On Schedule !

Planning the layout

In between scanning the web for ideas and looking for possible boats to buy, we'd been thinking about the design. We'd bought and read Graham Booth's other book Narrowboat Planning.

The size was almost decided for us. We wanted a boat that was capable of being usable on as much of the canal system as possible. Whilst we might not take it everywhere, the fact that its cruising range wasn't too limited, should help when we came to sell it. For a similar reason we also decided that it had to be a narrowboat, rather than wide beam.

There are basically four types of boat outline. There are Trad, Semi Trad and Cruiser sterns and the ubiquitous Tug style, with the large flat bow section. The choice was fairly easy for us. We reckoned that for most of the time there'd only be two people on the boat, so why did we need a section of the boat that wouldn't normally be used and, moreover, why pay licence and mooring fees for that part of the boat!

A Tug style also wasn't for us. By compromising on a fifty-seven feet boat, we'd already limited the cabin space that we had available. We didn't see the point of surrendering some of that precious space to part of a boat that can really only be used when the sun is shining especially as we anticipated doing a lot of our cruising when the risk of inclement weather was higher.

We were left with a 57ft Trad stern boat. Oh how we wish that the rest of the design process had been that easy!

We must have devoted almost two weeks to the basic layout of the boat. We found problems no matter which way we turned. We wanted to keep similar services on the same side of the boat so that gas and water weren't crossing from side to side. We didn't want people sitting with their backs to windows - but looking at the plan yesterday; we've found that we've done just that!

We asked one or two people for ideas and got those but eventually ruled them out for one reason or another. It was an absolute nightmare. In the end we had little option. We'd got the money and we'd arranged to go and see the builder to pay the deposit. We had to sort something out if we still wanted our boat by mid October. We finally arrived at the best plan we could the night before we paid the deposit. Only time will tell whether we got it right.

Inevitably, we ended up with the Floating Cottage layout with, from the front of the boat, the saloon, galley, bathroom, bedroom and, finally, the engine room. Ideally I wanted some space at the rear for a small working area, somewhere I could do running repairs whilst we were out cruising. We couldn't afford the space for that so any jobs will need to be tackled sitting atop of the engine, amongst any clothes that we've hung up to dry!

We only have room for a single wardrobe although we plan to have some storage space both under and above parts of the fixed double bed. The bathroom isn't anything special except that we wanted something a bit bigger than a 2ft square shower. We managed that and also changed our ideas about the toilet several times.

Our initial thought was a cassette type toilet, with a few spare cassettes. Then we discovered just how much the spare cassettes cost and how relatively little they hold. When we looked more closely at the options we also didn't fancy the idea of a plastic loo to sit on.

We'd thought cassette because we didn't want to be spending £10 per week on pump outs. However, in the end, with the limitations of what type of loo paper you can use with a macerator and the amount of water used for flushing, we settled on the basic dump through. Some people don't like these because of the smells but we've never really had a problem with them. We're going to fit the largest holding tank that we can get under the bed and we'll investigate manual pump out equipment as well. After twenty odd years with trip and hire boats, doing our own pump outs shouldn't be a problem.

This just leaves the galley and the saloon. The passageway changes sides through the galley, which is a walkthrough type. As it is our intention to be cruising for more than the odd week, we reckon that a freezer compartment is a must, especially if we want to avoid the need to have to rush from one place to the other, simply to top up on fresh food. Fortunately we've found a 12 volt model.

We also decided that we're likely to need a washing machine, as our perception is that the number of laundrettes is declining. A microwave, gas cooker, sink and drainer leave us with three cupboards and a bit of shelving in the kitchen.

Our initial plan currently says that there is then an "L" shaped dinette. This has been included to provide scope for additional sleeping accommodation if required. However, as indicated above, having found that part of the seating is in front of the window, our thoughts may change in an effort to stop people sitting in front of the window being attacked by the curtain restraint.

The saloon area is fairly straightforward with provision for two loose chairs, a stove and the inevitable television. We've found a 12 volt flat screen model so that's saved a bit of space without the need to use the mains supply all the time.

The stove won't have a back boiler. We're having a calorifier and a gas boiler to provide hot water. We envisage using the boat for the occasional overnight stay and having to light the stove to get heat seems a bit wasteful, so we'll generally rely on the gas boiler and radiators for our heat. We'll fit individual thermostats to the radiators so that we can take advantage of any heat that the stove does generate when we use it.

The bow section is purposely small. We're installing the bow thruster tube and associated locker, but not the bow thruster itself, at the build stage, because its cheaper to do it then. The normal seats cum lockers found in the bow are never comfortable, so we're doing without them. We'll use loose chairs if we want to sit out front and we're having a small step on each side against the front cabin wall to enable us to get on and off the boat when required. We'll probably end up with a cratch but we'll make a final decision about this later on.

This then is the basic concept as at September 2006. The windows are black, not brass coloured and we don't plan to have any exposed brass, using chrome instead to avoid the need to keep getting the Brasso out. The roof will be cream to keep the heat off the roof when the sun shines and the remaining colours will be dark blue with cream coach lines and a dark green panel on the cabin sides.

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