Boat builders that build smaller narrowboats

[Guest]

Athy, on 29 Feb 2016 - 10:46 AM, said:Athy, on 29 Feb 2016 - 10:46 AM, said:

It is rather fetching - though that bed appears to be designed for people who are broader at the shoulder than at the hip. Some of us on here would have to sleep with heads to the rear, I reckon.

 

I don't know how long the Little Boat Co. has been going (the web site mentions 30 years' experience, but some of that may have been with previous firms) but they do seem to keep plugging along while trendier companies rise and fall all around them. I wonder how many boats they have actually built.

 

The bed is actually a very similar shape to that which you see in some caravans. It takes account of the fact that overall peoples body shape tapers down from the shoulders, certainly below the waist.

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by MJG

[Athy]

I was being slightly flippant. I have seen beds of the shape which you illustrate on boats - I think we once had a hire boat whose mattress was cut off diagonally at the bottom end.

[Ally]

They exhibited near us at a show once, nice people, nice enough looking boats with some good ideas and planning. I'd certainly talk to them if it was the sort of boat I wanted.

[kevinl]

There's a Little Boat Co for sale on the link below, frankly £30k for a 27foot boat with a petrol outboard seems like a whole lot of money to me.

Interestingly it says "She is in as new condition and having been commissioned by the current owner in 2015 and not used since", I bet the build cost means that even at £30k they'll be losing a lot of money.

K

 

http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/feature.phtml?id=454962

[Alan de Enfield]

I was being slightly flippant. I have seen beds of the shape which you illustrate on boats - I think we once had a hire boat whose mattress was cut off diagonally at the bottom end.

 

Our 'master' tapers from 1.5 metres to about 1.2 metres from the 'thigh' level downwards, so you only 'lose' 150mm each side.

Custom made mattress hides it fairly well.

 

[Guest]

Ours is similar and tapers/rounds from both sides.

 

Edited February 29, 2016 by MJG

[magictime]

There's a Little Boat Co for sale on the link below, frankly £30k for a 27foot boat with a petrol outboard seems like a whole lot of money to me.

 

I have the impression that the second-hand market for steel boats of this size can basically be divided into £10k-ish boats from the 80s and early 90s (mostly Springers, but also a few Midway 235s and Sivewright 'Owl' class boats), and much more recent £30k-ish boats (by builders like Aintree and the Little Boat Co.). I never seem to see anything in the £20k, 10-15 years old, not-overplated-or-likely-to-need-it-soon bracket, which suggests there was a bit of a small-boats drought for a decade or so from the mid-90s onward. Not sure why that should have been the case - I'd have thought other builders would have wanted to fill the vacuum left by Springer.

[Athy]

 

I have the impression that the second-hand market for steel boats of this size can basically be divided into £10k-ish boats from the 80s and early 90s (mostly Springers, but also a few Midway 235s and Sivewright 'Owl' class boats), and much more recent £30k-ish boats (by builders like Aintree and the Little Boat Co.). I never seem to see anything in the £20k, 10-15 years old, not-overplated-or-likely-to-need-it-soon bracket, which suggests there was a bit of a small-boats drought for a decade or so from the mid-90s onward. Not sure why that should have been the case - I'd have thought other builders would have wanted to fill the vacuum left by Springer.

So would I - but during those years the trend moved from "cram a family of five into a 30-footer" to "57-footer with lots of space for two people". Liverpool filled the gap to an extent: they certainly offered a 35-footer, and slightly longer ones were quite common.