Boatman taken in, new to love and so on — about time (4,3,4)

I believe the answer is:

none too soon

'about time' is the definition.
(phrases with similar meanings)

'boatman taken in new to love and so on' is the wordplay.
'boatman' becomes 'ne' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'taken in' is an insertion indicator.
'new' becomes 'n'.
'to love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'and' becomes 'too'.
'n'+'o'+'too'='notoo'
'ne' put within 'notoo' is 'nonetoo'.
'nonetoo'+'so'+'on'='NONE TOO SOON'

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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