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Gary Peacock

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  1. Gary Peacock
    Due to renewed interest we have managed to obtain a new supply of this essential product in the construction and maintenance of modern steel narrowboats-
     

     
    I would suggest that every narrowboat owner should follow the age old tradition of narrow boating and Waxoyl the full interior of their boats to prevent or control any rusting.
     
    This product is endorsed by many famous narrowboat owners and is a tried and tested solution to internal rusting of modern narrowboats.
     
    Available in 5ltr cans (Packaging may differ.) from me for a snip at £25.00 per can inc VAT and I will even throw in a selection of old used paint brushes for you to apply it with.
  3. Gary Peacock
    So does solar power work on boats?
     
    Well I really should be saying yes since we sell it shouldn't I?
     
    I think the answer is yes for some no for most.
     
    Lets look at it in simple terms (I like simple things!), how many of the houses on your street use solar power? Energy prices are rocketing so surely their must be lots of people using this green and free source of energy?
     
    Well on mine none, you could say this is because we don't get enough sun in the UK? Well I have worked in some very sunny parts of the world and still have never come across solar powered houses for the masses. Granted I have seen systems that will power a small pump from a well or provide energy for a small medical refrigerator but never providing domestic electricity for day to day living.
     
    The truth of the matter (The way I see it at least) is that once the average western 21st century human being has sampled the joys of mains domestic electricity they are not prepared to live without it. Years ago when boating was an hobby and boatbuilders whittled boats out of trees and things boaters were happy reading by candle light, peeing over the side and boiling the stew on the stove.
     
    Those days have gone the waterways are becoming increasingly residentially orientated and many new boats reflect this, our latest boat offers-
     

    Air conditioning
    Electric induction hob and double oven
    Dish washer
    Washer dryer
    American style larder fridge/freezer
    1 x 42" LCD TV and 2 x smaller ones
    Tracking satellite system
    Lot's of halogen lighting
    Now that will have the traditionalist and Rosie & Jim Club members choking on their real ale! But the reality is that this is where the boating world is heading.
     
    This boats domestic energy consumption is so great that the average shoreline at some times (Cooking etc) can't supply the power so the boat needs to top up this shortfall via the inverter or generator.
     
    Now this boat might be a little extreme but it isn't that far away from the average new residential or even recreational boaters (If they still exist?) expectations.
     
    So what would solar do for Mr or Ms average new residential boater?
     
    In reality next to nothing!
    Even if they were to spend 10's of thousands of pounds covering the whole boat with the latest PV solar panels they will still need lots of energy from another independent source. They could fit a system and claim they were still saving money with the free energy they were collecting but I doubt it would ever amount to enough to cover the initial outlay.
     
    So who does solar power work for?
     
    Simple answer those that can make do with it, if you spend enough on the system you might be able to run a small fridge some of the time, some lighting and maybe the occasional use of a laptop but without any other source of power that is going to be it.
    If you already live a similar lifestyle or can adapt to this then solar might be for you but if not save your money and buy a generator!
     
     
  4. Gary Peacock
    In the past when we have been asked to scrap narrowboats we have run a mile because the costs of getting the thing out of the water and removing then disposing of the nasties would have rapidly outweighed the scrap value.
     
    But with the scrap value now if you had access to a dry dock or slipway and winch you could probably make a nice little earner with a gas axe out of breaking the occasional boat.
     
    It's about time that some of the real floating junk was thinned out a bit and I often wonder if some of it is still on the water just because they are nigh on impossible to get rid off.
     
    I once went to look at a replating job and came back the owner of the worst narrowboat in history because the owner was so desperate to give it away!
     
    I very quickly realised I needed to give it away too!
     

     
    Doing it the Indian way in Chittagong!
  5. Gary Peacock
    The Canal World Discussion Forums search feature is about as effective as the current UK government so I have cobbled together a search feature using Google which seems to work much better.
     
    You can find it and add it to your bookmarks/favourites HERE.
     
