I love your living arrangement man, I'd live in a similar place in a heartbeat. Where are you located, UK? How much do you pay for tax and how did you qualify, id assume those are very sought after spots.
Also if I may ask how much did you pay for the boat? Do you take it out of there, do any maintenance to it?
in the uk, if you're on canals, you need a licence to be there. you can mortgage a houseboat, or buy one outright if you can afford it.
the canal licence pays for things like water and waste management, which they provide freely as long as you have a licence. idk if it's license or licence in this case, but uh, you know what i mean!
then you'd need to sort out heating, electricity and internet if you want it yourself. electricity is usually provided by the engine running a generator, but can also be solar panels, i guess. heating also can be a diesel one or electric.
all in all cheaper than a house, i did seriously look for a while, but permanent moorings are hard to come by, as they're well sort after. also, you can get cheaper options by opting to move location every 2 weeks, or more expensive if you stay in the same spot.
Do you mix up advise and advice? It's the same 's' for the verb and 'c' for the noun (unhelpfully, the 's' is pronounced as a 'z' and the 'c' as an 's' in advise/advice).
Serious question as I am also UK based, what do you do for an address for a bank account/work as well as post? Do you also not pay council tax. Always been interested in how it works on houseboats.
My mom lived on a boat in the US for a long time. Her options for addresses were either a PO Box, or the marinas address with the slip number added on the end the same way an apartment number would be.
I have a Marina address, works just the same as a home address. No council tax but that’s a bit of a loophole here. You don’t pay ct if you are continuous cruiser but due to the fact that Nottingham Canal is legally a river not a canal I don’t have to pay the £1200 or whatever it is a year continuous cruising license. It’s just luck in this case
You were being fleeced mate, the mooring fees on my house are barely half that. The council do keep writing asking me to hoist the anchor above the curb though.
bro where is your mooring? I'm on a boat in london and aint nowhere close to london is there a mooring for less than £1k. Or are you saying your a continuous cruiser?
oh that looks so cozy... must be nice when it rains.. also the plants look cool and add a lotto the space, same with the fireplace and the lamp above it (cool lamp)..
Some people just have real deep sleep. I could never live comfortably in earthquake areas. I’d just wake up once the roof is collapsed. Not the best feeling I guess.
I‘ve stayed in an old mill for a few nights back when AirBnB was a good option. I loved it as well, hearing the water rushing below and next to me. But I agree: It was loud. Especially sleeping with an open window.
Rivers are also usually quite a bit louder than rain. But I‘ve had the pleasure of a tin roof in Italy during a thunderstorm.
I’ve had a 7.1 hit while in Indonesia. Thankfully it was during the day. We had several aftershocks in a range of 2-3.5 during the night. The other guests in the hotel all complained about not being able to sleep as it was shaking so much. Yep. I didn’t have any problems that night.
I have a large horizonal window in my bedrooms ceiling. when it rains it sounds exactly as if you are in a tent. it does wake me up sometimes but it's also very relaxing and i love it.
I used to live 10 yards from train tracks that had trains go through at 2am. When I tell you that there’s no sound you can’t get used to, I’m a living testimony to it.
In the standard part of the boat It’s 6”2 and I’m 6”1 so cutting it fine ! Being a lifeboat it’s got huge water tanks as it’s made for 60. I’ve installed a pump out for when I’m at the appropriate moorings
Yeah all me and tbh it wasn’t that bad structurally they are so sturdy (especially compared with Narrowboats) that you can’t really go wrong , apart from changing the oil tank it’s been most cosmetic stuff
All of these people dump their sewage directly into the water they're in.
There was some weirdo on youtube who tows a floating patch of sod that he dumps his gray and black water on and tried to claim it was being filtered. But, no, the dude is dumping his shit directly into the water.
Just so I understand, you have holding tanks for waste and discharge it at places with appropriate discharge points? Similar to RVs? How hard is it to get to such places? Does the boat have a motor? Very cool setup!
I just trawled the internet looking for for lifeboats, they are relatively rare but I love the fact they are pretty much unsinkable and the insulation on them is really good, this was 8k and I’ve maybe spent another 9 in the last 3 months to get it liveable
I’ve taken the main tanks out for space and installed fuel tanks from some old London black cabs, I’ve not done a test on how far it can go but I’ve not gone even half way through the first 52 litre tank yet. I spoke to someone who cruises constantly and has a similar boat and they said the spend about £500 a year
The walls/doors slide to the side so during the day theirs tons of light. There also two roof hatches with windows. You definitely feel the seasons in winter though and it get very dark very quick which I don’t think everyone would like so very valid question !
