Canal Boat — January 2018

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat January 2018 31

The toilet is a Thetford cassette unit, but

has a porcelain bowl rather than a plastic

one, and doesn’t have the usual plastic

panel at the back. The cassette is accessed

through the cupboard in the saloon. Also

on this wall is a tall narrow towel rail,

another item which was a must-have, as

was a full size basin. This sits on a corner

unit.

The walls of the shower room are lined

with laminate. It’s white, and has a sparkly

effect.

CABIN

In a narrowboat, the bed is either up

against one wall, or goes across the boat

and has to be made up each night. In a

widebeam, even a slim one like this, there

are no such compromises. The bed goes

across the boat, but there’s still room to

walk all round it. It’s also 4ft 6in wide - so a

normal double size. It’s also been built like

a bed frame, rather than being boxed in,

so items can be stored underneath just by

sliding them under; there’s no need for

doors or drawers. Either side of the bed is

a neat unit with drawers in the bottom

half, and a half-width, full height cupboard

above. Other storage includes a corner

cupboard opposite one corner of the bed,

and a full-height wardrobe on the other

side. This cupboard is much bigger inside

that you expect, because it borrows

otherwise wasted space from alongside

the shower cubicle.

TECHNICAL

This boat is fairly straightforward

technically. It’s powered by a Beta 38

engine, which should be more than

powerful enough for a boat of this size.

There’s also a Vetus 55kgf bow thruster.

Electrical power comes from four 110Ah

domestic batteries. A 240 volt supply

comes from a 1.6kW Victron inverter

charger. This is fairly small, but as this is a

holiday boat there aren’t any power-

hungry appliances such as a washing

machine on board.

There are two 150 watt solar panels on

the roof. These charge through a Victron

100/30 MPPT solar controller, which is big

enough to handle more panels should the

owners want to add them.

There are shore line points at both the

bow and the stern. The owners knew

which mooring they were having, so the

stern one is on the port side and the bow

one on the starboard, so whichever way

they came into their mooring, the cable

would be as short as possible.

Carole didn’t want to be cold in the

winter, so the heating system is a

substantial Kabola diesel boiler. It’s a big

unit, mounted in the engine hole; but

Andrew Crook says that while some

boilers are working at the upper end of

their range in a boat, this one could do a

lot more. The owners say it gets the boat

warm in a matter of minutes.

ON THE WATER

As we’ve seen, the difference between a

boat of 6ft 10im wide and one of 9ft is very

noticeable on the inside - but at the helm

the extra width is worn quite lightly.

THE BOAT TEST

Carole and Kevin Sharp bought their first boat

almost twenty-five years ago, and each

subsequent one has been a bit bigger than the

last. Their first was a GRP boat, a Fairline 19;

that was replaced by a 25ft cruiser-sterned

narrowboat by Hallmark, which they’re happy

to admit left a bit to be desired in the quality of

build and fitout; then they got a 40ft Liverpool

boat, again a cruiser stern.

That last boat was sold nine years ago, and

the couple have clearly been missing the

waterways. It was just a matter of time and

circumstances which tempted them back. A

big factor was that they’re both now retired.

Carole used to be in marketing, writing copy,

choosing photos, and creating brochures.

Kevin was in customer services in the utility

industry.

The name of their new boat, Jescka, has

been specially invented. It comes from the

name of the third crew member, Jessie the

dog (who’s a cavapooshon, in case you were

wondering), a C for Carole, a K for Kevin - and

an A because it needed something on the end!

THE OWNERS

Beta 38 provides motive power Dials and switchgear clear and effective

Full size basin in corner unit

Cassette toilet has porcelain bowl