Why these first time buyers from Skipton shunned bricks and mortar to buy an extra large canal barge

The historic market town has it all from great shops, schools and amenities to transport links and the Yorkshire Dales on the doorstep.

Armed with a healthy amount of savings in their Help to Buy ISAs the couple began what became a fruitless hunt for a house.

“We were ready to put a mortgage deposit down on a property and our budget would’ve bought us an end terrace with a small garden and no parking but nothing we saw felt right,” says Gemma.

The couple despaired that they would never find the right home when Jack, a teacher, heard a colleague read out an interesting advert he had spotted online for an extra large, contemporary houseboat for sale billed as “an apartment on the water”.

The staff room conversation was relayed to Gemma and the blue touch paper for living on the water was lit. She says: “The thought of living on a canal boat really appealed and when I saw the pictures of it, it was far nicer than any house we had viewed.”

The brand new, larger than average wide beam boat was a cancelled order and came with all mod cons. There is an open plan living area with a sofa bed and chair, fully fitted kitchen with fridge freezer and plenty of built-in storage and shelving.

Down the corridor is a multi-functional space with in-built storage which is now used as a gym and an office and is home to Teacake, the couple’s pet tortoise. There’s also a bathroom plus a large double bedroom with an ensuite.

An appointment to see the barge in Northwich was booked and it had Gemma and Jack at “hello” even though they couldn’t get a conventional mortgage on it, they had no boating experience at all and no permanent mooring.

Yet, where there’s a will, there’s a way. The original price of the boat was £165,000 but after three sales had fallen through over two years, they got it for £105,000. The couple had saved £50,000 for a deposit on a home but the only loan available was a marine mortgage with an interest rate of 16.9 per cent.

Fortunately, Gemma’s mum offered to remortgage her own house to get them the money with the couple paying her back via an informal “mum mortgage” each month.

As for the mooring, they were told of a small stretch of privately owned land that backed onto the canal, near Snaygill, Skipton, and the Canal and the Waterways Authority agreed to designate it as what is known as an “end of garden mooring”.

The entrepreneurial couple also put the land to good use by launching Stoff Haus camping, an income generating glamping yurt that Gemma and Jack let out in the spring and summer.

Those who walk on the towpath in Skipton will no doubt have seen their distinctive boat, labelled Haus. “We often come to Skipton because that’s where our nearest water point is, so that’s where we fill our jerry cans and empty the toilet,” says Jack, who is also an on-call firefighter, who adds: “Saving water is important so we let the washing up stack up and we have a three minute limit on showers.”

Both he and Gemma, a paramedic, are now au-fait with the ups and downs of living on the water but the learning curve from landlubber to canal boat dweller was very steep and stressful.

“It was really hard at first because there are always problems,” says Jack, who has gone from clueless to competent when it comes to boat maintenance and if he and Gemma are struggling there is always someone else in the helpful canal boat community who will give them a hand.

“We also got rid of 70 per cent of our belongings when we moved onto the boat,” says Gemma.

The couple have added solar panels with battery storage which has made a big difference to their bills and this runs the lights and the fridge freezer.

The decor is mainly down to Gemma’s artistic talents and Jack’s handiwork. There are prints by local artists and they added panelling to the bedroom, along with William Morris wallpaper. Macrame features heavily and is made by Gemma, who runs occasional workshops while selling at craft fairs.

After buying their boat in early 2021, the couple, both 31, are on track to pay off the “mum mortgage” within the next two years. However, for those who think boat living is plain sailing, Jack and Gemma say a reality check is needed.

“Things always go wrong on a boat and you learn to live with that and you also learn that it’s not necessarily a cheaper way to live.

There are often problems with the engine and the electrics and the hull needs protective blackening every six years, which in our case costs £3,000 to £5,000,” says Jack.

Then there’s the red diesel at £650 a year to heat the radiators, boat insurance at £900 and an annual £1,300 cruising licence plus a mooring fee of £250 which allows them to travel the waterways and moor for up to two weeks before they have to move to another parish.

None of this has dampened their enthusiasm and they now can’t imagine living on land in a coventional home.

“We love boat living. The sunsets, the wildlife, the community and having dinner on our roof,” says Gemma. “That makes up for anything that goes wrong.”

Useful contacts: For more pictures and insights into Gemma and Jack’s canal barge home visit our-floating-haus on Instagram. Their pretty glamping site is on there too as stoff_haus_camping.