Would you consider living on a narrowboat?

3 wheeler:
Hi Harry,
I am seriously thinking of buying or building another narrowboat at present to live on part time as my work is all in the Midlands now and I am fed up with B&B living during the week
, I did the Thames in the nineties in the old 47 footer and loved it and it certainly beats driving a wagon stood on the back deck .
Enjoy your trip.

It might make sense. Any secondhand boat bought for around the £25,000- £30,000 mark will always sell for that amount if it’s reasonably well looked after, if anything prices are rising due to the “Tim and Pru effect”, the fact that folk can get their hands on pension money at 55 now, and demand from the increasing number of people living on boats in London because of the property crisis.

I’m living on my boat at the moment, I reckon it costs £2,000 a year in mooring fees, licences, insurance, maintenance etc, about £10 a week in diesel to charge the batteries and provide hot water, and when it gets colder, about £20 a week in coal, so probably about £60 a week in total. And it’s certainly better than any B&B I’ve ever stayed in. :stuck_out_tongue:

I do still officially live with my girlfriend in Ramsgate as I’m not on a residential mooring (I can stay as much as I like, though I can’t use it as a postal address, but there’s also no council tax to pay), and wages here (between Rugby and Coventry) are at least £2 an hour higher than in east Kent, which more than pays for it all.

I’d be the first to agree it’s not for everyone, but if you’ve had a narrowboat before then you’ll know about the downsides, so it might well be worth considering. If you want to pop along for a look round and a chat sometime then you’re welcome.