regrets

[Timx]

im, three yrs away from retiring and buying a nb,just wondering if people have regretted buyng a narrow boat rather than a widebeam, i can see the obvious benefeits of both,all i can come up with at the moment is buy a nb initially for a couple of yrs then sell house and have widebeam as well,plan to spend as much time as possible on it cc,ing,want cake and eat it basically...

[Athy]

It depends on which parts of the country you want to eat your cake in, and of course on how much of it you eat.

[Phil Ambrose]

im, three yrs away from retiring and buying a nb,just wondering if people have regretted buyng a narrow boat rather than a widebeam, i can see the obvious benefeits of both,all i can come up with at the moment is buy a nb initially for a couple of yrs then sell house and have widebeam as well,plan to spend as much time as possible on it cc,ing,want cake and eat it basically...

 

We sold our 12ft beam Broads cruiser after living on her for 9 years. Bought a NB and love it, remember that unlike a NB you cannot just lean across to sight down the hull when in a tight spot or mooring, so for me this works against fat boats

 

Phil

[Roger Gunkel]

The choice is quite simple, maximise your living space and reduce your cruising area, or maximise your cruising area and reduce your living space. Just remember that if you buy a wide beam because you want space, you can cruise the narrower waterways by hiring, but if you buy a narrowboat and want extra living space, you will have to sell.

 

I chose widebeam and love the living space, but then my wider travels are on an offshore boat.

 

Roger

[mrsmelly]

im, three yrs away from retiring and buying a nb,just wondering if people have regretted buyng a narrow boat rather than a widebeam, i can see the obvious benefeits of both,all i can come up with at the moment is buy a nb initially for a couple of yrs then sell house and have widebeam as well,plan to spend as much time as possible on it cc,ing,want cake and eat it basically...

 

If you wish to cruise our fantastic inland waterways extensively there is no choice you must have narrowbeam. If space and comfort and dont want to cruise the whole lot then widebeam. We have spent the last 22 years narrowbeam and loved it but for family reasons are now stuck in yorkshire with its fab big waterways and a narrowbeam up here is utter madness if not going down the narrow canals so we have bought widebeam which is far more comfy but if we get to go inland boating again ill flog it and buy narrow again, basicaly nothings forever and selling and swopping size is easy to do

[Mac of Cygnet]

Just remember that if you buy a wide beam because you want space, you can cruise the narrower waterways by hiring

 

Roger

 

Do you think anyone does this? I must admit I would find it very difficult to shell out money to hire a boat if I already had one, although I do admit that this doesn't apply to cars.........

[RLWP]

Regrets? I've had a few... But then again, too few to mention

 

Richard

[Roger Gunkel]

Do you think anyone does this? I must admit I would find it very difficult to shell out money to hire a boat if I already had one, although I do admit that this doesn't apply to cars.........

 

That's a good question Mac, and one I wouldn't know the answer to as I have no interest in cruising the canal system and am very happy with the wider waterways in my area. My reply was more about living on a wide beam if you require much more living space and a restricted cruising area, but being able to take narrow canal holidays much as a house dweller would.

 

I suspect that 99% of those that live on widebeams are quite content with the restricted cruising area but love living on the water. The opportunity though remains to hire (or swap/borrow) if required. I suppose it's the same as me using my small seagoing boat for holidays, but living on our widebeam. Perhaps that is also a possibility, to live on a widebeam, but have a much smaller and older occasional use narrowboat or narrow cruiser.

 

Having said that, over the next year, we will be selling our widebeam to buy a liveaboard ocean going ketch to sail off to warmer climes

 

Roger

[mattlad]

Regrets? I've had a few... But then again, too few to mention

 

Richard

 

Do you know, I reckon you've got the makings of a good song there Richard! :lol:

[ditchcrawler]

im, three yrs away from retiring and buying a nb,just wondering if people have regretted buyng a narrow boat rather than a widebeam, i can see the obvious benefeits of both,all i can come up with at the moment is buy a nb initially for a couple of yrs then sell house and have widebeam as well,plan to spend as much time as possible on it cc,ing,want cake and eat it basically...

You will be hard pushed to CC 2 boats

[Lady Muck]

Someone needs to invent a NB with slide out sections like those big American RV's

[jim and pat dalton]

What a spiffing idea, bet it could be done above the waterline too!!

[Stormbringer]

Having the same dilema in our house at the moment ..

 

We have a narrowboat at the moment, but the layout is only suitable for 'holiday' cruising with our two teenagers aboard.

We are thinking of selling the house and living on a boat - but as mentioned above the trade off of living space

versus cruising ability is a bu**er !

 

Cos we have 'one of each' teenagers we would need a lot of cabins in the boat and finding a suitable layout of narrowboat,

whilst possible, does limit choices quite a bit and forces quite a few compromises in layout etc.

 

A wide beam then would seem like the ideal choice for us at the moment, however I think I would miss having the ability to

cruise the narrow parts of the system. It's driving me nuts at the moment......

 

We have even considered buying our son his own boat to ease the cabin requirements - but that would hike up the mooring fees etc.

 

Funny what you start looking at once you try to cover all the bases though - there are some nice 30 metre Dutch barges and ex cargo 'ships' with 6 bedrooms and masses of space on fleabay !!!! lol.... Might struggle to cruise any of the canals if I'm not careful !!

 

Ah well - back to the drawing board for me

[Nightwatch]

Block the tow path though!

 

Why not go upwards? No bridges if you're moored. F1 dream lorries do it with style.

