What to buy ? ? ?

OK .. the next few entries are a theoretical buying exercise. (I hope to find about 6 boats)

What kind of boat can be bought meeting the following criteria ?

1. Condition - Brand New
2. Length - 50' - 58'
3. Budget - GBP 60,000 ish (AU$ 90-100K)
4. Layout - Fully fitted and suited to a couple (long term / liveaboard)

This is a go-anywhere length, fresh out of the box, at a price-point that tends towards the more modest end of the market. You could easily spend twice as much.

It is also the configuration that has the lowest rate of depreciation.

So .... what's out there ???

It's been a while ....

I haven't made a blog entry for some time. However, narrowboats still feature in my life, like a weird case of OCD.

My postie regularly delivers  Canal Boat magazine  from UK. And for the first time, a copy went astray and I must say that organising a replacement  was easy and they were happy to do it. 10 out of 10 for customer service.

And I'll add this to the growing list of things a couple can do while cruising the canals. Why not ...

... be contestants on  Bargain Hunt  !

I don't know about anyone else, but I would get a kick out of it. Basically, (if selected) it would require a diversion from cruising of two days, not consecutive.

Widebeam Dreaming

Someone mentioned recently they would like to do a European river cruise on a hotel boat. A romantic trip for sure.

I'd love to do it. But this is the boat I'd ideally do it on.

Built for the UK market in Gdansk, Poland as Metrofloat comes two widebeams, the Richmond and the Henley. With size and a high standard of fit out for liveaboard, they  are known as apartment boats, which is a shame if all they ever do is sit tied to a wharf. It's a kind of style I consider worthy of getting about in.

With a widebeam, you are somewhat restricted within UK waterways.

Not so in Europe. I would gladly cover Holland, Poland, Belgium, Germany, France, Luxemburg, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Sweden, Russia to name a few. There are enough connected waterways to more than cover the time I could make available.

The Henley ... stepping in from the seating area in the bow, you step down into the bedroom, which even has a nice slide out draw for my CPAP.

You follow through to a well appointed bathroom.

This leads on into the galley which conceals a fridge, a freezer, a dishwasher, a clothes washer, cooktop and oven, microwave, plenty of benches and cupboards and a bar and stools for dining.

The salon is spacious, housing a large screen tv and media centre in the stairs leading in from the back deck. The office area resides beside this and some simple elegant furniture also transforms into additional bedding should one wish to share this comfy little nest.

The back deck is very suited to many hours of comfortable cruising and taking in the scenic wonders of europe's river valleys.

This is what these boats are built to do ... though I doubt many will.

Broken Windows Pain

I have always found the performance and standard of the pre-installed Windows 7 and other softwares and utilities on my Compaq laptop to be annoying, ineffective and very buggy.

So much so, the laptop has never been enjoyable or fast to use. It seems it's primary function is maintenance and security updates. Anything I want to do is secondary and I must wait for my laptop to finish its business first.

And the constant flicker from the video driver has never seemed to be updated. Good thing I am not epileptic.

Well ... I solved all my laptop's woes in 30 minutes. What did i do ?

I installed UBUNTU

I repartitioned the whole drive for Linux ... did a standard install ... and ...

all of a sudden my laptop has become a dream to use ... everything works ... the flicker has gone ... nothing wants me to subscribe to anything or register anything.

It now feels like my computer and not something I borrowed from American corporations, primarily for marketing research and statistic accumulation.

I can't run Pokerstars in Ubuntu ... but a program in Ubuntu called WinE is a Windows Emulator, so I downloaded Pokerstars and ran it in WinE ... and it installed easily and runs great.

And what does Ubuntu with a full suite of applications cost ???

In the words of Wendy James ... I don't want your money honey, I want your lurrrrrv !

You gotta like a nice rear end

I came across this on ebay of all places. The real thing can be seen at Crick. 

It is a one-off 44ft sailaway shell by ABC boats and I expect it will be fitted out by the Nottingham Narrowboat Company if no-one buys it beforehand. If so, I believe Canal Boat magazine will do a feature on it. 

You can purchase it as is for GBP 28,500 (AU$43,670) ... and to fit-out to a good standard, you could add another GPB 25,000 (ish).

Unfortunately there is not enough information available as yet regards inclusions so far. I would expect 'sailaway' means powered and operational. Not sure if it's lined though.

I like the style of this boat. Being 44ft will require a nifty layout to make it comfy, though the portholes and hatches will easily light and air the interior whilst maintaining privacy.

And with the butty-style rudder, that's a pretty nice rear end too !

Heaps more pics here. 

A Barn Owl Boat

I love Nb design. To say its a design challenge is an understatement.  

I have a half height wall in my house that has a 6'10" wide gap. I can't think how many times while taking the few steps to pass it, I have thought ... that's it ... thats the whole width of a narrowboat.

I am impressed at the ingenious ways some people utilise that remarkably restrictive space.

