narrow boats for sale

U-shaped galley and saloon. compact cruising 57ft boats might seem de rigeur – but can you cruise comfortably with less? GRAHAM BOOTH reviews a young couple’s new 45-footer bedroom bathroom galley saloon casual observer of the narrowboat market could be excused for thinking that it is impossible to build a boat less than 57ft long and that being retired – or getting very near to it – is an essential requirement for owning one. The subject of this month’s review, Whoops a Daisy by Crown Narrowboats, sets the record straight on both counts. The boat is 45ft long and was commissioned by Lawrence and Jenny Moore who are still comfortably in their thirties. Not only that – the Moores intend neither to live on it nor to go off on extended cruises, but simply want to enjoy weekends and holidays with their two teenage children. Whoops a Daisy was bought as a replacement for the old and muchloved Norman 23 on which the family cut their boating teeth. Buying a boat that is shorter than the accepted norm has some positive advantages. Holding it on a rope requires less strength and you can turn it in places where a longer boat would stick fast at both ends. It is certainly cheaper to license and moorings should cost less, provided you don’t pick a marina that operates a minimum length policy. It is also cheaper to buy, although this is not quite as straightforward as you might think. Because all boats have to have a bow, a stern, an engine, a galley, a bathroom and many other essential elements, shorter boats tend to cost more per foot than longer ones. The need for a bow and a stern also means that most of the reduction in length is concentrated into the cabin area. A 57-footer is therefore around 26% longer than a 45ft boat but it has up to 36% more cabin length. Nevertheless, interest in shorter boats is increasing once again so I was keen to find out what you get for your money. A The shell Crown Narrowboats’ shells are almost invariably supplied by Graham Reeves and the bow shape tells us that this is no exception. The identity of the fitter is confirmed by two small Crown Narrowboats logos welded to either side of the counter and one painted on the gas locker lid. The stern has a generous cruiser deck with the phenol-faced plywood decking set only slightly below the surrounding cants as on a traditional stern. There is plenty of room for four people to stand, or to perch on the generous hardwood taff rail that surrounds most of the deck. The engine room 78 January 2008 Waterways World engine control panel and landline socket are set in the rear bulkhead on the port side, although this means that one of the rear doors cannot be fixed right back when they are in use. Lifting the decking boards exposes the supporting structure, which can be removed completely when unfettered access to the engine is needed. The structure also acts as guttering that catches rainwater dripping from the boards and directs it into a fixed gutter around the edge of the deck. From here, it passes down pipes that deposit it into the canal under the counter. All the guttering and pipework are of a size that would not look out of place on a house so blockages should be a rarity. The entire engine bay is painted white to make it easier to work on or maintain the equipment. Set in the middle is a four cylinder Beta 38 engine with a Centaflex coupling to the propeller shaft. Crown Narrowboats’ Roger Olver always uses Beta engines, as the manufacturer is the only one he knows that gives written assurance that its engines can be used off-load for charging batteries. It is surrounded by the battery bank of five batteries (4 + 1), a calorifier and an Eberspacher Hydronic 5 diesel boiler. The white paintwork also shows that the pipework is neatly laid out and well clipped. The bow is generously sized meaning that, should the Moores or a future owner want to have the boat lengthened, it could be done without spoiling the proportions. Whoops a Daisy’s livery is as untraditional as its name, but its use of two distinct shades of blue together with red and white highlights and some lively signwriting lifts it well above the ‘one dark colour with a cream coachline’ school of boat painting. ➤ above Crown logo on the counter. right Untraditional decoration on the bow. below right Generous rear deck and taff rail. below White painted engine bay. “Short boats are cheaper, though they tend to cost more per foot” Waterways World January 2008 79 compact cruising “There is no fixed double bed, but a pair of two-person dinettes” Interior Descending the rear steps, it is clear that the fit out is as unmistakably Crown Narrowboats’ as the shell is Graham Reeves’. Over the years, Roger and Yvonne have developed a simple, clean-cut style of fitting out that is well in tune with today’s tastes. Most of their boats are in ash with a few in slightly warmer oak. Chrome or stainless steel rather than brass ironmongery predominates and cool blue is a popular colour for the soft furnishings. This shell is lined entirely in ashveneered plywood, with solid ash trims positioned at the junction of each space and not just where the board happened to end. Where the cabin side trim meets the roof trim there are small blocks with a routed motif. Small points maybe, but they make all the difference between an interior that is thoughtfully assembled and one that is just thrown together. The whole interior is finished with a water-based acrylic lacquer which gives a pleasant sheen without producing heavy vapours while it is being applied. The floor in the saloon and bedroom is timber effect laminate, while the galley and bathroom have non-slip ceramic tiles. top left Routed block where the framing meets. above left Single dinettes convert easily to…. above right a single bed. Bedroom Once you are inside, you discover a further departure from the norm – there is no fixed double bed. This feature, often seen on boats shorter than Whoops a Daisy, is replaced by a pair of two-person dinettes that convert to single berths for the Moores’ children. These give a far more comfortable place to eat than sitting on a settee with a tray on your knee and, with a suitably sized duvet, take very little effort to put into bed mode. They are covered, not in blue, but in a dark red fabric which gives a welcoming touch of warmth to the interior. A handy tip – if you are making up a bed from this type of dinette, place the two backrests at the foot end where the joins will be less noticeable. Bathroom There are few surprises in the through bathroom except, perhaps, that the shower is square rather than quadrantshaped on plan. This combines greater left Rear cabin in day mode. right Low partition and hatch for the cassette toilet. 