A big thank you to those of you who completed our Cost of Boating Survey 2009. Clearly not everyone keeps records of how much running a boat costs, or wants to know how true “Bring On Another Thousand” is! Those costs were the “must haves”, so we ended up with 44 very useful sets of data,

as in the table below:

Our main goal was to find some typical boat costs, so that we could monitor increases year on year. So maybe you will recognise your boat in the table opposite (figures in brackets in the This Year section show the % increase above the Previous Year figures; figures marked * were estimates):

Turning to the other information we gathered while we had respondents’ attention: of the 44 boats for whom data was entered, 1 was a Cruiser, 2 were Barges, 40 were Narrowboats and the Dinghy had an electric outboard motor. Clearly this doesn’t record a statistically reliable sample of NABO boaters, but nevertheless it does act as an indicator. Look out for a simpler, more comprehensive survey in the coming months.

The Narrowboat dimensions (including a motor and butty, counted as a single length) were categorised as below:

Overall, draft varied between the enviable(?) 9” and 4′ 0”, as below:

19 of the boats had been purchased second-hand, and of those purchased new, the newest was purchased in 2007, the oldest in 1989, with a mean age of 11 years.

Apparently most NABO boaters who own up are around the legal retirement age:

Figures in Brackets show the percentage increase

On average, contributors spend about 5 hours cruising per day on 93 days, totalling 380 cruising hours and are aboard for 173 days a year.
Even non continuous cruisers are aboard 136 days a year, cruising for half of them.
The 9 Continuous Cruisers cruise, on average, just under 4 hours a day on just over 200 days a year.

Since last November, boaters buying diesel have to sign a declaration at the point of sale, to say how much will be used for propulsion, and how much for domestic purposes (i.e. heating, charging batteries, cooking etc.) Some boatyards will only accept a fixed declaration of 60%, but HMRC give users the right to declare the intended usage. Those who had made a declaration of % diesel used for propulsion declared as below:

Respondents Areas and Moorings:

Licences (some boats have more than one licence):

British Waterways E&W Annual Licence (Canals and Rivers): 36 

BW / EA Annual Gold Licence: 6

British Waterways Short-Term Licence: 2

Environmental Agency Annual Licence (Anglian): 1

Environmental Agency Annual Licence (Thames): 2

Environmental Agency Short-Term Licence (Thames): 4

Avon Trust short term: 1

River Avon, Bristol Harbour: 1

BW 6 month Canal & River: 1

We hope you found this analysis interesting. Was the survey worth it? We certainly think so, and we are grateful to the 38 people who said they are willing to repeat the exercise next year. It helps us represent YOU better.