Thanks to the power of Google we found a boat building company which had experience in building barges, including those which are wheelchair accessible. These have mainly been for use by charities which take people with disabilities out on day or overnight excursions. Stewart had specific needs to make a barge as easy to live on, and drive, as everyone else. This meant, for example, installing a hydraulically powered scissor lifter to take him and his chair up to the controls and from the wheelhouse down to the barge’s living quarters. A special air-conditioning system would manage the boats climate; essential for someone with MS. The boat is controlled via joysticks.

Twenty months after Stewart's first tentative phone call to the builders, they were heading off on a 36 tonne barge that he can drive the wheelchair onto and around, can drive the barge as easily as anyone else and just the two of us are able to capably manage her.

If you would like to hear first hand about our experience with the design, build and support from the company we used during this major work we'd be happy to be in touch through our Contact page.

Not everyone's tastes are the same, but from an accessibility point of view, wheelchair users and folk in their 80s have similarly been able to enjoy accessible living and traveling on "Endellion".

	Endellion at Mirfield, just under the bridge upstream from the busy Lidl car park area. The Navigation pub is just down stream on the left.
Goals
We have long believed that you do not have to sacrifice good aesthetic design to create practical and accessible living spaces.  These two goals were at the front if our minds as we set about planning the layout, colour schemes and the fit-out for Endellion.

Owners cabin		Owners cabin; a slightly different view
Laundry area		Main Bathroom
Guest's loo		Guest's cabin
Corridor		Saloon
Galley	"Endellion" is steered via a wheel (mostly for back-up) and a joystick system.	Dinette converts to a double bed

Electrical System

The electrical system is quite complex as it must manage the power demands of Endellion’s two Climma air-conditioning units – using shore power when berthed in a marina, or inverting power from her battery bank, supplemented by a 7KVA gen-set, which kicks in and out automatically when the system detects it is needed. All in all, the electrics system includes:

7kva gen set

Northern Lights

Automatic Cap 900 satellite system

Kathrein

Electric Anchor Winch

Master Winch

Alternator and Cyrix controller

Steyr and Victron

Twin inverter Chargers

Victron

Auto start system for Gen Set

Victron

Vetus VE Net to link it all together

Victron

Electric Bow thruster

Noble

Hydraulic-electric steering system

Vetus

Monitoring panels

Victron

Security Alarm

Yale

Depth sounder

Faria

Tank senders and gauges

Vetus

Wheel Chair Lift

Bernstein

VHF Radios

Cobra, Simrad and TTI

Climma Air conditioning systems with cool and electric heat

Climma

Heating System

Kabola

Electric Induction Hob

Smeg