You might recall us announcing the arrival of our latest 6-berth canal boat, Hawk, in a blog post back in July. Or to be more precise, the arrival of a steel shell which Jim and his team at Alexander Boat Builders had just built to our specification. Since then our team of highly-skilled craftspeople have given Hawk a great deal of attention behind the closed doors of our industrial unit in Llangattock. So what exactly have we been up to?

1. We painted the outside of this traditional narrowboat in Beacon Park Boat’s classic colours of green and cream so she'll match the rest of our fleet.

2. Next we sealed the steel floor of the boat with two-pack bilge paint. Then we added ballast to make her sit lower in the canal so that the propeller is under the surface of the water. This is the worst part of the entire build – lifting heavy slabs and laying them in the base of the narrowboat.

3. Once that was completed, we screwed down the wooden floor, and trimmed the sides and the roof with treated wooden battens, ready for the wooden interior to be fixed at a later stage. We've got plenty of timber in the store!

4. Then the inside of the canal boat was entirely covered with spray foam insulation. Some boat builders use other forms of insulation which do not cover every bit of steel but we think this is crucial if we are to prevent condensation occurring on the metal. As a result Hawk, like all our fleet, will be warm and cosy inside even when the weather turns a bit chilly!

5. The first fix wiring was next. It’s very difficult to change our minds about anything after this as we’ve fixed the position of lighting and electric sockets. Hopefully we’ve got it right!

Now we’re about to start work on the ceiling. We’ve decided to try something different on Hawk – we’re going to use tongue and groove timber which we’ll paint later. What do you think of that idea? We’ve taken our inspiration from a study of classical yachts built at the turn of the 20th century and copied today by famous Dutch boat builders like K&M Yacht Building.

Hawk is proving attractive even before anyone’s seen her and bookings for 2015 have started well. Sorry, the very first week of the season has already gone to our regular visitors from Finland but there are some prime dates still available! So if you fancy being one of the first to cruise the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal on Hawk, book online now.

5 jobs completed on our new narrowboat Hawk

Find out more what's on around the Mon & Brec Canal

It’s almost here... the third weekend in September when Abergavenny comes alive with thousands of people enjoying food and drink, and usually great weather, too. Here are some tips from the locals...

Inside the Victorian Market Hall © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales

While there are plenty of other venues with food and drink suppliers and even the streets themselves are packed with bustling stalls, the Victorian Market Hall with the verdigris roof to its clock tower has something extra special. Look up and you’ll see a spectacular art installation entitled ‘Pigs and Garlands’. These colourful creations are the result of an annual collaboration between theatre designer Bettina Reeves, local arts organisation Arts Alive Wales and Abergavenny Food Festival.

At Arts Alive Wales’ studio in nearby Crickhowell, Bettina has gathered the very best materials and inspired a team of up to 60 volunteers, who have lovingly built, stuffed, stitched and painted virtually non-stop for the past month. A mixture of professional artists, keen craftspeople and other community members aged between 16 and 80, they have grown in skill and ambition year on year since the Festival started in 1999.

If you get into the Market Hall early not only will you have the best choice of produce to choose from on the many stalls but you’ll also be able to gaze upwards and admire these giant pigs without fear of being moved on by the crowds! If you do miss them, come back another day – these delightful creatures will be on display all year.

Buy a signed copy of your favourite cookbook so you’ll have plenty of inspiration to spend time in the kitchen once you get home. The long list of authors who’ll be in the Market Hall signing books this weekend includes chef Valentine Warner, River Cottage’s Steven Lamb and wine critic Jancis Robinson.

Plenty of space to chill out in Abergavenny Castle grounds © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales

It’s a beautiful grassy spot with views of the Blorenge mountain and a vast array of stalls selling food for you to eat right now (not take home with you). You’ll be entertained by music in the covered Dome, enjoy the Rude Health Rants and the children have the chance to take part in cooking workshops or simply let off steam.

4. Round off Saturday at the Night Market

This is a first for Abergavenny Food Festival – a magical evening of laid-back music and super street food traders in Lower Brewery Yard, behind the Market Hall. Sounds like a great place to spend a few hours with friends. Check it out!

