As a relatively landlocked American, I love following this channel and seeing where your adventures take you! Of course I knew canals were a thing in England, but I had no idea the scale of them and that there were people who chose to live afloat them. Thank you for documenting this lifestyle for those of us unable to witness it in person!
The Americas got a late start on the canal business, which means what canal remain are the large scale industrial kind that would not be ideal for recreational living like what the narrow boat canals of the UK.
Great subject matter and excellent presentation. Formidable production and I thought the editing was particularly nice. Love it when you stretch your reporter muscles...
Agreed! David has a past in regional news television and really shows it here. Great little repotage piece, this, and I hope we'll get to see a bit more of that in the future. He's properly good at it(!).
im from eastern europe and my father had a dream to buy a boat like this for the rivers in Russia. He never achieved it tho. I'm 35 now and i found your channel randomly, after a few videos on these boats, it looks like his dream translated in to mine now. This boat is fantastic!
Wouldn't work on Russian rivers between the flat bottom that requires very calm water and nowhere near enough power to deal with currents. You need a keel and a bit of power. A small old river barge would be ideal to build on.
@@paulie-g nonsense, my boy. Yes, big rivers need boat side be higher and more powerful engine. But keel? Not really. 57 feet narrowboat weight about 15 tones. And OP wants wide beam. Which mean even more weight in the bottom of the boat. Then there is ballast...and interior furniture, furnishings, ect... If you find cheap hull, yes you can use the barge hull too, but it is not necessary.
LOOK AT ALL THIS SPACE FOR ACTIVITIES. I'm so glad we're carrying on with the series where you go poking around other people's boats it's all I've ever wanted from life
Brilliant vlog! I love that narrow boaters (and wide beamers!) have started to vlog together, showing different styles of living, opinions and a general camaraderie amongst you all! Keep it up, all your vlogs are so inspiring ⛴❤️
That dog, lol! What an amazing way to live. They are such a lovely couple, and they seem to be very happy. Thank you for the video and for all your hard work. It is appreciated.
Cheers from northern Japan. You might take a look at William Least Heat Moon's account of his cross-continental travels in his book "River Horse." ...and become inspired!
I like your videos showing other people's boats, different style boats, and talking to them about how their life is! Keep up the good work thanks for doing this!
I have been enjoying your canal narrowboats videos. I'm American, but I lived in London from 2004-2007. On walks in the greener parts of London, I would sometimes go across canals and see these narrowboats and wondered what was in them. I knew one lady at my church in central London who lived on a canal boat. I never got to go inside one in person, so your videos opened my eyes to canal boat interiors and the canal boat life. I love these boats.
A great episode! Thank you for the closer look at all the different aspects of canal life. As a Yank, I would never have guessed that "wide" boats were a thing.
My wife and I brought our 43 foot long 24 foot wide trimaran down from Cleveland via the Erie canal, then down the Hudson and ICW back here to Florida. We tried to be as courteous as possible in narrow stretches about giving way... and so did everyone we met. A little courtesy goes a long way.
David. This is fantastic. I love love love the information on canal boats you share with your viewers like me. That's one major reason why I'm here. I love your channel, great work.
Professional as always, a thoughtful presentation and surely encouragement that the canals are there for us all to enjoy. Julie's enthusiasm for adventures anew and Mark's generosity of spirit in giving way to the narrower boat, showed that the widebeams don't want to be masters of the canal, merely same-minded enthusiasts with the same rights as others. And Eric? He showed equally good manners - barely a trace of a snore. P.S. Congrats on the 100K - a massive target and well deserved.
Very good, thank you for posting this video. I like the idea of a wide beam, but I think I would go with a narrow beam. They seem cozier and they get everywhere
My cousin mentioned this site and I checked it out loving England. This Narrow boat is very nice, spacious, comfortable and pretty good storage. And going down those waters seems so peacful.
