The Day of Ordering

After all the planning and decision making it was time to order the boat. I went to the New Boat Company in Reading this morning with plans and colour chart in hand to place the order.

All went very smoothly and most things went to plan. The only changes necessary after advice from the New Boat Co was to pull the two front bulkheads back by 6". As the bulkheads actually have width when the position is being measured the front bulkhead tends to be slightly further forward than planned, thus I would end up with a smaller bedroom than expected. With my height that is not the best of moves as I also need to fit in step to the front door. So it was decided to pull the bulkhead measurements back by 6" and loose it on the saloon.

This moving back of the bulkheads did mean a slight reposition of the windows to keep everything in line, but everything seemed to make sense.

The only decisions really to make on the day were the position of the mushroom vets on the top of the boat (one has to be in every closed off room) and the layout of the planels formed by the coachlines on the side of the boat.

After giving all details over to New Boat Co, plans were drawn up for me to check over and then deposit paid. Contract will be in the post and that has to be signed and returned before the build of the boat starts.

The rough timescale of delivery is the boat is due to be handed over to me about mid September, obviously this can move. With this in mind I think the shell is probably well under way by now, otherwise it is a very tight timescale!

Final Design before ordering the boat

This is the design as it stands before going to order the boat.

Why am I doing this? A bit of background.

In the past 25 years of my life I think I have been on 6 narrow boat holidays spanning a total of 8 weeks on the water. The calm and escapism of it all is unbeatable. There is nothing better than eating an egg butty for brunch while cruising down a canal on a narrow boat.

As it has now been a few years since going on a boat and every time I see one I am itching to go on it I think it is now time I bought a boat for myself so I can enjoy the boat when I want to. I have actually been thinking this for probably a couple of years now, but in the last 6 months things have really picked up in working out what I want to do.

If I had all the money in the world I might get the perfect boat built for me, but as I haven't and actually the fun of building something is as much fun as using it at the end I have decided to go for a self build.

You can buy narrow boats as just an empty shell just consisting of a bit of steel and some paint to stop it rusting. This would be a bit scary for a first time fit so luckily for me there are quite a few companies that do sailaway boats. These are boats that even though quite empty inside have all the basics like engine and heating installed. This is what I choose to go for, but there were still many decisions to be made...

Welcome to Matt's Self Build

Welcome to Matt's self build Blog.
This is the first time I have used a blog, but as I am about to embark on a project to fit out a Narrowboat I thought it an appropriate time to create one. Who knows where, when and how it will go, but I will have fun finding out.

Matt