Enjoy a full day's cruise on the tranquil canals of rural Warwickshire where you'll learn how to handle a narrowboat either as part of a crew or on your own. Find out what style narrowboat and what specification will suit you best. Discover what type of mooring you'll need for your own boat and where to find it.

I moved onto my first narrowboat on a cold and frosty morning in April 2010. I knew nothing about the boats or the liveaboard lifestyle. The way everything worked or, as was more often the case, the way things didn't work, was a mystery to me. It all differed so much from the life I was used to in my luxurious bricks and mortar home.

Unlike you, I didn't make a conscious decision to buy a boat. It was a bit of an accident really, forced on me by the need to quickly find somewhere to live when my marriage failed. My marriage failed partly because my business failed, so I was in a mess both financially and emotionally.

I moved onto a semi-derelict boat at the marina where I had started working part-time a few months earlier. I didn't particularly want to move onto a boat, but it was somewhere cheap for me to stay while I sorted my life out.

Five years later I was still on the same boat, although you wouldn't recognise it. I needed to spend an enormous amount of money to get it from its dilapidated state to a very comfortable floating home. Not only was the boat very comfortable to live on but it was also very well equipped to stay for weeks or months at a time “off grid”, which was an essential requirement if I wanted to spend any amount of time from the marina where I lived and worked.

During my first half decade afloat I learned an enormous amount about these boats. While I learned, I also shared the knowledge on my website. I became a bit obsessed with it really. I invested over 6,000 hours creating more than 7,000 posts and pages, and wrote a collection of guides and developed a narrowboat budget calculator which is available on the site as “Narrowbudget Gold”.

The package has proven very popular indeed. Almost every day I receive emails thanking me for the volume of information it contains. Sometimes I think there's too much information.

I was having a drink with friend and fellow boater Allan Izatt a few years ago. He purchased my Narrowbudget Gold package before he moved onto his boat twelve months earlier. He told me that, although the information had proven invaluable while he was making his plans, he wished that there had been some sort of hands-on advice available, practical as well as theoretical assistance to help him make sense of everything.

The result of both our conversation and useful feedback from hundreds of subscribers to my weekly newsletter was a real-life, hands-on, “discovery day” on board my own narrowboat James No 194.

I hosted these hugely popular events for two and a half glorious years. I welcomed hundreds of aspiring narrowboat owners on board, as well as existing narrowboat owners who wanted to hone their helmsmanship skills. I had fun. They learned and had fun. Everyone was happy, so I can't really understand why I sold my lovely narrowboat in October 2016.

Anyway, I enjoyed a fascinating two years. Cynthia, my American wife, and I drove twenty-seven thousand miles through eleven European countries. We wintered in the south of France and then drove north to the endless Dutch waterways network for the summer months. We discovered the many differences between English waterways cruising on a narrowboat and living afloat on a "posh" Dutch Linssen yacht on the vast network of canals, rivers and lakes in the Netherlands. Our most significant discovery was how much we missed the UK canal network's shallow and muddy ditches and the funny looking boats on them. Craft often owned by weird and wonderful folk who want to live close to nature. We decided to rejoin them.

We're delighted to be back. Back to living on the canals and back to offering experience days. This time on a different boat. She's a beauty.

Orient is just six inches shorter than my old Norton Canes boat. She's much younger than James No 194 but doesn't look it. Orient is based on an authentic canal working boat complete with a midship engine room, a 1936 Lister engine, a beautiful boatman's cabin, and two tonnes of hardwood flooring. Probably the most significant difference between the two boats is the steering. James' engine room sported a Morse control, a simple lever with a push-pull button for gear selection and throttle control. Orient is more traditional than James in that respect. She has a brass handle for gear selection and a speed wheel for determining the throttle. Orient offers the opportunity to enjoy an authentic boat handling experience. You'll enjoy the novelty of using these controls but you'll probably want a Morse control on your own boat. I'll explain the differences during your time with me.

A Discovery Day is your chance to learn how to handle a 61' 6" narrowboat. If you can manage a boat of this length, you can handle any narrowboat. You'll steer it along the the picturesque waterway through impossibly narrow bridge holes. Your journey will take you to the historic waterways village of Braunston. Then you'll reverse the boat in a more or less straight line, do a three-point turn and moor securely against the bank using piling hooks, chains or pins. You'll learn the best knots to use and all you need to know about etiquette on the cut and generally gain enough confidence with narrowboat handling to take one out on your own, with or without a crew. During your twelve mile cruise you'll gain both experience and confidence. You'll be ready for the grande finale; three descending locks in the Calcutt flight, an about face in Calcutt Boats' marina entrance and then an ascent of the same flight. Going up and down in a lock require different techniques. You'll be familar with both by the time we tie up for the final time.

