Birth of a Narrow Boat

Having sold our sea going Tupperware yacht and moved inland from the coast, we were missing the enjoyment of boating, so we decided to buy a narrow boat. I thought as we had had 2 boats before, we knew a lot about them and buying, how wrong I was, this narrow boat thing is a whole new world with its own vocabulary.
What is a Cratch?
What is a weed hatch?
What is the difference between Trad/ SemiTrad and Cruiser?
These are just a few of the many new terms we had to become conversant with. To give canal people their due, they are mostly very patient with Newbies like us.

Having soaked up lots of terms from magazines, the Internet and friends who had boats, we decided to look for a used/second user boat about 57' long with a semi trad stern. After looking at many boats in numerous locations across the country, we settled on a 60' boat and made an offer on it, which was accepted. Only then to be told that it was too long to fit into some locks. (never saw that one coming)
Now I like to think I know about the state of boats, but we decided to get a full survey done. What a disaster this boat was, something about a pigs ear and silk purse came to mind. The boat moved and the hull was fine, but nothing else worked . Ah well! lets put this down to experience and move on. We looked at a lot more boats with a much more critical eye but every time we came off a boat, I said "Afraid Not", onto the next one.

Eventually we realised that the boat we wanted had not yet been built, or if it had it was not for sale. As the NEC Boat show was a few weeks away we waited and then spent a day looking round all the new boat builds. This was it!!! we needed a custom built boat, so a few days later we visited Cole Boats and ordered a 57' sailaway

Having settled the specification of the Cole boat, we thought, just find a suitable boat fitter to finish off the build to our specification. Easy isn't it!!! Dozens of boat fitters in Canal World etc, so we just go and see a few and choose our fitter. Again we travelled far and wide looking at what various fitters could do and at what cost. Again we were bombarded with questions about the sailaway specification, which we could not answer. Eventually we whittled it down to 3 boat fitting companies , a low cost, a medium cost and the highest cost. All said our final spec needed some modification to either the electrics or the layout. After much soul searching on each company, we have finally decided on going with the one we were most comfortable with and that is Kate Boats.

We are currently waiting for the sailaway to be delivered to Kate boats in early May and will update this blog to let you know how we are proceeding.

May 5th 2009
We visited Kate Boats today to see our baby being delivered from Colecraft. It was an amazing sight seeing the 57 ft Green boat swinging through the air to be placed on metal rollers (a bit of ancient Egyptian technology) to be rolled into the fitting out shed. The forklift truck pushed it in the final few yards and we were allowed on board. What a dark metal tube it seemed. I took a video and then agreed more of the specification and went home a happy chappy.

May 19th 2009

Another visit, wow what a difference, the entire inside had been spray foamed and the deck placed and marked with the proposed positions of the internal fittings. The was no need for lighting inside as the foam made it very bright and we spent the next 2 hours discussing every item of fitting, where it would go and how it would be fitted. If you think that the fit out company make all the decisions, think again!!. I had a list on 2 sides of A4 with queries of everything from the type of shower tray to where we wanted the wardrobes and drawers. But we could see that it was taking shape in exactly the way that we wanted it. Again we went home very happy, so far we were on time and most importantly on budget. Next visit in about 2 weeks when all the internal lining out and bulkheads are up.

June 16th 2009

Well here we are again, the boat is covered in dust and surrounded by bits of wood and various woodworking equipment. Discussed the fit out with Chris (boat fitter) and then went on board to have a look, WOW what a difference a couple of weeks makes, all the sides are now Light American Oak and so are the bulkheads, it makes such a difference to actually be able to envisage how it will look. There are plenty of pipes and electrical wiring coming out of various holes, waiting to be connected. With Chris we then confirmed some of the more precise details of exactly where things were going to be situated, the shower is going to be a quadrant type with a 55mm thick base and a sliding door enclosure 1850mm high, just about right to fit in below the bulkhead. The shower walls will be "wet wall" not tiles. This choice was influenced by some boats we saw with shower tiles coming off the wall due to the vibration cracking the grout. "Wet wall is a sheet product that looks like tiles, that just needs to have sealant in the corners, top and bottom, no chance of any leaks and sealant is easy to replace after a few years. The colorifier will be fitted under the bed and the waste tank under the steps from the stern. We have choosen to have carpet in the bedroon and saloon, and Karndean flooring in the Galley and heads. Our next visit is in mid July but in the mean time we are trying to settle on a colour scheme for the outside of the boat and all of the soft furnishing, the decisions never seem to end.

8th July 2009
Great time in Spain, came back to rain but what is so unusual about that in England. Lots of work has been done in the past few weeks. The Galley units are all built, just waiting for all the appliances and the worktop. The bathroom has some shelves, a shower base and a vanity unit. The bedroom has the bed base, calorifier and the beginnings of the wardrobe. In the saloon the window linings are being fitted and look really good, the craftsmanship that is going into the wood work is very good indeed, if the rest of the woodwork is like this we will be very satisfied.
Next visit at the end of July, it's getting close to the September launch date, excited or what!!

For Pics of the boat please go to

More info











To be continued shortly..