Does water-living 'float your boat'?

Posted by Jaimie Kanwar on Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Priced out of waterside lofts, young professionals are snapping up houseboats in prime locations...

Waterfront living doesn't come much better than Sally Arthur and Sam Morrison's pad. Located right in the heart of Bristol, it has great views of the city's freshly regenerated docks, and despite being five minutes' walk from the city centre, it's as quiet here as at any country retreat.

The couple moved on to their wide-beam canal boat in Bristol Marina when they got together four years ago. "I'd been sharing in houses of eight, and I felt like I was getting too old to live with loads of people. A canal boat seemed like the only way to get a place of your own with the money we had to spend," says Sally, 35. "Sam was living on a boat already, in London, and I fell for him - and for his boat, really."

For many, it's hard to imagine that inhabiting a canal boat could score for you in the eligible-bachelor stakes, but living afloat has never been more attractive. As house prices continue to rise, many Britons are choosing a life on the water.

British Waterways, the agency that operates most of the country's canals and navigable rivers, has announced that it needs to create 11,000 new berths for canal boats in the next decade to keep pace with demand, which has doubled over the past six years.

Finding a mooring 'difficult'

Despite this investment, finding a mooring can be extremely difficult, particularly in the South-east of England.

"The number of people buying boats has been increasing steadily for many years," says Jonathan Ludford of British Waterways. "Unless new boaters plan to cruise continually around the waterways network, they will need to secure an appropriate mooring. Available residential berths are few and far between and often have long waiting lists."

There is, he says, no fast track to securing a mooring: it's a case of getting on the waiting list for as many private marinas and waterways as possible in your chosen area.

The more popular the location, the further in advance you need to plan, and in London it could take three years or more. But it is essential to secure a mooring before buying a boat – doing it the other way round is one of the most common mistakes boat-buyers make.

Around 15,000 people live on boats in Britain. It has long been regarded as a hippie lifestyle, a back-to-nature type of existence for people who are prepared to dispense with most of their creature comforts. There are certainly disadvantages to living on a narrowboat, the classic canal-boat design.

These boats can change hands for as little as £20,000, but they usually bring with them chores such as pumping out the chemical toilet, refilling the onboard water tanks and charging the batteries. But the biggest snag of all is, as the name suggests, that they are extremely narrow.

Affluent buyers choose life on water

But with the average house price based on the latest Land Registry figures now more than £200,000, more affluent buyers than ever are choosing a life on the water. Among the wealthiest is Simon Woodroffe, the owner of the Yo! Sushi chain, who bought a houseboat and mooring in Kensington and Chelsea last year for a reported £500,000, certainly less than his not-too- distant neighbours over on Cheyne Walk.

With three double bedrooms, two bathrooms and an open-plan living area spread over two decks, it's a far cry from the boats that line towpaths in the rest of the UK.

Even for the less well-financed, moving on to a boat need not be a claustrophobic experience, or lead to a crisis a few months down the line. Wide-beam boats such as Sally and Sam's span a more generous 9ft, allowing for more comfortable cohabitation (and fewer relationship tensions).

Also, many moorings now allow boaters to "plug in" their craft, supplying the boat with mains water and electricity, and in many instances, broadband internet, cable TV and a telephone line. More established marinas such as Bristol's feature a laundry and common room, too.

But if the facilities and quality of life is increasing, so is the cost of mooring a boat. The most basic mooring in an isolated spot in the countryside can set you back as little as £500 a year, but city moorings are usually several thousand.

And in a category of their own are London and the South-east, where BW says it has a waiting list of 300. Some people have been waiting for years. BW is currently marketing 12 new moorings in Northolt, west London, on the Paddington arm of the Grand Union Canal. Per year, they cost £5,250 – still, that's not even half- way to the annual cost of a mortgage on a small one-bedroom flat in most parts of London, though of course that's before you buy the boat.

Alternatives to residential mooring

Many canal boats on the market do come complete with residential moorings. The mooring can sometimes be transferred to the new owner, for a price: some marinas charge 2 per cent of the boat's value, while others reportedly extract up to 10 per cent.

A residential mooring, once obtained, comes with a postal address and a council tax bill from the local authority. The good news is that all canal boats are band A.

There are alternatives to a residential mooring. Boat owners can opt for a life of perpetual motion. There are thousands of visitor moorings around the country where anyone is free to moor up for the night. Technically, boaters are supposed to move on within two weeks, sometimes less.

Once you've found the mooring, bought the boat and got insurance, all that's needed is a licence, usually from British Waterways or the Environmental Agency, which will allow you to cruise Britain's canals at leisure. And taking your new home for a spin for the first time is one of the pleasures of a life afloat – or is it?

"We've been a bit sluggardly," admits Sally Arthur, who, along with her partner, works in animation. "I think we've just made one journey – from the boat yard to here. A lot of people get away for the day but we treat it as a floating home. I think it's beautiful, here in the marina: incredible sunsets and ducks outside your window in the mornings. It makes you happy a lot of the time."

How to get afloat

Some sell for under £20,000, but a medium-sized vessel in good condition with plumbing and electricity will cost from £30,000-50,000. Boats that come with desirable moorings will cost significantly more. Always sort out a mooring before buying a boat.
When first viewing a boat, inspect the welds on the exterior of the cabin. Cheaply built boats will have wavy cabin sides; top-class hulls will have no visible welds and the cabin sides should be flat. Look out for signs of rust.
Inside, the smell of rot, streaks in the wood or water marks indicate leaks that need investigating.
Buying a boat is as fraught with hidden dangers as buying a used car, so it's essential to have a survey done. They start at a few hundred pounds, but for older boats the hull must be inspected, so the boat has to be craned out of the water, costing up to £1,000.
Run the engine, and if you don't know your stuff get a mechanic to come with you.
Make sure it has a current Boat Safety Certificate – required to get it insured. They run for four years and can cost a lot of money to obtain for an older boat.
Insurance is usually less than £200 a year. Brokers include Craft Insure (www.craftinsure.com).
High-street banks won't lend money to buy a boat as a home. There are a number of specialists, however, who will lend up to 80 per cent of the boat's value. Lenders include Collidge and Partners (www.collidgeandpartners.co.uk)
Other useful websites include: The Residential Boat Owners Association (www.rboa.org.uk); The National Association of Boat Owners (www.nabo.org.uk); British Waterways (www.britishwaterways.co.uk); and boat broker Virginia Currer Marine (www.vcmarine.co.uk)

Source: The Independent

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