    It might not always be bang up to date being largely dependent on how often Google indexes the site but it should help looking for old post.
  6. Gary Peacock
    It seems that increasing numbers of boaters struggle with electrical power these days some whos existing boats were built with little in the way of it and others with new boats whos boats are very under spec.
     

     
     
    I don't know if anyone else has noticed the increasing popularity of suitcase style generators along the lines of the one above purring away on the tow path or perched on the deck?
     
    Well they may be the new boaters must have but it makes me a bit uneasy.
     
    We wont even mention the risk of CO poisoning but years ago when petrol was a common fuel for boats there were regular often fatal accidents involving it, now with petrol contained in these generators and stockpiled in cans on the boat are we likely to see an increase in deep fried crispy boaters?
  7. Gary Peacock
    We are starting a new build today of a 57ft x 12ft 6in barge for Lesley & Stewart MacLennan.
     
    Lesley & Stewart live in Australia and plan to take the boat to France to live aboard, Stewart is a wheelchair user and the boat is being built to accommodate his needs.
     
    Because of the distances involved we have resurrected the buildcam so they can watch the build progress on-line. (And obviously it confirms where their money is going too! )
     
    The picture below will refresh real time every time this page loads.
     

     
    The buildcam is a bit different this time to what I have had setup last time to try and keep the bandwidth usage in check, it now features two separate pages the LIVECAM page where you can view the build live via a picture that updates 3 times per minute and the WEBCAM page that is a gallery made up of snapshots taken every 20 minutes these picture can be viewed individually or in a slide show that will form a time lapse style video of the build.
     
    LIVECAM
     
    WEBCAM
     
    They have only just started so there isn't too much to see yet but over the next 8 weeks a hull should appear!
     
    There as been quite a lot of miss information in the press recently about the VAT zero rating of boats, this boat will be VAT zero rated under the VAT rules for supplies to the disabled which is the only legal way that a boat can be supplied VAT zero rated.
  9. Gary Peacock
    Just had a customer tell me they can't find the funds to make any further payments at the moment on a their half finished full fit so can we stop working on it until they find some more money!
     
    If only it was so simple I can see this ending up with a part finished boat for sale because what they fail to understand is that we have quite a lot of money tied up in it that we haven't been paid for plus while it sits their waiting for them to find some money we can't start anything else so being built or not it costs money and someone will have to pay for it and that wont be us one way or another.
     
    Why have a boat built if you can't afford to pay for it?
  10. Gary Peacock

    Hang them?

    By Gary Peacock,

    Muktar Ibrahim, Manfo Asiedu, Hussein Osman, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Adel Yahya deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions.
     
    If they are proved guilty in my view they should reinstate capital punishment and hang them publicly along with any others accused of acts of terrorism.
     
    Instead we will probably let them serve 18 months and let them out with a new identity funded by the state.
  11. Gary Peacock
    It's been a while since I updated this blog due to my new "freelance " job status but in between the I.T. world bits I still have to do some boat bits including the electrics on La Miellette a 61'x13'6" barge we have just completed that is destined for France.
     

     

     

     

     
    She is worlds away from what most people perseive living on a boat to be but is still a very capable boat rather than being just a floating apartment.
     
    You can view some more picture HERE or just watch them in a slideshow HERE.
  12. Gary Peacock
    Over the last few months I have dealt with quite a few seemingly genuine enquiries for narrowboats to be built and shipped to the USA, maybe Terry Darlington's latest book Narrow Dog to Indian River might have something to do with this?
     
    Now my first reaction was it's a bloody silly idea and why the hell would you want a narrow ditch crawler in the states?
     
    But after about half a dozen enquiries I have begun to wonder.
     
    I do know from looking at the web stats that a lot of the interest came from a link on a US based boat building site but for folk to then go on and actually bother enquiring it makes you wonder.
     
    I am still bemused by why you would actually want a boat designed for a very specif type of waterways environment in a totally alien one that it might not even be best suited too but all I can put it down to is the novelty and British association that the Americans seem drawn too?
     
