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Are Narrowboats getting uglier?


PD1964

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14 minutes ago, JohnEW2912 said:

I've read the Canal Boat review. The first comment is that the owners found many builders unwilling to even consider some of their plans. It was built by Pendle Narrowboats. I remember 6/7 years ago when planning our current boat we went to see them and it was clear their business was about lifestyle and interior decor rather than cruising practicality. And even them they were mostly building widebeams to be shipped down south.

 

Seems familiar? Read that before somewhere.

 

Quote: 

"And so armed with our list, we looked at web sites and then visited several boat builders to put forward our thoughts. Now that was interesting!  Many of them just stared with their eyes seeming to glaze over as we tried to explain our bizarre concept for the cut. The lights were on but there was certainly nobody home at many of the places we visited.

Others trotted out such phrases such as:  "We haven't done that before".

Some even came out with such out of keeping comments that we knew they hadn't really fully digested the tablet. i.e. " We have a sign writer who is very good at decorative watering cans "….What ?"

 

 

Edited by Ray T
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2 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

Normally I'd say it's subjective, Beauty is in the eye of...etc.  But yes, that's ugly.  And also impractical for cruising.  Another example of a couple having a bespoke boat built before they know anything about canals or boating.  It'll be up for sale within a year.  I notice the youtube videos stopped in June.

The speed he talks, he is probably half way through recording the next one.....

Jeez, Canal Adventure turns into dirge.

 

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5 minutes ago, matty40s said:

The speed he talks, he is probably half way through recording the next one.....

Jeez, Canal Adventure turns into dirge.

 

When I meet New boaters that have just bought a boat and they tell me they have watched all the Vlogs on YouTube I think:

"The blind leading the blind" is an idiom and a metaphor in the form of a parallel phrase, it is used to describe a situation where a person who knows nothing is getting advice and help from another person who knows almost nothing.

 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Slim said:

I've yet to see a 'pretty' narrowboat but I agree the one in question is particularly ugly.

To me beauty = curvy, swept up lines, cherished chug chug engine on display, bronze portholes etc. Very far removed from my ugly duckling, straight-sided, Polish cruiser stern .... but you can't always have what you want! 

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17 minutes ago, PD1964 said:

When I meet New boaters that have just bought a boat and they tell me they have watched all the Vlogs on YouTube I think:

"The blind leading the blind" is an idiom and a metaphor in the form of a parallel phrase, it is used to describe a situation where a person who knows nothing is getting advice and help from another person who knows almost nothing.

 

 

Very true, but as I read it, the couple who had this built did not want advice, in fact they were finding all the advice coming their way a major annoyance.

 

They wanted a builder who who would just get on and build it to their instructions without keeping on questioning the things they wanted and features of their design, and they found it with Pendle.

 

"WHITFIELD LITE", they should have called it. 

 

 

 

Edited by MtB
Dammit pressed send too soon
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5 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

 

Very true, but as I read it, the couple who had this built did not want advice, in fact they were finding all the advice coming their way a major annoyance.

 

They wanted a builder who who would just get on and build it to their instructions without keeping on questioning the things they wanted and features of their design, and they found it with Pendle.

 

"WHITFIELD LITE", they should have called it. 

 

 

 

I wonder how many owners it has had Narrow Boats for Sale | WHITEFIELD FOR SALE (midwayboats.co.uk) its still a lot of money

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1 hour ago, JohnEW2912 said:

I've read the Canal Boat review. The first comment is that the owners found many builders unwilling to even consider some of their plans.

 

Frankly a lot of builders seem to have multi-year waiting lists right now, so why would you build something that you think will be hideous? Not exactly a great advert for your business floating around. However having seen the interior I don't think the exterior looks so bad now by comparison! But hey, as long as they're happy and they're not smashing up bridges / tunnels and they don't plan on having a high resale value....

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We moored next to a similar nb for a while. Very shiny black outside London white inside complete with massive TV and 17 speaker surround sound. Very pleased the new first time owner was... he took it  up the Llangollen and hated the trip "it was all fields and marsh and nothing to see..."  managed one winter as a liveaboard and sold it in the spring....

 

That had a very square cruiser stern too that looked like it had been bashed on every bridge and lock .....

 

I do think nb builders are a very conservative lot - look how long it's taken for double glazed windows to be common on new builds compared to say motor homes and caravans.

