Living Afloat

About 15,000 people are thought to live afloat in Great Britain. They are found throughout the canals, rivers and coasts, in cities, in the country and in harbours. Some cruise continuously, some are permanently moored and the others mix cruising and mooring to suit themselves.

People who live on boats come from all walks of life: families to pensioners, professionals to artists to boat builders. Some live in narrow boats, some in sea-going craft, some in houseboats. Their homes may be owned (possibly with the aid of a loan) or rented.

People are attracted to their lifestyle for many reasons, including:

• Economy of combining home with pleasure
• Closeness to Nature

Academic research has shown that residential boat owners are not a sub-culture; actually they are a very diverse group. Often they have a strong sense of their local community and its environment. A suitably equipped narrow boat is becoming more and more popular as a permanent home.

Residential Boating:
Continuous Cruising
Permanent Residence
Mooring

Maintenance

Types of boat:
Static Houseboats
Narrow Boats
Wide Beam
Barges
Dutch Barges
Cruisers

There are two forms of residential boating for licencing purposes

Continuous cruising - which means "without remaining in one place for more than fourteen days or such longer period as is reasonable in the circumstances". This method of cruising will require a standard Pleasure Boat Licence.

Permanent Residence means permanently moored on a site with planning permission for residential use, and not used for cruising. This requires a Houseboat Certificate. Details of fees are available from the relevant navigation authority. The best moorings are often difficult to find or have long waiting lists. One option would be to buy a boat already with a residential mooring.

Council tax and the cost of local and domestic services are usually the individual's responsibility.

Mooring

The principle concern with living afloat is finding a mooring. Generally finding the right boat at the right price is fairly straightforward, but finding somewhere to berth it can be extremely difficult. It is therefore an absolute necessity to find a proper residential mooring before buying a boat. A few marinas may offer a "caretaker" berth, but these are obviously rare. A migratory, travelling lifestyle is an insecure existence and, after a short while, will result in the boat being moved on, again and again. If you are in the fortunate position of leasing some riverbank, you will still have to consider planning, rights to access, whether you can park a car nearby, security, is there a convenient fresh water supply etc. Finally the majority of residential berths are based on short term mooring agreements, which can be terminated at short notice.

Maintenance

Boats require as much maintenance, if not more, than a house. From time to time the boat will have to be craned out of the water or dry docked for maintenance of the underwater hull and if engine servicing is essential.

There are various types of craft used as residential boats, as described below:

Static Houseboats. These are not powered and not suitable for a lot of moving around, although they can of course be towed. They normally comprise a rectangular steel floating pontoon with a caravan or mobile home type structure built on top.

Narrow boats. These are 7' wide and up to 70' long. Normally with engines they can cruise most of the Inland Waterway system. Very popular as an 'all round' craft, but the narrow beam does limit space.

Wide beam Narrow boat style. These craft look like narrow boats but are built up to 13' wide and offer much internal space. Practically a beam of 10' to12' is a good maximum to consider. Because they cannot go through narrow locks their cruising area is limited.

Converted Barges. There are all sorts of barges, both English and Dutch. Lengths can vary from 40' to 120' plus, with beams from 10' to over 16'. All but the smallest require a reasonable degree of competence to handle them. The larger barges are only suitable for use on major rivers because of their size.

Also common are converted lighters or dumb barges, with no motive power. Dutch barges are mostly powered, and some are rigged for sail. It is possible to buy unconverted barges either in Holland or in the UK, but the job of conversion is huge, easily under estimated, and is most certainly not for the faint hearted.

Cruisers. Into this category fall all those vessels that were intended for general cruising and include ex lifeboats, broads cruisers, old hire boats etc. They do not make good residential boats as in general they were not built for that purpose, having little or no insulation.

Further Reading

There is an excellent guide "Living Afloat" written by the Residential Boat Owners Association, which costs £8.00. It is available from IWAshop.com.  Click the shop link at the top of the page.