E S Hartley are excited to announce the narrow boat The Fal is now up for sale after an extensive refit at Bluepoint Marine Liverpool.

The 68ft narrow beam has taken 12 months to have a complete luxury refit and restoration. The boat features 2 double bedrooms, modern bathroom, large open plan lounge with original wood burning fire and a well-equipped kitchen including oven, hob and fridge.

Specification of the boat:
68ft Narrow Beam Steel Hull
Draft 2 Foot 6"
Beam 7ft
Air draft 6 ft
Last surveyed 2018 by S Roberts
Lister 3 cylinder engine.
Includes Vu Qube Sat Dome
Flat screen TV

The FAL history, written by the original owner Alan:
"The Fal was manufactured for the British Water Ways company in about 1951, at EC.Jones of Rickmansworth Brentford. It was built as a Butty to be towed by a powered Canal Boat such as the Admiral Class. 13 Boats known as a River Class were built 6 in one yard and 7 in EC. Jones yard, all were named after 3 lettered rivers. ie. the Cam, Fal, Yeo Etc. The boats were called Blue Tops due to the fibreglass coverings over the holds and have the original steel hulls that no modern day boats have anymore, making The FAL a super sturdy and well built boat.

How we came to part with the Fal is part of the history as follows: we were at the Peterborough Motorhome show in April 2017 looking for a replacement for our 3-year-old Bailey 625 motorhome. Pat, my wife found a Hobby Vantana that she liked it had all that we were looking for in a Motorhome.

Next morning was Saturday and very busy but we could not find the one we had looked at, instead, we found a salesman from E S Hartley. The Van was a Fiat with automatic transmission and a big payload. Everything we wanted but it came at a challenging cost.

We decided to challenge the salesman by telling him in the presence of his boss that if he could sell our narrow boat for us then he had sold us his Vantana. He came to our van and asked us for details of our Narrow Boat The FAL because of his bosses interest in the boat.

On Sunday morning I pulled pictures off my computer made my asking price clear and his boss agreed to the deal. Owner Kath and her daughter Rebecca have completed a full refit of our beloved Fal.They took us to see their modifications and improvements to the Fal, and we couldn't believe it!

The boatman's cabin is now removed and the Port Hole type windows have been replaced in the lounge area. The Cabin walls, flooring, ceiling, and furniture are excellent. The Bathroom and shower are the very latest in design. It is an upmarket conversion indeed.Thank you to ESH for modernising our narrowboat and we hope the new owners have as many happy memories aboard as we have".

For more details please email kathworrall@eshartleygroup.co.uk