page_title: Narrowboat
section_title: Modern narrowboats
hierarchical_section_title: Narrowboat / Modern narrowboats
caption_attribution_description: Modern Narrow Boats. LEXDEN SWAN Length 14.03 metres - Beam 2.08 metres Metal hull, power of 35BHP. Registered with British Waterways number 50244
context_page_description: A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways commercial canal traffic gradually diminished and the last regular long-distance traffic disappeared in 1970. However, some commercial traffic continued into the 1980s and beyond.
  To enter a narrow lock, a narrowboat must be under 7 feet wide, so most narrowboats are just 6 feet 10 inches wide. A narrowboat's maximum length is 72 feet. Anything wider or longer will be unable to navigate most of the British canal network. Some locks are shorter than 72 feet, so to access the entire canal network the maximum length is 57 feet
  The first narrow boats played a key part in the economic changes of the British Industrial Revolution. They were wooden boats drawn by a horse walking on the canal towpath led by a crew member. Horses were gradually replaced with steam and then diesel engines. By the end of the 19th century it was common practice to paint roses and castles on narrow boats and their fixtures and fittings.
context_section_description: The number of licensed boats on canals and rivers managed by the Canal & River Trust (CRT), a charitable trust, formerly British Waterways, was estimated at about 27,000 in 2006. By 2014 this number had risen to over 30,000. There were perhaps another 5,000 unlicensed boats kept in private moorings or on other waterways in 2006. Most boats on CRT waterways are steel (or occasionally, aluminium) cruisers popularly referred to as narrowboats.
  Modern leisure narrowboats are used for holidays, weekend breaks, touring, as permanent or part-time residences. Usually, they have steel hulls and a steel superstructure, but when they were first being developed for leisure use in the 1970s glass reinforced plastic (fibre-glass) or timber was often used above gunwale height. Newer narrowboats, say post 1990, are usually powered by modern diesel engines and may be fitted inside to a high standard.  There will be at least 6 feet (1.8 m) internal headroom and often or usually similar domestic facilities as land homes: central heating, flush toilets, shower or even bath, four-ring hobs, oven, grill, microwave oven, and refrigerator; some may have satellite television and mobile broadband, using 4G technology. Externally, their resemblance to traditional boats can vary from a faithful imitation (false "rivets", and copies of traditional paintwork) through "interpretation" (clean lines and simplified paintwork) through to a free-style approach which does not try to pretend in any way that this is a traditional boat.
  They are owned by individuals, shared by a group of friends (or by a more formally organised syndicate), rented out by holiday firms, or used as cruising hotels. A few boats are lived on permanently: either based in one place (though long-term moorings for residential narrowboats are currently very difficult to find) or continuously moving around the network (perhaps with a fixed location for the coldest months, when many stretches of canal are closed by repair works or "stoppages").
  A support infrastructure has developed to provide services to the leisure boats, with some narrowboats being used as platforms to provide services such as engine maintenance and boat surveys; while some others are used as fuel tenders, that provide diesel, solid fuel (coal and wood) and Calor Gas.
caption: Modern narrowboats on the Kennet and Avon Canal
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