62: Boats as homes? Some of the pitfalls of listening to the newspapers...

追加: 2026-05-05

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another one of my sort of more random musings about the current state of our canal system.

[00:00:20]In order to have this random musing, I've come today to uh Soulbury Locks on the Grand Union Canal between Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes. Very pleasant it is, too.

[00:00:35]So, I'm going to take a little walk down the canal, and we are going to talk about a group of boaters that I think are in a certain amount of trouble and inadvertently causing a certain amount of harm.

[00:00:53]So, let's make a start.

[00:00:58]So, the group of boaters that I'm talking about is quite an emotional subject to talk about and quite difficult because in general, I think people should be encouraged to be on the canal system. I think they are publicly owned, they are public property. I think people should be on boats and on the system.

[00:01:19]But, there is a group of boaters that I think should not be on the system. Now, I'm not talking about the boaters that should not be allowed on the system. I those ones that don't want to pay the license fee or don't want to have their boat insured or the boat safety certificate or who uh enjoy acting antisocially.

[00:01:43]That's not the group at all. They That's the group of people that shouldn't be allowed on the system.

[00:01:48]I'm talking about a group of people that are perfectly allowed on the system, but I think it is extremely bad for them and for the system to be on it.

[00:01:59]Let me explain.

[00:02:01]If you have a look at pretty much any of the mainstream newspapers, around about once or twice a year, they will run an article about somebody who has moved onto a boat.

[00:02:14]And I think those articles are an example of fantastically irresponsible journalism.

[00:02:20]Um I'll put up a few examples here while I talk about it. So, broadly speaking, these articles all follow the same path.

[00:02:31]Essentially, they take somebody who has uh been struggling in terms of housing um and has bought a boat.

[00:02:40]Uh normally, the boat they've bought is a bit of a project boat, and they've done it up.

[00:02:46]And the article essentially eulogizes how incredibly um cheap it is, much cheaper than a house, um and how marvelous it is to go and live on the canals. Now, in and of itself, that's not an enormous problem.

[00:03:05]However, every single one of these articles is constantly riddled with um omissions, inaccuracies, and outright lies.

[00:03:17]Um so, the problem is people see these articles and they say, "What a wonderful idea. A boat is basically just a cheap house."

[00:03:28]And they buy a boat, and they almost immediately get into terrible trouble difficulties because a boat is not a cheap house.

[00:03:38]It is not a solution to a housing crisis.

[00:03:42]It is not a convenient place to live while you go on around the rest of your life.

[00:03:48]It is a way of life in and of itself.

[00:03:51]And a lot of the boaters who or um you know, see these articles and jump straight into it with inadequate quantities of research, find themselves in terrible trouble.

[00:04:05]So, I thought it would be helpful um if you're thinking about buying a boat or if you've read one of these articles, sort of hagiographical articles about how marvelous canal life is, just to go through some of the things that they leave out.

[00:04:20]It should be said that canal life is marvelous.

[00:04:24]And if you can deal with the compromises that come and you've done your research, then you will do extremely well on the canal system.

[00:04:34]But, there are more and more people that haven't done their research, and it has a knock-on effect, which I will talk about at the end.

[00:04:44]So, the first significant problem with these articles.

[00:04:49]One, they very, very rarely mention um anything to do with what happens after you have bought your boat, where you keep it.

[00:05:00]And so, the impression significantly is given um that uh you buy buy your boats, you cruise it to where you'd like to live, you moor up, and that's you.

[00:05:12]And of course, that isn't true.

[00:05:14]Um if you wish to live on a boat, there are two possibilities. One, you have a residential mooring.

[00:05:21]Two, you continuously cruise.

[00:05:24]>> [snorts] >> Um now, residential moorings.

[00:05:27]Uh they They articles never mention that if you do a search for narrowboat mooring, you are more than likely not find a residential mooring.

[00:05:39]Around about 90% of the available moorings are leisure moorings.

[00:05:43]And the difference is key.

[00:05:45]You are not allowed to live on a leisure mooring.

[00:05:48]And if you try it in a marina, they will notice and they will chuck you out.

[00:05:53]So, you do your uh research and you find a lovely mooring and it's only £4,000 a year and you go, "Wow, that's marvelous. That's great. We'll just live there."

[00:06:02]But, you can't.

[00:06:04]Um Okay, in that case, we'll just find a leisure mooring a residential mooring. Well, good luck with that is the problem.

[00:06:13]There is a massive shortage of residential moorings, and those that do exist are certainly in the big cities, you know, upwards of 10, 12, 14,000 pounds a year, and they have 10 and 12-year waiting lists to get them.

[00:06:28]Um even if you do get a residential mooring, it is not a cheaper lifestyle. It is significantly more expensive than uh living in a flat. And if you have a residential mooring, you still need to pay council tax because you have an address.

