If we average out the estimates of liveaboards, add a pinch of salt and divide by two or three for the number of boats - then at least five thousand of those 30,000 plus boats are homes for people who have abandoned dry land for a better quality of life on board a boat - and many more are considering it.
Our six years of living on board has shown us that boats have become a refuge for divorced people with too little cash to buy another house; older people wanting to be rid of their mortgage and youngsters looking for cheap accommodation – as well as canal fanatics who wouldn’t live anywhere else.
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| Different boats for different folks |
And it is not just existing boaters who dream the dream – we are regularly buttonholed on the towpath by people walking by asking about the possibilities.
Living on a canal boat can seem to be a very pleasant existence as you pass brightly painted cosy craft tied up in alongside sunny country fields or in handy, friendly, city centre marinas.
So who wants to live on a canal boat?
Retired people wanting to see the country, who sell the house, buy a boat and invest the rest.
People opting out of the rat race, especially if they can work from home.
Anyone wanting budget accommodation in an expensive area.
People who just like canals.
Overseas visitors wanting an economical extended tour of the real UK.
Anyone wanting or needing to be mobile.
Last August British Waterways and the Residential Boat Owners' Association launched a survey to determine what boaters would like from their residential moorings – the answer being many more of them.
Every hire-boater and leisure boater will have wondered whether or not they could live on board a boat at some stage, quite apart from those who come to it as cheap housing.
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| Life in a marina |
My aim is to help them come to that decision with their eyes open and some knowledge of issues and pitfalls that lie ahead.
To begin with, that means asking the most basic question of all – is it for you?
Most of us are not accustomed to the restrictions of life on the water so we need to look at the downside - from confined spaces and limited storage space to the simple fact that it moves around as you walk about inside – as well as the dream of floating along on sunny days through the best of British countryside.
The reality is that, in a metal box probably 60ft long by seven wide and seven high, there is never going to be space for the grand piano or granny’s oil painting and if you thought downsizing from a house to a flat was traumatic doing the same for a boat may well bring on palpitations amongst the acquisitive.
There are, of course, halfway houses. You could opt for a wide-beam vessel and if you are simply looking for a home and not planning to travel much that would double the space to something like a compact apartment.
You would have to decide whether you are a Northerner or Southerner at heart, of course as there is no wide canal link between the waterways of Lancashire and Yorkshire and the broad waterways of the southern counties – at least none that doesn’t involve a sea passage.
Equally you could live on an even larger vessel if you are happy to moor on a suitable river – but then we move away having access to the real inland waterways.
The price you pay for space is higher mooring fees, double in some marinas if you live on a wide beam vessel, and often higher still in marinas with sea access where the well-heeled moor their ocean-going yachts.
But if you want to live on board a boat that enables you to travel all Britain’s connected waterways it means a vessel that measures at most 62ft long with a beam of 6ft 10ins.
Inside that elongated cube you have to fit all your possessions, the essential facilities for cooking, washing and sleeping as well as yourselves and your possessions.
On a more basic level you have to be prepared to bring on board all your water and to generate your own electricity. You also have to be prepared to dispose of all your waste – and that includes the contents of the loo.
This is a lifestyle that brings you hard up against the realities of live without the hidden comforts provided by the piped water, gas, electricity, sewage and other facilities most modern householders take for granted. You really are totally aware of what you consume and where your waste goes.
Some people can do it some can’t take the confinement in the longer term. If you are lucky enough to be living on board as a couple or even a family the available space has to be divided up still further – and you have to be really comfortable about spending a lot of time in a small space with the people you love.
It helps tremendously if both parts of a partnership are genuinely of the same mind about living on board – anyone whose partner is merely trying to please by agreeing to a water-borne life is kidding themselves that it will be all right in the end. It is more likely to result in a split or a move back ashore – and sooner rather than later.
When you are deciding whether this is the life for you bear in mind that the places where you can live as a residential boater are also limited.
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| Some marinas are more interesting than others |
The marinas that will take static residential boats on a long term basis are often those on the edge of industrialised urban areas, such as the outskirts of Manchester, Leicester or Leeds.
As soon as marinas are able to label a city centre mooring as residential the price often goes through the roof with British Waterways seeking nearly twice the normal rate for such moorings in the centre of Leeds, and London prices topping £5,000 a year.
The other option is to travel, at least for the months the system is fully open, perhaps finding a winter mooring for the coldest months – but there are a limited number of people who can manage their work or personal life to fit such a lifestyle.
Of course if economic reasons, rather than a love of boats and the waterways, are behind your reasons for living on board, then you will have to either pay the price of a residential marina berth – if you can find one – or opt to play hide and seek with British Waterways’ enforcers who will be trying to see you don’t over-stay in any one spot.
I know people who appear to be immune to the rules and those who abide by them religiously, but trying to run a normal working life, including owning a car, is massively complicated if you don’t have a long-term mooring.
In my experience it is only those with a history of boat ownership or hiring who take all these things into account before they take the plunge of moving on board a boat, so I would strongly advise anyone to spend at least a week or two working a boat before taking the plunge.
Living on a British Waterways Marinas’ establishment in Lancashire a few years ago I saw several newly-divorced men arriving, often to buy new boats as cheap homes with their share of the equity.
Some found a new interest and took their floating life to heart, taking courses on steering their new vessel, exploring the local canals, and planning longer trips when they had the time.
Others never moved their boats and even let the paintwork rust a flake away while they used the boat just as a place to eat and sleep when not at work. To me they seemed to have sad, limited lives because they simply saw their boat as a cheap place to live.
And sometimes the sheer ignorance of the new live-aboard is breath-taking. One lady, who had recently moved on to her boat saw one of the marinas’ regulars filling up with water.
“Why are you doing that?” she asked and he explained that he filled his water tank every few days.
“I’m lucky,” she told him. “I have water taps on all my sinks and I just use them.”
Finally you shouldn’t let sentiment and any kind of romantic notion about what living on a boat would be like influence your decision when choosing the right boat to buy and we will be dealing with that question next time.
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