Narrow Boats
 

My wife and I are considering a Narrow Boat rental for a week in late May or early June. I am 6'2 and not sure of the head room. Anybody have experience with these? Comfort? ease of navigation? experiences? etc/ Would ber interested in any info you wish to provide.<BR>Thanks

Hi Terry - we've been thinking about this too (England) and I've been looking at website but have no actual experience. There is a lot of info available on the net, www.canaltime.com has links too, but you may have already gotten everything you could and are now looking for firsthand accounts! If you go, post a report, cause my hubby is over 6ft. too.

Terry,<BR>My wife and I ar also planning a boating holiday in Britain.<BR>After some research we have ruled out narrow boats on canals inEngland and Wales mainly because of the <BR>numerous locks where little or no help is available.<BR>Remember there are only the two of you.One will have to drive the boat and the other all the manual work involved in opening and closing the lock gates,opening and cloing the sluic gates etc.My wife and I are in the fifties and feel that a little more leisurely cruise such as in Scotland where lock keepers help out is more suited for us.<BR>www.british-waterways.org is a very informative website-lots of infornation on waterways,boat operators,useful links etc. <BR>Whilst I don't know about the heights of various types of narrow boats you will be able to get the information by email from the boat operators.<BR>As far as I understand driving and maintainig a boat should be reasonably easy and almost all the operators give free training.(Some charge a small fee for "indepth training").<BR>Finally a word of caution given by a British friend.The waterways particularly in England were built to facilitate goods transport between industrial areas-inother words all the cruise will not be in idyllic country side.<BR>I will be very happy to hear about your experience.<BR>Wishing you all the best <BR>

Hi Terry,<BR>My husband and son and I spent 2 weeks on a narrow boat cruising the Llangollen Canal last year. My son is 6' and never bumped his head. Our boat was comfortable but as the previous poster said, it is harder work than it looks in the brochures. I am glad we took a younger crewman with us. That said, we enjoyed it very much, particularly the Llangollen end of the canal. We picked up our boat in Chirk on the Welsh border and cruised to Chester, the walled city. It was a very different way to enter the city, mooring under the medieval walls. Then we retraced our steps past Chirk and on into Wales to Llangollen. The scenery was spectacular and the canal engineering like the aqueducts was awe-inspiring. We hired our boat from Black Prince who have several bases. It was 54' long and weighed lots. My husband and son did all the driving, it was heavy and with only a tiller, not a wheel to control it, it took a while to answer the control. The locks weren't too difficult though some are heavy to push. I would go and do another one but would hire a smaller boat for just two people. Some canals are more industrial than others but people are very friendly and helpful.<BR>Have fun.

Thats what is so great about this site. Good sound advice, thank you. We are in our very early 60s and don't mind a bit of work but.... will have to do a bit more research. Actually, we noticed these boats when in Stratford-on-Avon and notice that the boatfolks all got lots of help with the locks from the many people around, but... guess it would be a bit difficult in the countryside. Maybe instead of the boat trip we will drive around Cornwall, did that a couple of years ago and loved it um....