Narrowboat Living - Is Living On A Narrowboat All It's Cracked Up To Be?
Narrowboat living has a certain romantic appeal
. Narrowboat dwellers lead a gentle life. You can see yourself in their place. A life of leisure surrounded by beautiful countryside living on a spacious and beautifully furnished canal boat that you can move at the drop of the hat to just about anywhere on the 2,200 miles of the UK canal network.But is narrowboat living all gin and tonics in the sunshine? What is the reality of life on board a narrowboat and is that reality right for you?
One of your initial considerations of course has to be the cost. The cost of buying your own narrowboat, the cost of somewhere to moor it, the cost of running it, and the cost of maintaining it. The cost is probably not as little as you think.
The purchase of your own narrowboat will probably be the largest purchase that you will ever make - after buying your own house. It's likely to cost more than a decent sized RV... and will probably cost more to maintain.
You can expect to pay twenty thousand pounds for a small used canal boat. At that price you can expect a boat that has seen better days and which will probably be too small if you intend living on your boat with your significant other.
If you double your budget to forty thousand pounds, you can buy a narrowboat long enough to give you enough space to comfortably live aboard, but you will still have to settle for something a few years old.
Add another twenty thousand pounds to your budget if you want to consider new narrowboats built to standard factory specifications. Of course, many boatyards will add all the bells and whistles you like to give you a unique boat with all mod cons... at a price.
Before you part with your money though, you need to think very carefully about where you are going to moor your boat. Do you intend to continuously travel around the canal network or find a canal bank or marina to make your new "garden"?
There are literally hundreds of narrowboat marinas in the UK. They all offer something different. Different scenery, different facilities and different levels of service. Some allow you to live aboard your narrowboat but many do not. Most charge differing fees dependent upon the length of your boat, the length of your stay and how much you use the marina.
You don't have to moor in a marina. You can moor permanently on the canal, but only in designated places if you intend to moor there long term. Long stays at moorings designed for just a night or two's rest will attract the unwanted attention of British Waterways staff who will usually move you on.
Once you have your narrowboat, and somewhere to moor it, you have to consider day to day running costs. You need insurance, a license to use the canal network, periodical inspections to ensure that your boat is "roadworthy", diesel for propulsion and/or heating, gas for cooking or heating, maybe coal for your stove and all your other dry land living expenses such as food, drink, a television license if you are going to have one on board, clothing, mobile phone and Internet connection.
Once you have done your sums and decided that you can afford to live afloat, you need to think carefully about whether you really want to - and whether it's actually practical for you to do so.
Although there are some families living on narrowboats, it isn't really workable. There just isn't enough space. Too little space for larger children to live in and too little space for smaller children to let off steam.
Do you still work? Are you going to be able to moor close enough to work to commute comfortably? If you leave for work early and return late, how are you going to feel if you return to a cold boat, have to start a fire, fill up with water or empty your toilet?
Have you considered your sanitary needs? Of course your boat won't be connected to the council sewage system so you will have to deal with your human waste in one of two ways. You will either have a large on board storage tank which will need to be pumped out when full (requires moving your boat to the nearest pump out station) or a portable toilet with a detachable waste container that you can take off your narrowboat to the nearest disposal point.
You need to consider all of the above and more. How will you communicate with the outside world? How will you collect your "snail mail", will you be able to receive incoming telephone calls, read emails and browse the Internet; and what about food? Will you be able to get to and from the supermarket from your boat? What will you do about dentists and doctors and hospitals and opticians (and schools if you decide to live aboard with your children)?
You may think from this article that I'm against living on a narrowboat. I'm not. Nothing could be further from the truth. I live on my own on a narrowboat moored in a beautiful marina in the heart of rural Warwickshire. I've just looked up from my keyboard to rest my eyes and looked out of my window to see a swan chasing a goose twenty feet away against a backdrop of springtime trees and flowers. It's a fantastic sight and it's fantastic way to live. You just need to make sure that it's the right life for you.
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