We’ve had canal holidays galore ever since we met. They seemed to suit our family. One active son and a comfort loving daughter. He could do all the locks and she could have all her makeup to hand, watch telly and sometimes emerge to see what the local shops had to offer.
Our last hire boat holiday was by ourselves, the first full week away in 21 years since we had the kids.
It was very relaxing. We finished on Thursday evening.
At the weekend we took our Canadian canoe exploring around Sunbury on Thames, where Jo used to row and spotted a riverside house for sale. Their internet site had a houseboat on the Thames for sale. We could afford it for cash and the thought occurred – live on a boat rent out the house quit work.
A trawl of the internet revealed all sorts of houseboats from a sea going trawler in Essex (good in rough weather apparently) to a 100ft by 20 ft 3 deck ex disco boat on the Medway (how many bars do you need?). Dutch barges seemed attractive, they had lots of space and we could go up and down the Thames. Then it occurred to us that 2 narrow boats had as much space. We could live on one and convert the other into a workshop/art gallery for Jo. The second could be un-powered and we could tow it. We had seen a hippy like family doing this with two boats on our last holiday. So now we thought lets look at Narrowboats.
Two boats? If the second was un-powered then that’s OK on the Grand Union but not so much fun on the narrow canals, bow hauling doesn’t sound so good. Right then both powered, one each! Bow thrusters probably essential at 70 feet. Two lots of maintenance, two lots of insurance, two lots of licence. Where would we moor them?
We soon found out the residential moorings are rare, it might be easier to buy a boat with a mooring. So where would we put the other one?
Perhaps we could fit it all in 70 feet?
If we had a gallery on the boat would we have to have a different sort of licence? Would it need extra insurance?
So many questions.
Cheers Graham
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