DJR
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Posts posted by DJR
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Have a look at Marquis No3, 59' Colecraft on Apollo Duck. She's ours and we originally used sprung mattresses but went for 8" firm foam from Foam For Comfort which was much better for our decrepit backs! All in a trad sytle back cabin. Pm me if you want more details.
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Mark and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment at Braunston.I spoke to lots of people and did not get any names so thank-you to everyone for making us feel part of the 'family' on this our 2nd rally. Having seen photos of Carnaby it must be cloth off next year,weather permitting. We are boating to Stratford in July so give us a wave if you see us as we may be on route to the pub!!
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I guess the following a pretty likely too....
Angel (usually based at Braunston)
Joseph
Also this year the focus is on the "non Josher" fleet, (with apologies to "Hampton", celebrating 100 years old, I believe!), and particularly the formation of the Blue Line fleet.
From the final Blue Line boats, "Nutfield" and "Raymond" are on the list, (Let's not redo the "Raymond" discussion here!), and also "Stanton". ("Belmont" - "Stanton's" old butty is rusting away in a discovery park, so not a possibility!).
"Lucy" under restoration will of course be in Pete Boyce's yard - I don't know if that will be open for visitors like some previous years - I would hope Pete might make it so ?
I would hope "Renfrew", ("Lucy's" final motor, with Blue Line), is there too - again normally based at Pete Boyce's and co-owned with Nick Hill, I believe. Other (non Blue Line) possibilities from the Pete Boyce fleet might be "Betelgeuse" and "James Loader". Linky to Pete Boyce's "Phobox" site.
EDITED TO ADD:
Not seen "Paul H" on the forum for a while, I think - his lovely "Capricorn" is another possibilty, I'm guessing ?.
Any one know if any diesel boats will be plying their trade?
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Admiral
Chertsey - are you taking Bakewell too?
Hampton
Linnet
Ling
Owl
Sickle
Stanton
Victoria
Cyprus
Already there:
Dover
Vulcan
From the Brinklow Boat Services collective:
Barrow
Aquila
Baltic
Lamprey
Star
Sextans
plus the faux historique Oberon on its first outing.
David
Carnaby will be there as well.
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A little list I made earlier on when I had some time on my hands and was feeling ponderful, about all of the little things that I have discovered and learnt since moving on board!
1. All of your clothes will smell faintly of ‘real fire’ or coal, regardless of how recently you washed them. Initially this is an inconvenience but eventually you come to rather like it.
2. If you own any white, cream, or pastel coloured clothes, they will soon take on odd black smudges, regardless of how careful you are about keeping them away from the stove, hod, or anything else coal related. This remains as an inconvenience and does not fade.
3. When visiting another boater, it is uncouth to ask to their toilet, unless you are at least a fifteen minute walk from another toilet facility (for women) or a wooded area/ bush (for men.)
4. If you have boater visitors over for more than four hours at a time, you will find yourself spending the latter half of their visit thinking that surely they must need to pee soon/ is your bathroom so nasty that they are too scared to want to use it/ how much more tea can you ply them with as a kind of pseudo-scientific experiment, just to see what they’ll do in an emergency.
5. Visits from other boaters will seldom exceed four hours without them either departing/ needing to go back to their boat for a minute/ having to ‘pop back to the car for something,’ see point four.
6. ‘Townies’ fill gaps in conversation by talking about the weather. ‘Boaties’ fill gaps in conversation by talking about water levels.
7. Pump out or cassette? Oh hells no. Don’t even go there.
8. It’s okay to insult a man’s wife, children, career choice, hair, or dress sense. But engines must always be coo’d over and spoken of in hushed approving tones, regardless of their size, condition, or maker. Shhhh! She’ll HEAR YOU!
9. If you are expected to go to work in anything approaching smart casual, you have likely got a pair of boots ‘for the journey’ that are generally covered in orange clay- like towpath mud, and also a pair of ‘smart shoes’ that are clean, patent leather, and walk less than ten steps a day. Plus a bag to keep each pair in, separately.
