Boat Finance

We said at the beginning that we wanted to share information that was useful. Here goes...
Anybody seeking finance for a boat, and needing to make a number of staged payments (i.e. release the total loan in more than one instalment), to the broker or builder, should be aware that:
1. Finance companies can only make a maximum of 2 staged payments because of the terms of the consumer credit agreement.
2. Most will not be prepared to release any money until the boat is at a 'lined sailaway' stage - i.e. engine, windows, ballast, insulation and wood line-out. Before this stage, they consider it to be too risky an investment.
3. In order to be able to make staged payments, many lenders will insist that you hold a 'BMF' (British Marine Federation') contract. In order to be able to provide this, your builder or broker will need to be a member of the British Marine Federation. Not all are.

Other stuff, like being able to lend up to a maximum of 80% of the value of new boats, or 75% of the value of second-hand boats, was clear from the start, but these points above are a few that were not so clear, so we just thought we'd share them.

Bristol

Uh oh...
Simone has been offered a PhD place at Bristol University. This is completely wonderful, but has some serious implications. Watch this space!

The Journey Home

The original plan was to use the school summer holidays to drive the boat from builder's to home - about a 10 day journey, with 8 hour days - but yesterday we found out that, where it would cost around £700 to put the boat in the river near the builders, it would cost us £800 to get it brought back home by road. As much as the adventure of trying not to break our new home on our first long distance trip appealed, gaining back an extra week and a half of building time and using not much more money, we couldn't say no. We'll be put in the river at Earith so still a little trip for us, which will be exciting. Also means that we could be living aboard by the end of June - rather than waiting for the summer holidays to roll round in July.

Ergonomics

We've just drawn what should be one of the last, most detailed, plans of the boat - showing where to send gas and water, where there need to be waste points, windows, mushrooms and vents. At this stage, the boat looks amazingly simple. Because it's a reverse layout, we've put the gas lockers at the back, so there's only about four feet of gas piping. All the water is down one side, all the heating down the other. Once we're on, and surrounded by sawdust, scraps of wood and tools, we're sure it'll look less simple. I'll miss planning the boat. I really like drawing it. 

We've reached the stage where inches, and fractions of inches, start to matter. It's a strange experience to be able to, and need to, think about very fine ergonomics; how long is your longest coat, how far do your elbows stick out when you wash your hair, how wide are you when you're sitting down...

The paper we've used for this design was made on the graph paper making software at http://www.blackcatsystems.com/software/graph_paper_maker.html. It's been really handy to make paper with squares divided into 12 for design in feet and inches. 

Blogging and Design

At the beginning of our experience of moving onto a narrowboat - we have our building slot booked for the middle of April 2010 and are now getting very excited! As I type this Chris is drawing a plan of the boat to show builders where we want electricity/gas/water points etc. He is convinced there are few more satisfying things in this world than drawing on dotty isometric paper.
We've never considered the idea of blogging before, but as we've been doing the preparation for the boat, the blogs of various narrowboat owners have been incredibly helpful. It seems this is an area where (a) everyone has a strong opinion and (b) everyone's opinion is different, but nevertheless, they've been invaluable. We hope we'll be able to share similarly useful experiences. Feel absolutely free to get in touch if you're someone who's in a similar position - we'd love to share our experiences so far and pick up advice.