Allenm

Thank you.

Chris, The answer to your question "Why didn't you build one?" is simply the cost. Having built the ultra luxury spec wide beam version of "Whisper" and got several fingers burned when it didn't sell immediately - for reasons confessed earlier above - I had to be more restrained this time - particularly in the current economic climate - hence the computer generated version. If you were possibly also asking "Why don't you build narrow beam Dutch barges?", the answer is that the concept works well on a wide beam - for all the reasons you have set out - the six that we have built also have double bedrooms and bathrooms at each end, and a collapsible wheelhouse that doubles as an al fresco dining room (and they are all - but one - happily living in France). But I ignored the advice given by many NOT to build a narrow beam version for the UK a few years ago, to my peril, for the reasons I mentioned immediately above. Thanks for your complimentary comments about our narrow boat offering at Crick - much appreciated.

Nice to talk with you at the show, Chris, and obviously sorry that you decided to go the way you have, but absolutely no hard feelings - you win some, you lose some - and the customer is the customer. In response to your posting, can I throw in the experience we had when we built a narrow beam Dutch barge in 2003, but had to sell it on because of its manoeuvring characteristics. In order not to have to keep taking the wheelhouse down for bridges, we increased the draft (only by around 6ins as I recall) but this made its handling disturbingly unpredictable on those parts of the canal system where the bottom is too near to the top. (I have yet to live down the story about when I, personally, experienced these characteristics!!). Fortunately, the new purchaser was very happy with it because he kept it on the Thames where there was a lot more water underneath. The other reason for increasing the under-floor ballasting (in addition to increasing the draft) was to lower the centre of gravity. Without doing that, we knew we would have to get used to the tendency for a narrow boat with this kind of superstructure to rock from side to side a bit more than usual. Can I add (am I permitted to on this forum?) that I'm surprised at the price. During the Crick weekend we were told by two separate boatbuilders that we had set the price of our "designer narrow boat" too low - at £95,000. Maybe they had an ulterior motive for offering this advice, I wondered??! - but now I'm not so sure........

Thanks for your detailed thoughts – much appreciated. I will try to respond in kind. The narrow beam Whisper has a conventional propeller at the stern, but both it and the jet thrusters are electrically powered, the latter being a large pump under the stern deck that directs water to one or more of the four jet outlets. And because these jets only “blow”, unlike a bow thruster that effectively “sucks” as well, they are much less likely to get clogged. This technology already exists – just not on narrow boats. And although OwnerShips has been fitting it as standard on new narrow boats since last year, the only problem so far has been the electronic control system that operates the valves. (The manufacturer just seems to be finding it extraordinarily difficult to supply pcb-s that are up to spec!). The source of the electrical power on the Whisper boat is a large diesel generator under the front deck – around 24kVA, or more depending on internal appliances (i.e. things like cookers and washing machines). This runs during cruising and could be on all day if loaded with other appliances. In the evening (after cooking?) and overnight, power comes from a battery bank via 2 X 2.5kW inverters. I take on board all you have said about getting the marketing right – which I clearly didn’t with the original wide beam Whisper motor yacht. However, comparing the price of the narrow beam version with a conventional narrow boat of similar length could be misleading – analogous, perhaps, to comparing two 15ft cars and wondering why they are priced differently. OwnerShips’ “five star class” conventional narrow boats start at £78k inc. VAT. It’s just that that’s the marketplace it operates in, rather than the very competitive “economy” marketplace. (And two years ago, before it moved its production to Poland, the equivalent boat built in the UK had a COST price of more than that). With regard to the way the market appears to be moving, from a technical perspective, it was only three (?) years ago that I was talking to a prominent boat broker about diesel electric systems, and he told me that he had one such narrow boat in his “pool” (built by its engineer owner, I think), but he reported that it was proving difficult to sell. Prospective buyers would step aboard and be told about the benefits of this “new” technology, nod a few times, and then ask “what else have you got then?” – which seemed to confirm, then at least, that this is a conservative marketplace. (And, indeed, that may be part of the narrow beam Whisper’s biggest hurdle, aside from the “recession”. It simply doesn’t look like a conventional narrow boat – and in answer to your question, it has only been advertised since January of this year). But the potentially happy marriage between diesel electric technology and narrow boats is, I believe, long overdue, even though they appear to be “made for each other”. The weight of the extra batteries is not an issue (you save on ballast!), the average power demand is relatively low with occasional high peaks (that can be met with extra power from the battery storage), and the relatively small diesel generator is much happier running at a constant 3,000rpm say than a larger diesel engine, connected directly to the propeller, hunting around between 900 and 1200rpm. And this is not new technology. It’s been powering railway locomotives for over 50 years. The good news is that boatbuilders appear to be starting to look at the diesel electric option now more seriously than ever before, and the Beta/Hybrid retrofit option is already available “off the shelf” and fitted to three (?) narrow boats in the UK (including a recent OwnerShips-built 70 footer). I hope that this is a reflection of an increasing public acceptance of the concept. And, of course, the diesel electric concept takes several different shapes and forms, from the “pure” system at one extreme – no extra batteries, you just connect the generator directly to the propulsion motor – through parallel systems like the Beta/Hybrid – to the most sophisticated systems that match diesel power output to demand dynamically, and wash your socks at the same time! Personally, I hope that this is the way things will start to move, it makes so much good sense, particularly as we all become increasingly “green”. And if the market does go that way, so will OwnerShips.

