Hey guys, hey guys welcome to York marina we're here today very excited today
We're going to give you a tour and go for a cruise on my uncle's boat
He's never had a boat before this is his first boat, so he wanted to go for
something a bit small and modest, manageable you know get mid-50s so meet Bails
This tiny-tiny little Springer is a 60-foot widebeam boat, they've been living in it for about three
weeks we came to have a look and go for a cruise, so we actually can compare narrowboat to widebeam
and they're very very nervous about taking it out so we'll just pre-warn you
Welcome to Cruising Alba! We invite you to join us on our adventure
living off-grid and travelling the UK canal network. I'm Myles and I'm Marina
So first thing you'll notice is this boat doesn't have a tiller
like we do on our boat. So they have a steering wheel instead which is we've had a go
it's pretty good but it does take some getting used to. Welcome to the cruiser stun
absolutely mahousive! Bails is 60 foot long and 12 foot wide
so it's powered by a 60 horsepower Beta Marine engine. It's much quieter than our engine
I think that's because their decking boards are a bit better than ours
but it is a bit quieter yes. Huge engine bay, calorifier to heat the hot water, spare tiller
in case the steering packs up.. Anyway let's show you inside because it's more fun inside
Hello! Before we'll take you inside I'll show you these guys' electrical cupboard so they've got
3 kilowatts Vitron inverter, inverter charger and also they have an additional
Webasto heating which is a diesel heating with operation system here. Come inside
okay so i'm going to introduce Colin and Gin, the owners of their new boat three weeks
in! Indeed, hello! This is Gracie and Gracie yeah How's it going? Boat life? It's good! Every day
is an explore and learning something new and enjoying it in different ways, and being more
connected to nature. Very relaxing, very chilling enjoying the mornings, enjoying the evenings
enjoying every kind of weather! yeah lovely so far but we know it's going to get tougher winter
Bails is about two years old so we're her second owners so
what we've inherited is this really and we've only been three weeks so we've got some dressing
to do but yeah I don't know oven and grill the microwave which is nice the freezer down here
and actually cooking in here is I think it's the nicest place I've cooked because everything
is just so kind of ergonomic into hands and obviously what the social aspect as well so
yeah loving that so far and then we've got our fridge here which and that's a bit of a challenge
because you know we used to a bigger fridge so we need to cut down a little bit
and then we've got our living area, duel-fuel wood burner? Multi, multi-fuel wood burner yeah Morso squirrel
yeah Morso so which is a good make we are led to believe
Then we got a double sofa bed which is handy when we've got people staying it falls out
and I think it's quite comfy. Yes it is, yeah TV obviously, which is quite essential we've
reinstated stools because we thought we needed an eating area.
So they've got two hatches on either side something that our boat doesn't have and we would love to have some hatches to just do this
So the canal street sign i've had for about 17 years and it came off of the set of a production
of a Taste of Honey at York Theatre Royal in it's 2003 or something like that and of course
a Taster of Honey is set in Manchester on canal street so I managed to get this, legitimately
and we've had it in every property that we've had and it's never been more pertinent than it is on
this boat really because we're now on canal street We have exactly the same radiators on Alba but
These ones are really really good I think ours actually a little bit shorter but exactly the same
look and potentially make. They've got water inside but they run on diesel
and also you can set up timer so for cold winter mornings you can set up a timer and have them
come on like at six o'clock in the morning before you wake up and makes the whole boat really toasty
The next room we're gonna show you guys is a guest bedroom, come with me
Here it is! it's got a single bed and a beautiful
really warm radiator with a lovely view through the porthole but
Actually, the windows are double glazed that we forgot to mention so all of the windows on the
boat are double glazed and you can also take them out of the socket which is incredible
Got loads of beautiful light in here there's also a single wardrobe in this room
This boat has so much storage it's insane!
The next room on our tour is the bathroom now This bathroom would be the envy of most people
living on land, let alone a boat this bathroom is probably bigger than that bedroom come in so this
is the bathroom, it is huge
get in here full head height
yeah nice swing around a bit you're not
on a boat you do not feel like you're on a boat on this widebeam it is like being in a
very nice flat or house. They've got a Thetford cassette, there is storage here they've got
things in there! it goes all the way through. Places for towels whatnot and then the sink
beautiful marble floor. And finally we've got the master bedroom, really cool porthole
you can see through this, this is the master
this bedroom is bigger than most bedrooms i've ever had and it has incredible storage
Can you hear the rain? it's so loud! There is a beautiful mirror, dressing desk, under bed storage
two bedside tables with storage and a massive double wardrobe
There is storage under these steps as well So every space is utilized very efficiently
Really wanted to take you guys out on the bow, but it's really, really raining outside
So it's a viking bow so nice big
front gives you a bit of privacy as well in your bedroom without having to close all your curtains
there is a gas locker out there, it's a really nice area
In the morning you can open the doors and have a cup of tea out there, it's almost like a balcony
Today we are taking Bails for a cruise to York
It's the first time Colin and Gin are going into town by boat and it's their longest journey yet
The water does run really fast
the water runs really fast
Hey sweetie
yeah I think this is more of a wild untamed river whereas the Thames you've got a lock every mile
it's all very sedate, manicured? manicured but sedate This river is always flooded you get a
day of rain this is always flooded didn't they say the pontoon goes up by seven meters at least four
I can at least see four meters, yeah all this all that out here is like flood plain that's like the
main road so you can see it all right just wow I would be pretty scared to have a boat on here
We are passing Bishopthorpe Palace it's the official residence of the Archbishop of
York it was originally constructed in 13th century with various wings and additions built over time
this palace has had its resident archbishop since 1241 apart from 10 years somewhere in 17th century
Captain at the helm!
That's the old Terry's chocolate factory coming up
York is a city with rich history founded by pre-Roman Britons overtaken by Romans
who left an impressive wall surrounding the town until this day. It changed hands
many times and was occupied by Danish vikings and Normans along many others
We would love to show you the city one time, but today it's all about the boat
Welcome to York! It's pretty chilly up here. I'm wearing all my layers so now we're going
to go for brunch and we'll take you guys back with us, we're going back to the York marina
The water it's so brown it's like driving in Yorkshire tea
This is a formal swing bridge that is now only used by cyclists and pedestrians. This bridge is
known as the fisherman bridge because of the metal structure of a fisherman sitting on top
To be honest I can't quite imagine how this huge construction used to move
but it must have been very impressive to watch
thank you guys so much for watching I hope you enjoyed this episode
Did something different, didn't we? If you liked this episode please click that thumbs up button
and subscribe if you're new here to follow along our adventure
As always a huge thank you to our amazing patrons who make these videos possible for you every week
So that's Bails, thank you so much for coming on the tour with us
So thes guys got Instagram and Facebook @baleswidebeam we'll put the link down below
in the description, if you guys want to follow their adventure too and if you want to ask them
any widebeamery questions they very much like to answer thanks guys see you in the next
one