Living on a boat

Many people are choosing to make their permanent home on a waterway. But if you're thinking about living on a boat, you need to make sure you understand the practicalities. Our guide introduces you to the principles and shows you where to find out more.

Do you want to live in one place?

If you are planning to moor permanently in one place - the Regent's Canal in London, for example - you will need to obtain a residential mooring before you move your boat there.

There is only a limited number of moorings on each waterway, and not all of them are available for residential use. On popular waterways, notably those around London and in Southern England, some providers operate a waiting list, so we recommend you get your name down as early as possible.

As a first port of call, we recommend you contact the navigation authority for the waterway you'd like to moor on. Moorings are provided both by this authority and by independent providers. Vacancies at British Waterways moorings are advertised online at www.bwmooringvacancies.co.uk and are allocated by auction. You can search for residential or leisure mooring vacancies, and if you register on the site and save particular searches, you'll receive email alerts when a new vacancy is posted.

British Waterways runs most canals plus rivers including the Severn, Trent and Yorkshire Ouse. The Environment Agency runs the rivers Thames (from Teddington to Oxfordshire: find a mooring here), Nene, Great Ouse, Medway, Welland, Glen and Ancholme (moorings listed here).

Do you want to cruise all year round?

If you are attracted to the nomadic lifestyle, you might like the idea of spending all year on your boat, cruising from place to place. Usually, in order to be issued with a British Waterways boat licence, you need to have arranged a permanent mooring. But you can also state that you will be 'continuously cruising'. This means you will always be on the move, never staying for more than 14 days in one location. You can download the full guidelines from our Useful Downloads page.

The 'continuous cruising' option is is unlikely to be appropriate if you have a full-time job in one location and need to travel there every day. If this is the case, you will need to find a permanent mooring.

Other navigation authorities will have different guidelines. You should contact the local office for full details.

What else will you need?

As well as a mooring, you will need to ensure you have:

• A boat licence
• A Boat Safety Scheme certificate
• Third party insurance (on most waterways)

For more details, see Waterscape.com's comprehensive guide to buying a boat.

You can find out more about living afloat from the Residential
Boat Owners Association. They publish Living Afloat, a useful booklet in which residential boaters share their experience. Visit their website at www.rboa.org.uk.

Find out more about living on a boat.