Oh, I forgot to mention that the boat we hired had a cruiser stern. It makes a difference. When under way the steersman has to stand the whole time. The cruiser stern gives him/her a place to lean or even sit while moving.

Note: My wife is Japanese and had never ever considered going to England. Naturally it had never entered her mind that someday she would be at the con of a 54 foot boat moving gently down a canal! I have some wonderful pictures of her concentrating very hard on how to steer that thing in such narrow confines.

Another note: Steering these boats is not difficult. However, when you encounter another boat in the canal for some reason people seem to lose their ability and you end up with bumper boats. I have a little bit of video showing a canal boat ahead of us steering nonchalantly down the cut and then going all to hell when encountering another boat. Very funny.