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Living on a Narrowboat - Canal Boat Living

Over the next few months we will examine those small details that we believe can mean the difference between comfort and misery when living aboard full time on a narrowboat.

Part 1 - Living on a Narrowboat - Space

Size Matters - When it comes to living aboard a boat

by Graham & Jean Beven

We have owned our boat since February 2003 and we have 'lived aboard' since the summer of 2006

'Maid of the Mist' is a 60 foot, cruiser stern, steel narrowboat. We bought her as a 'lined sailaway' so we could affordably fit her out to our exact, high, specifications.

Before we get too far into this article, we should explain that it is a personal view of our experiences and we do not pretend to be 'experts'; an 'ex' being a has-been and a 'spurt' a drip under pressure!

Before buying our boat, we walked the towpath for five years, just talking to narrowboaters and live-aboards in particular, making fervent notes on what they would 'do' to their boats if they could start again, to improve their enjoyment of living on the water. This coupled with our own ideas helped us decide what we wanted / needed on our live aboard narrowboat.

It doesn't matter how long your boat is, space will always be at a premium. Length has to be weighed up against the cruising range of the boat. A 60 footer will get you round most of the narrow and broad canals and some navigable rivers. A 57 footer will also get you just about everywhere on the canals and some navigable rivers. We wouldn't recommend a couple living aboard anything smaller than a 57 footer if you want to stay friends! Having said that we have met folk that manage to live aboard with as little as 33 feet!

We spent the five years planning the interior of our boat and during the fitting out and we think we made a fairly good job of using what space we had. The only thing we would seriously change is the bow. We would have had the steelwork enclose the open bow area avoiding the need for a cratch, which we think is a throw-back to working boats and doesn't really have a place on a modern live-aboard boat. A controversial statement we know but in hindsight it would have been a better use of space for living aboard.

Yes, size does matter, if there is one recurring phrase that crops up more often than any other in our conversation with other live-aboards it is “I wish the boat was another ten feet longer”. We're not saying that you can’t live on a thirty three foot boat, its just that your life would be much more stress free with (a lot) more space.

When you've had a 'hard day's cruising' it would be nice not to have to spend ten minutes making up the bed by converting the dining booth / lounge area into a bed when you just want to fall into it. It is nice to have a separate bedroom!

The bathroom on many boats is very, very 'cosy', but we wanted to avoid the almost certainty of banged elbows. You don't want to have to go to the space outside the bathroom to allow you to dry your back in safety. As a live aboard we felt it essential to have a bath with shower over, so we used the full width of the boat and had a galley bathroom to accommodate this.

Storage was programmed into the original design; there is no empty space that is not a cupboard, with a door or a lid on. But there still isn’t enough and probably never will be. Our web site building 'retirement' means we (Jean would say, I) collect research material at every port and the original office area at the foot of the bed should have just been a floor to ceiling storage cupboard instead of the designed laptop desk and printer booth!

Living on a boat is definitely 'do-able'. Many people are already living aboard a narrowboat boat. Retirement living on a canal boat gives you the freedom to do what you want when you want.

Some folk are boat eco living, others are living on a house boat we will over the next few months answer those narrow boat living faq's for living aboard boat essentials.

Canal boat living in England  / UK has rules and regulations for living aboard. We will be covering those in depth in later sections.

Companies that fulfil the need for a UK postal address when living in a canal narrowboat - WaterwaysMail.co.uk and Boatmail.co.uk

Canal Continuous Cruising - Continuous Cruising Licence information and comment

See: Canal boat living - Rise of the eco river gipsy - Living on Britain's inland waterways is becoming increasingly popular for the freedom and sustainable lifestyle it offers – but the humble narrowboat could also pave the way for greener shipping. Jimmy Lee Shreeve reports