narrowboatworld

Thanks for the reply, I will look into some solar panels to to ease the power usage (hopefully enough for lights and some way to powering the fridge) and plan for another battery or so.

Should the generator be a separate stand alone type?

Thanks again

I think most of your costs are about right except for diesel. If you are CCing you will need to run the engine or generator every day to recharge your batteries. If its the engine then that is about 5 hrs a day, about 6lt which will cost £170 ish per month, You could well get away with 3 hrs a day with a good genny and charger, if you don't look after your batteries you will be changing them every 18 to 24 months at more cost.

The cost of the build will probably be a bit more than that, I bought a bare but good quality hull and fitted from scratch some ten years ago and it cost about £60000

BSS is only due every 4 years and at todays prices would be about £150 say £5 a month if you don't have to have any work done

Hi All

Don’t you just hate it when a newbie joins a forum with all the ‘whats it like/how much does it cost’ questions? Well I’m going to try and do it the other way around with ‘this is my best guess at costs – how far out am I?’

But before that a little bit of back ground info

Deb and I both in our early 40’s no dependants (daughter doing well for herself in uni) no geographically close family to worry about, working about 110 hours a week between us to and neither of us enjoying it or earning much from it. I’ve always been a bit of a nomad, and probably a bit of a hippy at heart. It’s a long way off but by 2017 we could be mortgage free on a property of about £150k and have about £50k saved for a boat.

I am pretty handy around the house so feel I have the some of the skills needed to fit out a narrow boat and all of the determination (I’ve fitted my own kitchen, bathroom, wet room and central heating system, rebuilt motorbikes although not really engines)

So the idea is to buy a boat to re-fit or a sailaway and spend up to a year doing the work before hitting the cut for a bit of continuous cruising. At today’s rate the property that is mortgage free will net about £650 per month rental, which should pay for a rental property to live in near a canal so I haven’t got too far to travel to the boat. Deb has agreed that she is happy to carry on working for that year to cover living costs so I can put 50hrs a week into the boat.

A question for later is ‘what chances have we got of earning about £300 per month whilst cruising – do you have any ideas’

But first please take a sec to read my list and let me know if there is anything I’ve forgotten and what you think of my figures.

57ft boat 30k

Fit out and furnish 20k

Per month av

Insurance 15

Ww licence 65

Boat safety cert 10

Breakdown cover 15

Hull black 10

Mobile phone 15

Mobile internet 15

Pump out 40

Gas 25

Coal 75

Diesel heating 65

Engine oil change 20

Diesel propulsion 25 (based on 10hrs per month)

Essential shopping 160

Thanks for your time effort and thoughts in advance.

James