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Narrowboat HiFi?

That series has had me dreaming of life on a narrowboat for a few months, started browsing boats for sale etc. However I accept that the reality is quite different from my dreamy fantasy of wafting around beautiful waterways bathed in eternal sunshine. Plus my better half is far from convinced i.e. it's an emphatic no from her. I'd still love to own one, even just for a year or three.
 
Are they pricy? I recently ran a relay thing alongside the central canals here in Scotland and saw a good number of narrowboats, kept wondering about how feasible they are and whether there's any investment value in them. Also whether they fall under the FHL rules should one be purchased as a holiday home type thing.
 
I think it's still the case that purchase is tax free if you can prove it to be a permanent home?
Prices start at £10,000 for something needing a lot of work and cost. At around 30g's you get something you can get on and go and then they rise and rise. New boats of 60' odd length from a famous builder can go over £150000.
They don't lose much if improved and really cared for. Obviously if you spend less then there is less to lose.
Running costs are mostly now a waterways license and a berth. I think I'm right saying that 'continuous cruising' only (ie not having a 'home' mooring), is no longer possible. Berths are costly. Several thousand a year. The other main cost if fuel, although red boat diesel is much cheaper that car diesel and a small 30/40 hp engine will be amazingly economical to run; then parts, and painting.
Painting is a biggie. Steel rusts. If you buy a new boat that isn't showing rust somewhere after 6 or 7 years you are very lucky. I remember visiting one famous builder to look over a new boat that was only afloat a month, opening the front hatch and finding it thick in rust already.
Anyway, not counting food, drink or heating, I'd say you could run a narrow boat on £4000 a year with care. I am out of touch however, it might easily be more, especially if you clock up many miles on an older boat.
 
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Continuous cruising is definitely still possible, but moving every 14 days can become very tiresome after awhile. Red diesel is increasingly difficult to find on the cut due to the rule changes on what it can and can't be used for.

Prices for boats has gone mad in the last few years, I have been offered triple what I paid for mine in the last few weeks, a typical new boat now retails for around 125k for a middle of the road boat. Running costs are dependant on age of boat, the older it is the more that needs doing, there are loads of Youtubers who have broken down the costs, but you can expect them to be in the small ball park as running a house. Unless your boat is made of wood with a vintage engine, then you might as well empty your savings into the dock.

The other thing to be aware of is the license fee is apparently going to increase by a significant amount soon. Canal and Rivers Trust (CART) are currently running a consultation on this, suggesting that they need to raise a lot more money to keep the canal open.

Despite all this it is still a great way to travel and see Britain in a very different way.
 
I use my boat as a second home during the week as I work 80 miles or so from where my house is. Attempting to sell the house currently, which will change this arrangement and I'll live at home permanently, but I'll keep the boat if I can - we holiday on it every year (great holiday if you have dogs - dont like sending them to kennels), and its a great place to chill and get away from the rat race. Cost is about 3k/yr for licence and mooring, and maybe another 500 or so for maintenance (blacking, paining, fixing whatever breaks etc). Prices have indeed soared in the past few years.

Little update on the boat HiFi - swapped the 92 for a 102 I picked up from a fellow fishie a few weeks back, and now have a decent DAC I picked up locally - a SMSL DO100 - lots more detail than the £9 apple dongle I was using (although the apple dongle has a more solid low end - perhaps need to try a different USB cable as its just a free one that came with an external SSD I'm using). The 102 will eventually meet a 140 and hicap to replace the Nait 3 at home, and the arcams will be a bedroom system if and whenever we move house. In the meantime, I'm gonna enjoy this cluttered but great sounding lounge on the boat! The home set-up suffers from background noise, as our house is on the high street... here, it is pretty silent - just an occasional tweet from a bird. So the dark quiet bits are really black. Gonna need to buy a house in the middle of nowhere - love this extra drama that I hadnt realised road noise was removing!
 
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