Earnest at Queen’s Head, Montgomery Canal
Neil and Linda Arlidge - nb Earnest
Neil is married to Linda who started the premature Arlidge ownership of narrowboats by falling in love with Beatty our first Narrowboat in 1991. We have two children Peter and Wendy. Peter went on his first narrow boating holiday when he was 5 months. Wendy had to wait until she was 2 years old! Neil is “Commodore”! of “The Tuesday Night Club”, a loose collection of family and friends that has extensively cruised the canal and river systems of England and Wales since the late 1960’s. This has been in a motley collection of hire-boats and Neil’s late lamented Narrowboat Beatty.
Earnest is a 58ft 6¼in Semi-Traditional steel narrowboat built by R&D Fabrications in 1999 and fitted out by R&D / Andrew Hooke (Woodworks). It was their showboat at Braunston last year. Earnest was built as an adaptable extended holiday boat, capable of being crewed by up to 7 adults in comfort.
The basic layout from bow to stern consists of: Two side berths / seats with a large Desmo leg table in between, this can be dropped down to form another double berth. U shaped galley with side hatch opposite. Fixed double, this has a small corridor at the base of the bed leading to a second side hatch on the other side of the boat. Toilet / shower compartment. Pair of bunks with a single dinette / berth on the other side. Washer / dryer, upright calorifier and airing cupboard, on the other side of the boat is a large junk cupboard big enough to get a mountain bike or our inflatable tender and out board in.
The bow shape is a joint Neil / Lee (Fabricator) adaptation of the “new” R&D shape, whereas the stern is of the standard R&D slipper variety. The only addition to the original specification was a 4hp 12v Aquafax / Nobels bowthruster. This and another foot of hull length was added, as all boats seen under construction, of around this length had one. It is never used (Honest?!)
Earnest waiting to go out on Tidal River Trent at West Stockwith
The Semi-Trad cockpit has been designed with outer steel doors and with pedestals inside, so you steer in a proper Trad standing / sitting fashion. Earnest is very quiet for a semi-trad as the engine room and floorboards have been fitted with acoustic damping foam so that the engine noise is to Neil’s liking. (So that you can still hear the problems associated with engine note changes!) Propulsion power is provided by the ubiquitous Beta Kubota 1903 43hp diesel / PRM 150 2:1 gearbox / Centraflex coupling / 18”x12” prop.
The International / Mason’s paintwork / signwriting is by Don Ridyard and soft furnishings by Elite Furnishings / Linda. Flooring is an Armstrong wood block effect cushion vinyl. The interior woodwork is Ash faced ply finished off with Saepele cappings. The cabin sides are covered with light blue nylon carpet up to the gunwales.
The toilet is the excellent Jabsco DS14 macerator / electric flush model. This is found to be very economical on water as you control the flush cycle. Not though this matters much, as most of the time flush water is provided from a canal water / filter / raw water, water pump system. The stainless steel holding tank is situated under part of the fixed double. This is pumped out using the built in 230vAC Lee San pump out kit. Fresh water is held in a large 180 gallon stainless steel tank under the slightly raised front cockpit floor. Heating is by a Mikuni 4Kw diesel boiler feeding radiators and toping up the engine heated water. Cooking is by the standard gas Calor Vanette 4000 Oven / Hob. 230v AC power is provided by the engine driven 3.5KVA Electrolux Travelpower, Sterling 1500w inverter / 60A battery Charger or if desperate a shoreline socket. Major 230vAC items serviced by these systems are a Miele washer / dryer, the Lee San self pump-out pump and Neil’s stupid Sony laptop (As I found out after buying it you could not get a 12v charger!)
Mobile internet /email access is provide by a Sony Vaio note book and Linda’s Ericsson GSM mobile phone (Vodaphone). Of course the only place found so far this would not work is Braunston! (Well it would if you stood on the roof and waved it in the right direction!)
For most of the year Earnest resides at Harefield Marina, Grand Union Canal, West London. This is only 5 minutes drive from home. The boat was named yet again after one of Neil’s father’s Christian names (Well a slight play on words, Ernest to Earnest!) Having rushed around almost all of the system in Beatty we now intend to do it in earnest! Neil’s father had yet another Christian name – Maurice, could this be the Peniche to come?!
Linda, Peter, Neil and Wendy
If you are either bored / have extremely fast internet access / free internet access, follow the travels of “The Tuesday Night Club” in Beatty and Earnest, see Earnest being built or view many images of the un opened section of the Rochdale Canal on my website :