    We do sell boats through associates and advertise occasionally in the greater Europe but where to start if we were going to try in the USA would be an absolute nightmare obviously the cheapest and probably best approach at least initially is going to be web based but doing the research and the web work required could be very time consuming so it might be better to just find an agent out there and pay them some commission if they managed to sell one.
     
    The Americans seem to take their boats and boating very seriously but where you would set about finding potential American narrow boaters I just don't know?
  13. Gary Peacock
    Well at least it is for boat building in Mirfield!
     
    Boats have been built in Mirfield alongside the Calder & Hebble since 1776 but this one is a bit special being the largest boat ever built in Mirfield.
     
    Measuring 61′ x 13′6″ she is very much in keeping with Mirfield's boat building tradition by being a broad beam barge, narrowboats wheren't traditionally built in Mirfied until the modern plaything narrowboats arrived in more recent years.
     

     
    Boat building in Mirfield as carried on with little interruption since 1776 at least 373 wooden boats known as West Country Boats (Keels) like the one being launched above were built here, the last boat of this type being built in 1952.
     
    Even with the demise of the wooden commercial boats that wasn't the end of boatbuilding because the yards attention shifted to the emerging leisure market and eventually they were at least four yards building the now popular recreational narrowboats.
     
    It's quite sad now that we are the last boat builder left in Mirfield (The others all went over the last ten years or so.) but ironically the days of the recreational narrrowboat seem to have passed and we now seem to be stepping back in time to building big barges again!
     
    The builders of old might not approve of the steel construction and what they would make of the fact that nearly all off today's boats are bound for France and will never even wet their bottoms in the waters of the Calder & Hebble they were built alongside I don't know.
     
    Anyway back to the "Record Breaker" well she too is bound for France in fact she will be quite capable of sailing her self there, but she will not be wetting her bottom in the Calder & Hebble because she is simply too big! At 61′ she is too long for the locks and with a "V" bottom she is too deep in draft and would simply sit on the bottom.
     
    I never really thought about it before but we are probably partaking in the oldest surviving industry in Mirfield, if we were to follow the trend and move manufacturing to Eastern Europe in the future then I suppose 230 plus years wouldn't have been a bad run.
     
    There is a bit more information about boatbuilding in Mirfield HERE .
  14. Gary Peacock
    Before parting with your hard earned cash at the local swindlers take a look at this-
     
    A few months ago the email below arrived, it's not that uncommon these days to get this kind of offer.
     
    Dear my friend ,
    It's glad to email you and introduce our self:
    Our company is Specialized in producing many kinds of pump .at now we produce the copy of FLOJET pump. Meanwhile,we have improve the pump quality .so we have the good quality but competitive price.it means you will use less cost and get good quality products,you will do more market.
    1. FLOJET TYPE MARINE PUMP
    2. SHURFLO TYPE PUMP
    3. RULE TYPE PUMP
    4. BEP TYPE PANEL SWITCH
     
    Hope we can make a kindly business with your great company.
    Thanks and regards.
    Jerry Zhang.
    FLOPOWER INDUSTRY CO.,LTD
    TEL:0086-593-2912196
    FAX:086-593-2915158
    MSN:jerryz258@hotmail.com
    EMAIL:flopower@yahoo.cn
    www.flopowercn.com
    Anyway doing business with them didn't particularly appeal but looking at their rather naff website it seems FLOPOWER products look remarkably like the ones from Flojet what do you think?
     

     

     

     

     

     
    These pumps it seems are very cheap compared to the real thing so Mr Swindler never missing the opportunity relieve Mr & Mrs Billy Boater of their hard earned beer tokens seems to have taken up Mr Jerry Zhang's offer to "make a kindly business with your great company" and import a container load or two.
     
    Now seriously at least one "reputable" swindler is now selling these things and no doubt they will also be finding their way into the lower regions of the distribution system on ebay etc.
    These pumps are not Flojet pumps or even "badged" versions, they are awful quality copies that will last only a matter of weeks if that.
     
    So you have been warned! (But no doubt some boaters can't resist a too good to be true bargain can they? )
     
  15. Gary Peacock
    Moet Chandon features in Fluvial a French waterways magazine.
     
    The article in FUVIAL tells of John and Irene Plunkett realising their dream on Moet Chandon, a cozy British wide beam narrow boat based in Carcassonne France.
     
