Paddle

I agree. The roses have a similarity to Bauernmalerei (which translates as peasant/farmer-painting) from Germany/Austria. http://www.artezan.com/artezan/styles-n-techniques/traditional/bauernmalerei.html

Because if you can't sell a pile of timber (that needs a six-figure sum spending on it) for £1,000, then a 20% discount is going to make all the difference... Poor Conway needs a dowry, not a bill. It could be worse. Mabel & Forgot me Ages Ago are £23,000 for the pair. http://www.batesboatyard.co.uk/mabel-forgetmenot.htm "The topsides look a bit off putting but beneath the waterline they are in good condition." Edited to add: I'm really not trying to be horrid. I do hope there is a happy ending for all of these. But the vendors seem to struggle in seeing the difference between 'liability' and 'asset'... And also, Conway has been mentioned on here by two proud new owners. In 2008 and also in 2013 (a little way down this thread):

It was Guide of £500k for the pumping station (unsold at auction at the time, but I can't see that it's still for sale), AND £400k for the two cottages. The latter are now holiday cottages. https://www.justcottages.co.uk/west-midlands/staffordshire/stockton-brook-waterworks

I think I agree with the ER...S. I've had a bit of play with it, but I don't know if it's making it worse...

To answer your question, it's mostly dangerous for your bank balance rather than dangerous per se. This is also wooden, and another project but it does have an engine and would fit up more canals than the one you propose. Plus you wouldn't have to ship it by road. All round I'd go for this one rather than the one you propose. But I'd still want £100k+++ in reserve. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/523005505298984/?ref=feed_rhc

Provided you don't keep it anywhere near the place you found it then who would ever know. Same rules apply to all thefts. You'd be better off buying this, though. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/523005505298984/?ref=feed_rhc It's only a grand...

Great stuff that! Harder than the wood itself; what's not to like... Wouldn't get far with a small tub like that on 70' of narrow boat though, would you?

Wonderful! And long may your obsession remain, and long may HOOD continue to give you much joy and may you continue to give HOOD much attention. 200 hours at, what would a sensible rate be, £25? per hour (including VAT) £50?, plus materials plus docking. You're 'spending' 6-8k annually on this boat as an absolute minimum, plus all the other faffing - and you get to be pickled in wood preserver. There are 212 Austin Allegros left in the UK (in 2018) https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/?page=1&q=allegro which proves that they have a lifespan of forty years or more in the hands of those obsessed with their longevity. But given that they built 642,350 of them maybe it doesn't prove the more general statement. ? I'd suggest that the majority of wooden boats don't get the love, care and attention that you obviously lavish on HOOD, and as a result stick to the normal 25-ish year cycle. Poor old GIFFORD was extensively rebuilt at the 23 year stage when only expecting a bit of painting. https://hnbc.org.uk/boats/gifford Interesting to contrast working and non-working boats. The prime decay spot I understand is at the waterline where the water meets the air. Working boats are regularly loaded and unloaded whereas retired boats spend the majority of their time sitting at their moorings. Does this mean that the waterline area subject to this enhanced decay rate in a working boat is two feet deep, or does it mean that the enhanced-decay-rate region doesn't exist in the same way?

What could be more perfect than buying a wooden narrowboat, unseen, from eBay? Particularly one with a 99p start, and that has been on the market for some years. At least it has new covers and a new lick of paint, that should help with the eventual sales price. If it looks good... then it's the perfect impulse buy.