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2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I wonder how many owners it has had Narrow Boats for Sale | WHITEFIELD FOR SALE (midwayboats.co.uk) its still a lot of money

One more than you think.  It sold again last week at Aqueduct.  But it's OK, they've now "made her perfect".

 

https://www.aqueductmarina.co.uk/second-hand-boats/whitefield/

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9 minutes ago, MtB said:

I have to say, in the Kcuf-ugly boat stakes, WHITFIELD still takes some beating.

 

 

 

image.png.d69885954692ec376b6c6b995837b558.png

 

But at least it has some tumblehome.

 

 

Should it survive, it will become an historic boat. 🥸

It’ll have to loose the two trees growing form the top. 

  • Haha 2
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3 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Should it survive, it will become an historic boat. 🥸

It’ll have to loose the two trees growing form the top. 

 

Lol! 

 

At the risk of changing this into a Whitfield-bashing thread, I note the sales listing says under "Engine Hours" "TBA". Is it that hard to look at the dial and write it down?

 

I suspect the engine hours might be embarrassingly low, leading to questions about why. Maybe even down in the tens of hours. Also I note the last time the engine needed a service was 2019, with no mention of when next due. 

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20 minutes ago, MtB said:

I have to say, in the Kcuf-ugly boat stakes, WHITFIELD still takes some beating.

 

 

 

image.png.d69885954692ec376b6c6b995837b558.png

 

But at least it has some tumblehome.

 

 

Well it's certainly not to my taste and several of its features are completely impractical, but I have to say it does nevertheless have some style, unlike the ugly characterless blue box that started this thread!

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15 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Well it's certainly not to my taste and several of its features are completely impractical, but I have to say it does nevertheless have some style, unlike the ugly characterless blue box that started this thread!

 

I have to admit the interior of Whitfield is very elegantly designed and executed. I just don't think it is appropriate for the inside of a narrow boat which needs to be able to cope with muddy towpaths, dogs etc.

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11 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Well it's certainly not to my taste and several of its features are completely impractical, but I have to say it does nevertheless have some style, unlike the ugly characterless blue box that started this thread!

Theres a program I've been told about that you might like on TV David, The Only Way Is Essex, dont think there are any proper canals there though....the River Stort manages to fend it off most of the way(save Roydon marina which is full of tatties anyway), and the Lea seems to be unsure of how to stay out.

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There are very few modern boats that gladden my eye. Nothing wrong with most of them as such, neither do they lift my spirits,

Years back, one of my customers, a long term boater, said to me...

” Dave.....you could take all of the good builders and put them in a taxi”.....Ian is no longer with us to support or refute his hypothesis, but he is not far out for me. The majority of new steelwork is fabricator produced, skilled welders and platers building to a plan but there are only a handful of builders with an eye to elegance and proportion that nails the elegance and line of the past. I propose the Fullers, Norton Canes and the Brinklow collective. Perhaps we need a rear facing seat too......

 

 

 

 

 

  • Greenie 2
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25 minutes ago, northern said:

Have a look at the link.

I did , it said under offer, that is why I asked. the web site may not be up to date

8 minutes ago, dave moore said:

There are very few modern boats that gladden my eye. Nothing wrong with most of them as such, neither do they lift my spirits,

Years back, one of my customers, a long term boater, said to me...

” Dave.....you could take all of the good builders and put them in a taxi”.....Ian is no longer with us to support or refute his hypothesis, but he is not far out for me. The majority of new steelwork is fabricator produced, skilled welders and platers building to a plan but there are only a handful of builders with an eye to elegance and proportion that nails the elegance and line of the past. I propose the Fullers, Norton Canes and the Brinklow collective. Perhaps we need a rear facing seat too......

 

 

 

 

 

And the Fullers have stopped

 

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17 minutes ago, dave moore said:

There are very few modern boats that gladden my eye. Nothing wrong with most of them as such, neither do they lift my spirits,

Years back, one of my customers, a long term boater, said to me...

” Dave.....you could take all of the good builders and put them in a taxi”.....Ian is no longer with us to support or refute his hypothesis, but he is not far out for me. The majority of new steelwork is fabricator produced, skilled welders and platers building to a plan but there are only a handful of builders with an eye to elegance and proportion that nails the elegance and line of the past. I propose the Fullers, Norton Canes and the Brinklow collective. Perhaps we need a rear facing seat too......

 

 

 

 

 

Where did/does Boughy rank?

would he have got in the taxi?

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