Thinking of a narrowboat in the UK

[bowball]

I’ve always been intrigued with life at 3mph on narrow canals in England, Wales etc. 57’ to 62’ with a 6’10” beam! Life with a bed smaller than a queen sized.

Anyone else?

Now my question is how to split my time between British Columbia / Alaska and England.

 

[CharlieO.]

I've recently been wondering on the feasibility of going to England and renting one for vacation trip.

I saw there is a place on the Erie canal that has some for rent too, although that wouldn't be the same.

 

[O C Diver]

While probably lots of fun to do, watching this series of videos on canaling might be more entertaining.

Ted

 

[sean9c]

I got hooked on watching narrowboat canal cruising videos on youtube. Got thinking about how polluted the water in those canals must be. That killed my interest.

 

[CharlieO.]

I got hooked on watching narrowboat canal cruising videos on youtube. Got thinking about how polluted the water in those canals must be. That killed my interest.

Do you think it could be worse than the Hudson river and the New York Canals?

 

[Comodave]

Yes, they have a pretty good flow.

 

[CharlieO.]

Valid point Comodave.

 

[Comodave]

When we went up the Hudson and did the Erie Canal there was a lot of debris, mostly trees and limbs, but it was really early in the season. I think they have done a lot of cleanup on the Hudson in the last 10 to 15 years too. Less pollution maybe.

 

[bowball]

Some of the newer ones are going hybrid with an electric motor charged by a Diesel engine. I wonder how good those systems are? And I haven’t read about any with gensets? (Actually just saw one with a Panda?)

Solar though is common as the long roof helps at least in the summer.

The negative is ventilation on hot summer days. What sort of a/c system would work? Remember nothing can go higher really than the current roof line (stove stack has to come down even) to clear low tunnels that have inches to spare.

Or given the size profile one has to get really hot?

 

[jungpeter]

I’ve always been intrigued with life at 3mph on narrow canals in England, Wales etc. 57’ to 62’ with a 6’10” beam! Life with a bed smaller than a queen sized.

Anyone else?

Now my question is how to split my time between British Columbia / Alaska and England.

My interest has been tempered, and finally firmly damped, by the thought of hours of monotonous travel at 3mph down a narrow weed-lined canal, with a view of....weeds. And a view of absolutely NOTHING from inside, on those inevitable days of horrible English weather. Or a view of NOTHING from inside at night, at rest, underway, at mealtime, while lounging, while.....

Each to his/her own. Not my cup of tea.

Regards,

Pete

 

[kthoennes]

We got hooked on this show recently, "Travels by Narrowboat" with Kevin Shelley, although it's an Amazon Prime video series so you have to have a membership for much of it. There are some free videos or episodes on YouTube to give you a flavor:

At first we were very enthused by the whole idea, beautiful idyllic English scenery without a lot of the stress and expense of our "big" boat and big water, just easing along, but after a while -- well, maybe it's the putt-putt-putt (putt-putt-putt...) of the teeny little engine, or the same-ness of so much of the canals, or all the serene cows in the canal-side pastures, but we kept falling asleep toward the end of the episodes. And Kevin Shelley is pretty amusing in my opinion, not his fault. The lock mechanics (the mechanical design of the locks I mean) are fascinating. But after a while it seems to all blend together and you feel like you're trapped in a perpetual English canal deja' vu.

(And we also kept thinking of "Keeping Up Appearances" and Hyacinth's boating episode on the Contessa II with riparian entertainments, but that's another topic.)

 

[hmason]

I watched a number of YouTube videos of narrow boats cruising the English canals. After an hour or so I wondered why I was watching. Talk about boring! OMG.

 

[kthoennes]

We've been to England and the UK a number of times and really love it, but after watching just a few of the episodes, we caught ourselves asking each other "did we see this one already?" We may even still do a canal boat charter or rental someday, looks kind of fun and an interesting experience FOR A FEW DAYS. Charming. And the next time we're pounding through crappy weather or I'm trying to dock in a gale without taking out somebody else's million dollar boat I'll wish we were trapped instead on a placid, serene, swan-scattered English canal, but I'd need lots of strong coffee to stay awake. To each his own by all means, I'm sure they're very charming. Beautiful paintwork on some of the boats. I do think we have cornfield drainage ditches in South Dakota bigger than some of those canals though.

Putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt putt...

Now I feel like a big boat/big water snob, but I suspect Lord Nelson would burst out laughing too. Britannia didn't come to "rule the waves" that way -- there are no waves on the canals! (I'm such a snob, my apologies Your Majesty.)

 

[alormaria]

Watching Great Canal Journeys with Timmy and Pru. Liked them so much we bought the European version CD that has the Rideau Canal and had to buy a Chinese DVD player to watch it. Worth it!


