Those of you who follow us and our boats may know that the very first narrowboat we built with any form of electric propulsion was “Stray Not Far” which was our first Hybrid Marine parallel hybrid and was launched in November 2017. When the opportunity arose for us to buy the boat back from its owners, we jumped at the chance to restore the boat to her former glory and in the process bring her up to date with some of the advancements we have seen to our Ortomate control & monitoring system since 2017.
Externally our focus was to carry out some much-needed repairs to the original paintwork, and to upgrade the solar panel array – another first for us is that we have fitted 4 x rigid panels to the roof. We have already seen some excellent winter solar figures when the panels are tilted correctly, on sunny winter days.
Internally we have carried out some modifications to the original open-plan design, based on feedback from customers. These modifications include the installation of a fixed pullman dinette, modifications to the TV & media unit, upgrading the 4’ fixed double bed to a standard 4’6” double with side-lift facility. We have also installed a new Qettle boiling water tap at the request of the new owners.
We relaunched Stray Not Far on Monday 10th February at Droitwich Spa Marina. We’d like to warmly welcome the new owners, Tamsin and Paul, to the Ortomarine family and wish them many happy adventures on the cut.
As the original designer of Stray Not Far’s Charles Rennie Mackintosh inspired paintwork I am delighted that Ortomarine have been able to bring her back to her formal glory. Our life enhancing experiences aboard Stray Not Far are still very much cherished. We wish Tamsin and Paul all the very best and hope that they enjoy owning Stray Not Far as much as we did.
Hi Christine & Steve
Thank you for your kind words. We’re honoured to have restored her to her original glory and are happy to hear that you still treasure your time aboard. We’re pleased to share that Tamsin and Paul are taking great care of her and enjoying their time aboard just as you did.