Engineer Simon Brown used to employ someone who lived full time on a narrowboat. "He talked about the issues he'd had with things like engines and gearboxes," said Simon, who wasn't put off, and at the start of 2015 moved onto Bimble, a 65ft narrowboat built to his specifications by Aintree Boats - it is also the 100th to be made by the company. Aside from childhood fishing expeditions to the Grand Union Canal in Buckinghamshire, and spending time with a narrowboat owning uncle, Simon was a first timer, but that didn't stop him having some specific requirements. "I looked up and down the country at various different brokerages and couldn't see one I really liked. I looked at a new boat built in Eastern Europe, and transporting it over, but I wasn't keen on that prospect. Then I saw Aintree Boats at Crick and decided they were the people to build my boat."
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