Promarine Exclusive Crick Boat Show offer: Free professional narrowboat handling course for Promarine customers

We have teamed up with the Narrowboat Skills Centre to offer an exclusive Crick Boat Show deal for this year’s upcoming event.

At Promarine, we know how important it is to have full confidence when at the helm of your own boat, particularly if you are new to boating. 

We will be offering a voucher for one person to undertake a Helmsmans Course (normally priced at £360pp) or Diesel Engine and Boat Maintenance course (priced at £220pp) for all finance applications received during the show (24th-28th March) and who go on to complete a finance contract with us before June 30th 2021. 

Exclusive course offer

To be with a chance of winning a professional Narrowboat handling course

Apply now

The Helmsmans Course

The RYA Inland Waterways Helmsmans Course is for those new to boating or those boaters who feel that they need to brush up on their Helmsmans skills. The Helmsman’s course follows the RYA syllabus and participants are awarded an Inland Waterways Helmsman’s Certificate upon successful completion.

The course includes:

  1. Boating Safety
  2. Pre-start checks
  3. Ropework and knots
  4. Boat control
  5. Getting underway
  6. Slowing down, stopping and mooring up
  7. Locks and using them safely
  8. Navigating bridges and tunnels

It is a highly practical course with the majority of the day spent out on the water or on the bank mooring up or on working locks.

The Diesel Engine and Boat maintenance Course

This two-day engine and boat maintenance course incorporates the RYA Diesel Engine course and expands it to cover all the essential maintenance tasks that can be completed by the average boater without the use of specialist tools. The result is that you will be able to keep your boat in good order and in the long run save money.

As well as the routine maintenance tasks the course covers simple fault finding on your engine, drive train and electrics.

Own Boat Experience Day

For those who want a course run on their own boat and who do not require a Helmsmans Certificate we will arrange for a fully qualified instructor to spend a day on your own boat at your location with up to three people. The course will cover as much of the two day Helmsmans syllabus as is possible given the constraints on time and the limitations of the cruising area. Instructor travel costs and overnight accommodation costs will be the responsibility of the customer. Customers can agree upgrades to the courses by negotiation with NBSC.

Offer T&Cs

One Voucher for one person to complete a Helmsman Course or Diesel Engine or other course of similar value, per marine mortgage.

Travel and accommodation costs are at our customers’ expense.

Open to UK residents over the age of 18. No cash alternative. One voucher is available to one sole customer only. Promarine’s decision is final. Promarine reserves the right to withdraw the offer at any time. 

Applicants must submit a finance application during 24th-28th March 2021 and complete a finance contract with Promarine Finance before 30th June 2021.

The offer is in partnership with NSBC and subject to instructor availability and their own conditions listed on https://nbsc.org.uk/terms-and-conditions.

The Rise of Narrow Boat Living

The amount of people permanently living on houseboats such as narrowboats and barges has been steadily increasing in recent years. In fact, around a quarter of the boats you see on the UK waterways consist of the owner’s primary home. Many others are used as second homes with people sharing their time between on-board living and on-land living.

There are several reasons why more and more people are choosing this alternative way of life. The fact that living on a narrowboat in a city can be significantly cheaper than living in an ordinary home is chief among them.

As is to be expected of the capital, London is the most expensive place to live in the UK, but not if you live on a boat. In fact there are somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 people using boats on the capital’s hundred miles of waterways, with around two thirds of those permanently docked at various marinas.

Continuous Cruising Lowers the Cost of Living Even More

UK boat owners who constantly travel around either a city’s waterways or up and down the country’s 2,000 or so miles of canal networks, can dock pretty much wherever they please for up to two weeks at a time. This ‘continuous cruising’ option makes living on a boat even cheaper as there is no charge for mooring, so long as you move on every couple of weeks.

With the lower annual cost of running a boat including covering a licence and basic insurance, it’s easy to see why boat living is becoming a more attractive proposition for people who are priced out of owning their own land-based homes, especially in a city like London where house prices have risen well over 80% over the last eight years or so.

In fact, the number of continuous cruisers in Britain has quadrupled in just seven years. In 2010, there were 413 continuous cruisers around the capital’s waterways alone, with that number heading way over 1,600 by the end of last year.

Quality of Life Also Cited as a Primary Reason for Boat Living

While the financial aspect is a huge one for many people who live on boats, it is not always the main reason. Last year the Financial Times published a feature on boat living and the reasons for living on a boat. While the money aspect was right up there in importance, the general way of living also featured highly.

“Waterside living is wonderful,” wrote the feature’s author, the boat dwelling Paul Miles. “Rippling reflections of sunlight patterning your ceiling; feeding ducks from your window; diving off your front porch for a swim.”

With such testimony along with the obvious financial benefits, it’s certainly understandable why narrowboat living is on the rise.

If you would like to learn more about the possibility of buying a houseboat using a marine mortgage, contact Promarine Finance who can talk you through your options.