    You can read the English translation of the article HERE
  16. Gary Peacock

    Am bored!

    By Gary Peacock,

    Old age set in big time on Tuesday morning when my knee collapsed for no apparent good reason resulting in me being sat at home very bored doing Long John Silver impressions around the house!
     
    It might not be that unexpected, when I have now had chance to think of some of the possible causes- jumping off a ship and bending it the wrong way, a Bailey bridge being dropped on me and running around carrying everything and the kitchen sink on your back just because you could to name some of the more likely events. Non of these probably helped the present state of things.
     
    So after 3 days of daytime TV I can't take much more! I could go to work and sit on my backside there but I have been told to rest my knee I don't see what sitting there or here difference makes but I will have to gin and bare it.
     
    To kill the boredom I ended up reading the minutes of last years Canal Boatbuilders Association AGM and one thing that struck me yet again is the CBA with a little more direction could offer so much more for the customer and boatbuilder a like.
     
    Now don't get me wrong the CBA at the moment are trying very hard to increase their and their members profiles in the new boat building game, but I do feel they need to look at what they are trying to achieve and the reality of how that will work.
     
    The reality is that their are relatively few CBA members and even fewer of those that are actually involved in boatbuilding or boat sales.
     
    The main selling point of the CBA at the moment is their Code of Practise (CBA CoP) now among other things this offers some form of guarantee that the boats built by CBA members are of a good standard.
     
    The first guarantee is that CBA members boats will fully conform with the minimum legal standard for new boats in the EU set out by the Recreation Craft Directive (RCD) and this will be subject to verification.
    Secondly being that the RCD sets only a minimum legal standard, the CBA CoP will build on that to ensure that boats surpassing the minimum legal requirement will be built by CBA members and that this will also be subject to verification.
     
    Now I see two major stumbling blocks here-
     
    Verification of conformity to the RCD is to be applauded but since it already UK and EU law shouldn't that already be guaranteed? (We know in reality that many boat builders knowingly ignore the law but surely that is a legal issue not the CBA's?)
     
    Increasing the standard from the minimum legal standard serves to make boats built by CBA members stand out from the rest, but it costs money and are the customers willing to pay for it or does it just make CBA members boats more expensive and less competitive?
     
    So I personally think the way forward for the CBA is through the boat buying public! That is who they need to be selling themselves too and rather than dreaming up their own policies they might do well to look at what the customers would like to see from the CBA.
    This in turn might give the CBA members a real advantage in the industry through providing the services the boat buying public want.
     
    Anyway I have a little poll set up on CWF HERE please take time if you can to complete it and if you have a thought on the direction the CBA should consider going feel free to post. (I will pass on the information gathered to the CBA.)
     
    Cheers
     
    Gary
  17. Gary Peacock
    I would like to think that most boatbuilders are reputable and honest people but the horror stories still continue with stories of sub standard boats.
     
    So what is a substandard boat?
     
    Well I suppose it would be good to start with the basics and the hull.
    There are still boats out there and new ones being built that are just steel plate boxes constructed without any form scantling design. Some are done through total ignorance of marine practise by good engineering companies who thought a quick buck can be made out of knocking out a few boat hulls, while others are built that way to cut costs and maximise profits.
     
    So how do you know if your potential builder falls into this category?
     
    Boatbuilders are required by law to produce a Technical file for every boat they build and hold it on record for 10 years. This file will demonstrate how compliance with Section 3 Integrity And Structural Requirements of the Recreation Craft Directive (Which is a Crown Statutory Instrument (ie Law)) was achieved.
     
    This law is not at the builders discretion they abide by the law or break the law. Due to lack of enforcement some builders break the law for their own gains others plead ignorance of the law.
     
    This documentation is required even if you yourself aren't interested in CE marking the boat and are purchasing a hull etc.
     
