Vlog 1: How I Came To Be Buying A Narrowboat…
Here’s my first video ‘blog, describing how I came to be in the market for a narrowboat on which to cruise the UK’s canal network and hopefully take life easy for a bit.
It’s a tale of mid-life crisis, near-purchase of a campervan, and a calender from the RNLI (an excellent charity which you can support at www.rnli.org)
Hi
How long was the narrow boat you bought.
Regards
Dave
Hello David.
We are a Canadian couple from Edmonton Alberta area. We are very experienced RV owners. Travelling extensively. But. Upon discovering your informative , educational blogs , we have become very interested in narrow boating the UK canals.
Would you, could you , advise us on a start first adventure in narrow boating. I don’t expect you to recommend a hire boat company . They appear to be legion in number. Perhaps you could advise a canal for beginners. Perhaps a one week cruise package. We do have boating experience. We are not totally novice seamen.
We thank you for any advice and wisdom you opt to share with us. As well . We extend an invitation to assist you if in the future , you travel to our area.
Your vblogs are fantastic. I look forward to each new episode. Please feel free to contact us any time.
Thanks David.
Rob , Ken , and Benz
Hello. Thank you for watching the videos, I’m glad you enjoy them. As you rightly suspect, I can’t recommend a hire firm as I’ve never used them. Unfortunately, I can’t really advise on a “canal for beginners” because such a thing doesn’t really exist and also I’ve only done a small fraction of the canal network
You’ll inevitably go through a lock or two, unless you really are moving very slowly along one of the few long lock-free stretches (and I’m not sure if any hire firms operate along those). I honestly think your best bet is to phone / email a few of the many hire firms and ask for their advice as they truly are experts and knowledgeable about good routes and what can be achieved depending on how many hours you want to put in. Hope you have a great time!
Hi there! Thanks for the interesting videos! I am from South Africa and are totally clueless as to canal boating, but I am considering buying a canal boat to spend some time on during my long vacations abroad.
Can you in some video explain the differences between a narrow boat and the the bigger wide beam boats, their advantages and drawbacks? Which would you recommend (I can afford the bigger boat but why will I want to buy it if it is restricted because of its size? Also I (and I am sure some other followers from the world) will be keen to get knowledge on the canals (eg. how far can you travel or are you restricted to one canal, costs of living on board, do you stay on the boat during the cold winter etc?)
Thank you and I will be watching… ;-)
Hello! In short, the canals in the middle of the country are only wide enough to take narrow craft so if you want a widebeam (because it gives you more space) you can only cruise either the southern canals or the northern canals, unless you have the boat craned out of the water and driven on a lorry to the other set of canals. You’re not restricted to one canal; as long as your boat will fit, you can go anywhere (licence permitting). Costs will come once I’ve been on board long enough to have any sensible figures. And yes, many people stay on board during winter. It’s not cold, we have fires and central heating as shown in my videos. Cheers
I love the videos! Never announced your name,
Bollu u tube started me at video no.3 so retracing steps… We run a hostal out in Portugal but just starting to look at moving back to UK after 30 years and determined not to have a car…
Stu x