Johan

Good point ZimZim, I'll look into that !

thanks so far for all the helpful comments. I'll skip the helmsman course. As said, I did some sailing vacations in the Netherlands (beiing the skipper). Also, in my younger years I worked on a 360 ft Rhine barge, being at the helm many times. Meanwhile I prepare myself by reading all about narrowboats and watch lots of videos on YT. As you might have noticed, I tend to be on the responsible side so I don't expect to much trouble. For now, the Oxford canal looks like a good place to start....

OldGoat : meanwhile I think I've seen all the narrow boat videos on YT LOL. This is something we're planning to do for some time when we are (early) retired so this will be a test case for us... Dave: I came across this company, looks very promising ! Thanks.

Why would a course be a waste of money ? I've never been at the helm of a narrow boat (but had some holidays sailing a 24 ft sailing boat). My thoughts were it would ease my mind a bit to do a lock, maneuver in and out a marina and things like that before go out on my own.

I'm planning a narrowboat holliday for next year april, together with my wife. We are living on Aruba so we will fly to London. From there we'll need transportation to the boat (bus ? Train?). I would like to take a one or two day helmsman course before we hire a boat, preferable at the same company. We like to avoid the masses and love the countryside. All together we have about 12 days to spent. I would appreciate any advice about the transportation to the boat, a company and region.

But they have no narrowboats (at least not in the Netherlands) and I love the concept of living and moving on/with a boat. Besides that I'm used to live in a country where the natives don't really like us ;-)

I still have to work for 3 years or so and I understand the complex situation at the moment in the UK, but I also wonder what the possibilities are now that the UK still is in the EU ? Can I just come and stay as long as I want, still having my home address in Aruba ?

I'm thinking about spending some (2-3) years on a narrowboat when I get retired. I'm living in Aruba (dutch passport) for 16 years now, coming from the Netherlands. Would this be allowed ? I can only find information about visitors visa for max. 6 months. I'm aware of the fact that the brexit might complicate things. Maybe there are people in this forum in comparable circumstances or have knowledge about this subject ?