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Trials & tribulations of building Ebinka.

Entries in this blog

15) The dream is complete, at last.

May 2007 continued.   Tuesday 8th May. The final parts of this long saga were now coming together with Pauline and I meeting our local carpet fitter at the boat. He had many years ago worked on boats being built in Nottingham, so he was keen to see our pride and joy, and help us complete it. He brought loads of sample books of carpet fabrics for us to choose from for the saloon / bedroom and cushion flooring for the galley / bathroom. With the final decision made over which pattern to go for,
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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14) The dream is home, at last.

April 2007 continued.   Wednesday 18th April. Went back to Thorne to talk through the gearbox repair plus some other teething problems ie the engine not heating the domestic water, first 50 hour engine service and the pump out. When we finished we brought the dinette seating foam back with us to be covered with upholstery by a local firm. Friday 20th April. Emailed PRM Newage to tell them about the gearbox leak and our boat had been left at Thorne Boat Services. Thursday 26th April. Rang the
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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13) The dream comes home (Not quite) Part Two

April 2007   Saturday 14th April. It was just before eleven o'clock when we left Clarence Dock at the Leeds Armouries and dropped down Leeds Lock onto the River Aire. This was the first of the mechanised Aire & Calder locks (BW key & push button operation) so Pauline said she would do the locks and I took the tiller. Now this was our fifth day of handling the boat and Pauline was doing a really good job at steering the boat in and out of locks because this was her first time at steerin
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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12) The dream comes home (Not quite). Part One.

April 2007   Good Friday 6th April. The big day arrived, aptly being Good Friday, son Richard drove Pauline & I down to Swiftcraft with all our belongings. It was just like moving into a new house with pots, pans, bedding, clothes and hoping we had not forgotten anything. This was because once Richard had gone back home, we would be committed to travelling back home on OUR boat, Ebinka. The adventure had begun. Saturday 7th April. Richard stayed the night and after one final check we had
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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11) The dream comes home.

March 2007   Things moved slowly forward during March, with mid month saw us ordering the curtain rods and brackets. The boat was now taking shape and we made a visit on the 16th March to the yard to check progress. The shower unit was now in, along with the now working stove and central heating. The unfinished Heron dinette / double bed conversion had been finished and worked fine but the stern canopy was still not progressing. This was a little concerning to me if the boat was going to meet
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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10) The dream is so, so close.

November / December 2006.   First job that needed doing on arrival at Swiftcraft was to find out why on the way from Ledgard Bridge, the boat batteries were not being charged properly, even after all day cruising. A quick chat with Gary at LB's traced the problem to a faulty inverter and he would change it for a new one, this was completed by the end of the month.   This was another quiet period for "Ebinka" with only a small amount of work being done. This was because our Australian friend'
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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9) The dream is tested.

September 2006.   I think what was sad about this month, was when we realised that it was a year since that fateful day we had signed with Heron's for our boat to be built. They had promised the boat for April 2006 and here we were, still not finished plus a very big hole in my pocket. What is ironic, had we gone with the Ledgard Bridge Boats build offer instead, we would have been launching their boat about this time.   The work on the boat was still ongoing with the electrics but now Ledg
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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8) Floating the dream.

Launch Day (27th July 2006).   The big day dawned, a wonderful sunny day, so armed with camera's, bottles of bubbly (some for the boat, the rest for us), the family set off for Ledgard's. What was disappointing, was our daughter in law and eldest grand daughter (the EB in Ebinka) could not be there because of an hospital appointment but the "IN" (India) and "KA" (Kane) were there. On arrival at Ledgard's it was a hive of activity, there were four crane moves to do in one day. The family check
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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7) The dream rebirth slow to get going.

May 2006.   The restart of boat building was frustratingly slow because of manpower, the craftsmen we employed, were working on two Heron boats that were nearly complete at the time of the collapse. These boats were given priority over the others to allow them to be finished and then their owners could leave for their home moorings. On our boat we decided to have a survey carried out, this was to allow the boat to go for an RCD on completion. This was because we needed to consider the possib
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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6) The dream lives.

April 2006.   Well the question we asked ourselves once "Ebinka" was safely undercover at Ledgard Bridge Boats workshop was "where do we go from here". One important decision we did make, was "the boat WILL be finished and we WILL cruise with the family on board our boat" despite what Jon Hunt had done to our dream. The two area of progress were now 1) the ongoing legal side of the Heron collapse and funding the completion of the boat building, 2) the work and boat equipment required to comp
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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5) Fighting to keep the dream alive.

March 2006.   With the thought that we could loose the boat to the creditors of the Heron Boats Ltd, it did produced a lot determination among the boat owners there on March 10th and we all decided to work together, sharing our telephone numbers so we could all keep in touch. The next three weeks were very hectic and full of different emotions. March 11th.:- Emailed fourteen boatyards to ask if they could help finish our boat. March 13th.:- Emails received from some of the boatyards but they
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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4) The dream is shattered.

March 2006.   The day the dream fell apart, March 7th, started like any other day, I powered up my computer has usual after breakfast to read what canal news there was on the "Narrowboat World" Internet site and there was nothing special so I moved onto one of their writers columns, Victor.   Well, what I read, I could not believe and thought this can not be right, it must be a mistake. The headline said, "Another boatyard goes under" and reading on it became clear that the writer had heard
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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3) Dream coming together.

November 2005.   A visit to Herons in early November and the superstructure which we had paid for was still not complete but was still being worked on in one of the two steel fabrication workshops. We wanted "Ebinka" to be a boat for all the family, so when they go cruise with us, we need space fore and aft to allow the family to be together. To allow this I asked Heron if it would be possible to make a lightweight canopy to cover the semi trad stern and make it a trad stern for the occasion w
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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2) The dream takes shape.

September 2005.   Within a week of placing our build slot cheque, I got a request for the cost of fabricating the steel hull. Now this was a big cheque but checking our contract it said, "the stage payments were payable at the beginning of each stage", so we paid for the work to start on the hull. Now with the boat hull work started, we turned our attention to buying white goods for the boat, doing all this on the Internet and having the items delivered straight to the Heron boatyard.   We n
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Mick and Pauline

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1) The dream begins.

August 2005.   Pauline and I shortlisted several boat builders in our area, West and South Yorkshire, this was to allow easy access to the yard during the building process.   We made a day out of the visits and took our three grandchildren with us, one of the yards we looked at was Anthony M's but more of that later. One yard my eldest granddaughter liked was the Joshua & Louis yard at Thorne, she liked it so much, she want me to buy a boat there and then. Later that month, we decided t
Mick and Pauline

Mick and Pauline

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