[00:06:44]So, very nearly everybody goes for option two, which is continuous cruising.

[00:06:49]And again, you get a lack of research done here.

[00:06:54]Continuous cruising is what it means. You need to be cruising continuously, essentially staying in one place for a maximum of 2 weeks and then moving on to a different neighborhood.

[00:07:06]And if you have not done your research properly and you live in one of the very many areas where there aren't enough moorings running through the city or town where you'd like to live, you have two choices.

[00:07:21]One is to move much further than you intended to.

[00:07:27]Um always have a 10- or 15-minute walk to the car.

[00:07:31]Um and every 2 weeks, you're spending one of your Saturdays or Sundays moving the boat. Now, that's not a problem. I do that. That's absolutely fine.

[00:07:41]Um however, you will find that you know, 30,000 [snorts] other people have had the same idea, and all of the good moorings in all of the major cities are obviously all taken all of the time.

[00:07:57]Um especially in London, it's an absolute nightmare. You see boats moored two, three abreast.

[00:08:03]Um and then uh I live in and around um mostly uh Milton Keynes, and that's actually one of the better cities for that because it's got a lot of canal in it for not a lot of city.

[00:08:17]Um and it does have spare moorings most places, but even there, you you know, you have a a job on your hands if you want to stick to the rules properly and still be able to maintain a lifestyle in one city.

[00:08:33]So, if you have children, if you have a job, okay, it is difficult to continuously cruise, and you will find yourself with 20-minute walk to the car if you are wanting to get to work, and then up to half hour drive to work, depending on where you work.

[00:08:50]Now, of course, the temptation is um if you find that too difficult, to break the rules. And for many years, there weren't that many people on the canal system.

[00:09:01]Um and if you just stayed in one place, you probably wouldn't get too badly bothered.

[00:09:08]But, it is breaking the rules, and you should know that with more and more people piling onto the canal system, including more and more people who have read these articles and haven't done their research properly, um the Canal & River Trust, completely reasonably, is cracking down on people who are breaking the rules, and you will end up in the next couple of years in a position where your boat will be taken off you.

[00:09:32]Okay? So, um rule-breaking uh what these articles are doing is they're pushing otherwise law-abiding people into untenable positions where they will end up both criminalized and losing their boat.

[00:09:48]So, that is the first issue with these articles.

[00:09:54]Two, boat maintenance.

[00:09:56]One thing these articles absolutely never mention is that living on a boat can be hard physical work.

[00:10:07]So, constantly throughout the year, you need to be prepared to be always doing some sort of maintenance to your boat. Whether it's maintaining the engine or um chasing down a leak in the water system or refitting something which has come to the end of its useful life or uh you know, um making sure that it's ready to pass the boat pass the boat safety inspection or whatever.

[00:10:33]It is a constant job.

[00:10:37]Added to that, um you have your daily chores.

[00:10:41]You have to fill the boat up with water.

[00:10:44]You have to remove um your bodily waste from the um canal um from the boat and do something with it.

[00:10:53]Um depending on what toilet you have, that is either a long trip on a boat, a short trip on a boat, a drive to a suitable disposal location.

[00:11:04]Um you might be tempted to have a composting toilet. I have a composting toilet, but you can't just put your waste into a public bin. That's disgusting. Okay, so you have to think about these things and it all takes time.

[00:11:15]Um I would say water points are up to half a day's cruise apart each. Um so, you know, worst case scenario, um every single week you're committing yourself to 3 hours cruising each way.

[00:11:29]Ditto elsean points, so they're slightly more often.

[00:11:32]Um and ditto getting rid of rubbish.

[00:11:36]Again, if you haven't done your research, um you will very quickly end up either with a boat with a non-working engine and non-working facilities, which will quite quickly become a horrible midden, or you will end up having to break the law in order to maintain your lifestyle.

[00:11:57]Um and again, it's not necessarily um you know, I mean it's it's something you should have done the research about, but these articles never ever ever mention that. They never mention that in February it's absolutely freezing and you have to purchase and carry to your boat um 25 kg bags of coal usually, potentially wood, potentially as a fuel boat, but you know, your car may well be parked a 10- or 15-minute walk away.

[00:12:27]It is hard physical work. And on my boat, I in the winter get through maybe two bags of coal a week. Okay, so it's not an uncommon occurrence.

[00:12:40]>> [gasps and snorts] >> Um Okay, um the end result of that is again, boaters um who are unprepared are pushed into criminality, dumping their rubbish, and they're also pushed into their boat getting poorer and poorer and poorer condition.

[00:13:02]Right, I've turned round and I'm walking back again.