    A VERY SIMPLE TEST WHEN MEETING POTENTIAL BOATBUILDERS IS TO ASK TO VIEW THE TECHNICAL FILE FOR A BOAT THEY ARE BUILDING OR HAVE BUILT.
     
    If the builder doesn't know what you are talking about or can't produce the file then make your excuses and leave with your money very quickly knowing you have just escaped from handing it over to a cowboy!
     
    This is a very simple confirmation of how they operate, going any further is foolish regardless of what recommendations or reputation they have.
     
    The response of "We are just starting doing that RCD stuff now, it's all new you know!" is rubbish it's been in force nearly 10 years so if they were to be prosecuted for their production over that time paying the fines could likely involve the use of your hard earned cash instead of building a boat with it.
     
    That one simple question could have saved some boater thousands of pounds and lots of heart ache.
     
    It is really that simple, but boaters being boaters don't do it and end up crying in their beer and blaming everyone in spitting distance for their own stupidity!
  18. Gary Peacock
    This is a bit late the event happening in October but Irene & John Plunkett who live on a barge in France we built definetly deserve a very well done for going to the aid of a gentleman who ended up in the water in his wheelchair.
     

     

     
     
    The full story is HERE
     

  19. Gary Peacock
    This is the Dorothy Ellen she is 57'ft x 11'6"
     
    You can click the thumbnails or click HERE to view the full set.
     
    Well she's certainly not narrow, traditional, fat narrowboat or a replica dutch barge.
     
    No well deck or cockpit or whatever at the front.
     
    Coach roof built flat and to structual deck specification so it can be partied on!
     
    Fixed steel wheelhouse with galley (Kitchen) in it.
     
    Fridge freezer and washing machine.
     
    Standard domestic kitchen.
     
    Heritage range cooker and domestic central heating.
     
    3 flat screen TV's, Analogue,Digital and satellite receivers, PVR and separate CD/DVD/Mp3/Radio in the wheelhouse.
     
    Bath and shower and horror of horrors a pump out toilet.
     
    Lined out in Kronospan not wood.
     
    Solid oak floor throughout.
     
    Barrus 65hp.
     
    Victron electrics.
     
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    She might not be everyones cup of tea but her owners are over the moon with her, they will eventually be retiring to France on her.
  20. Gary Peacock
    The "happy days" in the narrowboat building game seem to have come to an end and maybe it's time for those looking into buying new narrowboats to consider if they are becoming a bad proposition.
     
     
    For various reasons the price of new boats increased rapidly over the last six years or so and this accompanied by ever increasing operating costs seems to have slowed the new build market to a crawl. In previous years narrowboats have maintained there values relatively well but two or three used boats that I know of this year have failed to sell for anything like a realistic value.
    This was not helped by the availability of brand new imported narrowboats of an high quality for the same expected prices brand new, but I think the down turn in values is more deep routed.
     
     
    Narrowboating was traditionally a recreational hobby and in the bigger marine picture was maybe considered a "poor mans" hobby but with the going rate for a new 57' boat probably now being any ware between £75-100k plus that is now laughable! The number of potential customers with that kind of money to sink into a "hobby" must surely be few and far between.
     
     
    With the loss of the recreational market builders turned to the residential market but this is a very two tier market split between those driven by the necessity of what they perceived cheap housing that are driven by cost to DIY sailaway and lined out market or the more affluent retiring to live the dream brigade who often with no knowledge of the waterways or boats throw vast sums of money into new builds only to have their eyes opened to the reality of the dream with the boats ending up on the market within a couple of years.
     
    The residential narrowboat market was flawed by the narrowboat itself while the builder and magazines portray the dream in glossy colour, all but a few will find a narrowboat the ideal accommodation, yes you can build a very luxurious narrowboat but the reality and restrictions of the dimensions can only be camouflaged no more.
    A single person or couple with the intension of staying that way can live in some resemblance of land based normality but for all but the most adaptive family groups the going is going to be hard and get more so as the children grow.
     
    Bearing all of this in mind I think we can see where the reality of your super expensive new narrowboat might be in a few years if you choose to sell!
    So before handing over your deposit and picking the colour you really do need to consider your position now and what it is likely to be in the future.
     
