Canal Boat

[lonewolf]

yeah, the ones you cant find!!!

Another good and informative answer...

seemed quite logical to me, if people cant find it they cant attack it!

[beer999]

Canal Boat
Postby Slazanger » Sun Jan 26, 2014 9:54 pm
Has anyone ever thought of giving the living in a boat thing a go and tried the canal boat ? Seems like it would be a decent way of saving some cash and having a nice mobile life... was just wondering if you could make a go at the sustainable living thing with one...

Slaz.

Not sure how you can see a canal boat as sustainable living? Surely the ability to grow your food has to be included. Forage will never be sustainable as the amount of food available is very limited due to us living in unnatural world. And the skill needed is something you acquire over years not days weeks or months. You would of course be leaving your boat to go foraging and therefore all your supplies. Anchor in the middle of the canal is an option but would not deter the more adventurous thief.
If you were determined to go down this route then the Yorkshire broads would I think be an obvious choice.

[beer999]

Norfolk Broads

[beer999]

Last year in the floods, some narrowboat living people (IIRC) were asked to give up their homes in case they ended up becoming a floating disaster in the fast flowing waters of the floods. So even boats can be problematic in flood conditions.

On top of that, apart from sneaky "guerilla gardening" and a few small containers on the deck and roof, where are you gonna grow your veg and fruit?

Just being devils advocate here.

On the other hand, the water for washing would be free, and if you could properly purify it on board (remove the cow sh@t, the rat p@ss, bacteria, mould, viruses and fungus, spilt oil and fuel, copper based defowling from the under sides of the other river going boats), then thats the drinking water in an emergency dealt with too.

Then you just need your solar arrays, wind turbine, batteries and inverters with appropriate wiring, denatured ethanol stoves and gas stoves, solid fuel stove for heating, solar shower, backup generator, 3G or 4G telephone and internet and then you are done.

More or less.

Refrigeration might still be a pain though.

What kind of catastrophe would leave the mobile system in place. They are total dependent on landlines anyway. How could you possibly carry enough fuel for the boat and cooking. I don't believe you could even carry enough food to cover you for a significant period of time. Thowing in a generator and its fuel? it needs to be one hell of a big boat? Just thought about the solid fuel stove foraging wood is possible but you would definitely need someone to protect the boat. If you are going to be moving about regularly I don't believe you have carrying enough fuel.
What is an inverter by the way?

[Donquay]

Have been on several canal holidays for as long as 2 weeks at a time with all the supplies we needed for 5 of us on that boat from the start. The ones we hire do not have generators but do have car and house voltages for charging phones and laptops ext. The water tank is always huge and have never needed to top up even for a fortnight with showers and pots and pans. When we stop we buy some fresh meat and milk and beer.

[ready]

Refrigeration might still be a pain though.[/quote]
What kind of catastrophe would leave the mobile system in place. They are total dependent on landlines anyway. How could you possibly carry enough fuel for the boat and cooking. I don't believe you could even carry enough food to cover you for a significant period of time. Thowing in a generator and its fuel? it needs to be one hell of a big boat? Just thought about the solid fuel stove foraging wood is possible but you would definitely need someone to protect the boat. If you are going to be moving about regularly I don't believe you have carrying enough fuel.
What is an inverter by the way?[/quote]


i know a bit about boat as iv built a few in my time ........most are built from mild steel..10mm bottom..6mm sides..5mm cabin..slides and hatchs are made that they cant be levered open with a 3ft long gemmy,,there are normally 2 that are used as mooring pins..port hole windows make entry impossible..wood burning stoves, passive deisel,central heating fuel stove you can cook on and run central heating also heat water for showers......660 litre water tank....550lts fuel tank.....solar panels and wind turbine produce more than enough power to run, water pump,lights,laptop-phone chargers.a full size fridge is from a 12v supply .there is normally a purpose built vented gas locker so you can store 4x 19kg propane cylinders (18 months cooking) with the correct insulation these boats can be kept at 25/30c with ease in the depths of winter..there is 3500 miles of canal in the uk, most people just think the canal is the few miles that they know ..google canal maps uk and have a look at the canal and river system youll be shocked...as for costs...rural mooring thats very secure £1200......liecence £700...insurance £70 a year for a 60 ft boat...so basicaly youve got a movable 60ft steel safe ..in the event of a shtf situation youd move to a tactically benificial place.





must be dark and dingy???










so when the power grid goes down,no water comes out of the taps,the cooker and heating wont work because the gas supply has stopped ill be running for my boat..

[preppingsu]

@Ready.
That looks a great set up. Could you tell us abit more about your solar and wind set up and how you go about filtering water.
Thanks.
Preppingsu

[lee3]

I lovvvvvve it you have one gorgeous boat! I am possibly moving to the bath and bristol area shortly for at least a. Couple of years and have been thinking about buying a canal boat if I can find a residential mooring
Costs wise a whole lot cheaper than even renting!

Could you tell me how locks work are they still hand powered or are those days gone?
Also not for myself but just can't switch my brain off sometimes lol but until fairly recent times there were canal boats trucking up and down that were rediculously long with a small area living and a big cargo hold! ...... After reading some of the comments above .... I couldn't help but picture a huge cargo hold greenhouse! .... And as for power I'm sure I read somewhere that a lot of boats are being converted to electric motors and large battery banks?...... And looking at some boat pics ....there's a lot of room on them for panels ......so presuming you bug out ummm bugging in! To a remote area and only need to move in emergancys it could be an amazingly self sufficient BOV
Or is this just the child side of my brain indulging its pirate fantasy's ..."arghhhhh pieces of eight"

[matthopkins]

I know that boat..........proper tree hugging hippy lives on that one

[ready]

I know that boat..........proper tree hugging hippy lives on that one

i heard it was a tree hunging hippy with attack dogs and fire arms??