[00:13:06]So, um part three of the things that these articles are essentially duping gullible um boat buyers into.

[00:13:17]>> [snorts] >> Nearly always these articles will reference how the brave person in the article bought a boat for £10,000 and then did it up on a budget and they'll extensively concentrate on doing it up on the budget and how clever and you know, sort of inventive they were. Which is fine as far as it goes.

[00:13:39]But the bit about a boat that needs to be in good condition is not the interior. I'm sorry, but that is just fannying around the edges. Okay? Um boats are made out of steel. Steel rusts. The oldest boats of the leisure era are now getting on for 60 years old. They will be probably in very poor condition.

[00:14:01]So, in order to keep a boat in good condition, it needs to be taken out of the water and blacked.

[00:14:08]And if it is not taken out of the water and blacked, then the hull will deteriorate. It needs to have galvanic isolation when it's plugged into the shore. And if it does not have galvanic isolation, then the hull will deteriorate. And there is weirdly a sort of fetish on the canals with not blacking the bottom of the boat as if in some way it won't rust because it's 6 in lower down than some of the rest of the boat. It will rust. And if you don't black the bottom of the boat, your boat will deteriorate.

[00:14:39]So, if I tell you that essentially any decent livable hull with a good engine that is in and the hull is in good condition, no matter what the interior looks like, is worth round and about 25 grand, then you have to say this marvelous story about the person who bought his boat for 10 grand and then did it up, what they have bought is a disaster waiting to happen for 10 grand and then made the interior look nice.

[00:15:10]And this is such a common thing to happen.

[00:15:14]There is another egregious practice which happens by some sometimes quite unscrupulous uh um boat sellers.

[00:15:24]Um and that is overplating. Now, overplating is not in and of itself a terrible thing, but it is the practice whereby your hull gets sufficiently pitted or rusty that it is so thin that the insurance company will not insure it. And so, what you do is you put a big piece of metal over the top of it and just weld a big piece of metal over the top. Job done. There we go. Except job not done.

[00:15:49]If you don't weld it properly, if you don't drill holes and plug weld it through so it's fixed to the old hull in several places, then water will leak in between the two layers of of steel and rust it from the inside out. Secondly, once you've overplated a boat, that's it. You can't overplate it again.

[00:16:07]So, the act of overplating a boat automatically gives it a lifespan of probably the next 10 years, if you're lucky.

[00:16:15]Um the original steel underneath the overplating is going to carry on merrily rusting away as it always did.

[00:16:22]Okay? Um And if you suddenly add 10 or 15 tons of steel to a boat, it will sink much lower in the water.

[00:16:31]All the skin fittings, all the outlets for water to come out of and so on, will be nearer the water and your boat is more likely to sink.

[00:16:39]So, for a whole variety of reasons, um overplating is something which should be approached with extreme caution.

[00:16:48]No matter how many people tell you, especially marina owners, tell you, "Oh no, it's fine. Everyone does it." No matter how many times they imply that putting 4 mm of steel on the outside makes the hull 4 mm thicker, it does not. And no matter how many times all this stuff is not mentioned at all in an article in the Sun or the Guardian about how marvelous boating is, it is all still relevant.

[00:17:16]So, these articles are in more or less encouraging people to buy wrecks of boats um and then do them up on the inside and then feel slightly surprised when they come for their next boat safety or their next blacking or whatever and it turns out the boat is essentially a big pile of rust and is economically unviable to repair.

[00:17:41]All right.

[00:17:42]>> [sighs and gasps] >> So, it's reasonable to ask, why do I care? So what? So, people are being given bad advice and failing to do their homework.

[00:17:52]Um and uh they're end up getting stung.

[00:17:55]Why should I care? Well, two reasons. Um one, because essentially I'm not a horrible person and I think it would be nice if people knew what they were getting themselves into before they got into it.

[00:18:07]But secondly, um what happens to all these boats that are bought, lived on for a bit until people discover it's difficult, okay?

[00:18:18]Not maintained properly and then sold on?

[00:18:21]Well, they're sold on to someone else who lives in it for a bit as it deteriorates further and stays over too long in places and fly tips and, you know, doesn't treat the canal well.

[00:18:36]And when it gets too difficult, they sell it on to someone else.

[00:18:38]And eventually, you end up, as we have at the moment, with substantial numbers of absolute crocks of boats which should be in a scrap yard um or being stripped for parts and they're being passing hands for, you know, a few grand each.

[00:18:52]And eventually, they sink.

[00:18:56]And when they sink, because they haven't been maintained or because they've been overplated to an extent where they basically can't float anymore or because the engine has broken down or because the owner has run out of money and is disillusioned and can't get anyone to take it off their hands and they just walk away, what happens?

