235. The tiniest canal boats in the world?

hello and welcome to the monmouthshire and brecken canal the monon brick it is a truly stunningly beautiful canal a little gem the trouble is it's not connected to the rest of the canal network but it's that quirk that gave rise to the invention of the boats i've come to see today welcome to south wales where it's no great surprise to find it's raining another clue you're in wales is when filming is interrupted by sheep regular viewers will know i am partial to a tiny narrowboat but this isn't what i've come to see today every now and then on my videos you'll have caught glimpses of an extremely small fiberglass canal boat here's a prime example on the trent and mersey recently it's a wilderness trailboat and their natural home is south wales which is why i went to a tiny slipway at the side of the canal where the designer of those ingenious craft was about to slide one into the water and here it comes easily towed on a small trailer by a compact family car the man who invented it in the 1970s told me how it came about it was nearly 50 years ago we were living in this area husband and wife and two children and we desperately wanted to get a float on a on the waterways particularly this monster brecken canal and we had a little bit of cash left over from a house transaction so we built the first boat as a prototype now it wasn't a prototype at the time it was the family boat it was based on an expanded thames punt shorter than thames punt but wider and this gave it extreme stability and we built a shed-like structure on the top of it and this peculiar craft was then set afloat on this particular canal in building the first boat it wasn't really the intention to go into the boat building business people came along and said where did you get that where can i get one from and we suddenly realized that maybe there was some possibility of going into production although at that time i had no industrial experience so i got my head together with my brother-in-law who was a qualified carpenter and we set about building patterns to make our own glass fiber molds for a boat of our own slightly revised design and that was called the water route this is a water rat a floating shed as ian described the wilderness boat concept really developed a few years later when we realized how trailable the boat was we built a rudimentary trailer for the prototype boat and then we went into production of the water up boats and then we started supplying trailers because a number of customers had cars big enough to tow this size of load the later model emerged in 1978 which was the 23-foot beaver which is a longer version of this boat that i've got here today let's have a look around a 23-foot version then which is truly a marvel of packaging that sir alec isigonis himself would be impressed by 23 feet doesn't sound like much but you can pack an awful lot in the rear deck is a lovely open space for steering or enjoying a nice tipple when you're moored the seats double as storage lockers as well as containing propane cylinders for cooking and heating and the leisure batteries motive power comes from an outboard petrol engine there's space if you want it for solar on the roof to give a comparison with a conventional narrowboat here's one now you could get two and a half wilderness boats in the same space making mooring a breeze and turning as you'll see inside are four berths a galley and shower room two berths are at the front which during the day make up a dinette and seating area to maximize legroom the berths disappear into the bow by a fraction with so much glass to the front and the sides it's light and doesn't feel at all cramped even on a rainy day the tiny well deck is shaped to just give enough space to sit out if the weather improves and you can see the water tank filler cap on the corner there the linear galley offers two gas burners with an oven and grill beneath and there's a compact sink to the side with a tiny draining board opposite is not only a worktop but a 12 volt compressor fridge below and a cupboard for food crockery and utensils there's extra storage on the bulkhead between the galley and the rear cabin speaking of that here you have two further bunks again extending under the deck so as to ensure sufficient legroom it's an ingenious way to squeeze in the four berths a hanging cupboard is there for clothes the toilet is an electric flush cassette type like i have on my narrow boat there's also a shower and sink under the step into the cabin is another storage area here housing a small generator as well as other items underneath the modern fuse box and switch panel is a control for blown air central heating in the cockpit lockers fuel for the outboard propane cylinders and other boaty essentials plus not one but two leisure batteries the popularity of this clever little boat on the mon and breck is easily seen browsing the craft moored at this wharf further along the canal every other boat it seemed was a wilderness i spoke to one of the owners who explained how he'd come to choose it wife and i've been on the canals for 45 years originally hiring tried to get away on a holiday once a year and i liked it so much we must have hired for about 20 odd years and last last lately one of our last house was on the mono break and then we realized that this is beautiful you know this is really is a different canal and it's the closest to home for us so we started then seriously looking for a boat took us about two years and we narrowed it down to one other type of cruiser and the wilderness craft and well we just got lucky with the wilderness we kind of like the uh the whole style it it looks like a design of a canal narrowboat as you appreciate but it's not uh you know it's a grp but of course she's so light in in construction and in in weight tonnage uh highly maneuverable perfect for this type of canal the narrow uh got confines she'll spin around on sixpence and float on damp grass as i call it so um it's it really ticked all the boxes for us clive describes the boat as being able to float on damp grass it's a flat bottom design but there are some lowered bumps in the keel to help keep it going straight and true as you chug along the other favorite feature of a wilderness that clive mentioned is its turning circle as you'll now see demonstrated not for these owners having to keep going until you find a suitable winding hole to turn around as you would with most narrowboats for a wilderness pretty much anywhere is a winding hole and before you know it you're heading back the other way clive says the boats are ideal for all kinds of reasons i think it's a compact size and how they're designed inside they've got really all the fittings you need of a of a larger boat but more compact uh they're easy access that's a big big selling point and very very much appreciated their walk on walk off many of the boats you'll see around you and on the canals uh uh climb aboard you have to lift your leg and climb over now with folk uh either disabled or get elder elderly this becomes a little difficult these craft you just walk on and step down and you're in there's plenty of headroom uh they're very comfortable they're light and airy i think i'd be selling them would you ever sell yours ah no i prefer not to no i don't think so unless it was for an upgraded model put it that way speaking of other models the one i was watching being launched at the slipway was even smaller at just 17 and a half feet this is the beaver cub version but even so it still fits in two berths which convert to a dinette a galley and shower room inside is the now familiar wide expanse of glass at the bow doors and to the sides of the cabin giving you clear views of the canal and all the beauty it holds the dinette follows the same arrangement as before that table comes down to form an infill when you want to use this space as a bed the water tank by the way is under the end bench seat just visible through that hatch there's a hot air heating vent at the back where you step inside the galley faces the shower room no shortage of facilities here with four gas rings grill and oven plus a caravan style three-way fridge that has storage underneath and above with every little nook used for something the tiny shower room or cupboard really houses a portable toilet a foldaway sink and a shower this black box under the rear deck seats heats both water and cabin air so staying aboard need not be uncivilized in any way finally there's two leisure batteries underneath all that gear kept topped up by a tiny solar panel on the roof after backing the boat down the slip into the water it's a simple matter of disconnecting the strap and pushing the boat out with the little outboard motor burbling nicely the diminutive beaver cub can be spun around and pointed in the direction of adventure mother and son owners ruth and jackson told me the boats have multiple uses we were attracted to the fact that we can trail the boat that we can pull it out to the canal easily our canal wayway beast is disconnected so not um we can go anywhere in this country but also the ability to use it as a caravan whilst it's on the trailer means that we can then go further afield and as many other wilderness owners have done take it to france is our main aim it is a very practical boat for its size it's got all of the accommodation that you would ever need on a boat of that size and it's quite easy to drive very easy to handle and just very practical theirs was fitted out by a prior owner and is now a bit of a diy project to turn into their dream i'll show you some of the unique features of the fit out starting with the funky lighting the shower room is neat in that the portable toilet can be pushed back under a cupboard when not in use so you get maximum showering space and the loo doesn't get soaked imagine that out of the way and you've got quite a decent sized shower stall plus it leaves enough room for a full-size sink instead of a fold-away one with storage underneath another unusual touch is that the galley has been made extra narrow so the space between it and the shower doesn't feel cramped when you're cooking normally an issue on a boat of this layout i rather like the foot pump for the water to the sink using no battery power and here the forward dinette is two facing bunks rather than the u-shaped arrangement seen in the other boats each has a bedside light switch within reach no emerging from under the covers to turn the light off here more design ideas are apparent as what appears to be a bulkhead is in fact a concealed dining table which slots between the forward seats and even more clever the step to the back deck is not just a cupboard but a draw that slides fully forward between the bunks giving you a huge space for storage owning one of these is say ruth and jackson a gateway to a new world in more ways than one it takes about 10 seconds if you're really quick to untie the boat and you can be off yeah i think it's easy to use it's very very comfortable inside much more comfortable i find to sit in than a cruiser lovely to look out of the windows lots of windows and you're right there is a community it's nice to meet another wilderness on the canal and we all sort of know each other's boats more perhaps than the people but there's the club as well the wilderness boat homeless club which is not national not just on our canal obviously but um there is yes a proper community spirit i think for wilderness owners isn't there yeah yeah yeah the owners club has been a great joy to us uh but it was uh self self-started nothing to do with uh us as manufacturers this is people who had purchased a wilderness boat realized they got something in common with their boating colleagues and they started their own club it is a virtual club in some respects because the membership is scattered so far around the uk and one or two uh overseas uh that they only meet up once a year which is usually at a iwa waterways festival and that's where they hold their agm and conduct their business but the rest of the time they've got a very good informative website and they they've also got a an email ring where they all communicate with each other and share each other's problems and take on each other's solutions and they're all honing their boats all the time to a degree of or considerable degree of satisfaction if at times i've sounded like an evangelist for these cute little boats during this video i assure you it is not an advert i just fell in love with them i like their size their design and their story and that tale just changed again too since filming this video the designs and moulds and other stuff you need to build a brand new wilderness boat have been brought up by a company called clearwater boats and they're going to restart production because there hadn't been any new ones built for quite a while and they're offering some more modern day accessories too like electric outboard motors hope you found the video interesting and thanks for watching cheerio you