Boat handling is only part of the day though. Steering your boat is the easy bit. Choosing the right craft is far more difficult. You need to consider the overall boat length and the impact your choice has on the waterways you can use. You'll need to understand why your floating home's draft will determine how enjoyable your cruising is, which stern to choose to suit the craft's purpose, the pros and cons of both bow and rear deck covers. You need to know how to balance onboard electrics to determine which home appliances you can use on board, and which ones you should definitely stay away from. You need to understand the pros and cons of the different types of toilet suitable for narrowboats. The subject is favourite on the towpath. You don't want to feel left out. You need to know how to avoid condensation, which solid fuel stoves and central heating systems to choose and which fuels work best with them. You'll want to discover the best telephony and broadband solutions and onboard television. And critically, the importance of built-in storage and why you should avoid “open plan” live aboard narrowboats. And you can ask me any other boating questions you want answering. The day is yours.

Then there's choosing a mooring. Finding the right mooring for your boat is arguably as important as your choice of boat. You'll meet me on my own mooring at one of the most beautiful marinas in the UK. I'll talk to your about different types of mooring, the importance of access, location, proximity to busy roads, access to your own vehicle, facilities you'll need and facilities you'll want, hidden charges to look out for and restrictions to avoid. You may be able to avoid taking on a permanent mooring at all, but you'll have to be sure of your facts.

I've seen hundreds of new boat owners here at the marina soon after they've parted with a substantial sum for their own boat. Often they could have avoided some very costly mistakes by going on a discovery day.

A couple arrived at Calcutt Boats to get some remedial work done, quite a bit of remedial work done, after they purchased their 60' long live aboard narrowboat. One of the first questions I ask new boat owners when I meet them is how much boating experience they had before they made their purchase.

The answer, which once would have shocked me but which now I almost expect, is that they hadn't set foot on board a narrowboat before they parted with just over £40,000. I once stood slack jawed on the back deck of a brand new £120,000 bespoke narrowboat with the new owner. He appeared a little nervous as I moved the boat into the middle of a large marina and offered him the tiller. "Can you show me how to steer?" he implored. "This is the first time I've ever stood on a narrowboat!"

Some aspects of living on board their floating home came as quite a shock to the Calcutt couple. The first was that they couldn't get any electrical appliances to work on the boat. Just a quick glance by one of our fitters was all that was needed to identify the problem.

When they viewed the boat it had been connected to the national grid via a shore line. The boat was fine when it was on a mooring with a handy electricity supply but no good for them to use to continuously cruise the network. Their bank of five large leisure batteries were completely flat. 

The solution was easy enough, but it came at a price. They wanted to be able to use some pretty heavy duty appliances so they needed to have a generator fitted in the boat. They didn't want the generator running all of the time so they had to have the existing batteries replaced. They also needed 3KW inverter and a better alternator. They didn't get much change from £7,000.

Their expenses didn't stop there though.

They had bought the boat after simply walking through it on a beautiful summer's day on a mooring in a marina. They hadn't taken the boat out for a test drive. In fact, they hadn't even asked for the engine to be started.

If they had taken the boat out for a short cruise they would have discovered that (A) the starter battery needed replacing, (B) the boat handled terribly and (C) the drive shaft was squealing like a stuck pig. The repairs cost them another £1,500.

If they had come out with me on a Discovery Day before they started looking seriously at boats to buy, they wouldn't have made the mistakes which cost them so much money. They probably wouldn't have purchased that particular boat at all.

The on board electrics would have been a deal breaker for them but there were so many other aspects of living afloat which didn't suit them.

The husband had a bad back so found bending and lifting both difficult and painful, which was a bit of a problem in the winter with so much coal to lift in and out of the boat, and equally heavy gas cylinders to lift in and out of a difficult to reach bow locker.

Considering the practicalities of living afloat, and gaining the knowledge needed to avoid making a costly mistake like this unfortunate couple, is an important part of the Discovery Day.

You'll spend a full day, ten hours, with me on board my 61'6" Steve Hudson narrowboat. It's completely different to the last boat I used to host my Discovery Days. That craft was barely habitable when I moved on board with my single rucksack on a spring morning April 2010. It was a very steep learning curve but living and working at a well staffed marina with experienced fitters and engineers, there were plenty of people to steer me in the right direction. I was very happy with my boat eventually. It was very well equipped both as a static home and as a long term cruiser. The new boat, Orient, is very well specified from day one. It's not yet perfect. I still need to make a number of improvements before we're completely self sufficient. I'll tell you what they are when I walk through the boat with you.

You will be able to compare this boat with the features, facilities and equipment you have on your list for the boat you hope to buy. This part of the day alone will help you to avoid many expensive mistakes made by new narrowboat owners who don't do enough research.

A unique experience day designed to teach you how to handle a narrowboat and answer all the burning questions you have about all aspects of life afloat including...

?

Financial Considerations...

