Seven years ago, Rich and Jackie MacKenzie bought a secondhand 60ft narrowboat with the plan to live onboard in a permanent mooring with their two children.
The pair had an epiphany after tallying how much they had spent on rent and bills, how stressed they were, and how little quality time they had with their children. But they were hesitant to travel full-time: while it seemed appealing, Rich worked long hours as a gardener, and the children were attending school.
Then Rich’s father died in 2020 and already questioning his job, the couple decided to remove the commitments that kept them from travelling.
Now the pair – along with son Bob, now 13, and daughter Fleur, seven, two dogs and a cat spend life navigating the waterways of Britain and have no plans to return to a brick-and-mortar home. While navigating the country’s thousands of navigable canals, the family’s outgoings have now roughly halved, and the children are homeschooled on board.
Rich, 44, said: “Jackie and I always wanted an alternative way of life, one that had real meaning and community, but in the spring of 2017, I knew we weren’t achieving that. Bob was six, we’d just had Fleur, and I was working all the hours I could to make ends meet while Jackie was home alone with the kids, where I wanted to be.
“Working as a gardener, one day driving back from Whitney to our home in Oxford, I calculated we’d spent over £110,000 on rent in a decade, with very little to show for it.”
It was while walking along Oxford Canal in Wolvercote near their home that the solution stared them in the face – join the canal boat community.
But Jackie had never even set foot on one, and Rich was seven the last time he’d stepped aboard.
After weeks of painstaking research, they finally found Bluebell, a 60-foot boat in need of adaptations to make it work for them.
Handing over £35,000 for their new home on 18th May 2017, they were handed their keys and moved into their new home on its permanent mooring.
“But while we’d significantly cut back on our bills, there was still something missing,” Rich said.
“I was still working long hours away from my family as a gardener, and we’d wanted Bluebell to be more than a floating flat with occasional holidays thrown in. We wanted to embrace a more nomadic way of life and become part of the canals, their history, culture, and community.”
Losing his dad John at the start of 2020 prompted the family to finally head off.
“Dad had been a very hard worker, and just having celebrated Bob’s tenth birthday and seeing Fleur tottering around, I knew I had to change career if I wanted a different life from him, to be more present and part of our kids’ lives,” Rich said.
Chancing upon a video showing how to make copper bracelets, Rich knew this could be his new vocation.
“Of course, it was a transition, but after six months training myself how to make bespoke jewellery, I knew we could do this,” he said.
“In October 2020 I quit my gardening work altogether, and we gave up our home mooring in place of a waterways license to roam where and when we wanted. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time.”
It’s not all been plain sailing, he admits.
“One of the biggest costs with an old boat is the seemingly constant list of repairs, to the engine, plumbing, whatever,” Rich said.
“There’s a saying in the boating community that BOAT stands for Bung On Another Thousand, and that’s not a million miles from the truth!”
“You’re often miles from specialists who can help, and at first I’d panic and pay a fortune for help, but over time I’ve learned how to fix small issues and even do basic plumbing and other jobs myself.”
The dad, 44, says one key element of their kids’ education is through their travels – going into cities to visit museums, learning about the history of wherever they happen to be, from the Welsh Valleys to the Norfolk Broads to the Black Country.
“Bob spent two years when we were moored up in the same spot going to school, but it didn’t suit him, so we decided to homeschool, and never looked back,” Rich said.
“We gave Fleur the same choice and she wanted to be homeschooled too, a few hours in the morning with Jackie doing maths, reading, and other parts of the curriculum, but they also link up with other home-ed kids and learn different skills from other parents.”
“Bob and Fleur get on brilliantly, chatting away and heading off for adventures. To see them thrive together is wonderful.”
He added: “It’s what we’ve always believed that children should follow their passions, explore on their own to develop confidence and learn through their own experiences.”
Rich says the travelling canal boat community is the best part of their new life.
“In the evening, we’ll get our firepit out and all kinds of people join us, the kids mingle with other kids. I’ll have a beer with plumbers, retired professors, all sorts. It’s such a massive leveller, without judgement, everyone’s on the same page, wanting to see the world.”
Currently in Stoke on Trent, they’ve recently come down from Yorkshire, Manchester and North Wales.
“We can be in the centre of one of the most expensive cities in the UK and it’s covered by our license,” he says.
“We can explore the city, see a museum, do all the sights, it lets us do things we’d never be able to afford to do if we lived in a bricks-and-mortar house.
“We can move location on a whim, decide something is exciting or fun we’d like to see a few miles away, and go – the sense of freedom, living life, it’s fantastic, and we’re all on this adventure together.”
Rich has also set up a charity called Cycling Without Age Oxfordshire to bring people together.
“I’ve been very open about my mental health challenges in the past and know that connections help combat that, those relationships help enrich lives. I might be earning less than I did before, but the richness of life we have now makes us all feel more blessed than I ever thought possible.”
How much does it cost?
Rent and utilities before came to around £18,000 a year, and Rich paid for a work van on top. Now they spend about £9,000 a year.
- £1,309 on an annual cruising license
- £550 on diesel
- £450 on gas – They ditched their gas-powered fridge and overhauled their heating to connect to their wood burner, fitting a back boiler to provide hot water for showers and washing.
- £250 on coal and they get free wood
- £500 on general maintenance
- Solar panels cover most of their electricity costs.
- Food costs are low – they’ve ditched meat and buy fresh fruit and veg on the go.
An average day on the boat
Jackie has also now started making polymer-clay jewellery to sell online when she’s not helping their children with their homework.
Typically, Rich gets up around 6 am to load their log burner before starting to manage their social media accounts, then the family will all walk the dogs – Dusty, a 3-year-old Romanian rescue, and Archie, a 5-year-old Bichon-cross.
Jackie homeschools the children while Rich starts on his jewellery commissions.
After lunch, Rich carries on his jewellery-making while Bob can go and explore, or join Jackie and Fleur at the park or carry out chores like shopping, cleaning, chopping wood, or helping repair the boat.
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