Though it can feel very frenetic at times, it’s not a race. There’s an endless variety of things to eat and drink all weekend long so don’t gorge on the first lovely dish you see. Eat small and often may be good advice or you’ll be too full before you’ve experienced half the Festival. Also remember that before long you can be carrying around lots of goodies to take home, and a heavy bag takes its toll. If you ask politely, some stall holders will keep items you’ve purchased for collection at the end of the day. But don’t forget to go back and collect them. Keep the map handy!

View of Abergavenny from the Blorenge with the Skirrid Fawr in the distance © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales

And if you fancy some time away from the crowds, there are three prominent mountains around Abergavenny that you can escape to, and plenty of places to visit just a short drive away!

5 top tips for enjoying Abergavenny Food Festival

A big pat on the back to everyone involved in organising Sunday’s Canalathon on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal – it was a huge success. The weather was good, the event was well managed and we had a great time kayaking, cycling and running 33 miles from Pontymoile to Brecon.

The training certainly paid off as Team Beacon Park Boats was the first to cross the line. Indeed Alasdair crossed the finish line before the actual line was set up! Despite being the 16th team to take to the canal in the kayaks, we gradually edged our way up the field to reach Brecon first. Unfortunately one member of our team came off his bike during the middle section and had to retire from the Canalathon but joined us in Brecon.

The celebratory mood at Brecon Basin, with music and food, was a super end to the day. Let’s hope lots of money was raised for Canal & River Trust, and it becomes a regular event on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal.

For us, there's another training session tonight as we're building up to the Lloyds Bank Cardiff Half Marathon on Sunday 5th October.

The 13.1 mile race follows a beautiful flat course, starting outside Cardiff Castle and taking in Cardiff City Stadium, Penarth Marina, Cardiff Bay Barrage, the Norwegian Church and Wales Millennium Centre before the grandstand finish at City Hall.

Alasdair is particularly keen to get a new personal best of 1 hour 26 minutes but he's even more committed to raising £1,000 for Barnado's. Get in touch if you'd like to make a donation.

So we're off into the great outdoors later to run a few more miles... which is hardly difficult when we're running through the stunning scenery of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Monmouthshire & Brecon Canalathon a great success

We’re always up for a challenge. Usually on water, but sometimes on land. On Sunday 14th September we’re combining both with a 33-mile endurance challenge called the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canalathon 2014. Starting at Pontymoile Basin, near Pontypool, our team of four will canoe 5 miles, cycle 17 miles and finish with an 11 mile run that ends at the canal terminus in Brecon.

It’s a sell out: fifty teams have registered to take part, no doubt with varying degrees of ability and fitness. There’s even speculation that one team will include John Griffiths AM, the Welsh Government minister with responsibility for Natural Resources, Culture and Sport, and Richard Parry, chief executive of the Canal & River Trust. One thing we all have in common is an enthusiasm to raise money for the recently-formed Canal & River Trust, the charity that cares for 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales. If you enjoy being by the water, we’d encourage you to support the work of the Canal and River Trust by becoming a Friend of the charity! We’re doing our bit by sponsoring the official T-shirts that will be given to each participant in the Canalathon.

Pontymoile Basin, where the Canalathon begins

Beacon Park Boats’ team consists of the business owner Alasdair Kirkpatrick, excellent all-rounder and ‘man of steel’ Mike, Richard who’s super-fast on the bike but has an aversion to water(!) and John, our strength behind the paddle.

We started training in earnest a few weeks ago, with rowing at Monmouth Rowing Club every Sunday and Monday and running twice each week. And if that’s not enough, somehow we manage to squeeze in a good long bike ride through the Brecon Beacons every Saturday morning, with just enough time to shower and be on duty before the narrowboats start returning at 8am!

Our main concern is having enough food to fuel us through the 4-5 hours we expect the race to take. Hopefully, we’ll rope in a number of supporters to keep us well-stocked and help with dropping off and collecting our bikes at the transitions. And our training schedule won’t stop on 14th September, as we’ve got another goal to aim for on 5th October - the Cardiff Half Marathon!

If you’d like to support our endeavours to help the Canal & River Trust restore, conserve and enhance the country's 200-year old network of waterways, please join the Canal & River Trust today.

We're in training for the inaugural Canalathon on the Mon & Brec

Alasdair and Sarah were delighted to welcome Welsh Government Minister John Griffiths AM to Beacon Park Boats last week. As the minister with responsibility for natural resources in Wales, John Griffiths was invited by the Canal and River Trust (CRT) to view a successful canalboat holiday business on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal which has attracted thousands of visitors to Wales, boosting the local economy.

