If you were to give take a broad guess at the cost of moving around like that, in terms of maintaining supplies and securing a place to stay when you’re not in the mood to move with the current, what would that come out to, say monthly?
My 0.02p, it cost about £6000/yr to do it cheap. Goes up to £10k/yr with a full time mooring in a marina and outsourced services.
Boat pricing comes in a spectrum that very roughly looks like this:
3. £20-£40K Narrowboats are thirty or more years old, or are under 50ft. They have had many owners each of which will have done something to the boat. The engine fittings will be old eg. coolant hoses , the radiators might not work, the fireplace might need replacing, there is rust in important places needing welding and so on. There may be overplating on the hull to repair holes. In general, you can expect to perform regular/constant maintenance and repairs to maintain and keep them in working order. (some people enjoy this, you may not)
4. In the 40-60K range expect the boat to be about 20 years old. Generally modern and most things will be working but it might not have a good electrical system for modern lifestyles. It will have 20 years of wear and tear, and the interior might feel old and outdated.
5. In the £100k-£120 range you should see 5-10 year old boats. It probably will have a modern toilet/shower, modern electrical maybe a solar panel, a nicer kitchen and modern diesel engine/gearbox and propeller.
6. At £160K-180K you can get a new but simple/basic boat fitout probably no solar, no dinette, few cupboards. Or it’s a five year old custom build that has been fully fitted with many extras e.g washing machines, quality inverter/batteries
7. At £200K+ it a brand new boat, built to your specification. An all electric boutique boat is £220K-240K. I’ve heard of narrowboats up to £280K. Luxury wide beams over £350K do exist.
It depends on the level of comfort you want. If you're willing to shit in a bucket and shower once a fortnight then you can do it very cheaply and it'll be acceptable. Try that in a house and there will be concerns for your welfare. If you want a bathtub, on-demand central heating, a big fridge-freezer, bow thrusters, macerator toilets and a permanent mooring with mains electricity then you'll pay much more than you would for a house. Horses for courses. But doing things on boats is fun, and inventing solutions is great.
Edit: You wanted a figure - for the sort of boat you'll find on a canal in the UK. Bottom end: buy a small fibreglass boat for £5k, pay £1k a year for your licence (many at this end don't bother. Another £1k a year for maintenance and fuel )
Top end: Buy a big boat for £300k, £2k a year licence, £6k mooring, £1k insurance, £5-10k a year in maintenance.
Also factor in that boats mostly depreciate (though the last couple of years have been an exception). If you spend £100k on a boat today, you won't be able to sell it in 10 years get that £100k back. If you fail to keep on top of maintenance a boat will rapidly lose value.
You'll often see articles in the newspapers here gushing romantically about how a couple moved onto the canal in order to save money, and it's all so very nice and wonderful. The reality is once you've factored in a mooring, maintenance and other things, it tends to be comparable to living on land. A lot of people can't continuously cruise as we do, due to jobs and other responsibilities.
A few grand a year for a mooring, plus around £1k/year for your license (all boats on the Canal and River Trust's waterways must be licensed). Every few years you need your boat lifting out and the blacking on the bottom re-done (more £££), and in winter you get through a fair amount of coal and other fuel to keep the boat heated (I think we're at about £100/mo for diesel + coal, but some people burn a lot more coal than us).
You really have to want to do it for the experience of living on the canals rather than a way to live cheaply (though it can be done).
There is a massive time Vs money tradeoff with boats.
You can do it for almost zero money (perhaps $100/month) if you put many hours per day into maintaining the boat yourself and making everything you need yourself.
Or you can pay for good gear and get all maintenance done by a professional and your canal boat will be costing more like $3000/month - and when you do that, it becomes a rich persons hobby.