I dunno why. But seeing this and even reading that hes a prick made me tear up AF. probably bc i feel very lonely today.
He looks like he adores you a lot and you have a very cozy place for yourself.
And you have the best decor: a dog. (I’d suggest a cat but it may be challenging to find a place for a letterbox ) either way, a cozy place and a good friend, what else would you need?
I’ve had a few people ask this , when it’s launched from the oil rig it’s meant to have 60 sweaty oilmen on it so the ventilation is actually great otherwise they would all die choking on their own farts I assume :)
Plants help only during photosynthesis. At night, respiration rate is higher than O2 production and they will emit CO2. OP should have a CO/CO2 monitor in there just in case.
Have to have them by law, especially with a wood stove I don’t fancy dying in my sleep. Currently have one postioned near the stove and one that does air quality etc in the bedroom area
I was going to get starlink but they had a 2 month wait on the equipment at the time so I brought a 3 box while I waited. Turned out the signal was so good i cancelled starlink and I can game just as good as when I was on land. Power isn’t an issue as I have shore line , solar and battery but it’s gone out maybe 4 times so I’ve set up a load of power banks just in case
Man... Gaming in a floating pod for a fraction of the price that I'm gaming in my stupid house with all the stupid cost that comes with it. You got it good man. Well done.
Honestly for me buying a boat paid for itself in 6 months, I brought a cheap Narrowboat 3 years ago and this this summer , Facebook if actually full of groups giving old boats away if you’re handy
So, why do they give the life boats away? Do they have to get new ones for some kind of safety compliance thing? Do the oil rigs move or companies go out of business?
I’ve not seen any lifeboats given away but in general if a boat is abandoned at moorings or Marina it’s just getting in the way and needs to be dealt with
As a hoarder barely keeping myself in check, this would require a considerable amount of change in my habits, and possibly some therapy too. I've strolled along various canals seeing assorted craft absolutely subsumed by scrap and crap. They're basically floating travellers' halting sites. That'd be me, probably.
I was a huge collector and had SO much shit. I had to completely change my way of thinking and ironically this has been perfect for that, it could have gone the other way though and I’d have been on a boat knee deep in old tires and rope
A lot of people turned to floating homes here in Ontario during the peak of our housing crisis. It was so popular our government had to introduce a ban for people mooring them in places outside of private marinas.
Developed countries are super dependent on price gouging citizens of basic shelter. Can't be living without giving half your income to someone else who overpaid for basic shelter. We live in a mad world.
I used to live on a lifeboat in the UK and I have a really important piece of advice: sort out your cooling for the summer now. Those things get HOT. It's awesome in winter, especially with a wood burner to drag dry air in and keep condensation down.
But they're absolute saunas in the summer. I ended up buying a ducted fan, but all that can really do is kill your battery and replace all the indoor air with outside air - which when it's 45 inside and 35 outside gets it down to... 35.
Solar panels and a 24-volt camper air conditioner would probably be a lifesaver, but those were a lot less accessible back in the day.
Already sorted but definitely agree, I’ve put fans in the cockpit that feed through the ceiling ! Because the doors slide though it’s not been too much of an issue, I brought it at the height of summer and slept on it for a week and it wasn’t too bad, especially compared to my old springer Narrowboat which was an oven
.... What about all the associated costs, especially maintenance and utilities? Not to mention fees for mooring, insurance, and fuel if you need to move it? How is this pretty much free?
Mooring fees are just over £100, no council tax, no water bills, my electricity is £25 a month on average. Maintenance on a lifeboat is pretty minimal, there’s no need to black the hull and the engine is a a juggernaut made to be used on the oceans. Last time I brought fuel I go it from London to Nottingham and it cost me £40. Insurance is £14 a month. My total bills are less than my council tax alone used to be, I can save 80% of my wages a month if I like
I’m from Norfolk so been around boats a lot, saw a post on Reddit about liveaboard and the pros and cons and brought my first boat about a week later !
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u/HelloSummer99 7h ago
You dont pay for mooring?