GAMEBIRD
– HER STORY
Gamebird
is a 26-foot long narrow boat built of aluminium by Sea Otter in Chesterfield
for John Fowler. She made her debut
at the Caravan and Boat show in Birmingham in March 1998 before being taken to
her home on the River Wey. When Sea Otter extended their range and started to
build 30-foot long trailable narrow boats, John decided to have a new boat
(Gamebird 3), built and we bought Gamebird from him. She came to her new home on
the Lowland Canals of Scotland in October 1999 and she is currently moored at
Ratho on the Union canal near Edinburgh.
She has been trailed to the Forth and Clyde canal on several occasions but hopefully, next spring she will be able to make that journey by water. The Falkirk Wheel, which will again link the two lowland canals, is scheduled to open early in 2002.
We have also taken her to the Lancaster canal where we spent a very pleasant week exploring from Tewitfield to Preston, including a trip to Glasson Docks.
Gamebird may be small but she has everything you need – cooker (4 burners, grill and oven), decent size fridge, Thetford cassette toilet, shower, calorifier which heats a radiator in the loo compartment, gas warm air central heating, lots of storage space and comfortable beds. She sleeps four, if you are very friendly and two in great comfort. An 11hp Vetus engine powers her and she has navigation lights for those trips to sea!
Sea Otter are now making aluminium narrow boats over the trailable limit and more information can be obtained from their web site at www.seaotterboats.co.uk