Changing times

Alasdair Kirkpatrick tells Ali Wood about narrowboat innovations including a fully accessible design plus hybrid and electric propulsion

- Alasdair Kirkpatrick

When I was working for the National Grid I decided that I wanted to be self-employed. I’ve always loved sailing and fancied running a yacht marina. I was flicking through the Saturday Times when I noticed an advert for a canal boat business in Llanfoist, South Wales. I asked for the details and when I visited the site (with a house and 10 very old boats), I knew this was the project for me.

I had to raise the finance, and I remember the bank asking what my nautical experience was. I told them my parents had a yacht on the River Orwell, which I’d sailed from Harwich to St Katherine Dock on the Thames, and they said, ‘that’ll do’. That was in 2000, and 23 years later, here I am, running Beacon Park Boats.

When I first took over the boats were very tired. After a year of running the business, I took a good bit of advice from a colleague. He said, “don’t renovate your way out of a problem, build your way out.” Like with a house, it’s often quicker and cheaper to start over.

I had an engineering background so in 2001 I built my first narrowboat, and continued to build one each year, replacing the old ones.

By 2010 we were running out of space so had to relocate. I asked around the local farmers and found one who agreed to sell me some land in Llangattock, big enough for a fleet of 20 boats... and a large shed for my aluminium yacht project.

Each boat is a variation on the last. I always want to improve my boats, but you can’t get all the features into the same boat. Owl, for example, has a hot tub and a 4-poster bed and Kingfisher a canopied front deck. Meanwhile Puffin, which was boat number four, has totally self-contained cabins and en-suite bathrooms, which is unusual for a narrowboat.