During the summer of 2018, Sue and I hired our third narrowboat from Wooten Wawen and embarked on an epic 225-mile journey . Despite the long days and numerous locks, we both agreed that is was a lovely way to spend our holiday. Hiring a narrowboat is a great way to find out if you’re going to enjoy it but with limited time, you often feel like you’re on a schedule.

By November we were both feeling like the time had come to take the plunge, but what to buy?

Selecting any boat is difficult, even a narrowboat has a lot of different options, so it was time to make a mental list of our requirements. Top of Sue’s priorities was to have a boat that didn’t require a lot of work, as we have enough projects on the go as it is. She was looking for a place to relax out in the countryside. For me, I wanted a layout that created a good social space. On a narrowboat all too often the helmsman is separated from the rest of the crew by bedrooms, so a reverse layout was a must for us.

Another important consideration was how far around the canal network we would be able to travel. While a 72-foot boat sounds great, there would be places that would be off limits so, we both thought a 57-foot would be ideal.

We plan to use the boat for extended holidays and weekends so things like washing machines were nice but not top of the list. However, a pram hood cockpit cover over a cruiser stern was important since standing in the rain is less than fun. We were looking for a light airy interior with large windows and a side hatch was a must!

Our first attempt at finding our ideal narrowboat didn’t really work out as planned. With our boating experience confined to sailing, we failed to spot a few potential flaws in the first boat we pursued. Firstly the narrowboat in question was only the second one the builder had attempted. Our surveyor quickly spotted a number of potentially troublesome areas and while they could all be fixed we were not really looking for a project.

So armed with our wish list and a little more knowledge we jumped in the car and headed off to Barton Turn Marina. Now people often say you should look at as many boats as possible and in theory that is probably sound advice but in reality you know when you see the boat of your dreams and so it was with us.

We offered the asking price there and then, and yes I know we might have haggled a a small reduction but we felt that this boat was fairly priced and we had already fallen in love with it.

The process of buying a boat is quite stressful. Due to offering the asking price we were able to seal the deal there and then but for many people, this process can take many tense days of negotiation. Then it’s the dreaded survey. My advice when buying a boat is don’t skimp on the survey. It is one thing feeling disappointed that a boat has issues, it’s quite another having to rectify them. For us, the survey came back and revealed no major points of concern beyond normal maintenance tasks. Now if your survey does show up problems it is not the end of the world, but you will be back to negotiating with the seller to resolve the issues.

So where are we now?…….. it’s the start of February 2019 and we are waiting to finalise the sale and taking possession of our new boat.