

Hi All,

 

What a Great web site!!

 

Hubby (Dave) and I have been visiting it for a few of months now and have found it most informative, helpful and in some cases quite humorous as well.

 

We are both newbie's to Canal Boats, well Dave had a weeks vacation on a NB about 30 years ago, unfortunately it ended in sinking the boat...long story, but will tell all about it sometime in a different forum. I have a fair amount of boating experience, but it was the better part of 20 years ago back in Canada and all involved Sail boats or Catamarans. Not very practical experience for future owners of a Canal Boat I'm afraid!

 

Anyway, we are both semi retired and have decided it's our time to take the plunge for a complete lifestyle change. Get out of the rat race as so many others have done before us. All the while planning on dragging our two unsuspecting, ageing, psychotic cats with us - I'm sure they will love it!!

 

We've been researching for the past 3 months and have made some pretty significant decisions (including which style toilet we want)blink.png and that for the first couple of years at least we plan to be CC'ers, so no need to look into permanent moorings at this stage (yes we are aware of the need for a post code and have sorted that already)

 

I'm sure we'll have loads of questions, one of which I am about to post in another forum regarding pre-purchase solicitors; so any help / advice would be most appreciated.

 

BTW - we are still at the point of finding the right boat, so haven't purchased anything yet.

 

Betty~

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Beaker Rising Star

Beaker

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi All,

 

What a Great web site!!

 

Hubby (Dave) and I have been visiting it for a few of months now and have found it most informative, helpful and in some cases quite humorous as well.

 

We are both newbie's to Canal Boats, well Dave had a weeks vacation on a NB about 30 years ago, unfortunately it ended in sinking the boat...

 

Welcome to the forum Betty!

 

Is Dave's middle name 'Jonah' by any chance?

 

Just asking... icecream.gif

Edited by Beaker
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ccsa Gongoozler

Ccsa

Posted
Posted

Hi. We are looking to buy our first inland cruiser for the river chelmer or stort. We're looking for a 4 berth 20 ft ish boat. Grateful for views on what makes a good second hand boat. We have power boat experience from diving ribs at sea and limited sailing experience but no cruiser experience. All advice welcome.

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ccsa Gongoozler

Ccsa

Posted
Posted

Hi. We are looking to buy our first inland cruiser for the river chelmer or stort. We're looking for a 4 berth 20 ft ish boat. Grateful for views on what makes a good second hand boat. We have power boat experience from diving ribs at sea and limited sailing experience but no cruiser experience. All advice welcome.

Chris

 

Thankyou beaker for the great advice?

 

If anyone sent me a chat message I can't seem to open them

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ccsa Gongoozler

Ccsa

Posted
Posted

Welcome to the Forum Ccsa.

 

Ref your query regarding PM's (private/chat messages) - you need to have accumulated a total of 5 posts (you have 1 more to achieve that) in order to be able to send & receive pm's.

Thank you for your welcomes
Link to comment
Share on other sites
fernand Gongoozler

fernand

Posted
Posted

Hi my name is Andy and I along with my wife are in the process of buying a canal boat. We have to bring her down from Walsall to Cambridge (the great ouse) .We are novices and realise that this is going to be a fair cruise which to say the least will be "interesting". I just wondered if anyone out there ha done the trip and could give me some things to be looking out for as we wend our way down. We have with the aid of a website charted a course which takes in many locks and the usual obstacles on the canal system . Any advice and help regarding this would be gratefully recieved.help.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fernand Gongoozler

fernand

Posted
Posted

Bear with me here, as a new user and a bit ofa technophobic ,how will I know when someone has responded to a question?


Thanx Tuscan, my first contact on this forum. Yes I remember the floods last year very well,and as you quite correctly have pointed out The Cam does need a seperate license.What length is your boat and do you find you can safely use all locks in general on the canal system?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Tuscan Veteran

Tuscan

Posted
Posted

Bear with me here, as a new user and a bit ofa technophobic ,how will I know when someone has responded to a question?

Thanx Tuscan, my first contact on this forum. Yes I remember the floods last year very well,and as you quite correctly have pointed out The Cam does need a seperate license.What length is your boat and do you find you can safely use all locks in general on the canal system?

Our boat is a full length Town Class - converted working boat. As such we are constrained by short canals like Leeds & Liverpool where 60foot is the recommended length. No such problem on the Nene, Cam .Yes locks are not a problem for us beyond the effort needed to open/close some of them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fernand Gongoozler

fernand

Posted
Posted

ok mate no intentions of going up the leeds and liverpool ,we have taken on a 70 footer semi trad and yes its like looking down the length of wembley football pitch but i,m sure with a few bumps and scrapes well eventually master it. (157 locks and 2 tunnels from walsall to Cambridge) hey bring it on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Alice Osborne Gongoozler

Alice Osborne

Posted
Posted

Hello fellow boaters,

 

My name is Alice - I have been dreaming about living on a boat for years and years.

Spent many hours of my life walking through cities through their waterways.

Now I am considering taking the plunge and doing it.

 

I work in London so I am looking for a mooring with a commuting distance around there.

My parents have recently found a boat that is a 45 foot out of the water near nantwhich, half built (the shell) that I am considering buying and that I will make my own (designing the inside and putting an engine in etc) - then the builder will help get it down to London for me, but in the mean time I need to find some mooring spots in the city, and be completely sure this is the right thing for me!

 

Any thoughts/would be really appreciated.

 

Alice

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grace and Favour Veteran II

Grace and Favour

Posted
Posted

Welcome Alice,

 

You're right in your intention to find a mooring before you 'take the plunge'.....

 

And it's possible that folks on the Forum can help you - but London's a large catchment - and where you work may well influence where you look for moorings

 

However - I believe there may still be moorings available at Roydon Marina (CM19 5EJ) - would that be suitable?

 

(I assume you mean a marina mooring for your initial foray into boating - and, I suggest that vacant 'towpath' moorings in London are like hen's teeth..

 

If you could be more specific where you're looking for, it would help!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
junior Veteran

junior

Posted
Posted

Hello fellow boaters,

 

My name is Alice - I have been dreaming about living on a boat for years and years.

Spent many hours of my life walking through cities through their waterways.

Now I am considering taking the plunge and doing it.

 

I work in London so I am looking for a mooring with a commuting distance around there.

My parents have recently found a boat that is a 45 foot out of the water near nantwhich, half built (the shell) that I am considering buying and that I will make my own (designing the inside and putting an engine in etc) - then the builder will help get it down to London for me, but in the mean time I need to find some mooring spots in the city, and be completely sure this is the right thing for me!

 

Any thoughts/would be really appreciated.

 

Alice

Hi Alice, welcome to the forum. London is a big place and the canal goes right from one side to the other. The mooring situation is a bit different in london to some other places, but moorings are not quite as 'hen's teeth' as people will have you believe. You will need to work out what area you want to be in, or be within. This will help with suggestions. I'm in West'ish London and know of a few moorings available at the moment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Bilal Gongoozler

Bilal

Posted
Posted

Hi there. Bilal here. I'm new to boating. A couple of months ago I bought a small narrowboat - she is called Sans - and I am getting used to her. After a very slow but highly enjoyable trip down the Lee to her winter mooring near Victoria Park in London, I now need to find Red Diesel for her. I don't know where to go although I have heard that boats do go past with the fuel. Any ideas anyone? Thanks for your input.

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
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • 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.