The end of a boat

Following on from the 'Restore or rot?' post, Aaron Pinder of Crafted Boats Ltd recounts the tale of a narrowboat that had come to the end of its life

Removing the cabin.

Having covered a story of boats getting left to rot in the water whilst others are fortunate enough to get restored, some - at the end of their useful lives - go to meet their maker, by which I mean a boatyard that will dispose of it correctly. It’s a long process, as highlighted in this recollection of the final days of NB Union Maid. Take it away, Aaron…

With canal boats getting older, some will reach a point when they prove to be uneconomical to repair and so will need to be professionally disposed of. We thought it would be interesting for readers to understand something of this process, based on a job we were asked to undertake last year.

Background

The boat, Union Maid, was a 40ft narrowboat built in 1970. It was bought from Facebook Marketplace in November 2023 for £8,000. The owner was intending to kit it out to live on but had no survey or inspection carried out before the purchase.