What's it like to live on a classic narrowboat?

DW (English)

Paul and Anthony Smith-Storey have swapped their house for an unusual home: a narrowboat, in which they now live and travel.

Transcript

00:00It's no secret that our physical surroundings affect our happiness.

00:05Paul and Anthony sold their house to cruise the waterways of North West England full time.

00:10Is it cheaper than living in a house?

00:12And why did they make such a radical change?

00:15We sort of got trapped in this sort of rat race of let's buy a house, pay the mortgage

00:21off, so what else could we do to enhance our lives I guess?

00:26We used to hire a small boat every year for about 13 years and just for the day and we

00:30walked the dog along the canal, bumped into a lady who said she'd sold her house and bought

00:34a boat and it's the best thing she'd ever done.

00:37And we thought, wow, this is something that we could maybe really seriously think about.

00:41I think you get to an age in your life where you realise what is important in life.

00:46We had friends and family that were passing away.

00:49We thought this life isn't a dress rehearsal.

00:51We need a bit of adventure in our lives.

00:53Let's just do it.

00:54Do something different.

00:55Welcome, this is our narrow boat.

00:57It's 60 feet long, it's 6 foot 10 wide and it's just over a year old.

01:01The boat is called Morningstar.

01:03You step from the stern straight into the galley, which is the best layout we think

01:07for us.

01:08And then you step into what is known as the dinette on a boat because we can sit and have

01:12friends round, we can play cards and this also converts into a double bed for guests.

01:17And then you step into what is known as our living area or on a boat is called a saloon.

01:22And then we've got an L-shaped sofa that converts into a bed for guests.

01:26We've got our old TV from the house and a sound bar because we love to settle down in

01:31the evening and watch a film.

01:33We've got quite a compact bathroom, but it's got a full-size shower, we've got a really

01:36nice basin and a compost toilet.

01:40Into the bedroom, which you may think is really small, but it's bigger than what we had on

01:43our last narrow boat.

01:44And we've got a bed that folds into a small double-sized bed, but it does pull out into

01:49a king-sized bed and it's quite easy to set up.

01:58And that's it, it just takes seconds.

02:01Paul is an artist and former magician, and Anthony is a sonographer.

02:05They also run their own YouTube channel on Narrowboat Living.

02:12Before steam-powered boats, narrowboats were used to transport goods along the UK's extensive

02:17waterways.

02:18Narrowboats played a key commercial role from the late 1700s to the First World War.

02:24Paul and Anthony started living on a narrowboat in 2020, so how much does it actually cost

02:29them?

02:30A boat like this one costs around £200,000, but that's because it's a brand new boat,

02:34it's 60 feet long, and it's got skylights and it's got a full-size oven and it's electric

02:40propulsion.

02:41But you can pick up a really decent second-hand boat for about £50,000 or £60,000.

02:46And you know, it's like a new house, isn't it?

02:47A lot of those snags have been ironed out.

02:50And we say to people, if you're looking to buy a boat, we definitely recommend second-hand.

02:54The cost can be cheaper, I guess it's the maintenance, because people say boat stands

02:58for bung on another thousand.

03:01And it can be expensive to maintain a boat, can't it?

03:03It's all about £100 a month.

03:05Licence, probably just less than £80 a month.

03:13Probably.

03:14Insurance, we'd have to say about £80 per year, wouldn't we?

03:19£40 a month.

03:20£40 a month.

03:21So £220 a month.

03:23For us, it's all about the lifestyle.

03:25We didn't do it to save money at all.

03:27We did it for the adventure, didn't we?

03:29Yeah.

03:30Yeah, 100%.

03:31And no regrets.

03:32Best thing we've ever done, isn't it?

03:33Yeah, 100%.

03:34Nowadays, there are around 35,000 narrowboats in the UK.

03:39Since the pandemic, the number of live-aboard boats has increased.

03:44The icing on the cake, and something we never thought about, were the people that we would

03:48meet on our travels, and the other boaters.

03:50Hiya, mate.

03:51Hello, you.

03:52Where are you heading?

03:55Paul and Anthony are classed as Continuous Cruisers, or CCs, which means they move their

04:00boat every two weeks.

04:02This way, they avoid home mooring fees.

04:04Because of Anthony's job, they don't travel too far.

04:07If you're considering a huge lifestyle change, definitely do your research.

04:14It wasn't something we did on a whim.

04:16We sort of planned, we put things in place to make it work for us.

04:23If you're doing something like this, then maybe hire a boat to make sure that actually

04:29it's for you, because it isn't for everybody.

04:31But for Paul and Anthony, it was definitely the right choice.

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