The Haines 320 is a fantastic boat but, in this spec at least, it is more of a sea-going summer play-thing than a fully-equipped inland waterways cruiser.
It is comfortable for a few people to stay on for short periods but our boat’s lack of heating and not fully-implemented shower arrangement meant that we were cold in the evenings and at also at night in the early days. Call us softies, but where we had no shore-power electricity (far too often) we didn’t enjoy standing up to wash in the almost-cold water in the morning!
We were therefore constantly on the lookout for electricity and decent shower facilities, when planning the voyage and when travelling. We were to be sadly disappointed on both fronts; power sockets were often missing and all but two of the showers that we did find were unacceptably poor. Two decent showers in 35 days! A properly equipped barge would of course avoid these problems.
The boat is arguably the prettiest we saw in the whole five weeks away, but she feels light and vulnerable, especially when in locks with novice boat-hirers and useless lock-keepers. In the huge river locks with just a single floating bollard to put a rope round, she was fine descending the Seine but it was quite a challenge to maintain full control when ascending some Rhone and Saone locks, especially if sharing with a monster commercial craft.