10. You become obsessed with what you can convince your stove to burn... Large, unwieldy or inflammable objects of rubbish will all be graded highly, according to your success in convincing the stove to eat them.
11. Ecofans. Having an opinion is mandatory. Having ever tried one is not.
12. If you have a posh new shiny boat, you are probably king of the marina. Conversely, that may also make you ‘king shit’ and/ or a N00b/ ‘more money than sense joker’ out on the cut.
13. ‘Online’ no longer just means that you have internet access, and committing the faux- pas of confusing the two meanings in conversation is verboten.
14. Portholes or windows? See point seven.
15. It seems perfectly normal to you to have both the stove/ heating going full pelt, and all of the windows open.
16. If you can’t manage to have a thorough shower, including shaving your legs, washing and conditioning your hair, and brushing your teeth in under four minutes/ four litres of water, you have failed as a boater and should probably consider moving back onto land.
17. Whenever you go to work in an office, visit a friend in a house, or have cause to use a hotel, you need an extra bag to haul along all of the things you want to charge up from their mains while you’re there.
18. Irons, microwaves, hairdryers and hoovers are all for posh people.
19. You used to own ten big thick jumpers for use in winter. Now you own two big thick jumpers, and a bottle of Febreeze.
20. And... You can make ten cubic feet of stuff fit into four cubic feet of space.
21. You keep a mop on your roof because everybody else does, but you’re not quite sure why...
22. When everyone else on the train home standing up is swaying about and clinging to railings, you are in the middle of it all freestanding, swaying with the flow and not falling down (until you do!)
23. Your mailing address is the same as your parents, for the first time since you were 16 years old.
24. Rosie and Jim are Bad People.
25. You probably started life on your boat with a novelty neckerchief, captain’s hat, pirate bandana, or “I’m on a boat, Mother F***er!” t shirt. By your third week therein, you have experimented with how that burns on the stove (see point 10) and roll your eyes and snort derisively at the fresh faced wannabe’s who have taken your place in committing aforementioned fashion faux-pas.
26. You have a beard. This is neither negotiable, nor gender- specific.
27. You can answer the question “is it cold on a boat in winter?” sensibly, only a finite number of times, before deciding to mess with people and saying “yes, it’s terrible, I have nearly died of hypothermia twice this year already, and I don’t know how I’m still alive...”
28. You thought you’d save money in winter by using the open bow as a fridge/ freezer for your food... Until you realised just how much alcohol you could actually store there if you stacked it all up right.
29. Upon hearing ‘man overboard!’ you reach for the camera first, and the life ring second.
30. When other people fall in, you are never there to see it/ photograph it. But you know damn well that when YOU fall in, there’ll be a group of Japanese tourists there, immortalising it on film and upping it to YouTube within the hour.
31. You can cook and serve a full Sunday roast for four, with less than two square feet of counter space to work on.
32. You stop thinking to yourself, “there’s some funny people on the cut” around the same time you realise that you are just like them, actually.
33. The 8pm engine/ generator off collective: You’re either with them, or against them.
34. You know that you have to disown any of your former friends who are apt to order “a pint of lager, please” in the pub, and you’re okay with that, actually.
35. Your hands and nails are NEVER clean, no matter how much you wash them.
36. You WILL have some kind of nasty toilet emptying related incident within your first few weeks away from mains plumbing. No one can teach you how to avoid your own personal initiation into boat toilet hell, you’re just going to have to grit your teeth and wait for it to happen.
37. When you started out with the boat, you had a little list of about five things that you needed to do/ buy/ sort out. However, due to a phenomenon I like to think of as ‘boat mathematics’ you learn that for every one item you cross off of said list, another two appear.
Three months down the line, your list has about 30 essential and time sensitive things you need on it, and your earnings for the next two to four years are already committed to it. Oh well, spaghetti hoops for dinner again...
Anyone have any they'd like to add?
Thanks for all on your ponder,raised a wry smile. Good innit!
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......you used your pointy end?????......
Just realised I need to explain that even getting out of bed rocks the boat and I'm saying no more for fear of offending myself further!!
