Exceptional Narrowboats wanted for book

[Gary Cookson]

Exceptional narrowboats/broadbeams wanted:

Gary Cookson, author of "A Home Afloat" is seeking narrowboat and

broadbeam ship owners with really special vessels who would like to see

them featured in a book to be published next year.

 

http://www.ahomeafloat.co.uk/

 

I'd like a mixture of ex-working vessels and more recent builds.

Interiors can be modern or traditional or just plain out there. There

will be lots of detail about propulsion and systems so if you have

something really clever I'd like to hear about it. Each boat will have

several pages of colour photography and a detailed description of its

history and build. I'm in the UK at the moment and would love to make

arrangements to visit and interview anyone who thinks they might like

to be involved with this project. All ship owners featured will

receive a copy of the book as soon as it is published.

Contact me via the publisher at info@twentytwentyone.net

 

Many thanks and look forward to hearing from you.

 

Gary Cookson

[DHutch]

I can offer you a 15year old dutchbarge style narrowboat with coal-fired steam engine all built as a one-off. If thats good to go?

 

http://www.spurstow.com/emilyanne/

 

Obvously i'd have to have a good look at exactly what was involved, maye some more info on the book, and check up with the other people involved with the boat (ie, my mum, and my grandad, the owner)

 

 

Daniel

Edited June 14, 2006 by dhutch

[Moley]

Gary, welcome to the forum.

 

That looks an interesting book.

Page count is given but no mention of book size though.

Have any members seen or bought it, or got any reviews?

 

While I really don't think that anyone is ever going to be interested in our boat, personally I would prefer to see clean and tidy but far from exceptional boats, from the ordinary to the quirky, professional or amateur fitouts, at the sort of budget that most of us normal mortals are confined to (not that many of us could ever be, or would ever want to be, considered as normal ).

 

On TV I've seen many houseboats and barges which are truly wonderful, but usually in the money-no-object category, so what about a book for the average man/woman-on-the-cut, the financially challenged, or the young couple who have been priced out of the housing market.

 

Best of luck with the project, keep it real though.

[Baron & Mrs Boater]

Oh Mole you could almost write a book of your own based on your work thus far - how many of us have read and enjoyed your trials and tribulations !

 

And boy is that real !

 

Matt

Edited June 14, 2006 by Baron & Mrs Boater

[Bones]

my boat is exceptional 'exceptionally bad'

 

does that count?!

 

 

Looks like there may be a place for writing a book on narrowboats that are on a budget - something like that would be helpful for people like me.

[nbtafelberg]

You're boat aint that bad!

[Bones]

You're boat aint that bad!

 

too kind - and that is high praise indeed as you have actually seen it in the flesh!

 

It isn't that bad to be sure, but it is a long way off exceptional in the terms here - although I always think exceptional is similar to unusual, eye catching, striking rather than a symbol of perfection per se.

[Moley]

I always think exceptional is similar to unusual, eye catching, striking rather than a symbol of perfection per se.

exceptional a. forming an exception; unusual; unusually good.

 

eccentric a. odd; whimsical; differing from the usual in behaviour etc.

[Bones]

exceptional a. forming an exception; unusual; unusually good.

 

eccentric a. odd; whimsical; differing from the usual in behaviour etc.

 

 

what is your point?

[Moley]

what is your point?

I'm not sure really, seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

I'm guessing though, that the majority of narrowboats and owners lean closer to the “differing from the usual” and the author / photographer here is looking for the “unusually good”.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with “differing from the usual”, I would say that all of my friends, past and present, have fallen into that category, I'm sure I do, and I'm guessing again that you do too Bones

[Bones]

I'm not sure really, seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

I'm guessing though, that the majority of narrowboats and owners lean closer to the “differing from the usual” and the author / photographer here is looking for the “unusually good”.

 

Not that there's anything wrong with “differing from the usual”, I would say that all of my friends, past and present, have fallen into that category, I'm sure I do, and I'm guessing again that you do too Bones

 

 

I seeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

[GUMPY]

Gary, welcome to the forum.

 

That looks an interesting book.

Page count is given but no mention of book size though.

Have any members seen or bought it, or got any reviews?

 

 

 

Yes Im in the origional one and its a very fine book. Lots of varied boats and layouts.

 

J

[Moley]

Yes Im in the original one and its a very fine book. Lots of varied boats and layouts.

Thanks for that, it does look interesting, would you class it as a coffee-table book, or recommend it as inspirational for anyone planning or doing a fit-out?

