Ric and Jane got bitten by the canal bug a while ago. This is our narrowboat "House Sparrow", moored on the Leicester Section of the Grand Union canal near the bottom of the lock flight at Watford Gap in Feb 07.

"House Sparrow" is an ex-hire boat, built in 1991 by Alvechurch boatyards for their hire fleet. We hired the boat a couple of years ago, when we took this picture on the Llangollen canal. We bought the boat when Alvechurch sold her at the end of the 2006 hire season. She is a perfectly conventional forty-five foot steel narrowboat with a cruiser stern (which means she has a large platform at the back where everybody stands when you're under way). She has had fifteen years of wear and tear in the hire fleet, so, as you would expect, the engine is a bit tired. On the other hand, since Alvechurch built her themselves, they built her for reliability, since they don't want to spend all their profits going out to fix breakdowns, and for comfort, since they want to the customers to be happy. (We certainly were when we hired from them). The central heating is wonderful! The boat is pretty solid since it was designed to be driven by drunken amateurs rather than helmed by experienced boatmen. The main problem that showed up in the survey was leaky stern gear, which Alvechurch fixed as part of the purchase deal.

The companionway into the boat leads directly to the galley, with the dining area beyond. We run on tea so having the kettle easily accessible from the deck is ideal for us. Lots of boats have a bedroom at the back, which means that if you cruise in the rain you either have to shut the companionway hatch or the bedding gets wet. The vinyl floor under the hatch is a lot more practical than bedding! We also really like the lengthwise galley, with a long ceramic-topped working surface one side and the sink and cooker the other. The sink is opposite a window, so you can watch the ducks whilst washing up. On a lot of boats the galley is crosswise, so it can't have as much space and you're looking along the boat when standing at the sink.