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Hire before we buy or not?


toekneep

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Hello all and thanks for all the useful stuff I have already discovered by lurking.

 

My wife and I currently live in a 12' x 35' residential park home. We plan to buy a 57' narrow boat (or thereabouts) and we will initially divide our time between the two homes. Longer term we intend to live full time on the boat and when funds allow spend our time cruising. I should also point out that we have lived in a two person tent for five months in the past.

 

Quite a few people have drawn a sharp breath when we have rejected the idea of hiring a boat for a week or two just to get a feel for it before we buy as we might not like living in such a small space. We have been on quite a few boats now including spending a day on one and we are convinced that space isn't an issue. Given the cost of hiring we would rather invest the money in the search and to pay for surveys.

 

What do the panel think? Are we making a huge mistake?

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Hello all and thanks for all the useful stuff I have already discovered by lurking.

 

My wife and I currently live in a 12' x 35' residential park home. We plan to buy a 57' narrow boat (or thereabouts) and we will initially divide our time between the two homes. Longer term we intend to live full time on the boat and when funds allow spend our time cruising. I should also point out that we have lived in a two person tent for five months in the past.

 

Quite a few people have drawn a sharp breath when we have rejected the idea of hiring a boat for a week or two just to get a feel for it before we buy as we might not like living in such a small space. We have been on quite a few boats now including spending a day on one and we are convinced that space isn't an issue. Given the cost of hiring we would rather invest the money in the search and to pay for surveys.

 

 

What do the panel think? Are we making a huge mistake?

Have you worked out all the costs involved? You say that you will divide your time between the two homes, that implies you will need a mooring for the boat if you are not continuously cruising and does'nt sound as if you will be. Ball park figure for a mooring in a marina for a 57 footer depending on where you leave the boat £2000-£3000 a year, probably less if you take a CaRT mooring. Insurance about £200-£350 and licence from CaRT around £800 (thats a guess 'cos i hav'nt licenced a boat for a couple of years.

I would always recommend hiring a boat even if its only for a couple of days to make sure you both like navigating the canals, pick a location with some locks, its different than having a day out on someone else's boat. I sold my first biat to a couple and the only cruise they did was the one where i took them out and showed them how to operate the boat and operate locks. After that it sat in the marina for four years and got used as a crash pad. See if you can arrange your hire boat for a cold day with plenty of rain.

We used to moor in a marina where they sold boats and i have seen many people buy a boat only to sell it back to the marina within a couple of months because the reality of boat life was so different to how they had imagined it.

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Thanks Stewart I appreciate the input. Yes we've done all the financial calculations (I'm a spreadsheet nerd) and we know we can afford to do it.

 

I'm still not convinced that hiring a boat will teach us a lot more than we know/can imagine/can learn from talking to others. We are outdoors types and as I said in my post lived in a tent while cycle touring for five months. We had plenty of wet days on that trip I can assure you.

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Hi,

 

We've lived on a boat for 11 years. We had no experience of boating before purchasing a boat. I think hire boats have little in common with the type of layout required to live on a boat, so little point in going down that route. We found our previous camping/outdoor life style more beneficial, emptying toilets, fetching water and generally being aware of the weather etc. more helpful. Wouldn't dream of going back to the house clapping.gif

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Thanks Stewart I appreciate the input. Yes we've done all the financial calculations (I'm a spreadsheet nerd) and we know we can afford to do it.

 

I'm still not convinced that hiring a boat will teach us a lot more than we know/can imagine/can learn from talking to others. We are outdoors types and as I said in my post lived in a tent while cycle touring for five months. We had plenty of wet days on that trip I can assure you.

OK, here is an alternative that wont cost anything (well only a little) but will give you a chance to meet more boats and boaters and get some experience working locks. Become a CaRT volunteer lock-keeper. Its not a huge commitment in terms of time.
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from the wording of your question, I assume that you have absolutely zilch experience of boating.

 

my answer - why on earth wouldn't you?

it won't be that expensive out of season.

even if it just clarifies in your mind if you need a 45ft narrowboat, a 70ft similar, or a 57ft widebeam.

 

hire - meet boat owners and ask to visit their boats.

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Definitely hire a boat for a week - perhaps more in the off season.

