This is not intended as an insult to the owners of the boat above. This piece is intended as a paean of praise for those people who are determined to get onto the water, at almost any price.

You do see a remarkable variety of craft upon the water. The most ubiquitous are of course the narrow boats and the plastic cruisers, but when you consider the various houseboats, wide beam barges, sailing craft, canoes, inflatables etc., you get to appreciate just how many different kinds of craft there are.

Urchin is a singular boat. Every boat has the potential to be someone's dream, whether it floats or not. One man's wreck is another man's restoration project, after all. But Urchin is a delight.

Let's begin with dimensions. She's about 12 feet long, and has a beam of about 5 feet at the widest point. Her air draught (the amount of boat above water) can on only be 5 feet at the most.

She's made of wood, and this dates her. Most boats today are made of plastic, steel or aluminium. Wood is a traditional material, but difficult to maintain, of limited life span. I have no idea of her age, but she's not new.

As for accommodation, she seems to possess portholes below decks, as it were, yet she can only draw around 2 feet of water, so perhaps these are for show? One could imagine perhaps low bunks, coffin-like perhaps, but is there room?

Everything about her is dinky. She has a tiny front window, with shutters, and the entry door at the stern is small too. The storage lockers at each side of the door presumably contain all that's needed for day-to-day cruising, and the side window, shuttered again, could conceal any of the conventions.

Her little outboard engine is married with an enormous tiller, so she must be very manoeuvrable. She has a stovepipe, so she clearly has heating on board. Other items, such as a galley, a bathroom, or how many berths she has must remain, alas, a secret.

She is beautifully painted, and may be in the process of being painted again. Keeping up with the maintenance required would be a labour of love, clearly. A real Forth Rail Bridge job, for sure. Her colours are not traditional for narrow boats. Perhaps an Aston Villa or West Ham fan owns her?

I would love the opportunity of a guided tour. To know who her owners are, what they use her for, to hear her history, to see some of her concealed secrets, would be fantastic. But perhaps I'll never know.

What a glorious vessel. I bet her owners are very proud and rightly so. She must give hours and days of pleasure, and it was a delight to meet her. I hope to see her again.

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