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 coould 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.
