I grew up in Beeston, one minutes sprint to the local railway station and under a mile (1.4 km) to Beeston Lock (No. 4); separating the River Trent from the Beesting & Nottingham Canal. I used to cycle down to the lock and act as local keeper, helping the boats through (very easy to do as the windlasses were welded on) and being fascinated whenever I was allowed to help.
At around the age of eight, I remember building a prototypical working boat out of Lego. I think it must have been 6 studs wide, bringing the dimensions to about 48 mm wide × 500 mm long long (a scale ~7mm to the foot). The top boards were made from two-stud width plates and held up by stacks of centrally positioned round studs. From what I remember the stern was constructed from semi-circular pieces that didn't stick well. It had some string thread ("rope") leading to a plastic toy horse. With some bubble-wrap and an over-sized poster-tube, I took it in to school to show ''Mrs. Talkes'' and I think some of the other teachers.
Narrowboats continued to intrigue me. At some point Naomi Stillhere and Charlie Stroud (with Rosie & Jim) shared their boat OWL with me for a couple of days. When I finally bailed out, I was left with a long cycle ride home! (BTW: Narrowboats also work for hitch-hiking when the towpath gets rough—find a handy bridge where the canal narrows).
OWL travelled well, had two cabins and a satisfying old engine in the middle of them. The controls were traditional pull-bar controls from the back. She was 45 ft (13.7 m) long and brought alot of joy to alot of people. Naomi died at some point, taking her whistle and tea-making skills with her. I think I learnt of this via Charlie's Christmas letters that I continued to enjoy for several years onwards.
Somehow the Nottingham City Council Library Service ended up with a pair of narrowboats kitted out with green paint and a dozen beds in each. I suspect via the old F.M.C. Canal Museum (now a trendy wine bar) and the Museums service. These 70 ft (21 m) boats have continued to live in Nottingham and I've been lucky enough to spend time on them, both as myself and being a "helpful adult" for teenagers enjoying a weekend away at a much slower pace of life. A guy (with a Brompton) and named Stuart now runs.
Now that you mention Bromptons (a type of British magical folding bicycle)... Lynoure said she had always considered that bicycles and public transport didn't mix—until meeting my bicycle.
For me, I discovered a form of transport that goes much faster than a narrow-boat. It's the Brompton Bicycle and had the effect of altering the way I travelled. Allowing me to effortless walk at a 14 mph (20 km/h) average speed. It crosses the lights faster than a Porsche and travels on planes, trains, trams and buses (as lugguage) whilst being still carrying lots of cargo. Because I hammer the bike so much, so I got a spare, but like a spare wheel in a car—that's only good if you remember to fix/replace the spare again!
I'd had a strange attraction, interest and a longing to live in Finland for since the mid-1990s. I managed this in 2005 (with the Brompton, of course) but only long enough to sample winters of -20°C and cycling on the frozen sea.
I've been addicted to Bromptons for a few years, they've carried me to four continents and 25+ countries. By every means from hitch-hiking to private jet. After all of this running around, it's time to return to Britain (at least for a while) ...and ...something slower.
I've seen several boats, and actually doing some/most/all of the construction myself is something I've wanted to do. My housemate London also had the intention to build a boat at one stage. Interesting co-incidences like the day I finally got around to ordering a second-hand copy of the The Narrowboat Builder's Book and then had somebody else post me another copy out of the blue the next day!
I still wanted to keep a level head and maintained that if the if the right second-hand boat came up at the right price, I'd just buy it and do the conversion. The others choices were between building from scratch after ordering £5,000 worth of steel and the same in workshop tools, space, welding kit and plasma cutters. Or paying somebody else to get it to the floating, watertight state.
Eventually I set aside the summer of 2007 to "do the boat project". One night I started on building a 1/10th scale cardboard model of a 12m (39.5 ft) boat. This length would just fit in a standard 40 ft shipping container, just in case I every needed to move country. A month later after that I went to Russia and got handed a job offer in Finland on the way back.
However, even knowing I was going to Finland didn't stop me putting an offer in a boat the weekend before I left the country. A boat called Destiny at Sawley Marina had been annoying me for a few months by spinning around on the edges of my brain. Non-standard boats tend to catch my eye. On Destiny, my eyes saw the three huge pairs of rectangular double-glazed windows on each side down the front.
After placing my offer "(subject to survey)", I discovered a semi-recent surveyors report slipped in amongst the boat's paperwork. I left, feeling please that I'd come up with a price within £500.00 of what the "proper survey" had concluded. She was 38 ft, semi-trad with an air-cooled engine (which I reckoned was going to need some seeing to). My offer was declined, probably for being half the asking price! I hope she's found a home. To the best of my knowledge, she was on brokerage for three years and I was the only person to express an interest.