See how the mechanics work for you

See if the mechanics of navigating the canals, working the locks are to your liking

 

Perhaps most importantly evaluate the layout and facilities of the chosen boat - so that you know with a bit more certainty what would satisfy you.

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I would definitely recommend hiring a boat possibly several preferably in the winter. This will give you an insight into the reality of living on a boat. Also if you experience several different boats you will get a feel for what works for you ( Trad, semi trad, reverse or std layout , portholes vs windows, the list goes on)

Down load boat plans fron Abnb to see whats availble and what would suit you.

 

There are lots of young boats for sale where people had their dream built and it turned out not whhat they envisaged, money spent on research and hiring is well spent.

 

Top Cat

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I'm not sure hiring is much of a preparation or test for living on a boat. Layouts are likely to be different, you won't have your own stuff around you, and you'll know it's only for a limited period. The amount you will learn from the experience will, I suspect, be marginal - it's just not the same thing at all. You don't even have to empty your own toilet.

 

What I would do is spend a lot of time with people who live on boats, experience their boats, listen to their experiences. In my view, this will provide far more valuable information. It will take longer, but cost less. It wuill also enable you to get an idea of what you want in a boat; what you like and don't like and need or don't need about other people's.

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Thanks again for the opinions, they all help towards making the decision to hire or not.

 

Sorry I didn't want to ramble on too much in the OP but I worked for CaRT last year as a fund raiser, mostly on the towpaths. I talked to loads of owners of all types. My wife and I had already decided ages ago that we wanted to live on board one day and everything I learned from existing boaters added to the conviction.

 

We won't be having a boat built by the way. We hope to have somewhere between 30k and 40k to spend so we are mostly looking at boats around ten to fifteen years old.

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Living on a narrowboat is pure luxury compared to a tent!

Do recommend getting a taste of life aboard, even if it's for a week or two. This may give a better idea of whether you could live within the confines of a narrowboat. I can quite easily but that may not be the case if I had clutter!

 

If you do hire one, I'd recommend hiring one of a similar length & stern layout. I.e. a hiring a 45' boat will seem a lot different to a 57' boat.

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Hiring is expensive - even a short break. We used to save Tesco Club-card points and book through Drifters; http://www.drifters.co.uk/where points have 3x face value. IMO a weekend to make sure you both are happy around the water and pulling ropes and pushing heavy lock-gates would be plenty as it sounds like your camping and outdoor life-style make you well suited to living aboard.

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If you already have experience of living in confined spaces and away from bricks I'm not too sure hiring is going to make too much difference. I was surprised how different a live aboard/privately owned narrow boat feels compared to a hire boat, the extra space is very welcome and makes it much easier to make it a home. Of course if you were to buy an ex hire boat and make no modifications, you may have to get used to contorting yourself in ways you'd never thought of and could only have found on google images, but a well laid out boat gives more than enough space for living and even a few luxury possessions.

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Or look at the number of boats under 3 years old that come up for sale

Selling a boat is not always for the reason that a canal boat life aint for a person.

Life events dictate choices and sadly decisions made due to this.

Get your boat and enjoy every minute of it whilst you can...none of us know what lurks around that corner...

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Being on the water isn't for everyone.

 

I would recommend hiring a boat for a week out of season and seeing if trudging down a wet muddy towpath on a daily basis really is for you.

 

The boat may not bare any resemblance to what you end up buying, if you decide to take the plunge, but it will give you some idea of what living afloat out of the summer months entails.

 

Hiring out of season isn't that expensive.

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Interesting. We seem to have about a fifty, fifty split. (Don't mention Brexit). We wouldn't rule out doing a one day instructional course which I think will be a better investment but we would probably leave that until we were closer to making a purchase. At the very least we will take up an invitation from a friend to 'do some locks' but I think I am leaning further towards not spending money on a hire boat. No disrespect to those that suggested it is essential, but I'm now convinced that we aren't making that huge mistake I referred to in the OP. Thanks all.

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I didn't hire, but I did have a good friend that had a boat that I went out on a lot before I bought. Oh and a sister and brother in law that are liveaboards who gave me my first taste of boat life. I really recommend getting to know someone who has a boat to get a real feel for it.

 

edited cos it didn't make sense first time!

Edited by Trillian
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