Dan

Hey, that's brilliant, thanks folks. It's quite useful to have a couple options and we can just see which we end up at dependent on weather and how much cruising we do! Thanks again Dan

Hi Everyone, was hoping someone may be able to help co-ordinate our holiday plans with a bit of knowledge of the area! Our holiday is getting nearer now, and we start from Guildford. We were thinking to head north first, starting on a Monday about 14.00. On the Tuesday evening the last two of our party will be joining us until the Friday morning. I was wondering if anyone had an idea how far north we would get with a day and a bit of cruising and if there was any nice pub, preferably riverside with a car park that they could meet us at Tuesday evening. The plan is then to head South and try and get to Godalming etc as I have heard this is the prettiest stretch? Any help much appreciated All the best Dan

"In the absence of several thousand pounds to pay for a full paint job (yes, I've been watching the thread about how much it costs to have your boat repainted!) her new name is simply on a plaque in the window" Good Heavens! I found a reasonable standard could be achieved for about £300-£400 when I did it myself... though that was to quite a different standard to a professional I can appreciate what they charge is probably a fair going rate for them. I used International Paint so it could have cost a lot less, but then would have looked poor again much quicker.... something of a false economy in my mind. Congratulations on your renaming.... when I renamed I wrote it on neatly with a permanent marker pen! Dan

Hi Richard Thanks for your kind comments, it means a lot to know it's of interest & enjoyable to people I'm just hoping to be able to grow the owner contributions sections now, so any BP owners out there do feel free to get in touch Dan

Hey, that's great, thanks very much both of you I have had a message from someone advising me the site is not showing well and that text on the navigation buttons is overlapping, some heading words are cut off etc.... if anyone else is having sizing issues (if you'll excuse the expression) could you let me know, I'm a bit concerned as to how big the problem is, but cannot replicate the issue on any of the five pc's I have access to Dan

Hi Folks The website is now much more together and the web address is: www.blackprinceowners.org.uk I am still regularly updating the boat list page with more boat photos and plan to scan some brochures from the past and upload them to a seperate page in the future. Many Thanks to BlueStringPudding for sending me some pictures and writing a couple of articles, if anyone else owns an ex Black Prince boat I'd love to add more information and please do get in touch through the website Hope it's of interest Dan

Hi, Good to see it's got your interest! The sites much more complete now and I will be making it live on Wednesday when I'll update the thread. I'm still a bit short of owner contributions though, so if those that were interested in contributing pictures etc could email me by clicking here with their pictures I'd be really grateful. If you don't get a reply then I haven't recieved the email and please pm me through the forum here All the best Dan

Hi Sue Brilliant, I'll add a link to your webpage from the site if you like. If you've got any pictures or information you'd like to add of your boat please email me I'm hoping to be able to update this thread with the new website address towards the end of the week/weekend All the best Dan

Sounds interesting.... look forward to the picture! Dan

Excellent, cheers Liam.... sounds like a Trad 4 class. Could you also get the BW number for me so I may be able to figure which BP boat it was.... Cheers Dan

Hi Everyone I'm cracking on with writing the pages for the site now, and hope to have it up & running before too long. BlueStringPud' has sent me some brilliant pictures of ongoing work/improvements of her craft and a brilliant cruise log with pictures which will form two seperate articles on the site. Could any other BP owners who were interested incontributing get to touch with me either by private message through here or by emailing me - my email can be found on my general website through the contact me button at Visit My Website as it'd be great if I could launch the site with a few Black Prince owners already onboard! All the best Dan

Hi Liam Thanks, I normally create my sites through WebPlus 7.0 as I find this pretty idiot proof so I am ok on that side, but was just going to look at hosting, web address/domain etc. If this is something you could help/advise on that'd be really appreciated as I'm a bit (well totally) out of my depth on. If you could email me (button on my website at) www.dhorner.horning.org.uk that would be great All the best Dan Here's the picture of Lord Jim (Index 71717):

Ahhh, thanks guys.... that's encouraging. I was unsure whether to put up a poll because being a specific subject I knew there would be lots of people on the forum not interested, so its encouraging to see a number of yes's! I shall put something together and will post back in a few weeks when live. I will contact the top man at Black Prince as have always found him a brilliant, helpful guy, and their assistance on a couple of things could be useful, and I will try and think of a few features that may make the site beneficial or of interest to them. BW Index 71717 is indeed a Black Prince boat. It is a 56ft built as a 6 berth in 1985 named "Lady Diana", a Lady class (though had a slightly different saloon layout to most of the class). This was sold for 1988 to Oxfordshire Narrowboats at Lower Heyford, when Black Prince sold the base. From 1989 Oxfordshire Narrowboats broke away from Black Prince (using them as agents to book the boats in 1988) though keeping the colour scheme similar (just a darker blue than built with, and the burgundy on the forward and rear panels instead of yellow). My boat was also an ex Oxfordshire, website at www.dhorner.horning.org.uk In the last few years of running her Oxfordshire changed her to an 8 berth and renamed her Lord Jim. This was around the time Lady Diana died. Picture to follow, of her tied up at Oxfordshire Narrowboats in 1997 as "Lord Jim" I would be really interested to feature a picture of her as she is today on the website..... please email me through my website link above if you'd be interested All the best Dan

