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New to canal barges and your forum


Frenchmke

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Well not exactly new to barging, as such, 30 years ago we bought a Dutch  Luxe motor and sailed it back from Holland to Plymouth , and spent many years converting it , after 15 years we sold it to move back to bricks and mortar.

 

Now at the age of 74 and 76, and with all the usual aches  and pains that go with us old folk's, we have got the idea that maybe we should give a wide barge a go .

 

BUT , DO WE DO IT ?? , we don't want to stay in one place as we did before , as our barge was 104 ft long .

 

So how hard is it  to find a long term mooring , but still go travelling for the summer , but come back , as we feel at our age we need to have some security, i.e doctor or even hospital appointments, etc.

Any suggestions or ideas from , lets say the slight elder members of the liveaboard's forum might just help us to take the plunge again , or not of course  

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18 minutes ago, Frenchmke said:

So how hard is it  to find a long term mooring Quite easy for a 'leisure' mooring, more difficult for a residential mooring. London residential moorings can cost £15,000 per annum. Yorkshire may be £4000 per annum

 

, but still go travelling for the summer , that will depend where your boat is based and the size of your boat. (Fat boats and long boats are limited in where they can go, whilst Fat & Long boats are quite restricted.

 

but come back , again it depends where you are coming back from, and the size of your boat, if you are planning a circular Summer cruise, you may not get back without doing a straight 'out & return'- loads of planning is necessary if your boat is not a 'standard'  6' 10" wide Narrowboat.

 

as we feel at our age we need to have some security, the older we get the more 'looking after we need'

 

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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22 minutes ago, Frenchmke said:

 

So how hard is it  to find a long term mooring , but still go travelling for the summer

 

Alternatively licence the boat as a continuous cruiser, roam across the system through the summer then take a winter mooring for a few months. Can be in a different place each year. Easily done in a narrow boat, but may be more difficult in a wide boat as your cruising range is more limited with maybe fewer winter mooring options. 

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12 minutes ago, David Mack said:

 

Alternatively licence the boat as a continuous cruiser, roam across the system through the summer then take a winter mooring for a few months. Can be in a different place each year. Easily done in a narrow boat, but may be more difficult in a wide boat as your cruising range is more limited with maybe fewer winter mooring options. 

 

Except a wide boat or a thin one much over 57ft can't roam across the system. Fat ones will be limited to the Northern waterways or the Thames, K&A, much of the GU and the Lee system (and even then I understand beam is limited on the Stort).

 

If the OP intends to retain bricks and mortar then I would suggest he carefully considers a 57/58 ft narrowboat then he can travel pretty much the whole system although I suppose it would feel cramped after a large barge.

 

I also suspect he will find it easier to step and and off a narrowboat (or wide beam narrowboat) over much of the system. I know that now (75th year) I would much rather face narrow locks than K&A ones (that stupid stirrup to climb onto the top of the gate) or Thames locks going up stream.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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A narrow boat-style widebeam can be a bit of a handful compared to a narrow boat. I've always moved mine on my own through hundreds of locks and swing bridges and although the technique is the same as moving a narrow boat there are some differences. You have to be much more aware of the boat's momentum because they're not as easy to stop. So you won't see me using lots of engine revs like many narrow boaters I see, who then have to use lots of revs in the other direction to counter all that unnecessary power they applied in the first place. When they do lose control it can go quite badly wrong. Instead I tend to use the boat's momentum to get it where I want it to go. It's just about being a bit more subtle in your use of the engine. Likewise, one doesn't jump off a moving 30 tonne widebeam centre rope in hand and expect to stop it by leaning back on the rope like some people do with their narrow boats, you'd just get dragged down the towpath. You have to do it properly by stopping the boat with the engine and then stepping off. You've got to have a greater degree of control on a bigger, heavier boat.

 

Edit: It's very expensive for a thin, spiral bound paperback (due to a very short printing run and no economies of scale I guess), but there's a lot in this book that applies to handling widebeams and narrow boats as well as Dutch barges.

 

A Guide to Motor Barge Handling https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0955035104/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_QU2oCbJCB82F5

 

Edited by blackrose
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Quite obviously it depends upon how fit you are. However, as a 72 year old who single hands most of the time it gets harder as you get older. (Sorry but thats just a fact of life) .

If I were starting off at the age of 72 never mind 74/76 I would look to a boat of 40' or less. Whether two people could live on it full time is another issue. 

 

 

Frank  

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Hi, no we have n ver been right down south and for the last few years have been based in Burgundy. The reason for not going south was the shear number of boats and my wife being told that the eclusiers didn’t help with the ropes and the semi circular sides made it difficult to get ropes off. Anyway it’s hot enough in the centre of France.

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4 hours ago, Frenchmke said:

This was our barge ,but  minus the cargo, that we sailed back from the north of Holland  to Plymouth before we started  the conversation 

P1050405 (1).JPG

bit of a giveaway, its err, big,                  ................. I can't write it , or Athy will kill me :)

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The northern canals are popular with more senior wide beam live aboards and Reedley Marina outside Burnley seems to have a thriving community.  The Aire & Calder/ Calder & Hebble have many electrically operated locks.

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