Living on a Narrowboat

[northernladyuk]

My mates dad and stepmum lived in one for two years. It was damp in winter, damp and smelly in summer, it needed the vents open all the time, she used to get bitten to death by midges, the Solar panels weren't able to keep the battery topped up, so they had to run a generator every couple of days, the winters were worse as there's only about 5 hours of daylight mid winter, and it's cold and clammy to boot. They had a log fire and a Calor gas heater and one night he fell asleep with the Calor heater on and didn't wake up... Steel hulled...

Sad really. But I think they arer "Holiday homes". Not really suitable for a base station.

That's what happened to our local gamekeeper. He lived in an old Sprite Major which was parked up in the woods. Had gas heating & one night he went to sleep & there was a backdraft that blew out the flames. He didn't wake up.

Lesson learnt - carbon monoxide alarm.

[vetran]

Lesson learnt - carbon monoxide alarm.

Buy a new gas device and have it regularly serviced. Many new safety features designed to prevent these situations. The CO alarm is another line of defence.

[SueEllen]

Buy a new gas device and have it regularly serviced. Many new safety features designed to prevent these situations. The CO alarm is another line of defence.

Servicing is more important as a CO alarm is the last line of defence as lots of people especially children don't wake up to alarms like that.

[vetran]

Servicing is more important as a CO alarm is the last line of defence as lots of people especially children don't wake up to alarms like that.

Indeed but newer devices will have flame supervisors & oxygen level detectors both of which regularly save lives.

[Pip in a Poke]

For the record, I've never actually spent any time on a narrowboat. It's just a pipedream of mine.

I am a keen gongoozler though and spend hours leaning over the railings at the end of the beer garden of the Barge Inn in Bradford onAvon watching novices making a pig's ear of entering and exiting the lock.

I should really hire one for a week. The problem there is that the configuration of a hire boat isn't to my taste & I'd be going for something decked out in a more traditional style with woodburners etc. The boats one can hire seem to be more like caravans inside.

[northernladyuk]

Buy a new gas device and have it regularly serviced. Many new safety features designed to prevent these situations. The CO alarm is another line of defence.

Servicing is more important as a CO alarm is the last line of defence as lots of people especially children don't wake up to alarms like that.

Indeed but newer devices will have flame supervisors & oxygen level detectors both of which regularly save lives.

Thanks guys.

[Pip in a Poke]

And for anyone who enjoys reading about Narrowboating, I can highly recommend Terry Darlington's excellent Narrow Dog to Carcassonne in which he takes a narrow boat (and a dog) from Yorkshire to the South of France.

And the amazing thing is, people, he does the whole journey without the boat leaving the water.

Yes, that's right! He takes it throught the treacherous tidal waters of the Severn estuary from Sharpness to the mouth of the Avon, up the K&A to join the Thames at Reading, out to Tilbury and then across the channel to France.

I didn't even know that a narrowboat was capable of this

[PurpleGorilla]

And for anyone who enjoys reading about Narrowboating, I can highly recommend Terry Darlington's excellent Narrow Dog to Carcassonne in which he takes a narrow boat (and a dog) from Yorkshire to the South of France.

And the amazing thing is, people, he does the whole journey without the boat leaving the water.

Yes, that's right! He takes it throught the treacherous tidal waters of the Severn estuary from Sharpness to the mouth of the Avon, up the K&A to join the Thames at Reading, out to Tilbury and then across the channel to France.

I didn't even know that a narrowboat was capable of this

I know some of the Dutch barges have boards on the side you can slide down as a keel in open water. Did he do it in a 6foot narrow boat?

[Pip in a Poke]

I know some of the Dutch barges have boards on the side you can slide down as a keel in open water. Did he do it in a 6foot narrow boat?

Yep - he just took precautions to stop the water getting in through the windows & down the companionway etc. That was it. I'd have been worried about the weather forecast being wrong, getting caught out in a heavy sea and the whole vessel breaking in two.

[Lost It]

I would think lack of Freeboard would have been the main concern. And only having a single piston Petter capable of propelling him at 6 knots might have been a bit of a risk as well.

I have a vision in my mind of a Canal barge crossing the English Channel in my head now. Smoke curling lazily out of the Galley cooker chimney, washing hung out over the prow, some poor geezer hanging on the tiller at the back and the steady putt putt putt putt of the Petter derv engine...,