About 15,000 people live afloat in the UK. So what's the attraction? I caught up with some old friends who have traded in their ground rent and noisy neighbours for a quiet life on Bristol's floating harbour.

Extracts: ...Further along the harbour, shipwright Ben Punter is doing up his boat to live on. He was given a 60ft wooden Danish fishing boat as ^it was a wreck and its owner didn't know how else to get rid of it. I could get rid of it - that was the deal^...

... If you're buying, make sure you get an extensive survey done, particularly of the hull. The next part is getting a mooring, which can be a black art in itself. Recent years have seen a nationally increasing demand for mooring space, and it doesn't seem to matter where you ask, you are always told there's a ten-year waiting list. A good way to get around this is to buy a boat that is already on a mooring. Something you can't do if you build your own...

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