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Rather embarrassing when one rises early for a pee and the act is heralded down the cut by the ricochet of breaking ice!!
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It’s done!
Friday 6th January, ‘Monopoly’ money exchanged, a celebratory bottle of Bollinger and two bottles of Chateaux something or other for good measure and my partner and I were gently rocked to sleep in an unfamiliar but very comfortable bed on the Trent and Mersey canal inside our very own narrow boat.
A lot of the research that led us to finding our lovely boat was done on this forum so thank you to everyone who contributed and patiently answered my, often no doubt, simple minded questions.
We had a lot of fun finding our boat but the path we took was not at all what we had planned or expected.
As we gathered information a mental picture of our perfect boat began to form and by the autumn of last year we felt we had a clear picture of what we wanted.
In November, armed with a list of requirements we embarked on a meticulously planned 3-week trip of the UK canal system visiting both boat builders and brokers.
Miraculously, we found our boat on the 4th day; incredibly, it ticked practically none of the boxes on our list!
Having struggled for 18 months with the difficult and often controversial issues of port holes over windows, pump or chuck toilets, bow curves, rivets – real, fake or none, the right vintage engine and the length, breath and make of shell etc etc etc, we simply, and at first sight, fell head over heels in love with this boat and bought it with not a thought for our carefully formulated wish list!
Life can sometimes be so simple and so wonderful!
We move on board in March and the waiting is agonising.
Joshua
She looks lovely, can see why you fell in love..Good Luck.
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Firstly, it's got kinks in it. If you try to slide along the wall when meeting an oncoming boat, you can be pushed out into its path.
Secondly, at crowed times it can take for ages and if the tunnel is smoke-filled, it's not always obvious how close you're getting to the boat in front.
Thirdly, if you have a noisy engine, oncoming boats panic and go so slowly that they lose steerage and swing out to meet you.
Fourthly boats will insist on having floodlights aimed directly at your face.
Fifthly only one wall has got the wooden guard
Don't let these things put you off. If you time it right – say early morning, you can belt through. I love doing that. I won't say what my personal best is 'cos that'll only get the anti speed brigade all worked up.
Dare I suggest your voyage thruogh the tunnel would be fine if you slowed down and steered using the arch of the roof?
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This year I have been exclusively burning Taybrite. Lights ok, stays in well and heat output is ok (though not as good as Phurnacite or Excel). One thing I have noticed with Taybrite is the ash takes a long time to cool. If I leave the metal ash bucket in the saloon I can watch the digital CO monitor begin to register 30ppm, slowly climbing until bucket is removed and placed on roof to cool. While it does the job as soon as I can get a supply of pretty much anything else I'm done with Taybrite. Anybody else have a similar experience or is it just me?
Is watching ash cool the same as watching paint dry??
My alternatives locally are Homefire which is high quality but pricey and Multi Heat. The only images for Multi Heat I can find show grey coke like nuts. I'm just after a reasonable quality anthracite that doesn't contain cement dust. Has anybody had any experience with Multi Heat?
Have used homefire and only benefit versus the cost is a reduction of ash and a cleaner flue. Have reverted to Taybrite for the length of time it stays in during day long absence of stoker.
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How delightful....such a long squabble I forgot the original topic.
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To my mind there is a serious danger of attracting people to live on the water as a cheap way of getting on the property ladder. I think the number one prerequisite for taking up the boating lifestyle is actually enjoying this lifestyle we choose. I can foresee a lot of very disillusioned people shivering in dark boats with overflowing toilets and no drinking water simply because they have been told that a boat is a viable alternative to land based accommodation without being fully informed of the implications of living afloat.
Agree,it may be cheaper to buy a boat than a house, but living costs and attention to aforementioned tasks may not be within all capabilities or desire.It is not a move to give a leg up the ladder,more a shove along the gangplank.
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What are you going to be like when you're old???
More active..did not realise how sedentary living aboard is and how one seizes up!!
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Errr excatly how old are you???
sorry for being rude
Jim
Excused!! 54 and 58.