I am not a youngster and, having grown up on and around the canals, there has always been a group of narrow leisure boat owners who think there should not be wide beams. However, wide locks were designed to take wide boats as they could haul more and generate more revenue for the canal owners. So, technically, if you are on a canal with wide locks and you are a wide beam, you have, this is the controversial bit, more right to be there. The other thing to remember is the CRT need all the income they can get in order to maintain and improve. I have seen what disuse and neglect can do. Waterways fall into disrepair, less traffic uses it, more disrepair as nobody is using it and before you know it the stretch is closed and then needs a group of people who care to get together and fight tooth and nail to get it reopened. Just my opinion but food for thought.
Really enjoyed this, feel like I’ve been wanting you to cover widebeams for ever 😂 Proper chuffed. I feel a standard narrowboat is the way forward for me still though. Thanks David. Lee
used to live in a single wide trailer, it was 14 wide by 65 feet long. Had three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Master had its own full bath with garden tub and small walkin closet. It was laid out very similar to this boat with the difference being it had doors on the two long sides.
I was virtually in love with the Narrowboat idea when I came across your channel a few months ago, now I'm hooked on the future possibility (after I become a Brit!) of getting a Wideboat and living on it somewhere north of Newcastle...
I lived in the cab and sleeper of an 18 wheeler for 40 years. Now, retired, I could adapt quite readily to a narrow boat. What an interesting life! I’ll be stuck aground until I die but it is nice to see another lifestyle.
Over here in the US, I would love to have one of those widebeam boats, but I would only be able to travel from Chief Joseph Dam to Azwell Dam15 miles. In the 1960s the government stopped putting locks in the Columbia River due to the faster moving water, not economically feasible for barge traffic. In the 1800s the Columbia was the main shipping for the area. They used steam boat until the came to faster spots and they would toe the boats and use anchors made out of boulders and pullies. I also want to congratulate you on all the subscribers.
Narrowboat or widebeam?, It's a choice to make, the driving and the maneuvers are the same, some disadvantages are also common to both. Beautiful vlog with Mark & Julie, two very nice people.
It's a typical wet n windy Bank holiday, much to wet for the allotment. However I have had a great couple of hours delivering coal and diesel from a narrowboat, and then sitting in on a chat with a lovely couple who have a widebeam. My thanks over the years David for your videos never seem enough.
I lived on a narrowboat for 15 years, and loved it. The only reason I gave it all up, was to move to Canada, which I certainly do not regret. Interesting tour of this couple's wide beam boat, but why did the tour not include the most important bit, the engine room ?
What a nice Saturday surprise! Was not expecting a new canal video during the winter months. Time is flying though and it won't be long for the next floating adventure! Looking forward to where we go next!!
@@CruisingTheCut Well darn RU-vid; I haven't gotten notifications! Heading over to the channel to see what I've missed, although, I am still working my way through older videos and I keep losing my place! At any rate, I love the cruises, whether they are in chronological order or not; it gets me through the winter
Very interesting, I do like the extra space, I actually like the open plan as you have the opportunity to change the interior as your life evolves and is far less complicated buying new furniture than moving a fixed Dinete and lounge.
I also have this foldable IKEA dinette in my 'narrow flat', you can see on the side and it is not the worst compromise to make for e.g. a nice workout or training area. I'm quite sick of paying rent and I always considered to living in or on an expedition vehicle or a socalled tiny house to cramped for longer periods of time. But I'm so in love with your lifestyle, the boats and the landscape! Even the narrower narrow boats have acceptable galleys, storing areas and beds for my taste. I didn't even know that Britain has this canal network and culture! You are lucky people!
That discussion was very interesting. Gives one an inside view of owning a narrow/widebeam boat and cuising the canals. It's the resentment in sharing the waterways, which isn't owned by anyone, that amazed me.
