Kez

Seeing as everyone else is doing it, perhaps I can throw my (only) 2 castles into the pot for examination Sorry about the photo quality, I was using my phone to take the pictures

When a BCN boat was re-guaged, would she have been given a new plate?

I prefer the term "jury rigged", I avoid botching things Ariel's been Compo-ed!

I was boating along the Rugby straight when out the corner of my eye I saw someone give a cheerful wave. I turned to return the gesture and nigh on ended in the bushes as I was treated to the full frontal of an elderly man. The trees weren't the only wood there that day While I was acclimatising the ponies to the towpath, I walked them down towards Yelvertoft and there was a young man fishing. He got up to let us past and quick as a flash; the younger of the two ponies whipped the poor lad's baggy cargo pants down, revealing that he had chosen that day to do commando. He stood there shocked, and didn't say a word, and I went blank, panicked and did what most English people do to fill conversational gaps and started talking about the weather.. namely "Bit cold today isn't it?" Luckily, when he regained the power of speech he laughed it off and there were no ill feelings (I was going to say 'hard feelings but that might be too much inuendo)

Allow me to introduce my own selection of pets: Baby Murph Paddy the Boating Bunny Sunday (Nearest the camera) and Zigzag There are also 2 interchangable goldfish actually onboard the boat; the current incumbants are Stevie and Patch.

A good weekend I thought Linnet and Sickle played some klaxon games a few times (such classics as 'whos got the loudest' and 'kaxon mexican wave' although nobody seemed to want to join in the latter )

All being well, Linnet will be going again

No it doesn't is the simple answer Even horse boating is frowned upon in the modern age. Too many moored boats complaining they're ariels have had to come down a bit, too many fisherman complaining there's a dirty great horse on the towpath and too much risk of the horse owner demanding the towpath be fixed up edited to add: There's few horse riders who would use the towpath any way. There's too much risk of the horse going in

I don't know if it helps, but I remember that Samuel Coleridge burnt his shoes in a boatmans hovel at loch katrine; in that context it was a ferrymans hut I beleive, so a lengthsmans hut? Or maybe something to do with the bridge itself?

I am working with a new project that has approached BW on the possibilty of gaining one of their old boats. Hercules was the one that was mainly asked about. We were told that the boats were not available as yet and that when they did eventually become available; they had already been asked for by TWT, and as such it would not be possible for the project to gain any of the BW boats.

Liam beat me to it; Malvern was last seen of at Calverly alongside of Hercules. Currently awaiting their fate as boats no longer needed by BW. I beleive both have been earmarked by the Waterways Trust though edited to add: I just checked with a collegue who reckons that both boats are to be withdrawn from service in 2 > 5 years (or whenever Jim finishes fighting to keep them )

Think I should have clarified what I meant; I didn't mean an LMS boat, I think she looks more like the boats I've seen in photos that are classed just as "interchangable station boats" I thought the supposed mk1, mk2, mk3 bantocks that people talk about refered to the boats Mr Bantock built for other people, as opposed to his own GWR serving fleet?

A bantock? She looks alot like an station boat to me..

What kind of boaty do's have I been missing?

Perhaps it is unfitting for a dredger, but she's not one anymore. Or are you just upset that the name you suggested didn't get picked? Yes she has a pretty solid history, and in that history she did not have a name. How does me naming the boat something change what she was? She was only ever named 'Ohm' by BW, and it was neither done for very long nor was it done with any particular naming scheme in mind. When I bought the boat, BW didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for the Ohm. They knew her as "that butty boat that's in the corner" At the end of the day the boat is not going to be a museum piece, she's not going to be a dredger again, and as she is a privatly owned boat I am allowed to call her what I like. I fail to see how what was going to be a bit of fun has got people up in arms.

*bump* Butty's naming competition has now ended and she has her sunday name! As suggested by Sam Noon of Verbena (formally Vienna), we introduce: Mercia She'll always be known as Butty to me though

That's my girl! Who wants ten-a-penny shiny joshers when you can have The Schnoz

Bit of a focus on the human beings rather than the mighty wooden schnoz, but we'll take it

Why isn't Linnet on here? A girl could get quite upset that she didn't get on a stream of over a hundred photos Good photos Tim

That's more like it! Best to have her sound in the hull and scruffy in the paint than the other way around

I know Linnet wasn't as shiny as all the other boats, but did anyone photograph her?

Not a car no; Ariel will be (fingers crossed) coming up to escort Linnet down to Braunston It's fingers crossed as there's a slim chance my dad wont be home in time for Braunston, and due to this being Linnet's first Braunston, I am forbidden from taking her without dad. We have fights enough over the tiller as it is without me showing Linnet off on my own

Since putting that photo of Linnet up in the narrowboats at sea thread, I've had a couple of people asking for more as it may help find her original identity. So here are some pics and what we 'know' already. Does this help ring bells with anyone? What we know so far is: She remained full length and in service until around 1967 when she was purchased by a hire company (beleived to be the Canal Cruising Company of Stone, but this is yet to be confirmed) It is beleived that when she was purchased, she had recently been pulled out onto the bank; and it is here that they cut her in half and fitted a steel cruiser stern to the bow half and a Lister SR2 (one of the early models producing 11hp at 1800rpm) fitted as her engine. At this point she was 45ft long. The above mentioned date has been surmised because of the date of the engine. She remained in hire service until about 1969, when she was purchased by a person unknown and believed to be have been called Mayflower. From here she was on to a Mr Malcom Jones in about 1972, named Th'only and shipped to the Lancaster canal, from where she was bought by my parents in 1973.

I think it's a resonable feat considering that Linnet had a tired old wooden front end and a cruiser stern. The engine isn't at all powerful when all things are considered either. She used to get "docked" regularly on the sandbanks on the north side of the river outside Glasson to have repairs carried out on her hull She did once have to be rescued by the RNLI though, when a bouy she was tied to at Lytham creek snapped its anchor line. On the whole though, narrowboats at sea certainly shouldn't be recommended. The sea can snap a 574ft tanker in half without a effort, let alone a 70ft narrowboat. Narrowboats were built for canals, and canals is where they belong!