I was asked recently “Why a Piper?” My immediate answer was “because they make the best Dutch Barge replicas” but talking to my wife, Vicky, about it afterwards we realised there was far more to it than that.
Our 49M ‘Victoria’ was launched July 2017 but our story goes back way further. It started 4 years ago when Vicky and I were talking about what retirement would look like and we conjured up a picture of the two of us sat in the front room of a cottage somewhere staring at each other and saying “right, what do we do next?” We thought maybe it would be more absorbing if we bought a cottage in France, that would give us more to do but we would still return to the question “right, what do we do next?” Eventually we talked about a boat, Vicky’s family had a narrowboat and I sailed and had previously had narrowboats. Mmm.. that would keep us occupied, but neither of us thought we could spend long periods in the restricted confines of a narrowboat. We had seen a programme about Timothy Spall and his barge and thought this was worthy of some investigation.
The internet is fantastic for research, within a day we had an idea of what Barge life could look like, decided on new build, compiled a list of boatbuilders and constructed a very crude financial plan. However, the reality of actually trying to view boats proved to be difficult and more time consuming. This stage took many months and we only ever saw a handful of boats as most boatbuilders built one offs and had nothing to show other than photos and testimonials.
Piper were early on our list of builders to visit as it was local to us and we innocently turned up without appointment one weekend to find the whole place locked up. Fortunately there was a boat in the car park with a helpful chap on it who let us into the compound. It was Phil and Alison off ‘Alphi’ who were doing their shakedown weekend in the car park before taking delivery. They very kindly invited us on board and showed us around their brand new 49M. Wow.. we immediately fell for the boat. Phil and Alison told us about the annual Henley event, explaining how we would be able view various designs and talk to owners about their experiences, good and bad. This sounded like a wonderful and unique opportunity. We contacted Andrea, arranged a tour of the factory and booked Henley.
Henley turned out to be even more than we could have wished for (so much so we have been 3 times!), allowing us to discuss at length, with owners and a good selection of Piper’s staff, every aspect of the design, build and use of a Piper boat. These discussions also confirmed that we had followed a full and thoughtful process in selecting a boatbuilder and choosing a design that was right for our needs. This allowed us to place our order with confidence. Much more importantly though it opened us up to a community of owners who have continued to help us now we are on the water. It took a long time for me to realise that Piper have no sales force as such, rather they use the owners and their workers as their sales team .
The build was exciting and living nearby we made frequent visits to watch progress and make all those design decisions with the benefit of looking at other boats ahead of us in the build process. At the end of the build we had our “weekend on the car park” which was really useful. It not only gave us time to snag thoroughly we also learned so much about the boat’s systems.
Delivery date arrived all too quickly. My initial idea had been to deliver the boat straight to France but Simon persuaded us to stay in the UK whilst we got used to the boat and sorted out the inevitable teething problems. We started our year on the Thames at Harleyford Marina, an inspired choice as it turned out, providing an idyllic location on a wonderful cruising area of the river with great facilities. During this time there have been some minor teething problems that have been attended to by Pipers very effectively.
We are now planning the next part of the adventure and have committed to the Channel crossing in June. Hopefully our time in France will be as great as our time on the Thames and our relationship with Pipers will continue as we moor with them at St Jeane de Losne.
Why a Piper ? Because of the constant help and support through the ordering, design, build and running of the boat from the whole Piper community.
Stuart & Vicky Sim
Victoria
