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| Traditional steel narrowboat |
Sitting here in Cape Town, the canals and waterways of Europe are fast becoming a distant memory. I fear losing sight of our goal to purchase a boat, and get cruising again.
A quick look back at the photos from our past boating holidays soon brings back my focus.
Over the last few years we have done a selection of quite different types of holidays afloat, and in different areas.
From each we have gained much useful knowledge about boats, boating and travelling.
Hopefully we can put all this knowledge and experience to good use in our buying process, and also share it with anyone else out there who might be considering either buying, or just planning a holiday afloat.
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| GRP widebeam cruiser |
This year, as covered in the last few posts, we did a trip on the Monmouth and Brecon Canal in Wales. This was on a traditional steel narrowboat.
In 2008 we were fortunate to have the use of a relative's craft for a month on the River Yonne and Nivernaise Canal in France.
That one was GRP (Glass Fibre) and somewhat shorter but wider than the narrowboat, and consequently more spacious inside.
(GRP is sometimes referred to somewhat disparagingly as 'plastic')
There are pros and cons to both steel and glass fibre construction. The first point is in the strength. Canals by their nature and construction have numerous locks, and there is inevitably some contact with the lock walls.
On one trip a local remarked that canal boating was a 'contact sport'! So naturally steel is more favourable from this aspect.
The first picturer shows a traditional steel narrowboat, (actually the one we hired in 2007 in UK), while the second shows the GRP craft on the Nivernaise in France.Labels: waterways canals boats holidays
