Chertsey

A friend of a friend would be really interested to know the current whereabouts of Pendorric, a 58' trad nb with distinctive vertical oblong windows, last seen (by me) for sale at Whilton Marina two years ago. The whole story of why is here: http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/2006/10/stra...-two-parts.html . Thanks!

Yes,well, I did restrain myself from killing the guy that wrote the ad, but now I'm not so sure

There are a few short steel boats on Apollo Duck - including this one http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=47762 which just happens to be mine ... Hmmm. Hope that link's worked.

Get it shot blasted - then you know what you are dealing with, it is not dear and always well worth it. Sarah and Jim

Hi Simon Glad you liked the our Warrior blog. You look like you have plenty of headroom under there - more than us. It works for us; we have just enough headroom - about two foot. Getting in and out is the fiddliest part. Once in it's very nice and cosy, and there's plenty of room to spread out sideways. A local upholsterer should be able to make you a foam mattress cheaper than a specialist boat supplier - we gave ours detailed measurements, including the angle between the base and sides, and they did a lovely job. The ventilation is probably quite important - I imagine it would get quite stuffy otherwise. We have a hatch that was already there but you could perhaps use mushroom vents or, if you were worried about water getting in in locks etc, it might be possible to get special deck vents - I think I've seen them. The advantages of doing it this way certainly outweigh any inconveniences. It uses otherwise wasted space - if you use it for storage you still have to crawl in and out and are unlikely to use the whole length. We still use the space for storage in a way anyway - we store most of our clothes in big bags (one each) which we chuck on the bed during the day, hidden behind the curtain, then we just chuck them out into the saloon at night. It gives you the best sized bed you are ever going to get on a narrowboat. It's ready to crawl into without any setting up, and in the morning you can just crawl out and shut the curtains on it. It doesn't take up any space or cause any disruption in the saloon or anywhere else. The only caveat really is the amount of headroom you have available and whether you have any tendency to claustrophobia. If you can, try setting something up temporarily and see how you get on with it. Roll out beds are a nightmare - we had to move all the furniture out of the way every night, and it was narrow, and the head sloped downwards. The base was quite straightforward to build. You could maybe put a mattress straight on the floor but we put the base in for three reasons, firstly to allow some air flow round the mattress, because everyone says you should, second, because there is a water pipe running straight down the middle from the tank to the pump, and lastly because there were some sharp steel stumps where we had cut out the old roll out bed. We just put strips of 2x1 batten round the sides and a piece down the middle, raising it 2" off the floor, and went across with 6 x 3/4 cheap pine planks from Wickes leaving about a 1" gap between. We measured and cut them with angled ends to fit fairly flush to the sides of the boat and screwed them in place with drywall screws, which didn't need predrilling. It It took Jim a morning to do, with me passing him things! There's a picture of the base without the mattress, and of the building process, on the photo site http://community.webshots.com/user/nbwarrior in the album 'Working on Warrior'. I know of one other boat with the bed under the deck, and they are very happy with it too. Good luck - let us know what you decide and how you get on! And Jim adds: In addition to what Sarah has just posted it is clearly a very good thing...... and also the fore end curves upwards towards the front so that it is very much higher at the head end. I am fairly large (16st 9lbs) and about 5'11" and I am very comfortable and despite not being in the first flush of youth(!) find getting in and out very easy, much easier in fact than getting in and out of a conventional bed in our other nb. What really was the desider was the fact that despite the fact that it would never be seen the builder had panelled it out beautifully with old pine and mouldings. I have been up to the boat twice during the recent heatwave, and it is the coolest place on the boat. My first post! Hope it isn't too long - please forgive if so. Sarah