 There
are new skills to be learned if you want to be a successful 'liveaboard',
and important considerations when buying a narrowboat to live
aboard.
One important consideration is the cost of living on a boat on
the canals. We used to live on a fat salary, in a nice country
bungalow, with two cars, boat, caravan, along with a mortgage
and credit cards to match etc etc. Nowadays, having sold up and
moved onto our boat, we have no fat salary but equally no debts
whatsoever. Our income is very satisfactory but would be classed
as meagre by modern standards. BUT we have more money in the
bank now than we ever had before. Irene, my wife, now doesn't
have to think twice before buying whatever we need - we are
'comfortable' and don't have to pay a lot of tax. This wouldn't
suit everyone - but it does suit us.
Is
living aboard a narrowboat cheaper than living in a house?
YES for most people. Although I often describe narrowboating as
being either a very expensive hobby OR a very cheap way of life.
Sure moorings can be expensive, as can British Waterways
Licences, not to mention the initial cost of buying a narrowboat
and kitting it out to be suitable for living aboard. But when
you compare these costs with home ownership, living aboard a
narrowboat can be a very cost effective alternative. BUT and
it's a BIG BUT, I would not recommend that people move onto a
narrowboat home UNLESS they are also very committed to the
lifestyle and values that go along with living aboard a
narrowboat. Those committed to the change of lifestyle are
likely to succeed with real contentment - To assume that you
will be happy just and merely because it is cheaper to be on a
narrowboat rather than living in a house is a false premise. WE
HAVE SEEN PEOPLE TRY THIS AND IT DON'T WORK - THEY DON'T LAST!
What
are the costs of moving aboard?
Well first you need to buy your narrowboat. With a substantial
budget, perhaps from sale of a house, you might pay well over £70,000 for a narrowboat but ……….. it won't necessarily make
you a successful 'liveaboard'. Equally we see people limited to
a budget of £20,000 - £30,000 buy a very suitable and
comfortable (albeit older) narrowboat and take to the lifestyle
like the proverbial duck to canal.
Other costs include the British Waterways
annual pleasure cruising licence (a fee that changes annually so
check their licensing site); Insurance - possibly £250 - £500;
and if not "continuously cruising" mooring fees which could be
£1200pa for an ‘online’ mooring in rural areas (farmer’s field),
or perhaps £3000pa in an average….. marina, or up to "costa
bloody fortune" London area. Obviously there are ongoing
maintenance costs for engine and boat upkeep. But that will
probably be much less than properly maintaining a house with
council tax added on.
If in a modern marina you are likely to be
paying for electric hook-up (in the past, those meters could wiz
round very fast, but I understand that regulations are now in
place to prevent that from happening unfairly). Out on the cut,
if continuously cruising, you will need to run your engine to
charge batteries and heat water, so there is the cost of red
diesel (the cost per litre depends on where you buy it – we have
noticed differences of more than 30p per litre between marinas
situated less than 10 miles from each other). EU rules have
forced red diesel prices up but it does need to be said that
narrowboat diesel engines don’t tend to consume anything like
the amount of diesel that road vehicles do. To put this into
context – as a commercial cruising hotelboat we use approx 10
litres of diesel per day (and that’s for a full 8 hours
of cruising). Try driving your car for 8 hours on 10 litres of
fuel. Also remember that, out on the cut, your diesel engine
will also be generating all your domestic 12v battery power (and
charging the inverter battery banks) - not to mention heating
your domestic hot water, presuming your boat has the normal calorifier set up (so diesel costs offset marina mains electric
hook up costs). We fill up perhaps every three weeks or so -
compare that with your car. On the subject of cars - until we
went hotelboating we didn't have, or want, a car when we were
just living aboard (think of the saving of no road tax or
insurance to pay). We frequently go shopping in the boat - there
are shops adjacent to the canals.
Heating bills - well some coal perhaps. We use
about two 25kg bags of coal per week (approx £10) in winter.
This cost can be reduced by burning wood (fallen trees /
branches found on the cut), the cost being only a bit of sweat -
personally I'm too lazy to bother.
Do
Narrowboat Prices, and 'liveaboard' costs vary in differing
parts of the UK?
Market forces are market forces. I'm sure some brokers would
disagree, but in my opinion there is a big differential. I am
quite sure that in the South narrowboats can be very expensive
(Home Counties house prices influences and 'supply & demand') .
I think that in the Midlands (heart of the UK canal system)
things do tend to be a bit more sensible. We have bought three
personal narrowboats now. The two that we have sold were both
bought cheaply or reasonably in the midlands and sold for a
premium price in Surrey. One boat boat purchased for £12,000
from a respected broker near Middlewich, sold 12 months later
for £18,500 - try matching that return on the stock market.
Living costs once on the canals can vary a bit from area to area
(differing diesel / pump out costs etc) - but not to a huge
extent. Mooring costs in the London and surrounding areas will
be very costly - but then housing costs there are even more
costly. I should mention that I have observed second hand
narrowboat prices suffering a bit of a dip in the recent years,
but I think that the price explosion of earlier years had gone a bit ‘too
far’. |
