Hi Paul. Welcome to the forum.

I wouldn’t worry about the cabin height too much. You won’t end up with a permanent stoop because you don’t spend all of your time pacing up and down the boat. I don’t know the height of my cabin and I can’t find a tape measure at the moment but 6’3″ looks about right. I’m 5’10” and the cabin roof looks as though it’s five or six inches above my head.

If I were you, my focus would be on the length of the bed rather than the cabin roof. I have a fixed double in the main bedroom. At one end it’s hard up against the bulkhead between the bedroom and the engine room. At the other end, half of the bed is hard up to a wardrobe. The side that I sleep on though is clear of the wardrobe so I can hang my feet over the end of the 6′ long bed if I want to. At 6’2″ tall you’re going to have to make sure that the bed on your boat allows you room to lay down comfortably.

doconline said
Thanks for the reply. I thunk the best thing to do is go and have a look at some in my closest marina which sells them and get a feel for myself. Now I have to decide whether to go for a narrowboat or wide beam.

Possibly the most important consideration when deciding which to go for is  how much of the canal network you want to cruise. If you buy a wide beam you won’t be able to use any of the “narrow” canals (this refers to the width of the locks on the canals rather than the width of the canal itself. A narrow canal will have locks 7′ wide which will only allow the passage of a narrowboat). Have a look at Jim Shead’s canal map to determine how much of the network you would miss out with a wide beam.