It’s not that hard to understand, basically someone who has scraped a basic living on a narrow boat by choice for years and years in a traditional way probably would be prone to a perspective that isn’t too forgiving on these two. They could be viewed as basically rich people living the “good” life by blocking up the canals because they want a boat the size of an apartment. It can’t even navigate the network because it so large. They don’t want to give up their space so think I will just have a nice huge boat, because I’m rich and can so good for me. If every one had a huge boat the canals would be screwed but they can’t and may choose not to because the canal is really suited to narrow boats but we do want one.The point about a huge boat historically being on the canal is limited. Just because an exceptionally large boat operated probably for commercial reasons doesn’t mean everyone could say for example operate a boat that size because it would ruin the canals. That’s the same as here, narrow boats are in existence on the canal and called narrow because they needed to be! These wide beam boat owners will be seen by some as sticking two fingers up and saying I’m all right jack look at my kitchen the size of house and I throw party’s good for me. I can see why “traditional” narrow boaters will view them extremely unfavourably, they probably won’t be accepted by some and disliked by certain sections as rich professionals clogging up the network to live “their dream” by moving an apartment on to the water. That’s my guess on the issues. I personally have never been on a canal boat let alone lived on one but it’s easy to see the potential issues. As a comment said above it’s basically a class war.
The contraversy between wide and narrow is silly that is like saying a fiat shouldn't share the road with a rolls royce. I like the wides now that I see this one (my first). thanks for sharing. : ) peace
We have the expression 'Live and let live', from the Dutch, I think, with those barges! ;) Seriously, if you're on the canal there is no hurry. If you have a problem with widebeams, it's not the widebeam owners who are at fault. It's you who's got a problem.
Same here, and I'm truly ensorcelled. I'm afraid that by the time I get my wife and I onto one and over there, that there won't be enough room or welcome in the canals. I'm a professional ship builder and I'd like to stick the two together, but I'm also afraid of going from being an non-boat-owning ship builder in the U.S. to being a non-boat-owning ship builder in England. I'd love to slap a disarmed 22mm AA canon on the top of one for looks ;)
Great video as always. I do worry how long the canal lifestyle can continue at the current rate of people moving to live on it. There are 2,200 miles or 3,500 kms of canal. At the last count there were over 38,000 registered canal boats. That means if every boat went out on the open canal rather than many sat in large marinas, there would be only 92m of canal for every boat - and the boat length has to come out of that figure. A rather sobering thought.
A very, very good point indeed. Worth a Google ref the IWA and other residential boaters' forums. Some of you will have seen the IWA's response to HMG's questions on pollution, published just a week or two ago. In short I gather there are "plans" afoot to address this very issue of space but in an indirect way. (This issue was being discussed quite a few years ago, and, several propositions put forward on topics such as linear moorings have emerged since.) However, since then other issues have arisen such as this recent "awareness" about the climate change and atmospheric pollution problem. Several cities have already decided they will ban diesel exhaust emissions at certain times and that these regs "might" extend to the waterways in said cities, namely London, Bristol and Oxford. Plenty more info online if interested. One of the solutions being discussed is to remove linear moorings and oblige residential boaters to moor in marinas, hook up to shore power and use electricity for heating and of course lighting. No mention of cooking as such. Very few marinas able to supply high capacity electricity feeds to run an electric hob of oven. Ergo cooking with (LPG) gas looks to continue for a while longer. Constant cruisers can continue to do so but may be obliged to fit DEFRA approved wood burners, burn only "approved" fuels and so on. There is even mention of burning "approved diesel fuel" in the respect of how much bio diesel is included in the overall fuel. Heritage boats might be exempt but by no means certain what the (new?) regs might allow. This part was included in the section regarding mitigation of pollution. Some comments expressed on electrically powered boats, including hybrid systems, and the need to install the massive infrastructure of charging points. According to the article the inland waterways question was interrupted by the recent general election. We can expect this issue to go through parliament "later"; it is only on hold. Not mentioned in the Paper, so I speculate here, is that the hire fleet industry would like to see the end of residential linear moorings so as to allow more moorings for the hire boats. We live in interesting times as they say. Plus it would tidy up the towpaths so that walkers and cyclists would find the environment a lot more conducive to actually use said towpaths.