Yes canaling is slow and weedy but there is no tide, no wake, little wind, tons of boat handling and at any time if you want to leave you pull over and call a taxi. Try that in the middle of the ocean.

 

[bowball]

Watching Great Canal Journeys with Timmy and Pru. Liked them so much we bought the European version CD that has the Rideau Canal and had to buy a Chinese DVD player to watch it. Worth it!


Yes canaling is slow and weedy but there is no tide, no wake, little wind, tons of boat handling and at any time if you want to leave you pull over and call a taxi. Try that in the middle of the ocean.

Not to mention the abundance of pubs a walking distance away!

I’m trying to figure out the seasonal split with British Columbia though. It seems like the best seasons are the same. Maybe the heat of the summer stay in BC. Who gets fall versus spring? And winter neither?

 

[ranger58sb]

While probably lots of fun to do, watching this series of videos on canaling might be more entertaining.

Watching Great Canal Journeys with Timmy and Pru.

We enjoyed those too. Tim can't drive for squat. There's another guy who's done an extensive YouTube series, too; more tech detials in that one (sorry can't remember name off-hand, but he's got a couple hundred of them out there...).

The lock flights puts me off. Admiral doesn't want to drive, I don't want her trying to cope with the locks...

Returning to the Pub atmosphere -- remembered from when I lived in England for a few years -- would be nifty, though.

-Chris

 

[ScottC]

In the early 90's, we travelled for about a week with someone who had just retired and sold everything to buy a looonnng narrowboat to travel the UK canals. We had our own bedroom, but you had to go through living room, galley, his bedroom and the bathroom to get to it. There IS lots of space on these things, but it can be tough getting used to the challenging layout. Quite amazing to see equally narrow locks too.

 

[kthoennes]

I got hooked on watching narrowboat canal cruising videos on youtube. Got thinking about how polluted the water in those canals must be. That killed my interest.

You know from what I understand -- and I should probably shut up because I'm just basing this on my pretty extensive reading and video watching -- the English canals can get gross and soupy, but not as bad as the French canals. I have read that in just the last few years the French have adopted prohibitions against black water (raw sewage) discharge, but discharge is still common and almost universally tolerated or ignored. As a result you'll see a lot of internet postings that say the French canals smell really bad and you definitely don't want to swim in them. Unauthorized discharge or not, I don't think it's nearly as much of an issue on the Erie Canal just because of the much larger volume of water involved compared to the sometimes really tiny English or French canals. I have done portions of the Erie Canal and I didn't think it was gross at all, but then maybe I caught it on good days or times of the year.

 

[remwines]

Took the family on a UK narrowboat canel trip 18 years ago for one week. Actually exchanged a week of timeshare for 45' boat. Flew into Heathrow and took buses to Tardebigge which is in an area where there are several narrowboat rentals (hires) to choose from. I think we picked up our boat from Anglo Welsh Waterway Holidays. There was about 15 minutes of instruction and away we went. Boat was capable of about 5kts but you need to stay under 4 to prevent wake erosion of the banks. There was plenty of room for the three of us on board. We would take turns driving so others could get out and walk along side on the bank path for exercise. Long story short, there was no lack of scenery, pubs, castles, shops and other points of interest. Towns/cities usually have seawalls with cleats to tie off, but if you are in the country and just want to stop, there are stakes on board you pound into the bank with a mallet and tie off. A healthy couple can handle gate operations, but we were lucky to have three on board. The wife and daughter handled the gates while I handled the boat. We plan to do it again someday. Lesson learned from this trip was that one week is not enough to do a loop. There are several loops to do in this area, but we stopped at many sites and didn't have time to do the loop we were on. We ended up having to come back the same route. So take at least a couple of weeks, see the sites and do a loop trip.

 

[2savage]

I'm English and have done canal boat trips in the past. Contrary to previous comments, the pollution mentioned does not exist. The scenery is excellent, and the history is omnipresent.

My favorite trip was from Warwick on the Grand Union canal then down the Stratford Canal to Stratford-on-Avon, where we saw a performance of Julius Ceasar at the Shakespeare theatre.

 

[AlanT]

I’ve always been intrigued with life at 3mph on narrow canals in England, Wales etc. 57’ to 62’ with a 6’10” beam! Life with a bed smaller than a queen sized.

Anyone else?

Now my question is how to split my time between British Columbia / Alaska and England.

I am currently in the UK where visiting friends, several of whom have and enjoy their narrowboats in the canal system from London as far north as Banbury. Bottom line for them: Nice way to relax and get from pub to pub without driving. Plenty of villages to stop at and enjoy. Relatively stress free but locks are a chore. Becomes boring after a few days. They tend to spend 3-5 days at a time a week a month. Mainly moving every day.

