Hi John V,
I'm David Babsky, whom you mentioned in your search for info about my long lost love "Sabina H"! (..And how nice to read a message from Andymaz, whom I remember well, as I took several photos of him and his boat - and mine - along with a bottle of Badedas ..for some long-forgotten and surreal purpose!
A boater called Brian Banks bought me - probably around 1974 - that book "Tankers Knottingley" (mentioned by "FadeToScarlet" which does have details of Sabina's builder, I think.
It's sad to see that photo - immediately above that post - of Sabina's engine room ..you say "..The Glennifer had been under water so many times.." but I know of only one time, after I'd gone up to Manchester around 1990 to see my parents, and some children on the Isle of Dogs had chucked off the deck some loose bollards, which she then sat down on at next low water, and which punched a hole in her (rather fragile) bottom.
After she'd filled with water a friend called Tim Ryan - who had the use of Cubitt's slipway at Woolwich, which I think may be in that upper photo above the picture of her engine room - bought her from me, and he and his pals pumped her, refloated her, took her down to Cubitt's and tidied her up, and sold her to a chap called Bill Someone-or-other, who then moored her in Barking Creek. And that's the last I saw of her.
I had bought her from Peter Horlock - I remember his saying that I should sleep aboard her for a night before taking full possession of her - and I then motored her round, in two stages, from Mistley ..first to Brightlingsea and then to Kingston upon Thames.. where I certainly lived aboard her, but I also took her out for cruises up and down the Thames (she had a hook on the back, so I could take her through the locks at "commercial" rate!) and several times used her to rescue other vessels who'd had misfortunes (engine problems or sinking problems) until I took her downstream to moor first at Ham (below Kingston) and then at Poplar Dock, just before the London Docklands Development Corporation took over the docks. When they did, I took her outside the dock, into the river, and moored at New Concordia Wharf, just downstream of the Gun pub.
I could write reams (remember those?) about Sabina, and I'll look for some photos of her ..ah; here's one, which my friends took at our "Three Boat Surprise Party" at Kingston - around 1975 - but having only just arrived at this Canalworld site a few minutes ago this afternoon (..I was looking for something completely different..) it'll take me a day or so to find the other and to work out how to post it, or them, here. Or perhaps I could send copies of them directly to you, John.
I'm so glad to have discovered that Sabina's alive and well! I can tell you that she really was a very manoeuvrable vessel, and so easy to get alongside, to spin around on a sixpence - doing a "three-point-turn" - and so simple to move single-handedly that she was a real pleasure and a joy to navigate.
Please give her my love, and a kiss from me, as I had some really wonderful times on board Sabina, and I was so sorry that vandals sent her down to the (not very deep) river bed. But times move on, and I had to then look after my folks, and so wouldn't have been able to maintain her any longer.
I hope you get great pleasure from belonging to her! ..Yours, David.