[GUMPY]

Thanks for that, it does look interesting, would you class it as a coffee-table book, or recommend it as inspirational for anyone planning or doing a fit-out?

 

Its a coffee-table book rather than a fit out book. but none the less worth looking at if you are into boats.

One thing I found real intersting is that a few boats that are in there came up for sale within 12 months of it being published.

 

 

 

J

[DHutch]

what is your point?

I think he was just calling you eccentric!

[Bones]

I think he was just calling you eccentric!

 

 

Outrageous!!!!!

 

Its a coffee-table book rather than a fit out book. but none the less worth looking at if you are into boats.

One thing I found real intersting is that a few boats that are in there came up for sale within 12 months of it being published.

 

That is good to know - I might get one for my coffee table. I love to see how the other 3/4s live! Is there anything comparable as Moley suggests for the lower end of the market? I would be interested in something like that too.

[Henri]

Whats classed as the lower end of the market in terms of a budget for fitting out/buying a boat????

 

So is everyone here an "eccentric" also?? Or does that just come as part of the territory if you own a narrowboat???

[Keeping Up]

I might get one for my coffee table.

Using a book as a coffee table? Now that IS eccentric

[Moley]

What's classed as the lower end of the market in terms of a budget for fitting out/buying a boat????

Well let's put it this way; I've bought a boat for under £15k and am trying to do a total refit on £5k. I think that must be bottom end of the market.

 

So is everyone here an "eccentric" also?? Or does that just come as part of the territory if you own a narrowboat???

This is getting out of hand, but if we take the “differing from the usual” definition, then probably yes. But, what's wrong with differing from the usual?

 

First, I suppose, we've got to consider what would be usual or normal. I don't know the figures, but in the UK fifty-something million people live on land, in bricks-and-mortar houses. A few thousand, or tens of thousands, live on the water. So by definition, Bones, as a SWF living on a narrowboat, is far from what society as a whole would consider as normal. Therefore eccentric. But I find her interesting, and think if we ever met we'd get on well. (And before anyone tries to read too much into that statement, I'm happily married, to a Mrs. Mole, who differs from the usual).

 

How many million Britons fly off to Spain or Greece or other hot and sunny places each year to vegetate by a swimming pool, never leave the hotel / beach / bars / English-type restaurants or fast food outlets, and never explore their destination country? But that's what society as a whole would consider normal. Members of this forum, whether liveaboards or weekend boaters or hirers have, by and large, turned their backs on the ‘normal’ family holiday, preferring the countryside, tranquility, relaxed pace and camaraderie of the rivers and canals. ‘We’ think ‘they’ must be nuts, but ‘we’ are a distinct minority, therefore ‘we’ differ from the usual, therefore ‘we’, by definition, must be slightly eccentric.

 

But I have always gravitated towards the ‘different from the usual’. Maybe that's why I feel at home here.

 

In short, eccentricity is not a mandatory prerequisite of owning a narrowboat, but probably helps. There is a broad spectrum among the membership here. Some seem staid and conservative and otherwise normal, some have a touch of the eccentric, and there's Snibble too.

 

abnormal a. exceptional; irregular; deviating from type.

(so, coming back to the original question, there are many different ways you can interpret ‘exceptional’)

 

Personally, I have no desire to be ‘normal’ and don't consider ‘eccentric’ to be in any way derogatory.

Edited June 15, 2006 by Moley

[bottle]

OR

 

 

You don't have to be mad but it helps.

[Henri]

Marvellous!

 

Am very proud of my new found eccentric status.

 

20k for boat purchase and fit out is some going, i was thinking i'd be pretty near the bottom end doing the whole lot for 35k. (That was my original budget as well!!)

[Carrie]

What a coincidence! I was reading (okay, looking at the pretty pictures) 'A Home Afloat' in bed this morning and had been thinking "it's mostly dutch barges - I'd like to see a narrowboat version". Then saw this thread!

 

I'm facinated by the individuality of some narrowboats. It would be good if, unlike 'A home Afloat', there was info on the engines, heating systems etc?

[Maffi]

Well I'm normal ...... in an eccentric kinda way.

[Bones]

I don't like the idea of being eccentric, but then I do rather loathe categories. This discussion on is really reminding me of one of my favourite lines... its the bonzo dog doo dar band and goes

 

"if thats normal I want to be a freak for the rest of my life"

 

I collapse in histerics everytime I think of it.

[timboharticus]

I'm the non-urban spaceman.

 

Does this book concentrate on toilets?

 

That's seems to be a major preoccupation of this site.

 

Surely, there is scope for a manufacturer to provide a decent cassette loo that is big and not too costly?