Bob & Barbara Penney’s Journey…..So Far!
One day Barbara said to me, “I’m fed-up climbing over you to go to the toilet in the middle of the night and I want to use a proper ironing board. I don’t want to go back to living on land, but something has got to change!”
Believe me this statement doesn’t sum up Barbara’s nature, but after 5 years it was becoming time for a new perspective.
On our bespoke and owned from new 2020 Braidbar 62’ hybrid (diesel electric) narrowboat, The Tudor Tamar No.187, we have extensively cruised the canals and rivers of England & Wales.
Our narrowboat adventure was a way of both living on water and exploring our country. Being a bit more adventurous than the majority, we had pushed the normal narrow boating boundaries too.
Notable adventures and cruises include cruising the Manchester Ship Canal from the Weaver Navigation into Manchester, as well as, going over the Manchester Ship Canal on the Barton Swing Bridge (Bridgewater Canal).
Tidal and estuary trips include the Mersey from Eastham into Liverpool, the Ribble Link from Leeds Liverpool Canal (Rufford Branch) along the rivers Douglas and Ribble to join the Lancaster Canal, Sharpness to Portishead along the Severn and then the Avon into Bristol floating harbour, across The Wash from Boston to King’s Lynn (including a planned grounding on a sand bar), and the tidal Thames (most notably with St. Pancreas Cruising Club out of Limehouse Lock, past the flood barriers and returning up stream to Teddington).
On our narrowboat on the Thames in particular, we’d seen every sort of floating possibility. We’d admired (or not) all sorts… new / old, sailing, white plastic boats, re-purposed orange lifeboats, floating gin palaces, other narrowboats, wide beams, day boats, rowing boats, trip boats, Police boats, Le Boat (and other) hire boats, house boats, serious sea going motor cruisers, as well as Dutch barges. And, including, what seemed to me to be some very smart Piper Dutch Barges.
So coming back to, it’s the time for a change, the solution to the conundrum we faced was starting to emerge.
I floated the idea of a bigger boat, meeting the required bed and ironing board criteria. Fortunately it didn’t sink!
Research soon led us to believe that a new Dutch (style) Barge from Piper Boats could be the solution.
Owning a Braidbar narrowboat meant we expected the best. This includes design, quality, after sales service and support, scope for new boating experiences, good people to deal with, reputation, an owner’s community and of course a stunning boat to look at.
We met Simon Piper, inspected the factory, visited some marvellous Piper boats and their owners both here in the UK and at the Salon Fluvial Show at Saint-Jean-De-Losne.
We decided on a bespoke Piper 60 Luxemotor as this would give us all the things we could think of. Obviously, this includes room for the ironing board and a big bed to get out of on your own side of the bed. Importantly, really like the secondary helm position, so we can cruise outside and the spacious wheelhouse, so we can cruise in adverse weather conditions. Other considerations were an office space, no gas on board and a boat suitably spec’d for rivers, coastal (to meet my more adventurous boating aspirations) and big European canals.
Right now, the Dutch steel has arrived at the factory and Piper Boats have started cutting and welding the steel from the base plate up to build our new boat.
There’s a great adventure ahead of us and we’re really looking forward to it. The build process itself and then the living and boating around the UK in a luxury Dutch Barge, which will be called “Tudor Tamar.”
We very much look forward to seeing and meeting many other “Pipers” along the way!
P.S. I won’t be surprised if Andrea asks for an update to our story at some stage in the future.