Unfortunately those are the rules for museums. Otherwise they'd perpetually be selling off exhibits to pay for new visitor centres... Selling artefacts can mean that museums lose their Arts Council England accreditation status and put them out of the running for future Government grants. Remember the fuss when Northampton Museum sold its ancient Egyptian statue at Christies for £16m - and lost its accreditation status for five years. Worth it for £16m, not worth it for the £15k that they'd get for BIRCHILLS. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/10/northampton-borough-council-sells-egyptian-statue-sekhemka I do think though that a wooden boat sagging slowly in a shed is a better bet for a museum than one that's been sunk for years. Unfortunately curators like to think the cash will eventually turn up to fix them, hence leaving them sunk where they won't deteriorate too quickly - rather than rescuing them when they still look like a boat. Hendon is superb. There's even a Sunderland you can go onboard. I couldn't decide if it was huge or tiny, but one thing was for certain it would have been draughty. They've got their own wooden boat problems, stored outside, decaying slowly - RAF launches. I haven't been to Duxford in years, but it was excellent. So is HMS BELFAST. The IWM itself was rather destroyed with its major revamp about three years ago, completely dumbed down. Anyway, what happened to CHILTERN and the other boats in the first 'deaccessioning' by the Museum?

I am perhaps a little more sympathetic. I have not visited the Museum in two decades or more. But, compare their exhibits with almost any other similar national museum say the RAF museum in Hendon, or the IWM Duxford, Beaulieu Motor Museum or York Railway museum. These museums need only to dust their exhibits now and then. They are static and will remain thus until the end of time. Some of the exhibits are huge, but they're under cover in hangars/sheds. These exhibits don't really deteriorate when under cover (not like boats in water do). Working exhibits (planes, trains, automobiles) in private ownership are legion; these museums do not require anything with any functionality. And then contrast with the Boat Museum. Everybody seems to expect to see the boats afloat. And a floating boat requires endless maintenance. Arguably more maintenance if they're just sitting there than if the boat were being used. Let's guess at some numbers. A wooden narrow boat needs a complete £100k rebuild every 25 years, so that's £4k per annum that has to be found. And it needs taking out and caulking annually - another 3k?. Plus it might sink now and again; they do if not in daily use (and even if in daily use). Plus repainting, engine repairs etc. and bailing out, diesel etc. So being realistic it's probably 10k per annum, or a quarter of a million pounds per 25-year refit cycle. For the wide boats it's probably 2-3 times that. No other museum has to spend that sort of money on its exhibits just to keep them as static exhibits. FRIENDSHIP is a success, floating boats are just money pits. No, they probably should never have taken any of these boats, but that's all in the past.

It is (or was) a traditional boatman’s cabin. Presumably it was not taken out when it was converted, or else it was reinstated by subsequent owners. I do recall a huge gearstick in the cabin floor.

*full* dumb boats.... But I do like the picture.

Re the 15k, probably better than spending it on ETHEL (long gone). BIRCHILLS shifted, well mated with the various parts. I was lucky enough to crew for a week or more, rather a long time ago now. Quite gloriously preposterous; doubtless with six dumb boats behind it would have been a more polite experience.

I am sure I once read that when they were knocking wooden boats out in the '30s that Yarwoods (or somebody similar) had space to build 8 such boats at once, and could knock out two a week. That suggested four weeks to build a wooden boat. They must have had an army behind them. Maybe I misremembered, but doubtless somebody can correct me. .

Thank you. That is what I recalled, but it is rather a long time ago - and reading on the internet this afternoon of ENTERPRISE's 5-pot made me doubt my mind. BIRCHILLS should be sold; got to be worth 15k at least. Then the cash could be frittered away on some other firewood at the museum and BIRCHILLS could go to somebody who would love her and spend the fortune on her that she deserves. She shifts...

ARIES & BIRCHILLS NO 2 are now free to a good home in the next round of disposals from the Museum - this doesn't seem to have been posted here yet? There are also rowing boats and other wrecks to fantasise over. https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/refresh/media/thumbnail/41302-further-information-on-the-boats-we-are-rehoming.pdf Offers by 18 May. ARIES had a load of money spent on it forty years ago, according to the thread below, and the same source implies that you therefore won't be getting the motor with the boat/firewood. BIRCHILLS NO 2 had a monster Gardner in it and went like stink, but I think it is a composite boat so should be rather more reasonable a project - anybody know? How did the museum acquire BIRCHILLS - it was in private ownership on loan to the museum thirty years ago iirc - a bit like ARIES. And where did CHILTERN and others from the first round end up?