[00:19:14]Well, the owners walk away and then very little else happens. The CRT does not currently have the legal powers to insist upon ID or a deposit when registering a boat. So, any old idiot can buy any old crock for 5 grand, register it under the name Mr. M. Mouse or Mr. F. Off or whatever, have 6 months fun on it, decide that winter's hard and simply walk away.

[00:19:41]And they are, you may have seen in the news, hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of abandoned boats on our system at the moment. They're clogging up the waterways. They are causing pollution, they are causing damage to the canals Um and they are costing the CRT an enormous amount of money which should be being spent on lock maintenance and canal maintenance at a time when they don't have enough money in any case to deal with lock maintenance and canal maintenance.

[00:20:09]So, I would suggest that at least in part these puff pieces in the papers have got an enormous amount to answer for. As in several million pounds worth of damage.

[00:20:24]Um, so I guess the question is what do we do about it?

[00:20:32]Well, um, one thing that can be done is by prospective boaters. If you are a prospective boater and you think it might be ever so romantic to live on a canal boat, um, brilliant, well done you. Um, and you know, I wish you um, all all the luck with it and it can work.

[00:20:50]But you need to do your research.

[00:20:52]So, the advice often given is go on a hire boat and that's fine, that's good advice as far as it goes. Take a week on a hire boat. Obviously, as a bare minimum, go for a week on a hire boat just to make sure you can steer the bloody things.

[00:21:04]Um, but do be aware that on a hire boat all of the difficult stuff is done for you. You do not have to empty toilets, you do not have to refill the diesel, you do not have to do any maintenance, you do not have to do any cleaning if you don't want to. You do not have to re-black the boat, any of that stuff.

[00:21:21]So, yes, go on a hire boat, but as well as that, find a friend, okay, with a boat.

[00:21:30]Probably a friend whose boat does not look like this.

[00:21:33]This is potentially quite a good example of abandoned boat full of water, okay, knackered engine.

[00:21:42]I mean, you know, this is a boat that was once a lovely boat, but has been more or less abandoned.

[00:21:50]So, um, yes, find a friend who's got a boat.

[00:21:54]Ask if you can go and stay with them in February.

[00:21:58]Ask if you can spend a week with them.

[00:22:00]How do they fill up their water? Where do they get their fuel from?

[00:22:04]Where do they get their diesel from?

[00:22:06]Where do they park their car?

[00:22:08]How long did it find them take them to find the mooring that they have? Or if they don't have a mooring and are a continuous cruiser, how do they ensure that they are not taking the piss?

[00:22:17]All these questions can only be answered with experience. If you need to, go onto Facebook and go to have a look at some of the Facebook groups and ask people these questions.

[00:22:31]If you don't ask the questions, then um, you are getting yourself into a at the very least moral liability that you do not know how big it is.

[00:22:42]Okay? It is morally, I think, unacceptable to be dumping canal boats because you can no longer afford to look after them.

[00:22:51]Okay? Um, there are people online that will absolutely help you answer the questions. There are people online who will even let you come and look at their boat and spend the day on it and all the rest of it. Just ask.

[00:23:03]And yes, the puff pieces are at fault, very much so, for um, failing to raise any of these as potential problems before eulogizing the lifestyle.

[00:23:15]But, you it is on you to do your research as well.

[00:23:20]Secondly, as a community of boaters, we can help educate people.

[00:23:26]Um, there is unfortunately a substantial community of boaters that sneer at and look down on hire boaters or sneer at and look down on new boaters and don't help.

[00:23:38]That seems to me to be the epitome of the opposite of everything that boating should be about.

[00:23:45]It should be about a slower lifestyle and a kinder lifestyle where you help each other out.

[00:23:54]Um, >> [sighs and gasps] >> and then finally, I think the this will only stop when the CRT is given sufficient teeth to remove dodgy boats from the system and furthermore, to fine people who dump them.

[00:24:11]And I think only then will people start to realize slowly, slowly, slowly that a boat is not a cheap house.

[00:24:20]It's not a substitute to having a flat.

[00:24:23]And it's not a permanent address.

[00:24:26]Boating is a brilliant way of life and I would encourage anyone to try it, but only if they know what they're doing or at least have asked all of the questions first.

[00:24:36]Um, that wasn't a terribly cheerful video, was it? I'm going to do a nicer video next week, I think. I think I'm going to, whilst I'm moving my boat, I will give a a to do a video about advice for hire boaters when they go out for the first time. Not about how to operate locks and stuff, but like the etiquette of how um, boating works and what to do when you come across certain issues.

[00:24:59]So, with that in mind, I hope you enjoy these videos.

[00:25:03]If you do, please do like and subscribe and I shall see you all again another time.

[00:25:09]Goodbye.