– Dea Latis: The Celtic Goddess of Beer & Water –
Our barge, Dea Latis, was a long time in the planning stage. After several visits to Biddulph to chat with Simon, Nick and Andrea, taking full advantage of their many years of experience, and after spending a few days onboard Monchique on the Canal du Midi, we finally “signed up” in the Spring of 2013 with a launch date in the Summer of 2014.
We had chosen the 49M design for it’s compact but spacious design: though being relatively short for a Dutch Barge, her 15m/49ft length made finding a mooring spot easier, her 4m beam gave a very useful floor area and the fixed but double glazed wheel-house offered a warm and maintenance free additional space. The downside was that we only had one bedroom but we solved that by finding the perfect sofa-bed for the saloon.
The long “gestation period” meant that ours was actually the 3rd 49M to be built and we benefitted from some design improvements along the way. Simon found space to fit a second toilet and the wheelhouse roof had extended aft to provide a partial cover/shade for the rear deck.
Work began in April this year and we enjoyed many more visits to Stoke to watch progress and choose all the fixtures, fittings and technical things!
Hopefully the Piper office staff got used to us disturbing their lunch hour as we always seemed to arrive at that time of day after our drive up from Buckinghamshire.
Then on September 18th the launch day arrived. Alan arrived at Ting Dene Marina at around 8am, thinking he might have missed the launch but Dea was still sitting on the low loader when he arrived and he was able to watch as Dea was gently lowered into the water. Expecting a splash as she entered the water there wasn’t even a ripple! – all controlled by a man with a remote control.
It was a very warm day, and the Piper boys worked so hard all day commissioning her. We also had our sofa bed lowered in through the dog box, and then assembled by the wonderful Tailormade Sofa Company from High Wycombe. The next day, Simon Captained us to Henley for the annual Piper Event, giving Alan some training on the way where we were joined by family & friends for a lovely naming party on the balmy Friday night and the next day the Event began in earnest. We had been to the 2 previous events as prospective buyers so it was fun to meet the other new owners whose barges we had seen in the workshop and to compare plans, notes and layouts.
It was very busy and we showed many people around Dea over the course of the two days, but did take an extended lunch break on Saturday to walk into Henley for coffee but don’t tell Simon. We happily answered the same questions that we had asked on all the barges we had looked over in the past.
The next two days were spent doing a Boat Handling course with the lovely and very patient Tom from Bisham Abbey Sailing School. Alan had completed the RYA course 6 years earlier on a narrow boat but this time it was our own brand new barge so “nervous” does not do justice to how we felt.
Marianne had never been keen to take the helm of the syndicate narrow boat we had previously sailed but found handling Dea relatively easy.
The Helmsman’s course, which we both completed, included locking, mooring with various techniques, man-overboard drills, river safety, river rules & river etiquette was hard but rewarding and we enjoyed a well earned G&T at the end.
After that, we were on our own!!
Bisham kindly allowed us to moor at the school overnight before our first solo venture which was across to the Marlow side of the river to moor up again – almost 200 yards! but it felt good especially as we were able to show off our new handling skills by ferry gliding into what seemed a very small space.
More friends joined us of a coffee morning on board before we set off back up river collecting family members from Edinburgh at Henley station and then on to Caversham to try out our new BBQ on the aft deck.
Since then, we have taken advantage of the lovely weather to cruise up river a couple of times – as far as Goring, and down to the Great House Pub at Sonning but eventually the river current has increased and we are now moored for the winter at Caversham.
We have had one or two issues, but the Piper boys are always on hand to sort things out and nothing is too much trouble for them.
We have enjoyed sailing Dea, even Marianne has found it easy, although she isn’t happy with going into locks yet! With the colder weather having arrived we have been warm and comfortable onboard. As predicted, lighting the Refleks stove is an art in itself but once going it throws out a lot of heat, boosting the central heating when desired. We have everything we need onboard with the FreeSat TV working well.
We ordered extra mooring lines & fenders from Tradline at Braunston and would recommend the Tip-Top fenders – they float! they really do!
We snagged & lost one at the Caversham lock, not noticing till way upriver. I had not attached it properly and thought it gone but on our return a week later happened to ask the lock keeper if they had found one and amazingly she produced it from behind her office! What a happy day that was 🙂
The craftsmanship and finish of everything on board is excellent, and we are very happy sitting onboard with our Christmas lights flashing and looking forward to better cruising weather in the spring.