Hi Everyone This raised itself on a recent thread... the thought of a Black Prince Owners Club/Site. I was considering knocking something together, but bearing in mind this will take a fair bit of time I was trying to guage whether there is enough interest out there. Content I was thinking of was sections on: *History of Black Prince through the years *All the Black Prince boat classes built over the years - segregated into their key design styles (Duchess, Blue & Yellow etc) *Possibly something on the various bases over the years *Section for people to send their pictures in of their boats *A list of all the known Black Prince craft in BW registration number order - with functions to click to see a picture of the boat from its days on hire, and it as it is today (second bit reliant heavily on contribution from owners etc, though I have over 100 piccies of them when with BP) *Section on work carried out, alterations, improvements, replacements etc - mainly reliant on owners sending in pictures/articles they'd like to share I was a bit disappointed even the ex BP owners didn't seem excited by the suggestion on the other thread - so is anyone interested? All the best Dan

www.dhorner.horning.org.ukHi Everyone Thought I would add my general boating website to this page.... it has all my holidays listed with pictures of the boats hired, a section on the boat I owned and a useful (hopefully) links page.... All the best Dan

The thing is, if you create an ex hire boat website then its so diverse its basically just a boating website or club, because there are so many different styles, engines, builders etc to me that's just a waste of time, there's not really a connecting link, the fact they are ex hire from 100's of companies is surely a bit of an unimportant connection?! I know drifting of threads happens, but I'm with Blue StringPudding..... I keep checking here hoping more Black Prince owners/info might have been added.... Dan

Hello Alan If it has an ugly nose stem (like Canberra's picture) and is all steel it is likely to be a Black Prince built boat. Next time you are there if you take it's BW Index PLate number & email or private message me I can look at my list of Black Prince boats (anorak alert!) and tell you which it was, and if it was! I would consider launching and writing a Black Prince owners club/website.... but is there enough interest? Dan

Hello Everyone I USED to own an Ex black Prince narrowboat - does that count?! Mine was a slightly older vintage though... from 1981, built as a 5 berth Bomber Class - a rear cabin with a single and a set of bunks, and I refitted her to have a fixed double instead. She was from the time they were built with laminated marine ply fitouts of high quality - the interior would/will definately outlast the exterior! They also looked like Anglo Welsh boats in shape - 'Harborough Style', something that seems to have been forgotten with time as they are almost always advertised for sale as built by Anglo Welsh or Harborough Marine. Mine wasn't, though some of the fleet was inherited through other fleets or bought from Anglo Welsh, so many on the fleet were I guess. With so many ex Black Prince craft about, especially since they introduced their policy of not keeping them more than 4 years I did wonder/hope someone may start an owners forum/website? Here's a picture of my old boat just before I sold her in 2004. There is much more information on the 'my boat' page of my website at dhorner.horning.org.uk including pictures of the refit etc All the best Dan

Oh dear, that's a real shame. We'll try & plan our overnight stops each morning after your comments. Which boat were you on? All the best Dan

Hi Christine Yes, it was me that had that problem, and it was the MD, Robert Lawrence who instructed Blakes to remove my booking as they did not want my business and did not wish to enter correspondence with me over my query of why a TV was not available/why I couldn't take my own when their own website allowed the option and the Visit Britain grading said the grading meant TV standard or available to hire. Sadly I could only draw this man was a complete idiot, and was certainly nothing to do with a less senior operative, this was the top man! Maybe I was unlucky though and he had some short term issues clouding his judgement as he does seem to have behaved like a more rational, business minded person in this scenario, which is great news! Ironic that despite them making me out to be the problem last year, this year all the craft have TV's so either my scenario or Visit Britain forced their hand on doing what they should have anyway. I'm still quite saddened by my experience though, as I had some great AW holidays over the years and recommended them to many and held them in such high regard The thread is here if anyone wanted to read the debarkle... click here Dan

Hi Woolie Chas Hardern are based at Beeeston, so you can certainly head for the Llangollen, but they aren't actually based on it. The company offers good value, nicely presented boats (rather than top luxury rated craft, as probably gathered when comparing prices) and, from what I hear with friendly, well supported staff so I'm sure you'll have a good time with them. Enjoy! Dan

Thanks for the reply. We did book with them, so if no-one has any experiences to share I'll let you know how we get on with them. They seem to be ideally situated for a short break through some of the nicest parts of this canal Dan

I always thought Anglo Welsh were good, and superb value, and recomended them to many. This was until last year, when I wanted to hire a TV, and when they didn't have that facility availability (despite the VB grading stating this) when I said I would take my own the MD of Anglo Welsh cancelled my booking as he didn't want to correspond with me over the matter. Since then I have spent my thousands (I have 3 or 4 boating holidays a year) elsewhere. Draw from that what you will (personally I naturally decided their MD was a complete ***** that needed his head examining!)... but you did ask if anyone had any experience of them! Dan P.S TV's are standard this year so problem hopefully sorted

Hello, thanks again for all the words of encouragement, can't wait now! We have booked 53ft Guildford Princess. Don't suppose you know her former name from when she was with Alvechurch Boat Centres? Dan