Canal & River Mag - Jan 08
‘Knot all in the name’
How does a surgeon relieve the strain of working life? Simple – he has a new narrowboat built and spends as much freetime as possible relaxing on it with his family by Ian Lineman.
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It was my anaesthetist who, during a long operation, said “You’re a bowel surgeon surgeon and your boat name should reflect that – what about Emma Royd? The name was vetoed that evening by my wife, Chris, who had visions of explaining the joke to people for years to come. So how had I got to the point of discussing boat names? Like many who go on hire-boat holidays we became hooked – not just Chris and me but our two daughters as well.
Before deciding to get a boat we had been thinking about buying a holiday cottage but couldn’t decide where it should be. That’s when we realised that a narrowboat would be an ideal mobile alternative, and a retirement plan for 10 to 15 years’ time started to form – but the idea of waiting until retirement only lasted a couple of days before we started looking at second-hand boats.
We were amazed at the filthy state some people leave their boats in while trying to sell them; if the boats were presented like that, what would the maintenance have been like? We decided the extra cost of a new boat would be worthwhile, but where to start? We thought briefly about fitting out a shell but I just did not have the time due to my day job. It was going to have to be a new build, preferably with one company from start to finish.
Our research led us to Alvechurch Boat Centre at Scarfield Wharf where we were impressed by the friendly approach and the high quality of the build – if they were building for their own fleet we thought that reliability would be a must for them. A week later we had reserved a building slot for three years hence and started getting used to the idea of having taken such a big step. Less than a month later Bob from Alvechurch rang to say they’d rescheduled their projects and would we be interested in starting the build in March (only five months away) and finishing it in July – what could we say but yes… We just had to sort out a few minor things like design, finance and settle the argument over the name!
We learned fast – the Boat Show demonstrated how enthusiastic a toilet salesman could be and how few narrowboats were there. Never mind, we had a great day out.
Bob led us through the design and planning; what a delightful time we had fiddling with Excel spreadsheet plans. When Chris said the engine was “a nice shade of blue” I knew the technical side of things would be down to me and the colour scheme to her. The expertise of the team and their unlimited patience made this whole enterprise great fun. Another Bob at Alvechurch (is every boating person called Bob?) taught us the proper way to handle a boat on an RYA helmsmans’ course.
Seventeen weeks after the build started, on the agreed completion day, it was ready. We have read of many people who have had problems with boat building, but not us. Our project was professionally run, ready on time and on budget. The budget was the original one plus all those little added extras we had slipped in during the design. As we left on our shiny new boat we soon realised that a life on the canals was meant to be.
Over the last five years we have been cruising the southern waterways as much as time off from work permits, but we have loved having a different perspective on areas we knew well – Watford is really quite pretty from the canal. It is certainly rewarding to travel up the Grand Union Main Line waving at the traffic on the M1 as we overtake them; I think that lorry driver was waving back…
Now that our daughters are university students we have to remember to check they and their friends are not using the boat if we’re planning a trip. One of them likes themed trips – large hats or pirates etc – but is not ambitious on distance (the end of the marina and back in a day might be optimistic). The other one believes in working her crews hard and going places. The most important thing is that they have fun. We consider that we’re a lucky family to share such a great interest.
Ah, you’re saying, but what of the name? After vetoing Emma Royd, Chris started panicking so she held a competition among our friends, and we all agreed on Knot on Call. This is fair – it refers to my surgery and Chris’s Girl guiding interest.
