The Boat

Quaintrelle is a 58ft narrowboat with her steel hull built in Sheffield by Tim Tyler and Jonathon Wilson and her interior fitted out by Oakcraft Narrowboats in Weedon.  I want to say 'lovingly' fitted out by Oakcraft, because Jim Birch, who is Oakcraft Narrowboats, is so passionate about his boats and each piece is lovingly made by him, all handcrafted.

Quaintrelle began life as The Spritely Gromit and arrived at Weedon for fitting out in October 2013.  We weren't there for her arrival but Ali, Jim's partner, took photos for us.

The Spritely Gromit arrives at Weedon - just a shell.

Not even a porthole cut out yet!
 We made our first visit in November and already she had changed.  Portholes had been cut out and fitted and spray insulation put in.

We were slightly nervous about our first meeting with Quaintrelle.

Nice portholes!

I decided to take the same view inside each time we came to see the progress - looking forwards from the galley to the double doors that would be in our bedroom
 Christmas 2013 came and went in a flurry of looking at boat interiors and thinking of colour schemes for both inside and out - not to mention her name!  The Spritely Gromit was her working name because we couldn't think of anything :(

Our next visit in January 2014....an undercoat of paint on the exterior and the start of our kitchen cupboards on the interior.


All the wiring was now in place and the bulkheads separating the bathroom from the living space.
 In March, we loaded a van up with stuff to come on the boat - to add to that already brought to Jim's lock-up in November.  Having passed our initial completion date, we were hoping to see some progress since January.

My pride and joy had arrived - The purple Heritage stove, which would do our hot water, heating and cooking.  It remains one of my favourite things on the boat :)

Things were taking shape in the living room and bathroom.


And Cleopatra's Nose now adorned our bedroom walls!
 Late March saw her in the shed being painted.  A slightly traumatic visit as she hadn't moved on since we last saw her really, but also, I HATED the green :(  I'd ended up picking her colours from a chart online, and as we all know, colours look different online.  I'd hoped for a muted sage green, but I had something that looked like frog vomit :(  I was gutted.  So was Jim - he'd been so excited for us to see her in colour.  He called that night and said they'd repaint the green with something a bit darker.
Frog vomit.

Progress in the kitchen.
 Although the green, purple and off-white are lighter than what I had envisaged, when we saw her completed paint-job in April, I thought she was the prettiest boat I'd ever seen.  I still think that, and so do many people on the cut - she gets lots of admiring glances and compliments.

We arrived on 17 April 2014 to move on board, but alas, she wasn't ready and we spent six weeks living in pubs and hotels around the area, the most memorable of which was the week spent at the Premier Inn at South Mimms Service Station............ I actually was quite liking it by the end of the week........

By the end of May she was ready.  She was worth the wait :)  We moved on board and on 24 June 2014 left Weedon and began our big adventure.
Looking forward from the galley - you can no longer see the double doors of the bedroom cos the bathroom's in the way, but it's the same view as earlier.

Living room looking back to galley.

Bespoke built-in shower.

Bathroom view back to living room.

Bedroom

 

4 comments:

  1. Hi Aileen and Mike,
    I've been following your articles in Canal Boat and on the blog with some interest.
    I'm at the design stage for my own dream boat. Coincidentally, the interior of Quaintrelle is very much how I envisage mine to look. Really lovely and beautifully finished. I'm particularly interested in the fact that you installed a Heritage cooker. This is my plan too, either a Heritage or a Sandyford, so that the boat can be gas-free. I'd be keen to know if you ran into any issues with the installation (e.g. I have heard that pre-heaters are needed when running on red diesel. How has the stove performed in practice? Is the short flue OK?
    Are you getting any issues with the Houdini hatch over the cooker? Leaking/condensation?
    I also notice that you have laid a beautiful wooden floor. Were you able to get the ballast right before this was laid? My plan is to install the cooker nearly centrally, to avoid too much offset weight.
    I intend to use the cooker to drive underfloor heating under an engineered oak floor. I will install fuel tanks totalling over 600L, so I can take a bulk delivery of red diesel.
    I'd be very pleased to receive your comments!
    Kind regards
    Paul

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    Replies
    1. Hi Paul,
      Thanks for your message and for having a look at our blog. The Heritgage stove remains one of our favourite things on the boat - it's fantastic. It runs our heating and hot water, although once you've cooked on it in the evening the residual heat is enough to keep the boat warm and we only use the heating in the depth of winter first thing, til we get the wood burner going. We've had no issues with it apart from needing to replace the thermostat last year, which Heritage posted out to us and I replaced myself easily. From cold in the morning, it takes 12 minutes to boil our kettle and about 20 minutes to heat water for showers. The hot water and heating controls are just like in a house and we set them to come on automatically for us getting up. No issues with the chimney or the hatch. There is the occasional drop of condensation when the temperatures are extreme, but nothing that we've been bothered by - we treat it like an extraction hood and usually have it open when cooking.
      The kitchen floor was the last thing to be fixed in place - in fact, I think the entire floor was laid, but not fixed down until she was correctly balanced with ballast - I can't remember for sure.

      Hope that helps and all the best with your boat build!

      Aileen

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    2. Hi Aileen
      Thank you so much for your reply. Unfortunately, I didn't get a notification that you had responded and it took a while to find it!
      It's encouraging to hear such positive comments about the range. This has helped make up my mind to have one. Now... which colour??

      Yours is such a beautiful boat - I am happy to admit that I am 'borrowing' lots of design ideas!!
      Interesting to see that you are still using an additional stove for heating. I have a reluctance to be 100% reliant on one device for all cooking and heating, so at the expense of a little space, I think the extra stove is a worthwhile addition.
      My plan is to lay quite a complex floor. It will have an 18mm ply base, then an insulating layer with underfloor heating pipes laid into it, followed by the engineered oak top layer. The only real issue this creates, is absolutely having to get the ballast dead right first time. Or it's going to mean a *lot* of undoing! :(
      The extra thickness will be offset by using the full 100cm width of the steel for the cabin sides, with a grab rail mounted on top. This will gain 40mm headroom.
      One other question - looking at your bare shell photos, it looks like the hull is built square. Did you go for 208cm baseplate to get vertical sides? This is my plan, which will gain 3" of width at floor level, which should make quite a difference when fitting square objects against the walls.
      Hoping for the build to start next May/June to coincide with the arrival of a restored Lister JP2 or JP3.
      I'll have to start a blog like yours, though I could only dream about doing the journeys you have!

      Safe cruising and best regards
      Paul

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  2. Jim birch narrow boat magician .Recently saw Theodoric another truly astonishing oak craft creation .long may they continue

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