Butty boat

A narrowboat or narrow boat is a boat of a distinctive design, made to fit the narrow canals of the United Kingdom.

A narrowboat must be under 7 feet (2.13 m) wide (most modern boats are usually produced to a maximum of 6 feet 10 inches (2.08 m) wide). Their maximum length is 72 feet (21.95 m). Anything wider or longer will be unable to navigate most of the British canal network. To access the entire network the maximum is 57 feet (17.37 m)

The first narrow boats played a key part in the economic changes of the British Industrial Revolution. They were wooden boats drawn by a horse walking on the canal towpath led by a crew member. Horses were gradually replaced with steam and then diesel engines. With the advent of the railways commercial canal traffic gradually diminished and the last regular long-distance traffic disappeared in 1970. However, some traffic continued into the 1980s and beyond.

By the end of the 19th century it was common practice to paint roses and castles on narrow boats and their fixtures and fittings. This tradition has continued into the 21st century, but not all narrowboats have such decorations.

Modern narrowboats are used for holidays, weekend breaks, touring, or as permanent or part-time residences. Usually, they have steel hulls and a steel superstructure. The numbers of boats have been rising, with the number of licensed boats (not all of them narrowboats) on canals and rivers managed by the Canal & River Trust (CRT) estimated at about 27,000 in 2006 and over 30,000 in 2014.

Although a small number of steel narrowboats dispense with the need for a rear steering deck entirely, by imitating some river cruisers in providing wheel steering from a central cockpit, most narrowboats' steering is by a tiller on the stern. There are thee major configurations for the stern: traditional stern, cruiser stern and semi-traditional stern.

The narrowboat (one word) definition in the Oxford English Dictionary is:

A [British] canal boat of traditional long, narrow design, steered with a tiller; spec. one not exceeding 7 feet (approx. 2.1 metres) in width or 72 feet (approx. 21.9 metres) in length

Earlier quotations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary use the term "narrow boat", with the most recent, a quotation from an advertisement in Canal Boat & Inland Waterways in 1998, uses "narrowboat".

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