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Welcome to Bluewater Boats Ltd

Narrowboats

Continuously cruising the UK canals and living aboard a narrowboat can be a wonderful way of life – you're free to move and change the view from the window whenever you want and there's no need to pack for a holiday.

Whether you are looking for a weekend and holiday craft or have decided to ‘up sticks’ and live aboard, you can trust our superbly built narrowboats to perform beautifully and to look magnificent.

At Bluewater Boats the bespoke service we offer commences with our narrowboat hulls. 

After opting for a narrowboat we initiate our bespoke level of service with the hull and stern design, this also extends to items such as positioning of gas lockers, storage lockers, morse control unit etc to the requirements of each customer. 

Before deciding on the length and style of your narrowboat we have listed some useful guidance to assist you along the way.

There are three main designs of stern used on narrowboats. Traditional, Semi-Trad and Cruiser.

The Traditional stern incorporates a small rear deck, and hatchway into the body of the boat. The helmsman stands in the hatchway in order to steer the boat, leaving little or no room for a second person. Thus this design leaves the rear of the boat a very solitary place, but does provide considerable shelter from the wind and rain on poor days.

The semi trad stern is an adaptation of the traditional stern for modern residential boats. Although the sides of the boat continue back to the rear deck, the roof is cutaway, providing an area for passengers to stand or sit on lockers with the helmsman, rather than leaving the rear of the boat deserted. From the side or from a distance, the barge can appear as if it is of a traditional style.

The cruiser stern originates in hire boats, but is still popular among private barges. It gives a large rear deck which can be adapted to have seats along a rail at the rear, allowing many passengers to use the rear of the boat while in motion. When moored, the rear deck can accommodate folding chairs so that you can enjoy an evening outside.

Bows

There are many variations on the design for conventional narrowboat bows, although there are two common styles - Josher and Tug. Josher's are named after Joshua Fellows, of "Fellows, Morton and Clayton", one of the early carrying companies on Britain's canals. The bows of these boats are long and slender, and today will often be produced with false rivets to simulate the style of the older barges construction methods.

Tugs on the other hand will have a long foredeck, often ten feet or more in length. The design is based on that of the Tugs which were used to tow other craft around the inland waterways. The problem with this style, is the space that is wasted under this deck, which is of little use except for storage, or child's beds (if they can cope with the cramped space!) But the style is very distinctive, and is often a popular choice when the interior space is not too much of an issue.

Windows

Although modern narrowboats often have large rectangular windows to maximize the light inside, the traditional port holes are still popular among the traditionalists.  An easy compromise for this is to use a combination of both.  Also large glass skylights can alleviate lighting in a narrowboat.