Channel: CruisingTheCut

Views: 628,429

Rating: 4.9595366 out of 5

Keywords: narrowboat, canal boat, barge, barging, narrow, canal, boat, the cut, widebeam, liveaboard, continuous cruising, continuous, cruiser, RV, motorhome, campervan, sailing, tiny house, houseboat, house boat, vlog, Wilderness, GRP, fibreglass, fiberglass, trailboat, towing, trailer, Mon & Brec, Wales, Brecon, Montgomery, Ian Graham, owners club, Dr Who, TARDIS, Dr. Who

Id: myHNzvF3yGI

Length: 17min 9sec (1029 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 24 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/el_morte]

I watch this on Amazon video before I crash for the night. Nice and slow, just chilling out from the day. Natural sounds. Pretty neat!

[u/Sways-way]

Oh my! I want one so bad!!

To bad I live in America :(

[u/artful_todger_502]

I watch his vids often, I havn't seen this one. Very cool! My Wife was really excited about finding these Beavers a few months ago, but just a little too small for our needs ...

Here is something similar Boatshed sends to my email. From the USA, this is all pretty new to me, but I guess these are a stretched version of the Beaver concept and less expensive than a proper narrowboat due to the construction? I hope this is not spamming, I have no connection to the boat or company, just posted as reference:

https://www.boatshed.com/bounty\_37-boat-302653.html