View from the canal towpath across the Usk valley towards Abergavenny

The Canal & River Trust is keen for the Welsh Government to understand the importance of the Mon & Brec as a leisure resource for visitors and the local community, and as a significant contributor to the wider economy. As part of the visit Andrew Stumpf, Head of the Canal & River Trust in Wales, showed John Griffiths the recently completed work to restore a section of the waterway following a landslip back in January this year. Fortunately, the disruption to cruising on the canal was minimal, and, on the plus side, there’s now a lovely new view point across the Usk valley where the landslip occurred! 

The visitors included (from left to right in the above photograph) CRT engineer responsible for the work on the landslip site Simon Hughes, CRT Public Affairs Officer Wales Laura Lewis, Alasdair Kirkpatrick, Welsh Government Minister John Griffiths, Sarah Kirkpatrick, Chair of the All Wales Partnership Mark Lang and CRT Head of Wales Andrew Stumpf. 

The day’s discussions will have helped the Minister to understand that this well-used, 200-year old feat of engineering has a cost attached to it - a cost which the Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways, now a charity) is finding harder and harder to fund. Certainly, the Canal & River Trust are looking to the Welsh Government for financial support to guarantee the canal’s future.

The work to restore the Mon & Brec after this year’s landslip at Llanfoist cost £1.4m. This comes on top of £8m of engineering works to repair a huge breach at Gilwern in 2007/8. A 200-year old canal inevitably requires investment to keep going: the proposed solution to prevent further breaches is to re-line every section of the canal that is on an embankment with a liner and concrete. This engineering solution is likely to cost £70m but is the best way to guarantee the long-term future of this much-loved waterway.

One of Michael Blackmore's illustrations from our book "200 years of The Monmouthshire and the Brecknock & Abergavenny Canals"

Originally, the Mon & Brec Canal was lined simply with puddled clay but, in its day, it was a huge engineering project, skilfully undertaken. We’re so fascinated by the history of this canal that we’ve published a limited edition illustrated book about it!

Welsh Government Minister visits Beacon Park Boats

On Monday 21st July the biggest agricultural show in Europe welcomes the crowds to a spectacular part of Wales. We’re spoilt – it’s less than an hour’s drive from us. Here’s why you shouldn’t miss it....

It lasts four days and attracts over 240,000 people, and this year is expected to be even bigger. There are over 8,000 entries in the livestock classes and special awards so expect fierce competition amongst the horses, cattle, goats and even pigs.

2 There’s a Royal Welsh Show App

Developed by S4C, you can download this free bilingual App from iTunes Store or from Google Play and then you’ll never miss a thing. It has an interactive map of the showground, parking information, a timetable for the day and the results of competitions as they happen.

From its stand at the Royal Welsh Show, The National Trust will announce the shortlist of ten in its Special Places Campaign. During June the public nominated their favourite spots in Wales and, once the shortlist is announced, voting will open to determine the ultimate winner  – which will be announced at the National Eisteddfod in Llanelli in August.

MVW-C27-1112-0129-A6W.jpg © Crown copyright (2014) Visit Wales

Take a photo while you’re there, enter it into the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society Photographic Competition and you might win a year’s free membership and see your photo on the front cover of the Society’s 2015 journal.

Families visiting the Marks & Spencer stand will see a real, buzzing bee hive with viewing window, courtesy of the British Beekeepers’ Association. It’s part of a drive to show how bees and other pollinators are crucial to the food chain, and to get children interested in protecting wildlife.

Some of our favourite local producers are exhibiting their wares, including Welsh Venison Centre and Blaenavon Cheddar Company. And Master Chocolatier Jules James from Black Mountain Gold in Crickhowell with be demonstrating why ‘Chocolate is a lady’s best friend’.

7 World War I and D-Day anniversaries are remembered

This year’s main attraction will be the King’s Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery who will hurtle around the main ring driving teams of six horses pulling WWI guns. Equally agile are the Royal Signals White Helmets display team who will perform amazing stunts on their 750cc triumph motorcycles. And overhead there’ll be the impressive sight of aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

We think there won’t be a spare seat for the demonstrations by Bryn Williams, chef patron of Odette’s in London and Cyrus Todiwala, BBC Food Personality of the Year 2014.

If you really can’t make the trip to Llanelwedd, just outside Builth Wells, you can watch live coverage of the Show from 9am to 5pm Monday 21 to Thursday 24 July on S4C. And there are highlights every evening!

