tell me about chuck...
 

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[Closed] tell me about chucking it all in and living on a narrowboat

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Buying something suitable, marine mortgages, residential moorings or the lack thereof, practicalities.........
I can feel the single life looming again 🙁


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:29 pm
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My aunt and uncle did that for a few years till he became ill, they enjoyed it, the only downside was the winter and lack of storage space they rented a garage for the motorbike and a few other bits, you dont get many people staying over either


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:34 pm
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Did they have an official residential mooring or just move about every so often?


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:41 pm
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not doing it on here again but i lived on one for 7 years e-mail me and I will do it that way as it will just be tedious for everyone else

Buying something suitable- 50 foot minimum - perhaps smaller if it is a trad stern wide beams are better for space obviously and more common these days

marine mortgages- Barclays and black horse do them but you can also just get secured loans on the boat

residential moorings or the lack thereof - there is a lack and IME they are expensive and becoming more so say - say 2-4 k per year you get eleccy , water , bins , washing facilities and if you are lucky broadband. you also end up side by side with other boats and it is like living in a boat car park IMHO You can just permanently cruise - the authorities may moan but they have no real powers despite what they say and the threats they give you.

practicalities......... depends what you mean - like posh camping everything you need but it wont fit everything you want

as i said e-mail me for more info


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:47 pm
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Junkyard was a canal pirate, laying low during the day among the bulrushes, then silently cruising the waterways, boarding other vessels and stealing their porridge oats and cups of washing powder and sugar.

Perhaps.
I get the impression its one of those not as glamourous as it seems things?


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:54 pm
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I live in a touring caravan, lots of people do. (I'm not a gypsy btw, if that's relevant anyway). I go to work in an office. It's brilliant but has some drawbacks - no protection under the Landlord & Tenant Act, lots of competition for pitches, limited space - but I very much enjoyed the downsizing. I found it very 'freeing' to sell/give to charity/dump stuff. Stuff stuff, people have loads of stuff, I did. It was amazing to get rid of it. I'm not a total aesthetic though - I have five bicycles and associated cycling ephemera!
Thought about a boat but expense and limited mobility put me off.


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 2:59 pm
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Aaarrrrggghhhh

I am in Somali these days as it is much more lucrative


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 3:43 pm
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I've been considering something like this myself. Just pmed Junkyard for the lowdown.
I'm more interested in boats like this:
[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013cnv4 ]Tim Spall[/url]

Much bigger than a narrowboat but can be sailed in coastal waters and will make it across to the continent so can access thousands of miles of navigable river, broad canal and lakes.


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 4:35 pm
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Junkyard - Member
not doing it on here again but i lived on one for 7 years e-mail me and I will do it that way as it will just be tedious for everyone else...

No it won't be tedious. Please go on...


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:02 pm
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No it won't be tedious. Please go on...

+1

#nosey


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:06 pm
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+2 c'mon junkyard. Regale us with tails of the riverbank. Ive always wanted to live on a river, my eyes go green (I do mean they actually change colour from blue) whenever I get near a decent one ffs.

Tell us


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:20 pm
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+ 3

I really am interested to hear. I could never do it myself due to kids and the wife just wouldn't, but it looks fascinating.


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:28 pm
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If junkyard has gone shy, just search the forum and his previous posts should appear


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:31 pm
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[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/living-on-a-narrowboat ]Clicky[/url]


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 6:33 pm
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Bumped into a guy in Moab last week who was a full-time RVer. He was sat on the tailgate of his pick-up truck in Arches National park ready to do some hiking out to a few of the arches. He lived in a 17ft caravan and knew all the pitches where you could camp for 14 days free of charge and basically followed the good weather around the USA living off his pension and a few small investments. His only complaint was the cost of petrol at $3.70 a gallon!

Shame we get such rubbish weather in this country to do something similar 🙁


 
Posted : 22/10/2011 9:17 pm

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