@@CruisingTheCut Certainly from February, just not this one unfortunately! :( Thankfully I only just started watching, so I have a few years of footage to catch up on lol!
I've particularly enjoyed your reviews of alternative types of boats: widebeam, GRP cruiser, half-length and trailerable narrowboat, Mississippi River houseboat, etc. Being of Dutch heritage, I'd be interested if you ever plan to do a tour or review of a Dutch canal barge, since you've mentioned your admiration of their "boaty" appearance. PP
12:34 what he says makes so much sense, I was working 12 hour shifts at Rathbones Bakery in Wakefield working close to 24 shifts a month so I could earn £2200 a month. My wife is from abroad and one day she explained how living expenses in her home country would be about £250 a month (including eating out once or twice a week). So I started looking into it and about 6 months later we have moved. Wifes father gave us an acre of land next to there house and I've built a 2178 sq feet single story house. Its cost me £25,000. Best decision I've made my life and I'll never look back. My electric bill last month was about £22 that's because we have two roof fans running 24/7 also four outdoor bulbs running through the night. My gas bill was £1.75 for the month. Yes thats not a typeo it was £1.75.
101 thousand subs! Brilliant. Congratulations. People really get canal rage over the width of a boat? Holy moly! I found it very interesting to see the map. Always wondered about the cut off point for the width restriction. Excuse the pun. 😍 Thanks for another fascinating vid.
The Kennet and Avon is where I would ideally like to live on a boat. The choice is between narrow and wide beam. Being currently in Bournemouth and all kids and grandkids living here, I don't want to move too far away that visiting is difficult for me, a non driver, and for them not to have to spend hours driving to visit me. I would also need at least berth room for up to 8 people. Wide beams tend to sacrifice bedrooms for much larger living space etc. It's a real dilemma. But coming from a large detached 4 bedroom house to a boat either narrow or wide bed., will involve me getting rid of much of my life's possessions and enormous clutter etc. But it is doable. I have to give it so much thought and family discussion, lol. But who knows. It was my husband and I dream once upon a time to have our own boat, after many holidays on the canals while kids were you g, but sadly he died 5 years ago, and I think the dream died with him. However having suddenly got all these narrowboating vlogs springing up on my You Tube, I wonder if he's trying to communicate with me from beyond! Who knows. But doing something life changing as a couple is a lot different from doing it alone. I don't know if I can. Maybe I'll just have to convince the kids to take canal hols and let grandma tag along. Lol.
Love the channel, it’s very interesting this wide beam v narrow boat question. It’s all about one suits you, and your lifestyle. As everyday proposition...I think wide beam would be better especially for a couple. The more I research and watch your channel I get to grips with the seasonal use etc. I think the guy summed it perfectly though, most of us...are living to pay the everyday high bills..the thought of waking up and looking out and seeing and experiencing the beautiful English countryside... why would you not. Keep up the great channel.
First !! Yay !! Now to add some substance: We hired one of these wide-beam things from Silsden on the Leeds & Liverpool. The interior space was well received but it was often a pig to steer, for 2 reasons IMO. 1) As it is twice the width, it's moment of inertia to turn left/right was massively increased (it's more than doubled), so steering inputs are even more laggy than in a regular narrow-beam boat. 2) As these things are wider, they move more water out of the way when travelling, therefore, when going round a corner, if you let the front or the rear get a bit close to the edge when the canal is shallow, you'll get pulled into the edge of the canal due to the Bernoulli Effect.
@@CruisingTheCut I think the UK will start easing the lockdown by end of May. I am in Alberta, Canada and they are easing lockdown starting this Monday and gradually reopening most businesses by mid May. We started our lockdown 5 days before the UK. I think restaurants and pubs will remain 50% capacity for a while.
