A boat can look fantastic in photographs and still be frustrating to live on.
When you’re choosing a narrowboat for a few weeks, you can put up with quite a lot. When you’re aboard for three, six or twelve months, the small practical details become much more important.
Some are obvious. Others are things you only discover after you’ve lived aboard for a while.
Here are some of the things worth checking.
Storage is about more than cupboards
Look for storage under the bed. It’s one of the most useful spaces on a boat, particularly for things you need but don’t want taking up living space.
Look at the wardrobe space too. A full-length hanging rail can be surprisingly valuable, although realistically, extended life aboard usually involves taking considerably fewer clothes than you might be used to.
The position of that storage matters too. If your clothes and bedroom are right next to the wood burner, you may find they gradually acquire the distinctive smell of a stove. A bedroom and clothing storage further towards the back of the boat, or separated from the main living area, can make a noticeable difference.
Look for somewhere sensible to store coats, shoes and wet clothing. In winter, having nowhere to put a dripping coat can become a daily irritation.
Roof storage matters as well. If the boat uses wood for heating, is there a practical place to keep a supply without turning the roof into a permanent wood store?
It’s also worth thinking carefully about appliances. A washing machine sounds appealing, but on a boat you’re working with a finite water supply, and washing machines use a lot of it. For extended cruising, I’d take extra useful living or storage space over a washing machine every time. Clothes can be washed without one. Creating more space on a narrowboat is considerably harder.
Check what happens when the boat moves
A beautiful open shelf isn’t quite so beautiful when everything on it ends up on the floor.
Look at how secure the crockery, ornaments, books and other loose items are likely to be while cruising. Check cupboards and drawers too. Good storage on a moving boat needs to keep things where you put them.
This is one of those details that is easy to overlook during a viewing because, naturally, the boat isn’t moving.
Pay particular attention to the toilet
Toilet arrangements vary considerably between boats.
Many experienced liveaboards prefer cassette toilets because they are straightforward to manage and avoid some of the problems associated with pump-out systems. Pump-out toilets can develop unpleasant smells if they aren’t behaving properly, which is rather more significant when the toilet is part of your home.
Also consider where you can keep a full cassette temporarily if you’re not immediately able to empty it. You don’t want the answer to be “in the middle of the bathroom”.
Look at the water system
In a house or flat, you probably judge a shower by how powerful it is.
On a boat, you may start thinking differently.
A huge, powerful shower sounds wonderful until you realise how quickly it can use the contents of the water tank. For extended cruising, a sensible water system and a tank of reasonable capacity can be more useful than maximum shower pressure.
Check whether there is a clear way of seeing how much water remains and find out the tank capacity.
Being able to glance at a gauge and know that you’ve got plenty of water left is considerably easier than discovering otherwise halfway through a shower.
Check the gas storage
If the boat uses bottled gas, look at where the bottles are stored and how many can be carried. Also think about what the gas is used for – Water heating, Fridges and backup heating usually make sense.
Having room for two gas bottles means you can have one in use and a spare available rather than discovering you’re empty at an inconvenient moment.
Small details like this are rarely exciting when viewing a boat. They become exciting when you actually need them.
Understand the electrical setup
The size of the inverter matters if you’re going to use mains electrical equipment away from a shore connection.
You don’t need to become an electrician, but understand what the inverter can realistically run and how that fits with the way you intend to live.
The same goes for the batteries and charging system. A boat designed around occasional holiday use may have different priorities from one intended for someone spending months aboard.
Find out about the engine
The engine is obviously important, but don’t just ask whether it works.
Find out about its maintenance history and when it was last serviced. Ask about cooling, batteries and any known issues.
An engine doesn’t need to be new to be reliable. A well-maintained older engine can be preferable to a newer one with an uncertain history.
Ask about the hull
If you’re considering buying a boat, find out when it was last blacked and whether there is a record of previous work.
Blacking protects the steel hull from corrosion, so its history is much more useful than simply being told that the hull “looks fine”.
For a long-term stay, this may be less of a concern where the boat provider is responsible for maintenance, but it’s still useful to understand what you’re looking at.
Finally, imagine the boat in February
Not on a sunny afternoon when everything is tidy.
Imagine two people aboard on a wet Tuesday in February. Coats need drying. Someone is cooking. The heating is on. You’ve been cruising for hours and want to sit down. There are groceries to put away and nowhere outside to escape to except the towpath.
Does the layout still make sense?
That’s probably the best test of a liveaboard narrowboat.
At ETRR, the boats we provide are properly insured and licensed, with maintenance taken care of. After nearly twenty years of helping people spend extended periods afloat, we’ve learnt that the things people value most aren’t necessarily the things that look impressive in a brochure.
They are the things that quietly make everyday life easier.
When choosing a boat for months rather than days, those are the details worth checking.