• Boat purchase and associated costs.
• Mooring fees and when you can legitimately avoid paying them.
• Waterways licensing. You can reduce this cost too if you're not living on board full time.
• Boat Safety Scheme certificate renewal costs and why you should NEVER buy a narrowboat without a current certificate.
• Insurance costs for your boat AND your contents. Not all insurers will cover your possessions if you live on board full time.
• Gas, electric, diesel and solid fuel costs - all broken down and carefully explained.
• Engine fuel consumption - Narrowboat owners quote litres per hour rather than miles per gallon. What's the average? How much should you budget for propelling your floating home?
• Shared ownership costs - How to own slice of heaven for a fraction of the cost of outright purchase.
• Boating on a budget - Find out how you can slash the cost of living afloat... without compromising on comfort.
• The reality of living afloat - It's not all summer sunshine and gin and tonics. I won't hold any punches with the bad stuff.
  

...The Practicalities Of Living Afloat...

• Essential on board equipment, features and fittings - These lists will save you a great deal of time researching what you need and money buying stuff you later realise is pretty much worthless on board.
• Toilets; cassette, pump out or these peculiar New Age composting things - You'll learn which works best and which smells least. The answer may surprise you.
• Electrical considerations - Did you know that managing your off-grid power supply is one of the most difficult aspects of living afloat?
• Gas versus electric cooking - Which is best?
• Waterways maps and guides - How to easily find your way around the network's connected 2,000 miles, and where to learn about potential delays on your route.

...Helmsmanship...

• Steering on the straight and narrow and, more importantly, steering around the blind bends and tight bridge holes on every boater's route.
• Reversing and three point turns - How do you turn a long boat on a narrow canal?
• Painless mooring - Learn how to stop for the day without damaging your boat.
• Single handed boating - Even if you intend boating with someone else there may be times when you need to go it alone. I'll show you the easy and safe way to handle your boat solo.
• Knot tying - You don't need to know many knots, but the knots you use need to be easy to tie and untie with cold hands, and they need to be able to hold a twenty tonne boat securely to its mooring. I'll show you the best knots to use and a smartphone app to help you tie them.
• Lock negotiation - If you sit at a summertime lock for longer than half an hour there's a good chance you'll see an inexperienced boater and his crew making a lock passage look like very hard work. I'll show you tips and tricks to handle any lock, on your own if necessary, with ease.
• The dreaded weed hatch - This hole in the bottom of your boat is a necessary evil. I'll tell you what you need to know to prevent catastrophic mismanagement. 
• Boating Etiquette  - The unspoken code of waterway conduct. Ignore these guidelines at your peril

...And, Last But Not Least, A Fun Day Out

Even on the coldest and wettest days my guests have told me how much they've enjoyed themselves. Boaters are kindred spirits. They have a sense of fun and adventure. Your day with me will be spent in a relaxing atmosphere on board an extremely comfortable narrowboat cruising along one of the network's most beautiful contour canals. You'll be a million miles away from the stress and strain of the "real" world. What's not to like?

I urge you to act now. I love the inland waterways. I've loved every minute since my first night onboard in April 2010. I wouldn't change any of it, but not everyone feels the same as me. Not everyone understands how much the lifestyle costs and the reality of living a nomadic off-grid lifestyle. 

Years of experience, mistakes, disasters and triumphs helped me create a truly unique experience for aspiring boaters. Hundreds of guests since my first Discovery Day back in 2014 have helped me hone and tweak the service into its current form. Here are a few more comments from delighted Discovery Day guests.

Just imagine what life could be like a year from now, maybe even in just a few short months...

You walk along a grassy towpath enjoying the peace and quiet as you watch mallards and coots squabbling in the shallows. A grey heron floats effortlessly into the air as you approach, and then resumes its waterside vigil on the muddy bank opposite your boat. Your boat. Your floating home, your haven from the stresses and strains of your former hectic life.

Your home rocks gently in the wash from a passing narrowboat. The smiling helmsman waves as he passes. You return his enthusiastic greeting, marvelling at the friendliness of the boating community and how different they are from people in the area where you used to live.

You climb onto your front deck, and step down into your cosy saloon complete with its coal burning stove. The stove is cold now. There's no need for it in these benign summer months. As you watch water reflections dancing across your pine clad cabin roof, you remember the joy of sitting in front of the stove in cold winter days, watching the coal's flickering flames as the wind howled outside and rain rattled against the windows.

The lifestyle brings you a sense of peace you always craved.

I live that life. I've shown it to hundreds of aspiring narrowboat owners on my Discovery Days. Most of them fell in love with inland waterways boating as soon as they stepped on board. Sadly, some, during their time with me, discovered that the the lifestyle wasn't for them. That was good too. They learned this lesson before they invested tens of thousands of pounds in a lifestyle they didn't want.

You can discover everything you need to know about life afloat, before making a life changing decision you may regret.