Finland. Boat. Finland. Dreams of snow... Finland won, at least for most of 9 months, the winter of 2007/2008 was virtually non-existant. Berlin was colder than Helsinki, so I ran off there for New Year (on the ferry).
Finland dreams fulfilled for the moment, I found myself a year behind and wanted something that at least floated. Somebody sent me page of Anne of Green Gables with the phrase "do what I would wish I had done when I shall be eighty" highlighted.
I didn't want a boat just to live in, I'd like a boat that can do something useful. Boats were originally designed for cargo, so a narrow-boat with some room for cargo is good. Also, John Fitzgerald expressed (of their trad) a lack of outside seating space.
On this round, two boats took my fancy; two very different boats:
| Blythe | ex-BWB workboat | 53 ft (16.2 m) | 1976 | classic Lister ST2 | 20 hp | HIAB crane | secure | £½x |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jubilee | ex-trip boat | 35 ft (10.7 m) | 2002 | modern Isuzu 4LB33 | 33 hp | roof, toilet | insecure | £x |
Jubilee I spotted on Ebay and I did a last minute snipe™ whilst riding on a tram in Helsinki. The reserve wasn't met—but I was re-contacted by the sellers. Jubilee was interesting to me in the ways that would put most other people off from wanting her. The owners of the trip-boat Jubilee were away for a week that allowed breathing space to take in the sale.
British Waterways also announced an online auction of old workboats at the same time, and Blythe, even without her propeller because quite attractive. I quite fancied have a proper, serious, genuine utilitarian watercraft and particularly the large multiple segment hydraulic crane. (think: The pickup-track/SUV/7 tonne lorry of the canal world). The old Lister engine would be easy to fix/rebuild myself and simple enough to eat everything including vegetable oil.
Blythe was sold at auction, not the type that you can snipe. The final bid must stand for 10minutes before the sale closes, as such I think the only way to easily win on the GoIndustry system is to filibuster the auction, causing a new extension every 10minutes until the other bidder gets bored. I didn't win the Blythe (or her sister Anker) but must have earned BWB an extra five-grand by keeping the bidding going on several lots.
British waterways were exteremely helpful in two ways; first, carefully answering every question I had about the condition and history of the workboats and second, in agreeing to offer me a tempoary in the Birmingham area. Birmingham has two boat yards. Sherbourne were "full" in every respect; Lyon's Boatyard confirmed they had space on the work wharf ("though, no angle grinding on Sundays!").
During the day of the auction, my heart had been racing the whole time. I'd never purchased (for my own use) anything as expensive before. I logged off the auction frustrated at not getting the work-boat (I would have bid more retro-spectively, but auctions are dangerous places to be without a clear head). Afterwards, the sauna went on and I tried to recover.
By now, I now "just wanted a boat", steel still going up in price faster than inflation and a year behind where I expected. Jubilee wasn't setup for sleeping, wasn't secure from the word go (the bow-end of the cabin had no bulkhead) and was a bit short. On the upside Jubilee was available, was "different" and I had a large number of photographs kindly collected by members of my family from the week earlier.
,
Eventually I got through to the couple (mobile phone reception around the canals can be terribly frustrating) and offered another 5% (though on a boat 5% is still a large wad of notes!). I don't think I would have gone any higher, the price was already getting close to the cost of a new sailaway. With the extensive re-fitting (and metal work) required to make her a live-aboard, Jubilee could be evaluated as a reasonably attractive, fairly recent and already-floating kit-of-parts.
The extra money was still in between what either of had wanted, but enough to secure the deal. I spent another hour composing my extact proposal and payment schedule. I recorded my understanding of the condition of the vessel as she was at the moment and mailed this off for their consideration. Jubilee's owners called me back a day later and said yes, confirming that they would look after the boat until I returned from Finland.
I managed (through the luck of both sharing the same bank) to transfer over 20% of the price in cash immediately, before settling back to complete the paperwork to authorise advancing the remainder—not held in liquid cash.
Boats are, as noted, expensive things. The expense increases linearly with length. The more you get, the more you pay.
Shorter does have considerable savings advantages (mooring, insurance, license, painting, blacking, heating). I think I'll see how we go, if i really wanted, Jubilee could be stretched. But perhaps easier is to turn her into something desirable and swap her for an even longer narrowboat. I need to learn to downsize and live in and appreciate the small space first.
