Canal Boat Holiday Discount

Many apologies but i can’t believe it’s been so long since my last post on the blog. I try my best to keep it up to date but there is never enough hours in the day! Although we can’t complain as we’ve had such a fantastic autumn – it could be far worse with all the dome and gloom out there.

 

 

 

 Welcome to our latest bespoke boat build Scarborough Pair which is being fitted out for it’s owners Richard & Monica. The boat is a reverse layout but as opposed to the galley being at the far stern, Scarborough Pair has the saloon aft, then the Pullman Dinette followed by the Galley midships this leads onto the walkthrough bathroom followed by the main cabin with crossbed at the bow of the boat.

Layout Plan for narrowboat fitout

Scarborough Pair’s hull being fabricated at Colecraft

Whilst out cruising Richard uses a small fold up motorbike to enable him to go back to their last mooring spot and collect their car. To enable this to be stored securely whilst their on board Richard requested that a steel locker be incorporated at deck level for easier access. The photo below shows the storage compartment from inside the cabin, this will be boxed in during the lineout stage and the space underneath will become a storage cupboard (photos further down). For safety the steel compartment is seam welded and has an overboard vent.

 

Scarborough Pair fully painted just after arriving at our Mercia marina workshop ready for fitout.

Narrowboat windows being put in with portholes in the bathroom & bedroom. The living areas will be fitted with hopper type windows, with the exception of the galley which will have a sliding window over the sink and a pair of steel glazed side doors opposite.

The team quickly ballast, floored and battened the boat out ready for the sprayfoamers to insulate the boat. Once complete we always mark out the layout on the floor with masking tape. We find this provides a valuable exercise for our customers as it allows them to visualise the layout and make small alterations before the main boat fitout and woodwork starts. 

The motorbike storage locker sprayfoamed and battoned. The masking tape on the floor mark the locations of the two floor to ceiling cupboards. One will encorporate and cover the locker so visually from the inside it will look like a cupboard.

Timber bulkhead being cut ready to fit. The side door have also been lined and have had windows fitted.

Looking towards the stern of the canal boat from bow – the bathroom bulkheads are now in place together with one wardrobe side (closest to camera). The main cabin will have a crossbed with two wardrobes either side and connecting arched cabinet over the porthole.

Work to the pullman dinette is started. This is a fairly large dinette as Richard and Monica have tall relative who needs to be able to sleep in it when converted into a bed, therfore we’ve made it 6’7″‘ long, four inches wider than our standard dinette.The dinette will also be able to accommodate six people sat down as it will have additional seats that extend out from each dinette seat – more explained below. Notice here too that the half bulkheads have now capped with beautiful chunky pieces of solid Oak. 

The shower bulkhead has been installed and a small storage cupboard formed that will also contain the shower pump. The small square aperture is for the switch that will turn the shower pump on and off. The hole in the floor is to allow the shower tray waste to drop into when put in place. The shower will be a 800mm quadrant type. 

This is the base of the curved cabinet that will installed over the porthole in the bedroom. This has been painstakingly made from machined strips of solid oak each one being cut at a different angle to form the arch. From cutting down the rough oak boards to the smooth finished piece here it has taken around 10 hours, and the main cupboard hasn’t even been started yet!

Saloon – looking backward towards the cruiser stern. The two cupboards that will form either side of the access stairs. We decided to split and alter the one to the left, with the addition of a shelf – this provides more visual interest, as the two flat bulkheads look a little overpowering. The shelf will be handy for the odd mug of tea or coffee (with a coaster of course!) as this area will contain two stressless type chairs.

Saloon – The split bulkhead cupboard – the front section missing here is pictured below being made in the workshop. Not sure if they can be made out here but we’ve added solid oak curved mouldings around the vertical corners creating a softer, more tactile feel to the fitout.

This is the side panel for the cupboard pictured above this photo. The cupboard is split into different storage areas as Richard & Monica what to be able to store chairs in one side, coats in another and canal boat guides in the top section.

This is the internal shelving for the cupboard 

 

And with the front panel in place – the top cupboard will have a drop down door so it can be accessed from the outside. The two vertical doors will open into each other from the centre support, this allows the far cupboard to be accessed from outside and the closest cupboard to be opened from inside the boat.

 

Monica & Richard want to be able to seat six people at the dinette. Therefore Richard designed and asked use to build slide out seats into the each of the dinette seats. Both slide out seats pictured here will have a reversible lid which will have upholstered foam attached on the underside.The lids will then be lifted off and turned over to form the two seats. We’ll also be building a table extension that can also be used as a infill piece when the seats are out to form a large bed.

 

Dinette – The chunky solid oak fronts to the pull out extension seats.