Living Rent-Free in London on a Boat

The one part of London that is not going to get built-up or concreted over is the waterways of the Thames and Regent’s Canal. That is why these open and largely unregulated spaces have for years offered low-cost homes for wily Londoners. Rising rents have recently caused a surge in the number of boat dwellings as people take advantage of free moorings and legislative loopholes that make these alternative homes cheap and enjoyable. You too can enjoy a new freedom and independence, as long as you are willing to empty the septic tank.

Buying the Boat

I once had a rather unsuccessful date with a lady who after coffee at the Wallace Collection spent the rest of the evening browsing boats on eBay. Fast forward to my current wonderful partner and she also decided she would like to live on a boat. The result is that I have become quite acquainted with the means of buying a boat online, including the popular website Apollo Duck.

The traditional narrow boat is the most popular vessel. A short, plastic, white cabin-cruiser may be great for a gap year but it really is smaller than a studio flat.

Trendy Londoners who want a new spiritual homeland (i.e. the back end of Hackney) provide a big market for second-hand boats. For this reason, retiring captains of the North – yes, even beyond Watford – sail down to sell their craft at inflated prices. It is therefore advisable to travel to the Midlands to make your purchase, treating the return journey as a holiday and training trip. If you’re smart you will hire a boat first for a few weeks’ trial but hiring on a continuous cruising license is actually illegal. A lengthy vessel can also prove very difficult for a beginner to steer.

A reasonable boat can be found for £15-20,000 but realistically you should be prepared to part with £30,000. A more homely and less corridor-like existence can be found in a wide-beam for about £70,000. You may find bargains but the chances are that the less you spend upfront the more you will forking out on repairs. These are hefty lump-sums but remember that paying £200 a week in rent adds up to £10,400 a year, so after three years of living more cheaply in a boat you can break even and recoup your investment should you upgrade or move back to dry land.

The Licence and Hidden Costs

The licence fee is an essential cost for any vessel on public water and it depends on the size of the boat. A 12-month contract for a relatively short 28ft boat starts at £601.62 with prompt payment. You don’t need a mooring if you commit to be “constantly cruising” as explained below but if you can’t commit to that then a mooring can be quite expensive. A residential mooring in Limehouse Basin Marina for the same 28ft boat would cost £7,078 a year.

After a few years on the water the hull will need servicing. This involves the lengthy and expensive process of raising a boat by crane and hiring a space in a boatyard. A large amount of washing and painting is then required and even if you do it all yourself it will cost something like £500. Where will you live when this is happening?

Engines are one of the most expensive aspects of your floating home, and the need to be cruising every two weeks means any problems have to be solved quickly. Add the costs of bottled gas for heating and cooking and the experience is becoming more expensive.

Moorings

The number of “Liveaboard” vessels is on the rise. The Canal and River Trust for London reported that the number of continuous cruising licences in east London increased at an annual rate of 85% between 2012 and 2014. That makes it important that boats keep moving. The Trust defines casual mooring as “mooring up alongside the towpath during the course of a journey. These can be anywhere else along the towpath which is unsigned and where the maximum stay time is 14 days.” The rules are being increasingly policed, with fines of £25 a day.

Most of London’s waterways offer a maximum short-term mooring of 14 days but some such as Paddington and Camden allow only seven days. The rules are quite loose, though, about how far you actually have to move to avoid a fine. The Trust’s FAQ document for October 2016 says: “We look at the furthest points a boat has visited over the year, not just the total distance.” When asked to specify an acceptable distance they say that a range of less than 20 miles would not be regarded as truly cruising. Essentially this means you should keep moving in the same direction and stop for 14-day periods rather than moving back and forth between two locations.

The Canal and River Trust reported that of 5400 boats nationwide in 2014, 16% moved less than 3.1 miles in a year, and 66% moved under 12.4 miles. With waterways becoming more crowded the competition for mooring spaces is becoming like parking at IKEA on a bank holiday.

How is London Dealing With Boat Overcrowding?

According to Sorwar Ahmed, the boats manager of the Canal and River Trust, a recent strategy meeting of the Trust proposed new efforts to expand London’s boat capacity. They include new moorings, more drinking-water taps and the introduction of London-focussed guides to mooring etiquette, which are  now with designers. There will also be more full-time staff to police the system.

Tempted? Read the story of a couple who tried it

Bryony Roberts and Eric Booth are a young couple who have lived on a boat in London for nearly two years. They are getting married this summer and will be renting a permanent mooring near their Midlands hometown. Read what Roberts told Felix Magazine on the good and bad of their time living rent-free in London here.

-Stewart Vickers @VickHellfire

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