     
    So what are all the narrowboat builders going to do without customers?
     
     
    Well time will tell! The future looks to be most certainly a residential one rather than a recreational one so they will have to find a niche in that market.
     
     
     
    Those that don't or can't will like those before just become another interesting memory in those old magazines we all find in a forgotten drawer from time to time.
  21. Gary Peacock
    I was having a nice lazy morning yesterday and looking forward to it staying that way when we received a phone call from a boater at the local boat club.
     
    "Help I'm in the dry dock and we have just refilled it and the boats filling with water!" was her claim, anyway the "Bat-mobile" was mobilised with pumps etc and sent to her aid.
     
    By the time they got there the dock was drained and the narrowboat was once again sat on the trestles, sure enough there was quite a bit of water under the floor that when the boat was floating and lower at the stern would have looked a lot worse.
     
    However no water was draining out of the hull anywhere and also the water was very clean and didn't really look like canal water so a fresh water leak seemed likely, well 90 mins of investigating possible leaks later nothing could be found.
     
    A bit of head scratching and the thought that maybe the shower tray might have moved or cracked while in the dry dock were considered but alas after a quick test nothing could be found.
     
    Another thought occured "Could it be a leaking window and an accumulation of water over time?". "No it wasn't there yesterday!" she insisted.
     
    At a total loss for further ideas the boat was pumped out, in one last attempt to get to the bottom of it the owner was asked to run through exactly what she did the previous night?
     
    Rather sheepishly she said she had consumed quite a bit of red wine and woken up in the morning laid on the bed with the front doors open! At this point some one looked in the two small bow cupboards just inside the bow doors. Inside were two lidless plastic storage boxes one containing her laptop, both were full of water!
     
    The mystery now unravelled!
     
    The previous night we had one hell of a rain storm in the early hours while she slept off the red wine in the dry dock.
    Without water the boat was sitting on the trestles bow down and all of the rain falling on the cabin roof poured off the front of the roof above the bow doors rather than out of the side drains.
    The doors being open and a strong wind blowing most of it was pouring into the cabin a few inches from her head but the volume of red wine consumed must have being sufficient to prevent this event coming to her attention.
     
    In the morning no doubt a little worse for wear she mopped up what little water remained without much concern. Later when the boat was re floated the water flowed to the stern and came through the floor at which point she came to the conclusion she was sinking!
     
    Moral of the story?
     
    Well I don't think any of us have never drunk too much, but maybe looking for the obvious would be good advice before "firing off the distress flares" next time!
  22. Gary Peacock

    Turn on the heat!

    By Gary Peacock,

    Well it seems winter is here, and I am now reduced to sitting in my cupboard huddling my fan heater! We do have heating in the workshop but the Humpa Lumpas are all part Eskimo and like it cold or maybe they got hardened to it at the old place where we had a somewhat open to the seasons environment.
     
     
    I quite like the darker evenings it means I don't have think of things to do with them and then feel guilty about not doing.
     
     
    On the work front it's still no rest for the wicked lot's of broad beam enquiry's but the narrowboats seem to have sailed off along with poor old Rosie & Jim for now at least. The decision to change from Mastervolt to Victron/Energy Solutions means I have a lot of circuit diagrams and instructions to redo but we are very impressed with the first installation. It might be a bit over the top for the average Ditch Crawler but if you were designing an electrical system that will actually do the job rather than the just about cope scenario it seems the way to go.
     
     
    We were having the tea break chit chat the other day and someone said (Very risky to say so!) we have a lot less hassle these days with things failing, well it got me to thinking why?
    Well I think it is down to customers quite a lot and how ours have changed. We are now building bigger boats that which not only cost more but seem to have a different type of owner a lot of our business used to be "I want a boat because it's cheaper than a house!" (The reality wasn't always that!" for the last two years it is now very much "I want to retire to Europe on a boat.". While the former customers main concern was saving money and doing it on the cheap the later want a boat that actually is liveable in Europe and will pay for it.
     