We found the same issue with caravans . Tourers are really well thought out and ingenious where as statics are just badly filled spaces . The joy of a narrow boat for me is the actual cruising , I would be more likely to moor long term in a wide beam . No cabin fever in WINTER though . Maybe pull out sides is the answer
Started watching your channel back in the Fall and finally got up to date. I usually watch on my TV though so I did not "subscribe" because I don't know how on there. It's not like the comments section is visible. But I do plan to continue watching and am excited by all your plans for travel abroad and more cruising. Good luck and keep vlogging! The How To videos, and the cruises, and "specials" like this one are all good.
im quite slow at viewing all of your posts but this one i finally did manage, and it was a truly great one!! But from you, id never have expected otherwise!! This was a great boat, lots of roooomy features, lots of room for extras, and room to ever add other ideas as you progress along!! But, for me, thats where the adventure ends. If you want an appt, or large home, then go for it and be happy. Or if you want wide boats on the water, then thats fine too. Different options for different people. However,,,,to me,, this has absolutely NONE of the character nor excitement of the narrow boat. For some reason, id just not want the wide beam. Kinda like my desires in women, i just prefer to leave the wide beams to the other guy!!! Thanks for the great experience/exposure/education!! Another video that didnt come easily,,,i appreciate your hard work!! And stay safe!!
Apart from your wonderful ability to enlighten us all to narrow boat living ,have you ever thought about professional narration? You have a great knack of explaining things and telling great storys of your travels in a clear and easy to understand way.
What a beautiful looking boat, such a shame the north & south canals don't join up. I don't suppose there is any chance of widening an existing narrow canal at the closest point between the larger canals ?, great video again, so relaxing to watch.
Very little chance. The obvious choice would be the Northampton arm but it has 17 locks and the cost of widening them all would be astronomical, plus boats would still have to go across The Wash which is not for the faint-hearted (see my video!)
"It would've been better if someone had put a little more ingenuity and thought into designing..." A couple of months ago my partner and I stayed in an AirBnB in Hong Kong. I've been in hostels, tents, bivy sacks (makes a narrow boat seem like an aircraft carrier), Japanese pod hotels. I always cook my own food and even though there are lots of places to eat in Hong Kong I cooked most of our meals. As I fossiked about the tiny excuse for a kitchen I started to think of how to improve it. It wasn't difficult thinking up improvements. A cutting board insert that goes over the sink - instant doubling of the work area. A drop down shelf on the back of the door, another 100%, Racks on the back wall. Above are dense blocky cabinets. Why now something more flexible and open? I think the same thing is probably true for narrow boats. When you're cooking say you have a drop down counter. Very helpful, but ooh now you need to use the bathroom, that flap is in the way. No problem really, just move what's on it, flip it up and head for the loo. Spices and small things? Well you can get a decorative spice rack that looks like something Shakespeare might've seen, but you're in the land of Brunel, come up with something better. How about a design a narrowboat kitchen competition? What are the dimensions of the typical narrowboat kitchen, the sizes of the most common appliances, how accessible is below deck for cool storage? I'll bet a collective effort could revolutionize not only narrow boat kitchens, but also small apartment kitchens. What I noticed as a photographer of many many years is how little thought was put into camera bags. Every year 'new models' yet they never ever changed. As I'm now looking for the best off-road/RV (caravan) set-up, I've noticed how all the poptop campers are exactly the same, except that most have the same bad ideas (like the window flaps on the outside where you can't get at them from the inside), everything is too heavy. (I've built a few 18' kayaks, that were too heavy, yet none weighed more than 50 lbs and can take being hit with more water than any camper will ever see unless it's driven off a bridge. Camper add ons weigh from 300 to 800 lbs. I could go on and on about different areas, but I think my point is clear, just about everything can benefit from a rethink. (and while I'm still quarantined and thoughts bouncing around my head. When I saw GB SS the Len Deighten alternative history story about Nazi controlled England..... my mind wandered a bit and arrived at... Narrowboat SciFi. What if global warming continues unabated and the UK as it sinks into the sea to join Doggerland, dredges up the submerged bits to build a system of dikes around the UK. Now narrowboats can go in any direction, but land travelers have to stick to the narrow diked up 'A ' and other main roads. Too much time on my hands? Guess so.