10 It’s the first of many great shows near Beacon Park Boats

The summer is peppered with lively celebrations of our gorgeous countryside. Next is Llanthony Show and Brecon County Show on 2 August, Chepstow Show on 9 August, Bedwellty Show on 16 August, then Monmouthshire Show on 28 August and finally Usk Show on 13 September.

10 reasons why the Royal Welsh Show is a must

Find out more what's going on close to the Mon & Brec Canal

Last weekend saw the culmination of the Abergavenny Festival of Cycling. And so the rolling countryside of this corner of Wales was inundated with cyclists, from enthusiastic families to ultra-keen MAMILs (‘middle aged men in lycra’) - you must have noticed the increase in these brightly-attired guys who drag themselves up the nearest hill every weekend.

The main attraction was the 2014 British Cycling National Road Championships, with the likes of Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Lizzie Armitstead and Laura Trott competing in a world-class field.

The day before the Championship races, the Sportive gave amateur riders of all ages and abilities the opportunity to ride the same course that the cycling elite would follow. The choice of routes ranged from the 20-mile long Bronze to the 100-mile long Gold which included a 4-mile 10% gradient climb up The Tumble (the road up our very own Blorenge mountain). It was superb to see the action up close, and particularly thrilling to watch the final stage of both the women’s and men’s races which took place through the streets of Abergavenny.

And we haven’t got long to wait for the next major cycling event: The Tour of Britain is coming to the county on September 9th. The third stage of the event will begin in Newtown and wind its way through the Black Mountains, into Abergavenny and finish at the summit of The Tumble.

Seems like everyone’s going bike-mad. Our friends at MidWalesMyWay are running a competition to win £250 of cycling accessories, and some enterprising locals have opened the Black Mountains Cycle Centre, which "rocks" according to author and cyclist Rob Penn. Of course, there’s been a strong cycling fraternity in Abergavenny for decades. That’s where Double World Champion Becky James started out!

We’re very nearly tempted to get our bikes out of the garage and start our preparation for next year’s events. Then again, perhaps we’ll sign off now and watch the start of the Tour de France on television, followed by a gentle ride along the canal towpath. We don’t want to peak too early!

When the British Cycling National Road Championships came to town

At last we can share with you our latest baby: Incline Cottage - a couple’s canalside retreat at Llanfoist Wharf. Designer & photographer Jonathan Morris came and took some photographs last week which will vastly improve the website for our two cottages. For the past few months we’ve had only an artist’s impression and an architect’s plan to try and convey what we had in mind for this project.

Believe it or not, the property was originally old out-buildings which we managed to fill with all sorts of belongings. Then, one day, we started looking at this place differently, began sorting through the contents stored there and set about a plan to turn it into something really special.

It already had a lovely location, just metres from the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal, with amazing views across the Usk Valley and backed by a wooded hill. But it didn’t look much from the outside. So Alasdair drew one of his sketches, Sarah put her unmistakeable style on the project, Jeff, our carpenter, built the oak kitchen, windows and doors from scratch, and we all spent hours discussing colour charts, furnishings and lighting.                  

What we knew from the outset was that we could create a luxurious retreat for romantic breaks; what we didn’t realise until it was finished was just how Tardis-like the cottage is. No, it’s not painted blue but it does feel very spacious inside. We are particularly pleased with the bedroom with its Feather and Black kingsize bed and roll top bath. What’s your favourite bit?          

And so Incline Cottage was born. Its name comes from the route, or ‘incline’, which ascends steeply from Llanfoist Wharf up the side of the Blorenge mountain, within Blaenavon World Heritage Site. It is one of a series of inclines that formed part of Hill’s Tram Road, a primitive railway which linked Blaenavon ironworks, Garnddyrus forge and various limestone quarries. Counter-balanced trams took raw materials up to the ironworks and brought pig iron and wrought iron down to the canal to reach markets via Brecon or Newport.

Step out of Incline Cottage and you’re a stone’s throw from the bottom of the incline. It’s a fascinating, if steep, walk. Look out for some of the stone sleepers on which the rails were mounted and be rewarded with amazing views at the top.

Check out the availability of this magnificent luxury cottage and get one step closer to booking your perfect romantic break!

Luxury holiday cottage for two opens its doors

Kite is successfully launched on to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal ready to undertake sea trials before her first hire on the 21st March. 

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