Canal Narrow-boat Winter Living

[JohnGBUK]

We live next to a canal (the Coventry canal) and love to walk down the towpath watching the beautiful narrow-boats go dawdling past. Does anyone here live on a narrow-boat? How do you find life in the winter? The weather is starting to turn and and that got me wondering what life is like on the water during the harsh months of the year.



Sorry, but not allowed.

Edited by Big Al. on Sunday 29th September 21:44

[Sonie]

Cold.
Depending on heating...noisy
Condensation.

To experience what it is like, sit in your car for 10 minutes with the engine off, then run the engine with the heating set on 1. It takes a while to heat up, for us that was daily after coming home from work or at the weekends.

We did it for 5 years, it has its highs, but winter was a low point.

[JohnGBUK]

I could imagine it yes. We have a static holiday caravan which has central heating. When it is winter it can be really cold in the mornings, so much so I leave the heating on the lowest setting all night, as I cannot stand the cold. That said, the site is closed during the harshest periods of winter. I would imagine the steel structure of the narrow-boat craft also causes the craft to lose heat quickly. I can imagine some amazing times on the water though during summer times.

[woodypup59]

Nowadays boats are very well insulated, not just bare steel.

Once the coal stove has got going you have to open windows to let the heat out.

Diesel fired central heating is fairly common but can be unreliable if not scrupulously maintained.

Its magical at any time of year - but specially in Winter snow.

[Simpo Two]

See if you can find a boat hire company that will do a winter hire for a week.

The exact search link from www.abcboathire.com won't copy/paste but they have some boats available.

Merry Christmas

[Summit_Detailing]

As above, hire one for a week and see how you get on.

Narrow boats are our favourite type of holiday and we have hired for a week in winter as my wife and I plan on owning one in the future.

Bear in mind the layout and some of the specification on a hire boat is significantly different that a live aboard boat (namely fuel stoves or lack of) - this is more noticeable during the colder months than in summer!

There are a couple of excellent facebook narrow coat community groups which are very friendly and have a wealth of knowledge.

Cheers,

Chris

[SimonTheSailor]

Solid fuel stoves seem to be the best way of keeping them toasty hot.

But you also have to buy a ton of coal/wood and store it somewhere.

You also get Webasto/Ebaspacher warm air heaters that run from diesel. Not as effective but can be controlled by thermostats and timers.

I'm sure it could be magical but I but my narrow boat for the outdoor lifestyle, not to have all my doors/hatches closed to keep in the warmth and keep out the rain.

[Simpo Two]

Summit_Detailing said:

Bear in mind the layout and some of the specification on a hire boat is significantly different that a live aboard boat (namely fuel stoves or lack of)

I haven't tried a narrowboat with a stove but expect you get that area very very hot and the other areas/cabins still cold. Plus you have to get up in a cabin that's -2C to start it in the morning. Radiator c/h is much better IMHO.

[Ian Geary]

An old school friend of mine lives on a canal boat in London, and his facebook stuff pops up every now and then.

Unfortunately it's all about orchestrating a revolution against wealth, death to Toryscum (one word), and if there's none of them about, then the board of the Canal and River Trust.

Really, it doesn't seem a relaxing way of living at all!

I actually muted the feed with the whole supreme court thing as it was just getting stupid, but I might have another peep to see how he's doing when it gets properly cold.

Thanks for the reminder!

[Krikkit]

Simpo Two said:

I haven't tried a narrowboat with a stove but expect you get that area very very hot and the other areas/cabins still cold. Plus you have to get up in a cabin that's -2C to start it in the morning. Radiator c/h is much better IMHO.

I think I'd have to have both.

[eldar]

Simpo Two said:

I haven't tried a narrowboat with a stove but expect you get that area very very hot and the other areas/cabins still cold. Plus you have to get up in a cabin that's -2C to start it in the morning. Radiator c/h is much better IMHO.

There are plenty of you tube videos that cover winter in considerable depth. For example...

https://youtu.be/qjAi9KdzyrM

[Simpo Two]

Ian Geary said:

An old school friend of mine lives on a canal boat in London, and his facebook stuff pops up every now and then.

Unfortunately it's all about orchestrating a revolution against wealth, death to Toryscum (one word), and if there's none of them about, then the board of the Canal and River Trust.

Liveaboards do seem to be populated by Momentum. Politics of envy I'm afraid. If the CRT are badgering him it's probably because he hasn't got a river licence. Which means he's about £1,000 richer than he should be.

