Canal Boat – July 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat July 2018 29

BOAT TEST

large sofa, made bespoke by Elite

furnishings. It converts easily into a bed,

and is so long because Dave has a son

who’s 6ft 4in tall — meaning he wouldn’t

comfortably fit in the back cabin bed.

This is a very light space, because

there’s a large Houdini hatch in the ceiling.

Galley

On one side of the galley is a beautiful

Welsh dresser, with a range of cupboards

and shelves, and a row of lovely little

drawers. It’s apparently the first time

Bourne has been asked to built something

like this, and it’s a great success.

On the other side is a more conventional

run of galley units, with oak doors and

Minerva worktops. Above the sink is a set

of side doors with glazed inner doors, so

you can get light without draughts. Behind

doors are a 24v Shoreline fridge, and a full

size 24v freezer, also by Shoreline. There’s

also a slimline Miele dish washer, which

should actually use less water than hand

washing.

As this boat has lithium batteries, which

provide masses of power, the oven is an

electric one by Neff. It’s positioned at eye

level in the centre of the boat and has a tilt

and slide door, which is a real space saver.

There’s a matching microwave above.

Previous boats we’ve seen with lithium

batteries have gone gas-free and had an

electric hob too, but Dave was concerned

that the 5kw inverter installed would

struggle if they wanted the hob and oven

on at the same time. So there’s a Bosch four

burner gas hob; as this is the only gas

appliance on board, a bottle should last a

very long time.

Cabin

The cabin has an in-line bed with a range

of high level cupboards above. It also has a

very attractive built-in head board, with

fabric panels. The bed base contains the

loo holding tank, and the calorifier.

The room has a substantial wardrobe at

the foot of the bed, with folding doors. As

well as a range of shelves and hanging

space, there’s also a TV which comes out

on an arm and flips down. It means the TV

is out of the way, but the mechanism does

take up a fair amount of space. The

wardrobe extends along the corridor a

couple of feet too, with more doors. The

bottom half contains a washing machine.

Bathroom

It’s a while since we’ve seen an off-corridor

bathroom in a test boat, because many

people are attracted by the extra space

offered by a walk-through. However, there

are advantages to an off-corridor –

principally that you can always get from

one end of the boat to the other, even when

someone is using the facilities.

This particular room is generously

proportioned, and has a cross bath with a

shower above, rather than a shower

Top: On a boat packed

with power, oven cooking

is by electricity

Centre: Off-corridor

bathroom is spacious

Left: High-level cupboards

provide heaps of storage

Above: Attention to detail

can be seen throughout