Kate Boats

Guy and his boatbuilding again

2011-04-04T12:01:00.002-07:00

Another great episode. Not much to do with boatbuilding, but Guy Martin has such enthusiasm for his subject, and the canal scenery is great. Lets face it it is great to see narrowboats featured on prime time TV.

The Boat that Guy Built: Making a Boat a Home

Guy and H

2011-04-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

Busy day

2011-04-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

April 1st brings us our first really busy day of the season. We have 9 boats going out today, 6 with brand new customers that have never been narrowboating before. The previous hirers are the easy ones! If people are new to boating we spend a bit more time explaining how everything on the boat works, and then go along the canal with them to give them the confidence to handle the boat, and then take them through the first lock to make sure they know how to safely deal with those. None of it is rocket science, but if you are dealing with these challenges for the first time you need to be comfortable about how it all works.

It is nice to see all the boats disappearing down the canal, and have a fairly empty marina!

The Boat That Guy Built

2011-03-21T07:53:00.000-07:00

It is great to see the canals featuring on prime time TV, and very nice they look.

The Boat that Guy Built is a fun look at the developments of the industrial revolution, rather than any sort of reflection on the current boat building industry. It certainly needs to be watched on that level.

The technology of today allows power showers, full sized gas cookers, and all the comforts of home!

Birmingham

2011-03-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

I don't often get a chance to pop into Birmingham but had the oppportunity to go last Saturday. I forget what an absolutely fabulous city it is. The whole place is vibrant and exciting. I was meeting someone who had never been there before and they were amazed at what a beautiful city it is.

We tend to sell our holidays on getting away from it all, out into the country side, but what better way to visit a city based on the canals than by narrowboat. 2 days canal travel from Warwick (30 minutes on the train!)

Inspection Day

2011-03-17T03:33:00.000-07:00

As part of Kate Boats focus on customer service we are tourist board graded. This involves ensuring that the boats, our booking processes and our general ambiance will live up to customer expectation.

As part of this we are inspected annually by Visit Britain that run the grading scheme, and today's the day. There has been lots of scurrying round to ensure that the boats are looking their best. It is a useful exercise in itself because it does make you look closely at inventory etc.

UPDATE: All went well, she said lots of nice things, made a few suggestions about possible improvements, but confirmed that all the boats are well above their awarded star levels. Always seems preferable to have boats at the top of their star rating, rather than at the bottom of the next level!

The Boat That Guy Built

2011-03-12T04:38:00.000-08:00

It is great to see a prime time programme based on the canals. They are using the boat, and the canal system to explore some of the ideas and developments in technology of the Victorian period.

There is some great views of the canal scenery, and it certainly gives a feel of being afloat.

It will be very interesting to follow the series, and it may well inspire people to come and try some time afloat!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z8jdv

Robert joins the fleet

2011-03-11T01:11:00.001-08:00

Our brand new 65 foot narrowboat Robert is joining the fleet this weekend. This is a picture of it as it leaves Stockton Top Marina, heading for Warwick where it will be based this summer.