[crofty1984]

I remember my family's seamster 23 (not live aboard) in the winter dad would stick the oven on and sit there with the door open to hear the cabin.

[warch]

I think the novelty and enjoyment of narrow boating living would wear off very quickly once the cold and icy weather sets in. Stoves tend to make the atmosphere quite fuggy and oppressive especially if you have any condensation.

My experience of the sort of people who've adopted this lifestyle is that they often adopt an outward hippyish vibe (presumably in the hope of attracting some free love) but are actually rather right wing and reactionary underneath. Plus you'll get loads of Freeman of the Land style types who use the transient lifestyle thing to avoid paying tax*

• Just for balance I'm sure most normal boat owners are absolute fine, but you'd have to be a bit hatstand to live on one all year round.

[XJSJohn]

Lived onboard a boat (33ft motorboat) in Southampton when at Uni. Had a webasto diesel fired heater and an electric blower heater run from shore power (stick a nail where the fuse should be on the jetty to get enough power)

With a warm duvet it was OK, but as mentioned lots of condensation first thing in the morning dripping on you.

Also could be very “fresh” if you needed to get up for a pee in the middle of the night.

Biggest challenge was not slipping into the oggin on frozen wooden jetties early in the morning when stumbling around with a hangover ...

[CAPP0]

Ian Geary said:

An old school friend of mine lives on a canal boat in London, and his facebook stuff pops up every now and then.

Unfortunately it's all about orchestrating a revolution against wealth, death to Toryscum (one word), and if there's none of them about, then the board of the Canal and River Trust.

Really, it doesn't seem a relaxing way of living at all!

I actually muted the feed with the whole supreme court thing as it was just getting stupid, but I might have another peep to see how he's doing when it gets properly cold.

Thanks for the reminder!

I think I used to work with him

Years ago, I had a job in the Midlands and lived in the south east, and didn't want to relocate. Obvious solution - buy a narrowboat and live on it during the week.

I had a 50ft trad with (unusually) a Dorman diesel in it, moored at Crick next to the restaurant, before the new marina was there. Shortly after I bought it I had a solid fuel stove installed in the main cabin (rear cabin had a small boatman's stove already.

I used to drive up on a Monday morning, early, and fire the stove up, bank it up well and go to work. By the time I returned that evening the whole boat was toasty, and I kept it like that for the week. I clearly remember sitting in the cabin in a snowstorm with the doors open, watching the snow fall but being very warm. Twas lovely.

[warch]

CAPP0 said:

Years ago, I had a job in the Midlands and lived in the south east, and didn't want to relocate. Obvious solution - buy a narrowboat and live on it during the week.

I had a 50ft trad with (unusually) a Dorman diesel in it, moored at Crick next to the restaurant, before the new marina was there. Shortly after I bought it I had a solid fuel stove installed in the main cabin (rear cabin had a small boatman's stove already.

I used to drive up on a Monday morning, early, and fire the stove up, bank it up well and go to work. By the time I returned that evening the whole boat was toasty, and I kept it like that for the week. I clearly remember sitting in the cabin in a snowstorm with the doors open, watching the snow fall but being very warm. Twas lovely.

That does sound quite nice, although at least you had the option of a nice house to go back to at the end of the week.

[sausage76]

Best mate lived on a boat with his wife and dog for 6 years.

Visited them at all times of year. In winter it was always to hot on there and always had windows/doors open.

He would keep the boat warm from one coal fired fire, would load it up at night and turn the air vents down. Kept boat warm then get up and open up vents to get some heat generated and reload with coal.

Sorted.

[Turfy]

I know 2 people who have narrow-boats and they both have diesel Webasto heaters/Chinese equivalent (1/3 the price) that seem to heat the boat very well indeed.

They are no bigger than a shoebox and pump out quite an incredible amount of heat and use a very small amount of diesel.

They are easy to install, cheap, reliable and solve the problem of winters!

[Simpo Two]

Turfy said:

I know 2 people who have narrow-boats and they both have diesel Webasto heaters/Chinese equivalent (1/3 the price) that seem to heat the boat very well indeed.

They are no bigger than a shoebox and pump out quite an incredible amount of heat and use a very small amount of diesel.

They are easy to install, cheap, reliable and solve the problem of winters!

Assuming they are the same principle as Eberspacher, yes they heat up space quickly and use little diesel - but they (or at least mine does) go 'chunka chunka chunka' quite noisily until it get the cabin up to temp. They also use electricity to blow the air round so you'll either need to be cruising or have shorepower.