Does anyone live/has lived on a boat?

[eatingaburgerinthesun]

We need to move, landlord is selling. Looking at places to buy. A boat has come up. It's 5 birth photos look great. Can anyone tell me the realities of living on a boat? There will be me, dh, 2 dc's 15 and 10.
Quite happy to put lots of work in and I no it won't be as easy as living in a house

I did! Truly some of the happiest memories of my life. Downsides were emptying my own toilet and filling up the water, heavy and time consuming. Also couldn’t get broadband so had to rely on a big data package. However didn’t have to pay any water rates or council tax so that was amazing!

should add; can be very cold in the winter and susceptible to damp. It made me get rid of a lot of ‘stuff’ I didn’t need as obviously didn’t have anywhere near as much space or storage as a house, I found it really cosy and a lot quicker to clean and keep tidy though!

I would not do it with kids that age. No where near enough personal space, no where for their mates to come over, no where to put anything.

If the kids at school find out they live on a boat and they're anything like the arsehole I went to school with they'd get called 'poor' or 'river pikey'

I've spent weeks at a time on a canalboat, but in the South of France (and while that sounds lovely, some of the canals freeze in winter, which is rare in the UK, and the ice crushes hulls).

For a family of five, you will need a big boat so at least 75 or 80 ft long, with a permanent mooring. Or, you have to move at least two miles every fortnight under british waterways rules.

You will need to understand your engine, gear box and generator to do the routine maintenance, and to do the checks every single week.

You need to factor in being able to pump out your black water (toilet) tanks at a specialist disposal point.

A houseboat in London with a permanent mooring is one thing; life as a canal rat, while cheap, is for the very practical 20-somethings. A young friend is living it during a post-grad, and it's gruelling stuff. Plus, because London's canals are a bit off the main drag, the banks are full of dodgy people, so security is always a bit of a worry.

My friend lives on a boat currently. She loves it. She works part time, so she has plenty of time to do all the boaty stuff. She also says that she wouldn't live with anyone else on one unless she had a ship.

I don't want to put you off completely, but unless you are seriously interested, practical and competent, houses are a damned sight easier to live in. The happiest two days of a boat owner's life are 1) the day you buy it and 2) the day you sell it. Everything costs more than its land-based equivalent (and usually needs to be shipped in from overseas).

But if I haven't said enough, buy one with a simple Lister engine, change the oil and filters in the engine and gear box every time the manual tells you, keep the bilge clean (so you can see where you have dripping oil indicating a problem).

I live on a boat and my advice would be to think twice if your children are new to the water. I think a child should have some experience and respect for it and so many children who have grown up in a house don't have that yet though they can develop it as they get older.
Just my thoughts on it.

Btw, ice will not crush a hull unless it is fibre glass. Nearly all hulls are steel and thick steel at that.
We are often iced in over winter, it happened twice last winter and it never crossed our minds, or the minds of our fellow boaters that we would get crushed.
Out boat is warm and cosy with wood burner and diesel central. heating, all our electricity is solar or generated by the boats engine and stored in batteries. We are effectively off grid.
Speaking of engines, Lister aren't easier or simpler. They have been about for a while now and people like them for that but there are a whole lot of more modern engines. . Ours is Isuzu , easy to run and there are plenty of spares should you need them.

I have never regretted living on the water and actually don't know anyone who does .

Houses need repairs, so do boats.

Seriously, you'd be hard pressed to find a boat bigger that 70' and that's a big boat. Thing is you have to turn boats and over a certain length that can be difficult and unmanageable. 60' is about top end though some commercial boats can be bigger but only a very few.

MissMartha, the six boats that were crushed by ice that year were all at the closed end of the canal du Rhone a Sete, and they were all old, poorly maintained hulls, several wooden, presumably the rest were fibreglass. No narrowboats AFAIK as they are fairly rare in France. And it was an exceptionally cold winter, with severe Mistral winds for weeks on end.

We're told that finding competent people to service slightly unusual boat engines is hard. This particular engine was Italian, and getting parts was difficult, hence the suggestion of a Lister. However, Isuzu also has a sound reputation and delighted to hear that spares are easy.

There is a saying that goes, " happiest day of my life was when we bought the boat! Second happiest day of our life was when we sold the .... ".

EffortlessDesmond, I'm not surprised to hear that it's not hard for ice to crush an ancient wooden boat and I would expect the insurance would reflect their state of dilapidation . You'd have to be mad to buy a boat like that and then to keep it in that boat grave yard cos that's what it is down at St.Louis.

Get a good boat and you're laughing,. Get a safety certificate and make sure she's in good nick and you do that by getting her looked at by experts. No one will insure a wreck anyway.

Listers sound nice, but they can be trouble and you can't get the parts off the shelf.

Insurance, MissMartha? I doubt there was any. It wasn't St Louis (but not far away) and boat graveyard was, or maybe still is, an apt description. It was a very cheap town for mooring, and there were lots of elderly liveaboards ekeing out their pensions.

It is a rather good part of the world even so. Brexit has made it well nigh impossible for any length of time now sadly.

A friend lives on a boat - a proper one not a houseboat. She raised two boys on it. Tiny and she has to be extremely tidy and strict about what she owns, but her husband has a workshop so the can store their extra (sporting, in their case) gear there. But the boys have left home now and she's still there - I think if they could afford a house they would leave, but economically it works for them (plus they can use it on holidays as it's sea-worthy).

It's possible and the type of boat you want will depend on schooling, work etc.
Home schooled kids can manage on a boat but boats can be a little confining and I think getting out and socialising is a good thing for children to do. If your children are on a boat (of any kind) you will need a mooring as getting on and off to shop, go to school, have mates around , working etc., is pretty hard if you are sailing/cruising all the time with no place to moor.

Boat living is not simply a matter of doing it because it is cheap, boats can be expensive too .Lots of us choose to live on water because it is so darned freeing.

I have an apartment on land, a nice one in a city that I rent out and I have never lived in it and never wanted to. Maybe I will one day, who knows?

I also have a lock up, lots old us do, to keep ropes, sails tables, chairs and whatnot.