Beautiful carpentry in our latest luxury narrowboat Hawk

Our latest luxury narrowboat, Hawk, now has clearly defined living and sleeping areas, following an intensive period of work by our carpenter Jeff. You may have read in previous blogs about the progress we’ve made since the steel shell arrived back in July from Alexander Boat Builders.

All attention has been on the saloon and galley this past month. The carpentry in those areas is almost complete, just awaiting the final sand. But before that can happen, Jeff, who’s a stickler for detail, will check there are no rough edges anywhere and make sure that any pencil marks are removed.

Sarah has the unenviable task of painting the tongue and groove ceiling white. It’s the first time that we’ve chosen this type of finish, having been inspired by some of the classical yachts built at the turn of the 20th century that are copied today by famous Dutch boat builders like K&M Yacht Building. It’s rather fiddly, as Sarah needs to mask off all the edges so that she doesn’t get white paint on the varnished wooden trim. And there are some particularly hard-to-reach areas above the galley... oh, poor Jeff was in trouble when Sarah discovered those!

Work has now moved on to the double cabin where Jeff is busy incorporating lots of storage space: three shelves, large cupboards above the bed, a full-length wardrobe and three spacious drawers under the bed. Another first for us is building a bed frame (4ft wide x 6ft 4 inches long) that slides away from the wall for the night and can be pushed back during the day. This gives a sense of spaciousness when in bed, instead of one person feeling hemmed in on three sides. Taller guests will also be pleased with the foot hole which we have designed at the bottom of one half of the bed so they can dangle their feet over the bottom of the mattress if they wish!

The luxury shower room is next on our ‘to do’ list, and we’ll let you know how it’s going in a month or so. We’re delighted with the interest being shown in Hawk as she develops – we’ve received so many emails and phone calls. In fact almost 30% of holidays on Hawk in 2015 are already booked so check availability now if you’ve a particular date in mind.