This blog was going to be about pull-out beds and multi-function layouts generally, but I gladly digress a little and will write about a boat from one of my favourite builders, Barn Owl Boats.

The boat is Octavia , which I discovered via Nb Caxton's blog, to be the "boat with the bed" pictured on the Barn Owl website (being a pull-out bed I intended writing about).


Anywayyyyyyy ...

Nb Octavia

Travelling bow to stern - entry to the salon is via 
curved stairs cleverly housing a double bed.

A very tasty galley leads onto a dinette.

A compact and comfortable bathroom followed by a fixed double in the 

stateroom complete the internal layout before exiting to the semi-trad stern.

Go here for a complete set of pics ... it's worth the trip.


Kudos to Octavia's owners and happy boating.

Related TV Series and DVD's

There are many TV series on narrowboats and canals. I don't think any of the shows listed here were aired in Australia on free to air.

I buy most of my DVD's from Amazon.co.uk or DVD.co.uk and occassionally on eBay. Postage and delivery times have always been very reasonable and reliable (touch wood) from UK. 

NOTE: Many of these DVD's are Region Code 4 (Aus/NZ) as well Region 2 (UK), so they play on Aus/NZ encoded DVD players. You need to check if you don't have a multi-region DVD player.

Anyway ... here's a listing of some narrowboat/canal related TV series and video.

Non Fiction :

Narrowboat (2005) - 10 Episodes

Alan Herd restores and refits Nb Dover, an old working boat with a modern fit-out.

Narrowboat Afloat (2006) - 10 Episodes

Alan takes newly restored Dover from Birmingham to London along the Grand Union canal.

The Water Boatman (2011) - 20 Episodes

A new series about to air by Alan Herd, exploring the inland waterways of Britain, following the Stourport Ring – the canal route that covers 65 miles of canals and 13 miles of the River Severn. 

He experiences some varied watercraft and visits some of the most fascinating parts of our heritage. Across the series, Alan will visit Birmingham, the city with more canals than Venice, known as the ‘workshop of the world’ during the Industrial Revolution.

The journey continues on past the birthplace of Cadbury chocolate, onto the cathedral city of Worcester and past the Severn valley steam railway. Along the way, Alan hitches lifts with other canal enthusiasts and discovers more about life afloat.

Locks & Quays :

- Series 1 (2006) - 10 episodes

Fred Talbot travels the Leeds & Liverpool canal. DVD's of this series are out of stock everywhere I looked. I bought mine a few years ago and they may be the first DVD's I wear out.

- Series 2 (2007) - 10 episodes

Fred travels the Peak Forest canal from Bugsworth Basin, through Manchester and along the Rochedale canal.

- Series 3 (2008) - 10 episodes

Mathew Corbett crosses England east to west by canal, starting in Hull and finishing in Liverpool.

The Boat that Guy Built (2011) - 6 episodes

Guy Martin, professional motorbike racer and engineer, fixes up an old narrowboat while learning a little of the life, times and industry that existed when the canals were built and commercially operated.

This series proves you can't take a racing line around bends in a narrowboat. One of the few bits I have seen of this show, they use the boat as a chisel to resculpt the stone sidings entering the Harecastle tunnel. This show may be more a 'how not to' rather than a 'how to' me thinks, especially where side-burns are concerned.

Canal Walks (2011)

Just airing on UK TV. An HD series where Julia Bradbury walks the towpaths of the canals of England. 

Episode 01 - Caledonian canal 
Episode 02 - Worcester & Birmingham canal 
Episode 03 - Kennet & Avon 
Episode 04 - Llangollen canal 

More info to come as it materialises. However, the whole series is already available in UK on DVD (on Region 2 discs only), Blu Ray (all region), and in book form. I'll be ordering this shortly.

Fiction :

Travelling Man - (1984 - 1985)

A 2 season drama with Leigh Lawson playing Lomax, an ex-drug cop, disgraced from the force and out of jail, travelling the canals of England seeking revenge for a drug raid gone wrong and to find his son. Filmed around Cheshire and Manchester. 

Has a remarkable rating of 9.5/10 on IMDB and is available on DVD  yet is basically unheard of. If you like UK drama and are fond of narrowboats, you will not be disappointed buying this set.

The boat 'Harmony' used in this series, resides on the Bridgewater Canal these days. I'll do a blog entry about this boat a little later on, as the builder built some remarkable (timber) canal leisure craft. Harmony is a fairly standard 40ft steel narrowboat.

 

Stay Lucky - (1989 - 1993)

A 4 season series with Dennis Waterman and Jan Francis, also with a favourable rating on IMDB (8/10). A cross between Minder and Travelling Man is a good and brief description. Only seasons 1 (3 episodes) & 2 (7 episodes) have been released on DVD so far. And yes, Dennis Waterman sings the theme tune. Nice timber work in the Dutch barge.

Canal therapy??  (note expressions in S01 to S02)