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Daedalus 2

We bought our first narrowboat shell in 1981 – Daedalus, a 38 foot shell and fitted it out. We then gutted it and
 completely refitted it in 1991 – but then decided that what we actually wanted was a larger boat, so we sold it
 and replaced it with a 56 foot shell, built for us by Roger Farrington at Braunston. This is Daedalus No. 2, a
 josher-ish tug-like boat, initially fitted with a 1.4 litre Mitsubishi engine (a curious choice for a boat that draws
 2’ 6”, but it performed well).

The Beginning of Daedalus No. 2

We extended Daedalus No. 2 by 10 feet in 2001 (which involved re-fitting 20 feet of the interior and replacing
 the engine with a Perkins 104-19, with a ZF gearbox), in order to gain a back cabin and engine room with its
 own loo and wash hand basin.

The Hull Takes Shape

As the re-fitting of Daedalus No. 2 neared completion, we then decided to replace the Houdini hatches with
 dog boxes to match the one that had been fitted to the engine room and which seemed more in keeping with
 the style of the boat. This then necessitated replacing the roof linings throughout the boat, which in turn led to
 other things…………..

Engine Installed and On Our Way

The First 50 Sheets of Ply for the Fit-out

First Holiday – Fit-out Slightly Behind Schedule

Feline Approval When Things Seemed to be Finished…

The First Paint Job

Ditto

Lengthening in Progress

You Can’t See the Join (if you ignore the paint)

The Yellow Boat in Front of Daedalus is Pacific, the Inspiration for Batavia

Re-painting Was Clearly Called For…

After Re-painting

Ditto

After the Dog Boxes Had Been Fitted

It then became clear that we needed another project to keep us busy once Daedalus No.2 was finally finished
 after 13 years, but the question was what type of boat should it be? As we intended to keep Daedalus, we
 didn’t just want to build a clone, so something different was called for.

 We had decided that fitting out a smaller boat would be more of a challenge than doing a large one, and we
 had thought that shallower-draughted, lighter boat could make a good long-term retirement boat (this was
 thinking well-ahead, but bearing in mind that Daedalus took 13 years to complete, it would never be too soon
 to start……). It would also have a modern engine – silent, reliable, no smoke, etc.

That’s where it all started to go wrong………and where Bolinders appeared on the scene!!

Batavia Beguins!!

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