I like the idea of the wider boat especially if your working from it. I think there are good and bad on both sides and you buy what fits the bill. A great video talking about the merits.
Wish i could spend the whole summer on a narrow boat, but sadly in America we don't have the canal system to fulfill my dream.....looks like a cool adventure....
Thank you. Episode two was uploaded three weeks ago but Amazon have a severe backlog (they manually check every upload for various reasons) so it's taking ages to appear, which is frustrating.
Fascinating as usual David. Thanks for this. I loved the comment about having all that space to waste, so they do. This vlog gives me an insight into canal politics too. John, Ontario, Canada.
David, that was such a brief glimpse of the canal map where you showed the removal of "narrow only" canals for comparison. I watch so many narrowboat channels and their trips on the network, and at times it seems tight even for the narrow ones. I have a feeling that there are many more trips and destinations that would be quite difficult with an 11' width... (Maybe because of viewing through the camera lens.) But, if there were a great number of wide beams, there would be some narrowboaters who would probably prefer to not to travel the canals. 🙄
Rather surprised they don't do a project to widen a length to link the network in the north & south. Guessing there's just not enough of them about to seem like a project worth doing... But would love to see someday, so even wide-beamer's can enjoy the whole cut.
I've always dreamed of owning a wide beam...and floating around England and Wales... Being a landlocked yank it's a far cry from the day-to-day drudge of a well-established routine... I believe I'd welcome the adventure and deal with whatever life throws at me much easier with a broader perspective Cheers! (I've been subscribed to Weir on the move for roughly a year now 👌)
I think it’s amazing seeing all of my fellow Americans taking part in these vlogs. We have nothing like this in the states and I think it’s absolutely amazing. My only question is what kind of jobs do these people have!?
I've been in love with these ever since watching the Highlander TV series, and the barge he had in Paris. Do you know the one? I think that was a widebeam.
I'd prefer a narrow narrowboat than a widebeam. I think narrowboats, over things like motorhomes or sailboats, give you such limited mobility anyways, sticking to the canal networks, that I wouldn't want to limit that even more by having a wide boat. There are lots of wonderfully designed narrowboats like Foxes Afloat's one that are so well designed that they make the space feel larger than it is. I will say, I do think the widebeams look absolutely beautiful, and it really is a matter of different priorities. To each their own :)
The number of people I've heard say that they're bought a narrowboat to cruise the entire system but then they rarely left the canal they started out on. Most narrowboaters don't go very far. I've seen much more of the system on my widebeam over the last 15 years than most narrowboaters I know.
I have to say aside from making very pretty boats, Aqualine do fabulous work on their electrics panels. This boat being no exception. As an auto mechanic who specializes in electrical, seeing such tidy and easily traced wiring would make problems a breeze to diagnose and repair. Rugby Boat sales has made videos on many they have had up for sale, and they have always been top notch in that department. If they pay that much attention to things most owners would ignore, you just feel that the rest the boat will be equally well engineered. They top my list of manufacturers should I ever move across the atlantic to live this part of my future dreams.
As you so rightly allude to, "if only". My boat had been fitted out by the original owner ... what we call a "right bugger's muddle". Nothing, repeat nothing came anywhere near complying with modern practice ... unfused circuits, no battery isolator switches in correct place in wiring, undersized cables for the load/length of run, no labelling of circuits, corrosion to fuse holders, dry solder joints, no galvanic isolation, no earth straps ... you think of it and I could show you worse. Fortunately the surveyor suggested the wiring "needed attention".
