Norbury Wharf Limited: Narrowboat Avenger

Sunday 31 August 2014

Narrowboat Avenger

We sell somewhere between 50 and 80 boats a year, depending on the market at the time. The majority of these boats are what we class as conventional narrowboats. By this I mean with flat bottoms, a modern diesel engine and living accommodation. These boats usually come in three classes as shown below:

Cruiser stern - large rear deck with the engine below.

Semi traditional stern - similiar to a cruiser stern but with cabin sides that extend to give more protection.

Traditional stern - Small rear deck with the engine enclosed within the cabin.

On rare occasions we get specialist boats in that some may class as tugs. These boats aren't everyones cup of tea as they usually have a traditional boatmans cabin at the back (similar to that on the traditional working narrowboat) followed by an engine room where a traditional type engine stands to be admired followed by the main living cabin and a long deck on the front, either raised to the level of the gunwhales or lowered to form a well deck. We have one such boat for sale at the moment. Her name is Avenger and she is 60 feet in length. We have had her on the dock this week for pressure washing and blacking and we have also put some paint on the counter bands.

As you can see from the picture above she does require painting to tidy her exterior up, but the shape of her hull is just delightful. She has a long swim at both front and back which makes her glide effortlessly through the water.

She is powered by an amazing Kelvin K2 engine which design dates from the 1930s. These engines were originally fitted to fishing boats and are unique as you start them on petrol and once the ignition chambers are warm you change them over to diesel. Below is a video of the Kelvin fitted in the narrowboat Owl.