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Lived up there for five years (not cc'ing mind) and have friends who do (cc in the area). One got loads o'hassle for not moving out of Castleford to Broad Cut area (and generally Stanley Bridge-Broad Cut). Another gets no hassle at all for using Castleford-Mirfield-Woodlesford.

 

As people have commented, there's plenty of water, transport and civilization there. It's easy to do. One thing to be aware of is the river parts of the navigations can turn nasty in very short order, so make sure you know what the weather forecast is and be prepared to move to a canalised portion.

 

Dave

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West Yorkshire is a great place to cc. I did it myself for a while. Reasons for this include:

 

1. Quiet canals leading to less pressure on moorings.

2. Canals tend to follow railway lines making commuting and the 'car shuffle' easy.

3. Lovely countryside.

4. Great pubs!

 

A typical cruising pattern could be:

 

1. Slaithwaite

2. Linthwaite

3. Huddersfield

4. Brighouse

5. Elland

6. Salterhebble

7. Sowerby Bridge

8. Mytholmroyd

9. Hebden Bridge

10.Todmorden

11. Hebden Bridge

12. Mytholmroyd

13. Sowerby Bridge

14. Salterhebble

15. Elland

16. Brighouse

17. Mirfield

18. Dewsbury

19. Wakefield

20. Dewsbury

21. MIrfield

23. Huddersfield

24. Linthwaite

25. Slaithwaite

 

With a 14 day stop at each point it would pretty much take a year to get back to where you started and you'd only be covering a small part of West Yorkshire. You could also go exploring the Aire and Calder to Castleford, Goole and Leeds. The L&L through Leeds to Saltaire and beyond. You also have the S&SY down to Sheffield.

 

Really great area to go boating and hardly anyone up there.

Canals following railway lines, surely not .

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but my fear is that the licence conditions are not clearly defined or enshrined in law.

 

 

I'm very disappointed you say this. You seem like a thinking person but to say this suggests you have never checked what the law says.

 

Read it. It is perfectly clear unless you are determined to not understand.

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Its nothing to do with CART harrasing anybody, it is far more to do with some modern boaters views that boating is a cheap lifestyle and not complying with the very few very basic easy to comply with rules. In short and I have said it time and time again over many liveaboard years to many people it is NOT a cheap way to live. I have roughly worked out the cost of living on a steel narrowboat costs similar to living in a 2/3 bed house ASSUMING ownership in both cases. There is no more problem getting kids to school for a family living on a boat than there are families confined to houses, its more down to attitude.

 

Tim

I'd love to see those costs. More to the point though, a perfectly livable boat can be had for 25k or less. Show me a 2/3 bed house for that price.

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The licence conditions ARE clearly defined in law (the 1995 British Waterways Act), the problem is that with people taking the 'urine' C&RT have an uphill battle enforcing the law, C&RT have been known to put their own interpretation onto the law in order to try and enforce what they want / need / see as the requirements.

 

There have been a couple of threads on the subject on this forum, however both recently been 'closed' and we are not allowed to discuss them, but we can discuss 'canal law' in general if you wish to pose a specific question.

The 1995 act defines the conditions for issuing a licence, not the conditions of the licence itself, which is why we have so much argument about it. CRT T&Cs somewhat contradict the 95 act.

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Canals following railway lines, surely not .

Sorry, the railway lines follow the canals!

 

More seriously, it helped me up there no end. I was working in Huddersfield and was able to use the railways to get to work and to collect my car. The railway system there is remarkably well developed with lots of little stations in small towns going up the Pennines. The other area which is similar would be the Oxford canal for those commuting into Oxford, but there are fewer route choices around there than in West Yorkshire and fewer towns with less conveniently placed stations. Now I'm in Birmingham where there are loads of canals but not following railways in general and often where there is a station by the canal (Smethwick Galton Bridge, for example), it's not always a great place to leave your boat unattended.

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The 1995 act defines the conditions for issuing a licence, not the conditions of the licence itself, which is why we have so much argument about it. CRT T&Cs somewhat contradict the 95 act.

 

Indeed they do !!!

 

But the Act does indeed have a section outlining under what conditions 'The Board' can revoke the licence, having given the 'boater' 28 days to remedy the situation.

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I'm very disappointed you say this. You seem like a thinking person but to say this suggests you have never checked what the law says.

 

Read it. It is perfectly clear unless you are determined to not understand.

It's evidently not. The act, as you well know, relies on the term 'bona fide' which has been mentioned in a judge's comments as being about the intention to cruise rather than the exact distance covered. This makes for a difficult situation for CRT to enforce and leaves a lot of uncertainty for cc'ers. This is before we even get onto the definition of 'place'.

Edited by Dave_P
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I'd love to see those costs. More to the point though, a perfectly livable boat can be had for 25k or less. Show me a 2/3 bed house for that price.

I think you may find that to read Tims post again you'd find that he mentioned assumption that outright ownership of house and boat.
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I'd love to see those costs. More to the point though, a perfectly livable boat can be had for 25k or less. Show me a 2/3 bed house for that price.

 

In capitals I put ASSUMING ownership I meant therefore that there was no rent or mortgage to be taken into account so the initial outlay of the boat/house is not the question here. I owned outright my last house and I own this boat and the bills including council tax, electric, gas etc etc were substantialy less than my boat running costs. As a quick for instance my council tax was peanuts at just over a grand a year whereas just my moorings and licence costs at present are 4.5k then of course generating electric and buying bottled gas etc etc if you get the picture. Also expensive boat upkeep to keep on top of it can be much more than a house.

Far too many people mistakenly move on to boats with rose tinted spectacles assuming it is a cheap way to live when it is not the case at all. In this equasion mortgage/loans or rental cannot be taken into count as they vary so massively.