Don't ask...........!

I guess, a bit like you, we have to justify spending money on building a very different kind of boat with more than just the thought that someone might like it - hence the computer generated version. Needless to say, this was the mistake we made when we built the wide beam original. Yes, we had a queue of visitors every day at the London Boat Show, and plenty of "Wait till my wife sees this" type comments to go with it. And it generated five different magazine articles. But I learnt the lesson then that however much people SAY they like something, it's the hard cash that matters! And yes I would love to build another one - this or the narrow beam version. But it will be built to order this time.

Yes, the "under £200k" was for the wide beam. "Demi Whisper" costs much less. And, by the way, both have jet thrusters (one at each corner). Cheating, I know, but virtually silent, and less vulnerable to jamming up than a bow thruster. And it means you don't have to walk along the gunnel to get to the bow - you just put the bow against the bank with the jet thruster, and walk along the towpath. (And visibility for the helmsman is the same as for a standard narrow boat). You obviously gather that I am part of OwnerShips, as is Phil Capp.

Sorry, I should have added that the price for a Whisper Yacht has now halved (!) ....... (a) because we have since moved our production to Poland (no, not Gdansk - we use yachtbuilders based at Tomaszow), and ( because we went a bit OTT in the interior specifications of the prototype - televisions that slid back into cupboards by remote control, CCTV security inside and out that would alert your mobile (from anywhere) and send images, home-cinema, programmable mood lighting......... So a VERY comfortable 60ft version with two double bedrooms (not curiously shaped "cabins") and two bathrooms, and a lot of living space, is possible for under £200k - or smaller and less if you prefer. Like its slimmer sister, this vessel can be all-electric, although a direct drive diesel is more practical for offshore cruising.

I confess....... I designed both boats, along with our tame interior design consultant - i.e. the wide beam "Whisper" category C at the London Boat Show in 2004, and the "Demi Whisper" category D for canal use. With regard to visibility on the wide beam Whisper, I guess visitors may have missed the two CCTV monitors in front of the steerer, connected to cameras at the bow. Having said that, and very regrettably, this vessel did not sell at its asking price and so I ended up cruising it around on the Thames for a couple of years before taking it to France. And it was actually a joy to manoeuvre (well, I'm bound to say that I suppose, but I did receive compliments from Thames Lock-keepers - praise indeed!! - for how she manoeuvred in and out of locks - with little to spare on the upper reaches). Weighing 28 tons and with a double V hull either side of a 4ft wide flat bottom plate, she was extremely predictable and stable, helmed using finger tip controls, and I never used the CCTV monitors. She didn't sell because (a) I hadn't done enough marketing, and visitors said "Who?" and "What?"!....... and ( because the product fell between two markets. It had the kind of interior specifications you would find on £1M plus offshore luxury yachts - complete with Jacuzzi bath (!), climate control........ I won't go on, but the guys with that size of cheque books wanted to stick with the Sunseekers and Brooms that they knew and understood (Whisper was built to pass under all the bridges in Europe - even Osney - as well as going offshore). On the other hand, the inland waterways boaters looked at the £400k price tag (it cost over £300k to build!) and said "I can buy a new Dutch barge for half that price" - even though they were talking about apples and oranges......... (in fact the Dutch barges we built - to a good spec - cost less than £150k. But they ARE very different animals). With regard to the Demi-Whisper (all electric, by the way, with a large quiet running generator in the bows) the air draught at the rear is 5ft 9in, and the (water) draught is 2ft 3ins. (The (computer generated) pictures have the increased height at the rear looking higher than it actually is). In terms of curved bridges, the width of the roof at the rear is approximately 4ft 0ins - AND care must indeed be taken on some canals - but she DOES go under. Helming is either inside (steering wheel) or outside with a conventional tiller. But all you hear at is the propeller noise. And the "greenhouse" is double glazed, AND slides open, so both winter and summer cruising can be pleasant (either in the raised rear saloon or the smaller one forward of that). I would love to build another wide beam Whisper - the original was sold in France in 2007 - it certainly generated alot of interest in both the London and Southampton boatshows in 2004, and was, and still is unique in its design concept and on board specification. And the new Demi Whisper has yet to be built.