dave moore

I saw her last at Lichfield Cruising Club, a good few years ago now. She had been stretched then from her original length of 30’.

Simon Wain sent me this only last week. I first met Alf at Harris’s yard, Bumblehole, Netherton. He and brother Jeff had Imp, their first boat, moored there in the mid 60s. At the time I’d helped Malcolm Braine with Cactus and Ken Dunham with Grange at the yard and I was developing an interest in signwriting, having watched Ted Chetwynd letter Cactus and being taught Italic handwriting and later some calligraphy at school. Somehow, Alf learned of this and said, in a broad Black Country accent ” Daeve, yo’ got nice ‘ondwritin....con yo’ paent me boat’s naeme on the side?” It was a challenge I readily accepted, setting to work with the wrong paint and brushes, taking almost a day to execute the 6 letters for a fee of 40 Park Drive cigarettes. This was the beginning of a long friendship which lasted, on and off, until his death in the mid 90s. Imp was sold and Alf had Hexa built at Norton Canes by Denis Cooper at CTS, she was the boat usually associated with him. As is seen on the film, she was well adorned with decorative ropework, the tiller a riot of plaited ropework using plastic coloured washing line. Around this time, the early 70s, he had a crane driving job in a local factory, though he was making fenders and decorative ropework too. He’d knock a day off work and I’d drive him around West Midland boatyards where he’d sell his wares. He soon commissioned a workboat to accompany Hexa as a floating workshop where he could ply his trade, having given up factory work, and once again I set to work with enthusiasm, wrong paint and brushes to letter Fiddlers Green for him. I cringed to see the work featured briefly in the interview! We boated together extensively in the early 70s, though I was in Australia in 76 when the piece was filmed. We lost touch for some years during which he married, had a son, and for some time living afloat at the Black Country Museum where he demonstrated his craft as well. We met again on the fringes of the Black Country at Prestwood near Stourbridge, at the yard of David Baugh, then the home of Black Country Narrowboats. Things hadn’t gone well for Alf, the boats were sold and David had a caravan in which Alf lived, single again. He used outbuildings at the yard to pursue his ropeworking career. Eventually, anno domini intervened and he moved to a care home in Kinver. I passed by often, with a note....next time, I’ll go and see Alf....until a phone call from a friend informed me of his passing. His funeral saw a model of Hexa atop his coffin, which I know would have pleased him. Alf was a real character, the salt of the Black Country earth and I treasure his memory. My final act was to write an appreciation of his life for the journal of the International Guild of Knot Tyers. Rest in peace, me mon!

Then, doubtless, he swore at it.....

Nothing with silicone in, preferably. It can make subsequent repaints an interesting project.....don’t ask me how I know....

I can only endorse what has already been said. In the meantime, keep the new job clean. Just water should do!

Mega miserable maggot drowners!

I wrote it a few years back, not the first I’ve done.....

Everything off the cabin top, approach slowly and take it easy. I don’t have an actual measurement, but i live locally and have yet to hear of a boat that couldn’t pass. Use the white painted guide lines to follow the channel.

Back in early March I was struggling to find my glasses, having put them down , I thought, somewhere in the kitchen. Hours later, they were still missing, every nook and cranny in house and workshop interrogated. On with the spare pair and eye test booked, new ones collected as lockdown loomed. The bloody things are still missing.....I’m confounded!!

I’d stick with freshening up the original, both in terms of diamond size and colours and possibly adding a thin black line between them. I’m not aware of any significance of diamonds, other than a decorative element. Bright red, chrome yellow, white and French blue are already there. I’ve done a good few cabin top diamonds in those colours. Remember the signwriter’s maxim....if it looks right, it is right....

Standing out in the open on a cruiser stern in the cold and rain? No thanks. Trad stern, back cabin stove warming your feet. No abominable “ pram hoods “ either.

Having mentioned gauges, it was a few moment’s work with scrap timber to make these, I hope the picture will clarify. I forgot to add that I planed a small chamfer on the the batten piece to correspond with the tumblehome.

Lots of the painters I work alongside also use Kleenedge for coach lines. Like Gareth, I like to remove tape early, but it can also be left on for quite a while if necessary. Avoid ordinary masking tapes at all cost.....many allow bleeding under the edge and can be swines to remove if left. Many professionals use home made gauges to lay out lines. Essentially an offcut say 3” wide, about 6” or 7” long, with a batten at one end. Cut a v shaped notch at the desired distance from handrail or cabin top to the top of the coach line and mark off along the cabin side with a wax pencil or marker. Apply tape, checking constantly for wobbles.

Speak to Sarah Edgson at Glascote, she is now running Norton Canes. Some of the lads there have experience of this work.

I’d advise a steel re-skin too. It was a Norton Canes speciality at one time. Years ago, Malcom Braine built many wooden topped craft, sooner or later problems appeared. Graham Edgson, his successor, developed a technique of removing the outer timber work and cladding the remaining cabin in steel. I remember Thelma from years past, I think I went with a prospective owner to have a look at her when he was contemplating purchase.