80 January 2008 Waterways World internal volume with a smaller floor plan in this necessarily scaled down area. The cassette toilet has a low level partition to shield the tank and the whole unit is hidden from view by the door when not in use. Galley The U-shaped galley manages to contain all the essential equipment plus a high level microwave and a reasonable amount of storage for pots and pans and dry stores. All the units are custom-made which allowed Roger to include a tall drawer for the rubbish bag. One ‘dead corner’ is accessible via the full-height cupboard door next to it, making it fairly easy to get at the contents. The other has a hatch from the saloon side. To maximise storage space, there is a small cupboard under the gunwale on the other side of the corridor. Side doors are often positioned in the galley area; several of the boats I have reviewed recently have a second pair of glazed, inward opening doors to allow light in when the weather is less than perfect. Roger has taken this idea a stage further by simply glazing the outward opening pair. These allow plenty of light in, and views out; avoid the need to juggle with a second set of doors; and are totally weatherproof. The only proviso is that the opening has to be rather wider than normal side doors to make the glazing a reasonable size. However, this can be an advantage if you need to get bulky items onto the boat. above Full-size U-shaped galley. right Custom-made waste bin drawer. left Corner vanity unit. below left Square shower cubicle is more space efficient. Saloon At the front of the cabin is the saloon which doubles as Lawrence and Jenny’s bedroom. The 8ft space contains an L-shaped fixed seat which converts to a double bed and has some nifty features. One of the things that makes fixed seating less comfortable than freestanding chairs is that the backrests are often vertical. Roger has overcome this problem in two ways. The short backrest against the galley is not used as part of the mattress so it has been made triangular in section to give better support. The longer one is an even thickness, but it rests against a hinged board that is propped forward at the base during the daytime and drops back to the vertical to give more width at night. ➤ right Glazed side doors open… right below …and closed. left Hatch behind the backrest for the galley corner cupboard. Waterways World January 2008 81 compact cruising Bright ideas ❖ A pull-out waste drawer makes for the neatest bin ever seen on a narrowboat. ❖ A hatch from the saloon provides access to the ‘dead corners’ of galley cupboards. ❖ Heavy-duty rollers make the pull-out bed base easy to use and strong. top left & above Bed base retracted… …and in place. above right Fixed seating and TV cupboard in the saloon. On the water Whoops a Daisy’s mooring at a large layby marina off the canal gave us plenty of space to put her through her paces. Beta engines not only tolerate off-load running, they are also some of the quietest and this one certainly lives up to that reputation. It started easily and ran without vibration throughout. Many cruiser-stern narrowboats have very low tillers which means that the steerer has to assume an uncomfortable position in order to reach the tiller and see over the cabin. Possibly because the rear deck is set higher than most, this trap has been avoided here. The tiller is at a sensible height whether you are standing or sitting on the taff rail. On the move, the boat responds well to the tiller and the single lever gear control. I managed a 360° turn with relatively few ‘points’ and felt comfortable with the boat almost instantly. Conclusion Crown Narrowboats has managed to produce a boat that is a good 10ft shorter than the majority of boats currently being built without it seeming in any way cramped. This is partly due to the use of light colours and unfussy detailing and partly to the fact that every inch of the accommodation is usable during the daytime. I suspect that we shall see more boats of this length in future years and this one would act as a good model. Taking into account the higher cost per foot that shorter boats attract, a price tag of around £65,000 seems very good value. Many solutions have been used to turn an ‘L’ shaped seat into an oblong bed base but few can be as neat and simple to operate as this one. There are no legs to insert, doors to open or drawers to pull out in order to support the free corner. All you do is to pull out a slatted platform from under the seat until it reaches the required width, and that is it. The secret is a single, heavyduty filing cabinet-type runner which is so rigid, it is claimed, you can sit on the corner without it collapsing. There is no solid fuel stove on this boat so a wardrobe cupboard occupies the space where this would normally stand. A closer inspection reveals that there are no radiators either. Instead, Finrads – large bore copper pipes with aluminium fins closely spaced along their length – are located down the whole of the starboard side to distribute the heat from the diesel boiler. Crown uses this method on all their boats and finds that it is just as effective as radiators, but leaves the hull side free for shelves or cupboards. Another item that is standard on all Crown Narrowboats’ fit-outs is a combined LPG and CO detector. This one is a Dualwatch which has a wall mounted panel containing warning lights and the CO detector. The LPG detector is a remote unit set at floor level where any escaping gas is likely to collect. right LPG and CO monitor is fitted as standard. CROWN NARROWBOATS Roger and Yvonne with the Lionel Munk Trophy. Like many boat-builders Roger and Yvonne Olver started by hiring a boat and then decided they wanted to own one themselves. Having looked at new and second-hand boats and not found anything that satisfied them, Roger realised that the skills he had acquired running a commercial building refurbishment company were exactly what were needed to fit out a narrowboat. He enjoyed the experience of fitting out his first boat so much that he decided to set up a separate boat fitting company to produce them for sale. The first of these was exhibited at the Crick Boat Show in 2001 and was sold at the show. Seven years on, the refurbishment business has been wound up, leaving the Olvers and their permanent staff of two cabinet makers to concentrate on boat building. Their yearly output averages out at about four and a half boats and one of these won the Lionel Munk Trophy for the best professionally built boat at the IWA Festival in 2003. Crown Narrowboats has a well produced website with details of current and past fit-outs. Customers can use the site to check the progress of their boat while it is being built or they can have pictures sent to their email address. Non-internet customers can have pictures sent by post. Crown Narrowboats 0161 707 0087 www.crownnarrowboats.co.uk enquiry@crownnarrowboats.co.uk 82 January 2008 Waterways World