Directions

I've had a thought in my head for a few days now and it won't go away.

It's a carry over from the last post, where I talked about living on a narrowboat. You think about it some more and you come to realise : This is a definite possibility.

Not just yet though. Before I did make the switch to having my own little castle on the water, I'd need :

To pay off the mortgage so I'd have the equity from the house.
Get healed up.

I've not talked about my health for a little while. I'm still shredded but ... I know more than I did last week thanks to a couple of horrible days on Thursday and Friday. I thought I was having a negative reaction to my hayfever pills. And the two horrible days were when I wasn't taking them. So I'll keep on them while I heal up. And I am healing now, genuinely. I won't heal in time to get any cricket in this year but ... As long as I get my bounce back soon, I'll be happy.

This direction thing ? Back to boats ...

I've pretty much meandered through life, taking each day as it comes. My original long term goal was : Be Happy, Make a partner laugh, Have Kids. That's been frustrated by shacking up with the wrong people and recovering from the emotional fallout that comes from that. More recently it's been from not wanting to inflict the consequences of this skin condition on anyone else.

But with these thoughts of living on a boat, I have a new long term goal. I have something I can look at 5, 10, 20 years ahead and think : That's my aim. Before, that long term aim was a kit car. But ... they're toys with no real practical purpose unless you take up racing. I'm too old for that now, my reactions are too dulled. I would not be competing at the level I would expect.

A canal barge ? Compare them to new build houses and the houses come off badly. Houses are exploding in price and the quality of build is ... not great. The profit motive comes in with cheap materials and bad labourers. You look at the pictures of canal narrowboats and you're gobsmacked by how amazing the finish is. Plus you can pack up and move your narrowboat to another marina if you don't like the neighbours.

I know a close friend is having all sorts of neighbour issues and is upset with the builders too - this is at a new build house location. I remember these things. It was similar with my sister's house, the quality of materials was not up to standard.

So - quality :

Here's what they look like on the outside :

Ok, not so sure about the colour scheme. I'd look at a sky or dark blue with one of my dragons painted on with the name somewhere. Green is another possibility but wouldn't work with the dragon.

Here's the inside :

That looks stunning doesn't it ?

And with a custom build boat, you can extend your own theme like that through the rest of the boat. For me, I'd be looking at having a saloon that can convert into a small surround sound movie theatre. That would need some thought ... But I think I know where the complicated things would go. There would be steps to the front, where a couple of the awkward (amp, front speaker) things would go and a ceiling mounted projector with drop down screen would turn out pretty special. I'd also have a media centre type PC with a touchscreen somewhere to do telly without the big stuff coming out, along with the usual laptops.

One thing to consider there though - a surround sound amp plus a projector take serious power, which you'd need to account for in the design.

Layout ?

That's the kind of layout I'd look for. From Stern to Bow :
Semi-traditional steerage position, this is where the engine and noisy bits go.
Master bedroom
Bathroom - I'd go for this thinner type, other boats have you walk through the bathroom to get from bow to stern.
Galley - with the oven, microwave, fridge/freezer, washing machine mod cons. Some even have a dishwasher ... That's better than my house !
Saloon - the living area
Cratch - an area at the bow which can be used as an outside sitting and munching area.

I'd also look at underfloor heating (yes - really!) because that would save interior space.

I think the dream is real. And there's a few marinas around the Bristol area that are reasonably close to work too.

Name of the boat ? It can only be :

Sleeping Dragon.

Question before I go - what would you name your boat and why ?