 

Martyn

[GUMPY]

Do you think anyone does this? I must admit I would find it very difficult to shell out money to hire a boat if I already had one, although I do admit that this doesn't apply to cars.........

Yes, well not hire, we have two boats. I have had at least two boats, sometimes three (not counting the inflatable) for the last 15 years one to live on and one to go cruising in, as it means that I don't have to be in my "home" area with one boat and can cruise the whole system.........

 

You don't need an expensive narrow boat for the second one we have at present a freeman 22NB cost 5K, the last one was a sailing boat cost 3.6K.

Mooorings is the costly bit!

[Neil2]

im, three yrs away from retiring and buying a nb,just wondering if people have regretted buyng a narrow boat rather than a widebeam, i can see the obvious benefeits of both,all i can come up with at the moment is buy a nb initially for a couple of yrs then sell house and have widebeam as well,plan to spend as much time as possible on it cc,ing,want cake and eat it basically...

 

I'd add that I don't think you get the same camaraderie amongst wide beam owners that you encounter as a NB owner. But I do know of NB owners who have been seduced by the comparative vastness of widies. We met a couple in Leeds last year who had lived on narrowboats for many years, and the guy said as soon as he saw the inside of a wide beam he had to have one.

[mrsmelly]

I'd add that I don't think you get the same camaraderie amongst wide beam owners that you encounter as a NB owner. But I do know of NB owners who have been seduced by the comparative vastness of widies. We met a couple in Leeds last year who had lived on narrowboats for many years, and the guy said as soon as he saw the inside of a wide beam he had to have one.

 

I think you are right. The missus and I were only saying today how there isnt the same sense of community with the widebeam users as when we were narrow and where we moor we are actualy the only one of about 7 wide beam boats that actually slip our moorings and regularily err go boating after all thats why we live on a boat otherwise Id get another boring house...........

[Naughty Cal]

We are a few years away from changing our beloved NC for something a little bigger and which will, eventually once fully modified and specced up, become our home which we will CC. It will be a wide beam boat (but not a fat narrowboat), we just dont see the point of a narrowbeam craft for the cruising and living aboard that we intend to do, but it will also be sea worthy so for us to get from the northern wide beam waterways to the southern wide beam waterways wont be such an issue. It also wont be your average liveaboard, we like to be slightly different

[deletedaccount]

When I first started looking I thought I'd only go wide. In the end I found the perfect narrowboat and now I spend most of my time on wide waterways with a narrow boat.

[ditchcrawler]

Having the same dilema in our house at the moment ..

 

We have a narrowboat at the moment, but the layout is only suitable for 'holiday' cruising with our two teenagers aboard.

We are thinking of selling the house and living on a boat - but as mentioned above the trade off of living space

versus cruising ability is a bu**er !

 

Cos we have 'one of each' teenagers we would need a lot of cabins in the boat and finding a suitable layout of narrowboat,

whilst possible, does limit choices quite a bit and forces quite a few compromises in layout etc.

 

A wide beam then would seem like the ideal choice for us at the moment, however I think I would miss having the ability to

cruise the narrow parts of the system. It's driving me nuts at the moment......

 

We have even considered buying our son his own boat to ease the cabin requirements - but that would hike up the mooring fees etc.

 

Funny what you start looking at once you try to cover all the bases though - there are some nice 30 metre Dutch barges and ex cargo 'ships' with 6 bedrooms and masses of space on fleabay !!!! lol.... Might struggle to cruise any of the canals if I'm not careful !!

 

Ah well - back to the drawing board for me

Surly a motor and butty would cost no more to moor than a widebeam

[GUMPY]

Surly a motor and butty would cost no more to moor than a widebeam

No a motor and butty can be double the cost of one boat, here I pay a small surcharge but nowhere near double.

[Timx]

As I expected no easy answer to the dilemma,if I can afford the mooring will get the two,moor the wide beam down south and travel the north in the narrow and swap over if alls well,like the idea of one post, of selling and buying and selling and buying, but if want a good spec boat, might keep losing money that way, but an interesting idea, should have a boat swap club..

[Stormbringer]

Surly a motor and butty would cost no more to moor than a widebeam

 

Hmmm...surprisingly I hadn't actually thought of that option !

More research required I think - thanks for that

 

The flexibility might make the extra mooring fees worth it anyway !

 

Cheers

Andy

[Biggles]

I'd add that I don't think you get the same camaraderie amongst wide beam owners that you encounter as a NB owner.

 

 

I really hope this ain't true.

[Ange]

Do you think anyone does this? I must admit I would find it very difficult to shell out money to hire a boat if I already had one, although I do admit that this doesn't apply to cars.........

 

We did! After a year living aboard we hired a boat for a week last year to go from Falkirk to Edinburgh because we really wanted to sample the Scottish canals and go on the wheel. Unfortunately there was no way we could get our 57' "go anywhere" to Scotland without cranes and lorries, which would have cost more.

 

Had a lovely week but were reminded how little time you have on a hire holiday to enjoy yourselves - the first Saturday is lost with the handover, and you have to get it back early the next Saturday, which meant the Friday was lost through worrying about getting back on time and therefore being back way too early and mooring close to the hire base for a day.

 

I'm mega grateful that we have our own boat

 

PS in answer to the OP we have no regrets about buying a narrowbeam because we want to explore as much of the system as possible. I envy widebeam owners their extra space, but at the moment we couldn't be restricted to small parts of the system. Later on, who knows?