Living on a Boat
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Does anyone actually live on a boat. If so is it permanently moored or do you move. Something I’m thinking about in the future. Obviously the cost of the boat is high but are living cost low. Any information greatly received.
I’ve often fantasied about living on one, especially the summer months as it looks idyllic and you have a lot of freedom. But with the recent pandemic, most of the ones near me have signs telling people to keep their distance, so I can imagine you don’t get much privacy
The cost of a permanent mooring can be incredibly high and will likely increase in the future. At least in London many boat dwellers are being priced out of the water - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jul/15/boat-dwellers-priced-off-londons-canals-as-mooring-fees-soar
I live on the Llangollen canal and we applied and were successful to have end of garden mooring granted. Although we haven't purchased a boat due to house renovation costs we have extensively looked into it. What specifically do you need to know and what area do you live? Are you going to continual cruise or do you need to be moored up. It's not cheap and if you are after a narrowboat - they aren't cheap either. Let me know what questions you have.
Very early stages, money is not an issue but don’t want to keep paying mooring fees. Looking at Norfolk where I’m sure there are places you can moor for free.
eyeballkerry to avoid paying mooring fees you will have to continual cruise then and some places you can stay for a few days others for 24-48 hours. Free mooring if you're not moving very frequently is impossible.
To give you an idea, even of a boat of around 40ft we were looking at annual mooring fees of around £800 and that's in our garden, and over half the price of anywhere local on the Llangollen. Norfolk I imagine will be significantly more due to its popularity though at the moment canals are quiet. We'd normally have a lot of tourism with narrowboat let's back and to this time of year on the canal and I could count on one hand the number we have had go past.
Add on insurance fees, licencing fees (it's dependent on length so if you can the smaller the better). Also best in mind if you're continual cruising you'll a boat more equipped than you would if you had mooring with electric hook up.
I'd recommend the forum Canalworld as a good starting point.
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