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Scottish Focus: On the back of a lorry

ON THE third Monday in July, Terry Scott Marine made the first cut into Hotelboat Willow, to shorten her for a new cruising life on Scottish canals. Just four days later all the steelwork was done and a four-foot shorter Willow was loaded on to the ‘extended trailer’ of Duncan Milner’s Transport.

A common misconception is that road transport of a narrowboat involves use of a low loader. Such a trailer just wouldn’t be long enough. All but the shortest of narrowboats need an extended trailer, where the trailer ‘telescopically’ extends to accommodate the length of the narrowboat. The hull becomes part of the ‘body’ of the trailer. Seen on the road, climbing a hump back bridge, it’s an impressive (slightly worrying) sight.

Our driver was James Milner, son of Duncan, and young at 22 years. But we need not have been concerned, it became quickly apparent that he knew exactly what he was doing with obvious professionalism. Chatting with James revealed that the core business involved moving railway locomotives around the country, so a 20-ton Willow was almost lightweight by comparison. The Milners have been in heavy haulage for decades, and James had been brought up with the business.

Following James and Willow for a while, we noticed the clever way James positioned the lorry on approach to roundabouts – to safely prevent any following motorist from foolishly undercutting his position, while about 80ft of vehicle and boat negotiated the turns. Travelling north on the M6, Willow attracted a fair amount of attention from passing cars, with many a flash from ‘smart phone photography’. With an overnight stop at a motorway service station, James brought Willow to Sandpoint Marina, Dumbarton, before noon the following day.

Into tidal waters

Water from Loch Lomond is carried by the River Leven into the Firth of Clyde at Dumbarton. Here, at Sandpoint Marina, Willow was to be ‘craned in’ on the rising tide. Craning the boat into tidal waters would be the first time Willow had met water since being cut into two pieces and then welded up again – but we had every faith in Terry Scott Marine’s welding skills…

Once floating again we would ‘sail’ her up the tidal Clyde to Bowling where we would ‘lock up’ on to the Forth & Clyde Canal. This was quite a daunting prospect in a narrowboat. Apart from the Clyde being ‘merely’ tidal, the trip would involve contacting ‘Clyde Estuary Control’ to get permission to enter the shipping lane. And ships do use this waterway. Very big, fast ships, with big wakes, and the shipping channel is not very wide.

Even the tugs that follow the ships are big compared to a narrowboat. Boats entering the Forth and Clyde canal at Bowling can only do so during a ‘window’ of between two hours before and two hours after high tide – an added complication to the planning. Most narrowboats get craned in on the less daunting east coast River Carron – but exceeding 20 tons, Willow was too heavy for the crane there.

But it all went incredibly smoothly.  James neatly lined up Willow for the crane to position her on to the launching vehicle’s straps. Sandpoint’s launching vehicle is designed for boats up to 40 tons so carrying Willow efficiently and smoothly down the marina’s slipway was effortless. Once positioned on the slipway, Willow was left there, hanging on the launch vehicle, in mid air. It stayed like that for over an hour waiting for the tide to rise and bring the water level up to Willow.

The water did rise and once Willow was floating, the launching vehicle was removed. Needless to say there weren’t any leaks (at least we didn’t notice any rising air bubbles). We telephoned ‘Clyde Estuary Control’ to be informed that there were no threatening ships to worry about during our transit. We were helpfully advised that the estuary was ‘like a mill pond’ (relatively speaking). Seemingly, Clyde Estuary Control has camera equipment to monitor the length of their shipping lane and the prevailing sea conditions.

So accompanied by experienced boatman son, Craig, and two local yachtsmen for local knowledge, we took Willow away from Sandpoint heading downstream on the Leven heading for the Clyde. The sea was indeed fairly calm and passage upstream on the Clyde to Bowling was uneventful. Without another boat or ship in sight the Erskine Bridge soon loomed up and we turned into Bowling Harbour and the welcome sight of the Sea Lock. We had judged the tide right and were soon locking up from the Clyde into Bowling Basin – now safe on the Forth & Clyde canal.

Interior refit

Willow’s journey to the Falkirk Wheel then paused at Bowling’s upper basin for a fortnight or so. We have our other, private, sea boat moored there with electric hook-up and car parking. So it was a convenient place for us to now start the refit of Willow’s shortened interior. We wanted to arrive at the ‘Wheel’ already fitted out. The newly refitted area needed to blend seamlessly with the look of the original interior, so we had scrupulously number coded the wooden panels taken out earlier. Those pieces of wood had to go back ‘in the same place’ – just shortened by four feet. New wood could never have matched up with the mature colouring and grain of the original woodwork.

Not wanting to put up with a short cramped lounge, we decided to combine the present remaining lounge area with the bow cabin area, to make one spacious split level lounge. Our swivel chairs in the upper area could now face forwards while cruising, maintaining our ‘glazed bow observation cabin’ feature. But when in stationary ‘lounge’ mode the seats could be swivelled to face the rest of the boat’s interior as part of the lounge seating.

To open up and combine the two areas, we removed most of the steel bulkhead and hardwood doors that had previously separated the two cabin areas. Of course we had 4ft of spare Parana wood panelling to blend in the woodwork of the two original areas. With vertical solid oak baluster posts to act as hand rails, at the split level of the lounge, we think the refit has improved the lounge area giving it a more open spacious feel.

Once refitted, we would head east on the Forth & Clyde canal on the last leg of the trip to our new spectacular home mooring in the basin at the foot of the Falkirk Wheel. Our first Scottish hotel boat booking was to start on September 1. But we felt relaxed about that prospect. Our first Scots client was to be our longest standing English regular client – on her 13th cruise with us.