About Me

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The name describes my demeanour and voice! I love narrowboating and that is why this blog is mainly about the boat and our interaction with it. I have been keeping a log for Sonflower ever since we bought her and moved onto her as our main residence. Some incidents in our boating life have been hilarious, some scary and some down right dangerous. I cannot tell what will come in the future but you can now share them! The crew are an 'ordinary' couple. The Best Mate and I.

Thursday 21 August 2008

Counting the Cost

Boating holidays are not cheap.

I have been told that it can cost over £1000 to hire a boat for four days now. That figure is unconfirmed and is hardly believable.

However, at the boat yard this morning there was a hire boat with seven on board, pumping out at a cost of £14.00 (including a litre of blue), which I do not think is bad value, but were complaining that this was only their third day aboard. On our recent cruise, with four aboard most of the time, we have pumped out 3 times. Prices varied: £15.00 plus blue £3.00 , £10.00 (self serve BW card) plus blue £3.00, £18.00 inclusive. Total £49.00.

Other costs include diesel. This morning I replenished the tanks to the tune of 253 litres @ £0.83/l, £209.99.

I also needed stern tube grease and engine oil to add £19 to the bill. We have used a cylinder of Calor Gas on heating and cooking and this is another £23.40

The above adds up to just over £303. If I add mooring fees (£1300 per annum) and license (£700 per annum) and divide by the four weeks we were out cruising find the total is £575/week. I have still spent less than if I had hired!

Of course, we have the boat as a pleasure resource for 365 days a year and there are many other costs like hull blacking and painting. More about those at another time!

1 comment:

Simon said...

I wonder if those hire-boaters were complaining about pumping out so early because they had not discovered the canal toilet etiquette: notably using the flush so only a minimal amount of gas escapes. If they pump-when-it-pongs, they would be pumping a lot!

On the matter of toilets, why haven't urine diverting ones taken off on boats? Most smell comes from crap and urine mixing as, and urine is sterile, it can practically go straight in the canal (leaving the argument of ammonia and algal growth aside) or better still, the compost bin.