To all readers of this forum,
Having read most of the entries i am like many of you saddened by the news of Nottingham Boat Sales going into liquidation especially where it concerns private individuals losing either their boat or money or both. I would however like to clarify the relationship between Nottingham castle Marina (part of Castle Marinas Ltd) and Nottingham Boat sales/Findlay properties ltd.
Nottingham Castle Marina (Owlpower Ltd) opened in the early 1980's and was owned by the Shakespeare family, apart from the moorings they operated the chandlery and boat brokerage developing new boat sales in the early 2000's, David Mawby ltd (GRP cruiser sales) sold his boats via the brokerage.
Nottingham Castle Marina (Owlpower Ltd) was sold to the current owners, Castle Marinas Ltd in April 2006 but did not want to operate a brokerage, Nottingham Boat Sales was formed by the Shakepeare family and leased the sales yard and some water space from the marina, David Mawby Ltd also became a tennant of the marina and dealt with his own sales and associated paperwork and advertising in his own right.
Nottingham Boat Sales lease at the marina expired in December 2013 at which point they moved their entire operation to the Meadow lane site.
David Mawby invested a substantial amount of money in new equipment and extended the terms of his lease to expand into Narrowboat brokerage engaging the services of Chris Pallett to run that side of his business
David, myself and the staff at Nottingham Castle Marina have received many phone calls and personal visits from worried customers and suppliers of Nottingham boat sales assuming there is still a connection, whilst we sympathize with all concerned all we can say is that there is no link between either Nottingham Castle Marina ltd, David Mawby Ltd and Nottingham Boat Sales ltd
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to post this response
Kind regards
Mike Shipman
Regional Manager
Castle Marinas Ltd
