Andy Hall

AS3 of course I have legitimately got one in Christopher James. It is as far as I am concerned a top engine. Rebuilt 35 years ago has not given trouble. Plus of course the noise is excellent. Always sends my daughter straight to sleep even now after 29 years! Has only two speeds fast and b————y fast. Yes it smokes but can greatly reduce this mixing in high grade Kerosene and 2 stroke oil. As far as I am concerned you will not get a better engine, starts in any weather and of course no cooling water problems.

Jim. Top Bloke. What more can you say. Always very helpful to me. Regards Andy.

Yes my wife daughter and I still own it and will be on the dock at Deepcut for its biannual docking in two weeks time. The engine is still going ok, hope to be out on it in the summer. Regards Andy.

My wife and I have now owned CJ for thirty years. I first saw it when we were on our first canal holiday aboard a Gordon's pleasure cruiser. It was at that time owned by Eric and was in the colours descibed earlier.What I could not work out was how it went through the water so quickly and without hardly a ripple. That is compared to the craft we were in which if I recall was so small you could do everything from the bed! Had no power and certainly did not steer in a straight line I was smitten. I now know CJ goes very well especially on the Thames, it also goes very fast in reverse and can be steered in deeper water as the swim starts half way down the boat, cheers me up each time I do it. With regard to George Bunting under his ownership it was painted green and red. Christopher James is still alive and well.We took him out for the day a couple of years ago. When he arrived I was most interested to see he had bought with him Les Allens original model of the boat in the form of an ink well, this had sat on the chairmans desk until closure. With regard to construction its true the story (I think it was second plank down )it had one piece planks front to back thats on both sides. This could not be easily seen because of the ice plating.I'm told Les Allen did this for a bet.The main side planks are thirty two foot long,fourteen inches wide two inches thick so on first glance it looked like it's steel.The last big job I did with the help of my friends Martin and Peter was to replace the stern post and the two aft lower strakes.The stern post is nineteen inches long and that was from a tree one side of its heart no sap some bit of timber. At the moment I am painting the exterior of the cabin.I have always painted it in tecoloid dark admiralty grey,as per the Chris Cleggs photographs of it outside the works in the sixties. This paint vairies quite a lot in shade of colour. So CJ is still fit and well. I don't know how brother tug James Loader is, I think it's on the side at Braunston.

Going back to Joan 11, I remember that with the cabin removed and standing on the counter block the hull was shaped like a very large tear drop.The counter was very narrow.This is quite unlike Christopher James which has a very wide counter which makes it very stable. In fact you can jump on one side of it and the boat hardly rolls. I would have loved to see how Joan went.I do not know what engine it was fitted with originally. Who was Joan named after? It must have been a familly member.I would ask Christopher James only like an idiot, I have misplaced his address.

Ramon Farmer bought Joan11 and we towed it down to Weybridge from Charity Dock. This Lynda and I did with Christopher James. We pulled joan into Ramons garden thanks to Vince Locatelli, with the loan of his very large bulks of timber. Ramon had agreed with a boatbuilder at the time of purchase to come and rebuild it.The boatbuilder arrived but the original estimate at the time of purchase was different to later calculations, so Ramon did not continue. Later Ramon sold the house and despite attempts to relocate her she was broken up. I have a couple of guards and Tony Clarke has the rudder.Thats all that is left, oh Tony may have the prop, I cant remember. The National, sold before Ramon purchased the boat, was sold to Peter and is now in his boat Petronella. Out of interest the counter on this boat was of composite construction, a technique Peter and Ken Keay favoured I am told. This has a bit of a happy ending, as the boatbuilder was then able to help me, or rather me help him together with my father rebuild Christopher James.This we did at Bulls Bridge, just before the site was turned into another Tesco. I consider myself very lucky to have met the boat builder as he did a super restoration job on Christopher James (which at that time was in a very poor state)also teaching me basic boat building skills and what I needed to do to ensure its ongoing survival.Without him Christopher James would not be here now.It remains a working tribute to him.