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Ian McBride

Member
  • Posts

    2
  • Joined

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Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    London
  • Occupation
    Journalist
  • Boat Name
    Millicent Annie
  • Boat Location
    Norbury Junction

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  1. Not a lot, I suspect - but as I understood it the buyers agreed with Gary Ward that they wouldn't take the name and it was painted out before sale. When we bought it the broker listed it without a name and it carried only BW no.
  2. This question was asked - last year, I think, in a discussion about whether "josher" was the most abused term/ description on the cut. A member asked what had happened to St. Christopher, which he believed was built by Gary Ward (Delta Marine, Warwick) as a perfect/ utter josher replica. I wanted to reply when I stumbled on this recently but after registering can't now find the post. So here goes - The boat is alive and well, renamed Millicent Annie and moored at Norbury. My wife and I bought her in 1997 from the couple who had bought her from Gary, in the early/ mid-90's. When he sold the boat, Gary apparently declined to sell the St. Christopher name with it, and for personal reasons the purchasers did not get around to a new name (though they had contemplated the name Sultan.) So we bought with no name. Gary fitted the boat as the "ultimate" narrowboat of that era, keeping it for a time as his own/ "demonstrator" - for its first couple of years it lived on BW "trade" plates - and it became surprisingly well-known. Less well-known: he did not build the hull. It's a Roger Fuller "washer josher", the 10th boat Roger built, in 1989 - albeit with close oversight from Gary. You'll find it listed under St. Christopher on Roger's web-site, along with its new name. And as St. Christopher it could still be seen on the Delta web-site last time I looked. Aside of the name change, the boat looks very different - the mildly austere blue and grey of the original having been replaced with more startling paintwork, courtesy of good friends Phil Speight and John Sanderson. However, there is something in its line. A few years ago we had a new cratch cover made by AJ Canopies. When Cliff and Jenny Allcott arrived on the mooring to fit it, Jenny squinted down the cabin side and pronounced: "You know what this is, don't you? It's Gary's boat". Finally, Millicent Annie has recently provided the answer to a question which will be becoming more frequent among canal boaters. Q: How long does a bow thruster tube last on the canal? A: 20 years. As part of the "ultimate" narrowboat, Gary fitted a Sleipner bow-thruster in the proprietary 5mm tube. While the heavier hull plating remains excellent, perhaps thanks to two-pack, you can't properly two-pack right through the inside of a bow tube. And it failed recently, an inch or so corroded paper-thin near the prop and a nasty hole. So she was back with Roger last month, for removal and fitting of a (thicker) replacement. Tricky, unwelcome job - Mr. Fuller is a saint!
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