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Das Narrow Boot

Tim Coghlan tells a tale of how two old friends from the German Merchant Navy, both qualified marine engineers and surveyors, came to have an English narrow boat built. A boat which became the star of the 2010 Crick Boat Show.

So just what brought Germans Gunter “John” Magiera and his friend Harald to the English Canals? John was most forthcoming, “I had known Harald since 1970 when we met in the German Merchant Navy, and although in the years that followed I had never married, he had, and I also became a very close friend of his wife and family. Together we had been to several different places and in 1998, we decided impromptu to try a narrow boat holiday on the English canals. And that’s how it all started. “We chose to hire from Valley Cruisers near Atherstone, one of their 70 footers, named Colne Valley – I remember well its creamish livery, and with its advertised 8 to 10 berths, there was plenty of room for all of us aboard these high quality boats.

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