     
    A lot of boat bits in the Ditch Crawling world come from a handful of sources and all builders use them putting them on a fairly even playing field for specification, in reality a lot of this stuff is very cheap and cheerful and more about profits than quality. If you look towards the lumpy water boat building industry they wouldn't dream of using these kind of boat bits.
     
     
    We now find ourselves in the middle between the ditch and lumpy water brigade building I suppose what you might call "Lumpy Water Crawlers" but one thing that is becoming obvious is that sourcing boat bits at maybe a slightly higher cost from the lumpy water sector does seem to pay dividends in performance and reliability.
     
     
    The next three builds have electrical systems straight from the lumpy water market and on paper it would seem that these should brush aside nearly all the common problems we associate with boat electrics but there is a price to pay for this probably not much change from £16K, but it will do the job the customers expect it too and are so willing to pay for.
     
     
    The ditch crawling market is sometimes it's own worse enemy, the sales pitch is very much "Look how little you pay" rather than "Look at what you get for your money" now not everyone can afford the gin palace but with a bit of thought from both builder and customer a lot more reliable and effective boat can be built rather than a just about copes one.
     
     
    I don't know maybe the two different markets are just that and attract very different customers but a lot of the make do and mend stories you here could be avoided at not a lot greater cost by looking at the ways and products the lumpy water brigade use.
     
     
    Gary
  23. Gary Peacock
    Boaters are definitely changing a few years ago when Rosie & Jim were in their prime it used to be all roses and castles, brass and various shades of narrowboat green with dark woods and brass fittings inside and the mandatory wood burning stove..
     
    Now I know that this will upset the purists but those days are gone the "new" boater is a different creature with little interest in the Rosie & Jim image so popular of days gone buy, this new breed are far more into house than boat often the fact that it is boat comes in very much second place to the residential element.
     
    I have to say that it does disappoint me when you see perfectly good boats being used just as a floating apartment but at the end of the day that's the customers choice.
     
    The one bonus that these new breed of boaters bring with them is variety! In what used to be a very conformist market it is like a breath of fresh air and gives the boatbuilders the option create some very modern and livable boats these days.
     
    One of the things that I most notice changing is the use of colour, gone are the drab conformist colours or thought up over a pint mock carrying livery's. Owners now seem feel free to express their self in the choice of colour they choose.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    The changes continue through to the interiors wood is no longer it seems simply to die for and the skills of the master wood butcher are increasingly in less demand the new breed of boaters seemingly often preferring low maintenance synthetic laminates or the ever increasing trend towards a more residential painted type finishes.
     
    From a builders perspective it does make life a bit more interesting then the mass production of clone craft on the downside dealing with the more radical things that the new breed of boaters often dream up can be "challenging" to say the least!
     
    We have quite a few "challenging" builds on the books which I will keep you informed about.
  24. Gary Peacock

    No more narrowboats

    By Gary Peacock,

    Well with the last narrowboat now gone this is the first time in the companies history that we haven't got a single narrowboat on the order book.
     
    So it seems times are a changing and our world is turning into the bigger boat market destined for France or further afield across Europe.
     

     
    Everything for the next year or so looks much like the beast above some being relativelly tame river cruisers others being very serious boats that would be well capable of a chanel crossing.
     
    We are still offering narrowboats but the market does seem to have slowed dramatically over the last 18 months so maybe that one will be the last ever!
     
    The BIG STUFF is a lot different to the narrowboat world and I know of other companies that after moving into it have become increasingly reluctant to take on narrowboat orders in the future, but at the moment we will just play it by ear and see what 2008/9 brings in the way of orders.
  25. Gary Peacock
    Today I am fitting a LPG detector to a boat with no LPG on it.
     
    Or at least I was until in a moment of brilliance I realised it wasn't the thing to be doing!
     
    Now it wasn't entirely my fault I was asked by some one, but even that isn't an excuse because I spent last Friday and Saturday installing the electrics for the oil fired cooker.
     
    So it looks like I am in need of an holiday or maybe it's time to start looking for a comfortable care home with good looking nurses!
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