Trevor Lyons

I saw a narrowboat with TekDec fitted to its aft deck, and it looked smart, imitating caulked teak deck on a yacht. I'd quite like something like that instead of a the existing rubbery non-slip painted surface, which is a bit basic. The boater said TekDek used to be expensive, but was now cheaper. Having looked at the TekDec site, it's still really expensive (between £150 & £350 per square meter). Does any one know of any similar but cheaper alternatives?

Here's a lovely cutaway drawing of a 6LW:

This is a small trip boat operated by Jonathan Ward:

The Gardner assembly line:

And again:

Jonathan Ward, the gentleman who commissioned Pickwell and Arnold to build the boat that I now have, has just given me some Gardner documentation and some photos of the Gardner factory and 5LW engines, some of which I will now upload: Another one:

I was born in Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), some 10 degrees south of the equator. School uniform included a very broad-brimmed felt hat. Much of Zambia's plateau is around 1400m above sea level, so the sun beats down really hard. "It's one of the rules that the greatest fools obey, because the sun is much too sultry and one must avoid its ultry-violet ray"!. So the Midi will be like a nice spring morning by comparison!

A few months ago a rather fine narrowboat (about 60', I would say) was for sale in Longport. It had a Gardner 5LW! In ordinary canal service, it's hard to see the engine ever being able to be under load. However, the buyer is said to be intending to use her on the Thames as a tug, so the oomph of the big Gardner will be of use at last.

Ideally, I would have liked them slightly further apart, but the hull details below the deck precluded that. Anyway, given that the bow deck previously had only a samson post, (see photo) it should make locks a lot easier. In an earlier life, the barge was a trip boat, first on the Ouse and then on Lake Windermere. In that guise, she never needed to negotiate locks and did not need bow bollards.. (The boat is 25 tons and 54' x 11'6". Draft is 3'7").

At last the boat yard is fitting my bitts for the bows, built to match those on the stern quarter. The port pair are done, and the starboard pair are spot-welded and will be finished tomorrow.