 

Tim

I think you may find that to read Tims post again you'd find that he mentioned assumption that outright ownership of house and boat.

 

Blimey I was just typing smile.png

 

Tim

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I think you may find that to read Tims post again you'd find that he mentioned assumption that outright ownership of house and boat.

Yes, I read that, and I pointed out that the assumption was flawed.

Edited by Dave_P
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Far too many people mistakenly move on to boats with rose tinted spectacles assuming it is a cheap way to live when it is not the case at all.

 

I disagree with this sweeping generalisation.

 

Like you I own a house and a boat, and like you I find the house is cheaper to run than the boat by a long margin. But without the £3k-ish a year that moorings cost nowadays, along with a determination to move as little as I could get away with (i.e. be a token CCer) I think my boat costs would be much the same as the house.

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In capitals I put ASSUMING ownership I meant therefore that there was no rent or mortgage to be taken into account so the initial outlay of the boat/house is not the question here. I owned outright my last house and I own this boat and the bills including council tax, electric, gas etc etc were substantialy less than my boat running costs. As a quick for instance my council tax was peanuts at just over a grand a year whereas just my moorings and licence costs at present are 4.5k then of course generating electric and buying bottled gas etc etc if you get the picture. Also expensive boat upkeep to keep on top of it can be much more than a house.

Far too many people mistakenly move on to boats with rose tinted spectacles assuming it is a cheap way to live when it is not the case at all. In this equasion mortgage/loans or rental cannot be taken into count as they vary so massively.

 

Tim

 

Blimey I was just typing smile.png

 

Tim

Comparing a 1k council tax to a 4.5k mooring and licence fee is odd though. Home ownership will always land you with a council tax bill of around 1k or more. With a boat, you can avoid the mooring cost altogether and a smaller boat will have an annual licence of well under £1000. The opportunities for living cheaply are far better on a boat, if that's what you choose to do. Of course you can choose to live expensively on a boat too. In a house, the fixed costs are trickier to avoid.

 

But as I said before, assuming ownership makes no sense, since that the biggest cost of all.

 

Assuming ownership, I could live in a 12 bedroom mansion in the Bahamas. It would be very cheap due to reduced heating bills.

Looks like this thread is descending rapidly into the area of 'robust debate'!!! Help! ninja.gif

Edited by Dave_P
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I disagree with this sweeping generalisation.

 

Like you I own a house and a boat, and like you I find the house is cheaper to run than the boat by a long margin. But without the £3k-ish a year that moorings cost nowadays, along with a determination to move as little as I could get away with (i.e. be a token CCer) I think my boat costs would be much the same as the house.

 

Hi Mike

 

I think we actualy agree then. You as I will have met many people especialy over more recent years that buy a boat and with big smiley faces move onto their " Cheap " home. After usualy one winter they simply dissapear when reality hits home. Some others manage around five years but then its bye bye. I can count on one hand the peeps I know that truly love all aspects of the life and are still doing it as a lifestyle choice for well over twenty years. Too many are now moving onboard with the intention of deliberately abusing the rules which is a real shame.

 

Tim

  • Greenie 1
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Hi Mike

 

I think we actualy agree then. You as I will have met many people especialy over more recent years that buy a boat and with big smiley faces move onto their " Cheap " home. After usualy one winter they simply dissapear when reality hits home. Some others manage around five years but then its bye bye. I can count on one hand the peeps I know that truly love all aspects of the life and are still doing it as a lifestyle choice for well over twenty years. Too many are now moving onboard with the intention of deliberately abusing the rules which is a real shame.

 

Tim

I actually agree with this. But I suspect it not the cost that's the reason. You hinted at it yourself when you mentioned winter.

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Not least because the rules, regulations, laws, etc, are clearer and easier to enforce.

 

I have never had any problem interpreting the very few very easy rules re living/owning a boat and cannot understand what is hard about it?

 

Tim

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I have never had any problem interpreting the very few very easy rules re living/owning a boat and cannot understand what is hard about it?

 

Tim

If your lifestyle/boat use is well within the rules, then it's easy. If you're on the margins it's hard. Particularly because the goalposts occasionally shift, so that those borderline people suddenly find themselves on the wrong side.

 

My example: I have a mooring. I also go on extended cruises. In the past I didn't worry at all about cruising pattern etc because I have a home mooring. I wouldn't overstay on VMs and that's about it. Now the goalposts have changed and I'm expected to cruise in a similar way to a cc'er when I'm off my mooring. I could ignore this and potential end up in court as a test case, or I could comply for the sake of a quiet life.

 

Which would you choose?

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If your lifestyle/boat use is well within the rules, then it's easy. If you're on the margins it's hard. Particularly because the goalposts occasionally shift, so that those borderline people suddenly find themselves on the wrong side.

 

My example: I have a mooring. I also go on extended cruises. In the past I didn't worry at all about cruising pattern etc because I have a home mooring. I wouldn't overstay on VMs and that's about it. Now the goalposts have changed and I'm expected to cruise in a similar way to a cc'er when I'm off my mooring. I could ignore this and potential end up in court as a test case, or I could comply for the sake of a quiet life.

 

Which would you choose?

 

Hi Dave

 

I see your point on this but just how many notices have you so far received from CART re your cruising pattern?

 

Tim

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I have never had any problem interpreting the very few very easy rules re living/owning a boat and cannot understand what is hard about it?

 

Tim

Me neither Tim. Misinterpreting or avoiding them seems to be an industry for some on the waterways though. Harder to do that ashore was my point.

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Hi Dave

 

I see your point on this but just how many notices have you so far received from CART re your cruising pattern?

 

Tim

None. But then I chose the second option. If CRT move the goalposts again, I might make a different choice. Who knows?

Edited by Dave_P
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