Hi Guys
I must apologise for appearing to not present my case directly to forum. Truth is, I couldn't work out an efficient way of linking to my blog without spending a couple of minutes longhanding!
I am now going to longhand the original blog and if you will all allow me to start from this point I will be honoured......
Heating, hot water and cooking on your boat: Vintage or Heritage?
"Hi All
We have just caught our breath after attending a wonderful Crick Boat Show 2011.
Though we have not owned a boat of this type before, we like to think we know what we want!
We are planning a new boat build. We had decided quite a few details, large and small, before we visited Crick. We were always going to be "Gas-free", we were always going to have the boat built exclusively in the UK and we were always going to have a traditional, but modern range cooker on board to provide for all our heating, hot water and cooking! My wife is an avid chef! Running on diesel,the engine and cooker, that is!
Our boat will be a 70ft Northwich Trader replica. At Crick, we firmed up on most of the detail and spec. We have narrowed, forgive the pun, our choice of builder down to three, it's not all down to price. We have a reasonable working budget, we will make reasonable compromise where required or necessary but certain features of the fit-out will not be compromised. We shall tender our designs to our three build candidates and shall in a 'step-wise' manner build the boat spec layer by layer. It may be an unorthodox approach, but this is how I/We have always undertaken our major life projects. We feel we can get closer to our goal by working this way.
I digress; Heating and cooking on your boat!
As earlier stated, our unshakable choice with regards to heating and cooking is a proper Range cooker. Back to Crick! We went to Crick to see first hand all the products and materials/techniques we wanted for our boat. We saw Heritage of Cornwall, reasonable/good quality and has a favourable reputation in the marketplace. However, we felt the sales rep, though seemingly pleasant, was a little fuzzy/wooly on product knowledge and his understanding of installation requirements on narrowboats left a lot to be desired.
We then quite serendipitously, found Vintage Ranges. The designer and owner of Vintage,(the selfsame person) was there proudly exhibiting a Vintage 500 Duo, which was after the show going aboard a new build boat*. The Vintage certainly "Ticked all the boxes", for an appliance of just 500x680mmSQ, 2 big ovens, a huge hot plate and buit like the proverbial brick-tank; superb build quality and attention to detail, it was a revelation. And a great price too!
In truth we could have nearly bought a Heritage Uno. The Vintage man certainly knew his 'onions' and his obvious passion for his cookers was a refreshing experience for us to enjoy. Isn't lovely to meet the person who has sweated blood and cried tears for his art! He most assuredly made a lasting impression on us!
Funny thing, the Vintage man, John, was the founder and designer of the Heritage cooker and has with conspicuous delight, massively improved on his earlier designs. John explained that when he brought his Heritage cookers in to the narrowboat market in 2003, his aim was to always be 'gas-free', safety being foremost in his mind.
www.vintageranges.com If it sounds like we have made our choice, well yes, but we want to share our wisdom and gain any feedback you guys may have to impart.
Your Truly
Honest Jim *Just remembered, the boat the Vintage 500 duo is aboard is www.nbsiskin.com