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[font=Ta
homa][/font]The best advice we received before moving on board was ,'do it while you are still young'. The pain creeps in slowly when you use the stairs and realise this is not a movement the hips are used to. The weight creeps up on cosy nights in with nibbles and booze, necessary with card games, and since the dogs died and we spent 3 years in midlands with no locks. We have slept in bed'ole and roll over together,but do not stretch out. We have just spent 3 months cruising and I have supraspinatis sprain. Luckily not an arthritic shoulder,(self-diagnosed old age!) and will recover. Doctor asked what I had been up to, I said 'Boating' and he said,'ahh,throwing ropes'..??!!I didn't argue as he pressed a knotted ligament on my shoulder blade and eased the pain.Skipper has housemaid's knee and a weak acchilles!! so,time to jump ship,buy some stairs,garden,garage and get on the motorbikes to work. Lucky we still have a second boat to 'boat' but living afloat aches the bones, but keeps the soul young. We have loved the past six years but realise we are too old to start jogging and would not be seen dead in lycra. Have started swimming, and walking at a brisk pace along the towpath to work!!!OH and we are still young,I think. Keep taking the tablets.
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Old fashioned me has vinyl in son's loft and need the physical presence of cds. Make marvellous ballast to trim and counter stove,cooker and heads. How do you decide what to listen to if you can't scan the plastic?
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Aylesbury Arm started on Saturday.Began well and gradually deteriorated thereon, culminating in Aylesbury where the town has turned its back on the canal. A certain haven for fisherfolk who presume the lock bollards are there to rest their rods,poles.tea etc. Decreasing water levels made hard going with 30mins.for half mile.Rickety lock gates leaking like sieves...needs a rally of deep draft boats to rastle things up!!
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Good pictures,we enjoyed them, thank-you.
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More to the point, it was a shame that the BBC didn't interview a few boaters who DO live aboard.
And pay their way with mooring fees, boat licence, electric bills, diesel and footwear bills.
And they pay for it by working in the real world! That would have balanced out the views.
Indeed,2 of us working full time to allow us to live on.
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Please recommend a surveyor who will do a hull survey in the midlands that will satisfy the insurance company .Boat is big northwich 1936 vintage.I used to go up to Manchester but retirement means finding a new surveyor.
Considering the comments above perhaps you could use Trevor Whitling
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Carnaby went to an employee of Brinklow Boats and is now tied up in Brinklow Marina.
Paul
We had to empty all the piggy banks but knew it was our last chance to buy the lovely big bow. We are not changing anything from choice (and funds) but are more than happy. Needed patches on four knees, one on baseplate (original steel!) and reinforce chine angles. All blacked and afloat again up the Brinklow Arm. Only modification is the exhaust channeled up out the roof rather than out the side. Lister HR2 makes her bang along a treat.See you at Braunston and come aboard for a chat. Mark and Debbie. Carnaby.
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It still has a low back deck, you can just about make out in this pic.
Need to contact him actually as I understand he has a good contact for 40 gallon drums.
Well that is a good home for one at least. Hope they don't relenghten it though.
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When I came home on Monday night as
Drunk as drunk could be.
I saw three bells upon the bed
Where my old bells should be.
So I calls me wife and I ses to her
Would you kindly tell to me
Who owns those bells in my old bed
Where my old bells should be.
Oh,yer drunk,yer drunk yer silly old fool,
As drunk as drunk can be.
Thats the loverly pigeon box my mother sent to me.
Well its many a day I've travelled
A hundred miles or more.
But bells upon a pigeon box I never saw before!
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I love to lie in bed at dawn or dusk with back doors open when out in the ooloo.
How Many BW Converted Workboats Still Exist?
in History & Heritage
Posted
Carnaby is as we got her from BW in 2010, and with the exception of making the cabin more user friendly she will stay as she is. We would love to know why BW cut the gunwales down, our best guess is to improve access when loading/unloading. If anyone knows for sure we would like to hear from them.
We looked at Aynho when the auctions were on and recall that she had a more 'traditional' style cabin but don't recall the gunwales being cut down.
Caldy was on the K&A about 2 years ago looking very tidy but otherwise unaltered from her BW guise.