It is true that you see very little of the country while motoring. Your head will be level (standing up) with the grass/reeds lining most canalbanks. That changes within towns of course. To enjoy country views you stop and walk/cycle.

I also have a friend that lived fulltime on one in London. Basically it was just an affordable option in an expensive area for them, however local requirements meant moving it every 6 months or so and eventually they got tired of the hassle. Permanent mooring in/around London is difficult apparently although not so in rural England.

If you have specific questions PM me and I'll forward to my friends for their comments.
~A

 

[Adopo]

This is the series we have enjoyed watching. Retired reporter now Narrowboat youtuber.

David Johns – YouTuber and Narrowboat-dweller

One link from the above

https://www.youtube.com/CruisingTheCutUK

 

[bowball]

This is the series we have enjoyed watching. Retired reporter now Narrowboat youtuber.

David Johns – YouTuber and Narrowboat-dweller

One link from the above

https://www.youtube.com/CruisingTheCutUK

I’ve watched many of those episodes. I think he may have moved back to land though? Narrowboat experience is another - two women with such positive attitudes - that appears to have ended on a sad note.

 

[remwines]

Regarding pollution in the UK canals, I did not notice trash or bad odors in the system we traveled and there were often people fishing from the banks. Maybe it's different in more populated areas.

Adopo; Thanks for the fuel boat video. That boat was built in the 1930's. One of my fondest memories from our trip was unexpectedly coming into town hosting a restored canal boat show. Most of the boats were old freight or tug/tow boats used to pull barges. Many boats were over 100 years old and started off life with coal or wood fired stream engines, but were converted to oil/diesel fired stream. Most were completely converted to primitive one or two cylinder oil/diesel engines. It was great to go into the engine rooms to hear the stories, to see everything ornately painted and all the brass, bronze and copper highly polished. Real works of mechanical art.

 

[OldDan1943]

I too was thinking about buying a narrow boat. I sent email to the site. Referred to the local builder.... sent email to the local builder. Never heard anything back. Guess he either didn't want my money or didn't have the time. This was a couple years ago.

 

[bowball]

I too was thinking about buying a narrow boat. I sent email to the site. Referred to the local builder.... sent email to the local builder. Never heard anything back. Guess he either didn't want my money or didn't have the time. This was a couple years ago.

I am having the same issue!

 

[ssobol]

I’ve watched many of those episodes. I think he may have moved back to land though? ...

He had to plan for the future and did not have the wherewithal to own both his canal boat and a house (you think real estate is expensive in the US, try the UK). Guess YouTube does not pay that well.

However, he it still making videos about the canals and canal boats. BTW, some of his videos are also on Amazon.

You can rent similar style boats on the Erie Canal. Might be worth a try-out for a week or two before doing it the UK.

Generally, the Erie Canal is much wider than the canals in the UK (thus the requirement for "narrow" boats). You can turn an Erie Canal canal boat around inside a lot of the Erie canal locks. In the UK, you can't and even have to be careful of the boat placement in the lock so you don't get hung up on the lock sill.

Canals on the continent are usually wider than in the UK (particularly Netherlands and Belgium). The typical "Dutch" canal boat is about twice as wide as a UK boat.

 

[Peter B]

I’ve always been intrigued with life at 3mph on narrow canals in England, Wales etc. 57’ to 62’ with a 6’10” beam! Life with a bed smaller than a queen sized.
Anyone else?
Now my question is how to split my time between British Columbia / Alaska and England.

Our family did this back in 2011. I got some tips re the locking stuff from a past member, Marin, who was very helpful We absolutely loved it. We had about a 60 footer, and it coped with 5 adults and one 3 yr old easily. The systems worked well. Instant diesel furnace for heat and hot water. Trusty diesel engine still on most. There is a holding tank and quite large water tanks, so the canals are pretty clean. They are really careful over recycling over in the UK, and dealing with rubbish almost an obsession - a good one.

Coasting along (on the Warwickshire ring series), we had mostly sunny weather and calling into small towns and villages was fun. Go thought the churchyards. Headstones up to 500 yrs old, etc.

My lasting great memory is coasting along at 4 kn on a sunny day, (but not so hot you feel the need to keep out of it), sucking on a muggacoffee, and saying to those passing and doing the same...and they are so close you don't have to shout..."it's hard work, but someone's got to do it..."

I heartily recommend it. After you've gone through six locks up, through the mile long Braunston Heights tunnel, then down six locks again, you feel you've really had an adventure..!
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Braunston+Canal&form=RESTAB&first=1&tsc=ImageHoverTitle

Here's our boat...

 

[CharlieO.]

But would I have to switch to tea instead of coffee?

 

[OldDan1943]

But would I have to switch to tea instead of coffee?

and warm beer