Search the Community

I've seen this http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/60ft-HISTORIC-1909-BANTOCK-CONVERSION-Narrowboat-Project-/131755956273?hash=item1ead445831:g:6TsAAOSwHgVW7ELiand wondered where you would consider starting with something like this? I'm not NB owner or prospective purchaser (OH is over 6ft and keen to stay landlocked, for now...) but I am a history buff and work in a museum so appreciate the need to protect our heritage. However, this is just a puzzle to me. It's had all of its guts ripped out and as a bare shell is it as historically important as it would've been left intact? I don't know, I'm just pondering. I think this was briefly mentioned in the Historic boats for sale thread but at over 3000 posts it's a struggle to find anything. If you were rich/mad enough where would you start? Stephanie

I'm trying to track down an old working boat that I was born on in 1974 (well we were in Leamington Spa when mum had to dash off to the hospital to give birth) I'm not a boater now but I was born onto the canals and spent my earliest years between Rickmansworth and the Midlands, and living at Braunston for a short time. My dad, Kim McGavin, ran coal up and down the GU on boats Grace (Originally no.88 of the Samual Barlow fleet), then Avon (?), then the boat I lived on, Sirius (Built in 1934 by Walker's of Rickmansworth), which is the boat I'm trying to track down if it's still afloat. He then switched to group tours on Hawksbury (which I believe is still around). The photo attached here was a postcard made without mum's knowledge or permission (Braunston 1975) and was found much later by accident in a shop (surprise!) but it's where the information comes from, leading me to the Historic Narrow Boat club website. https://hnbc.org.uk/boats/sirius So any information or leads on Sirius would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe

Hi All, There are a few things in which we would like to find out about NB Effingham and we are looking for anyone with any information. 1 - Photos, We originally had quite a lot of photos of Effingham, but on losing a phone lost a handful of photos which we can no longer seem to find. One, in particular, is Effingham on the Runcorn arm. However, any photos of her are very much appreciated. We are trying to get her looking back to how she first was, but handy to have more images. 2 - Pimblott plans for Admiral Class boats. As well as we are looking for Effingham build number. We have an image of the plate (Image is attached "ISAAC_PIMBLOTT.PNG") which we believe is what Effingham would have had on her. Would like to either find original or have a one replicated, but need the build number for this. Any documents or image would be very much appreciated. We do already have some information and a timeline set up on Effingham website from some of her past, including the video of her going up Anderton Boatlift. http://nbeffingham.co.uk/time-line/ We would like to thank anyone in advance for any information, documents or even images or anything they have to help towards under covering Effingham history. Everything we find will be shared on Effingham website nbeffingham.co.uk

Hi everyone I’m just sending a brief post to challenge the notion that a restored wooden narrow boat has a life span of just 20/30 years. The boat I own is SE Barlows Boat Hood, she underwent phase one of her major rebuild at Bates boatyard back in 1996 ish by the then owner, a very talented builder called Bill George. I bought the boat from Bill in 2003 and my partner and I continued where he left off by replacing the front and back ends (to keep a long story short) just three original planks remain along with some keelson and engine bearers. Much of Hood is now 24ish years old and the rest is 17 years old and as I sit here I can say with all honesty that not a single piece of wood needs replacement and the bilge even beneath the back cabin floor is completely dry she takes on no water at all. This being said she does require a week to ten days in dock every year with an estimated 150/200 hours of labour and all the modern materials at my disposal to maintain her to this level. Thankfully my partner Anita and I are able to carry out all the maintenance. I am quite simply obsessed with her longevity. In addition to maintaining her in dock we pour wood preservative under the floor and generously splash and spray it into as much of the internal hull as we can. It is simply impossible that Hood will be at the end of her life in just a few years. It will be interesting to see just how long a boat vigorously maintained will last. I am currently moored near to Tar tanker Severn that is 25 years since restoration and she is in very good condition. In addition to her are my neighbours Venus(Harland and Wolf, yes really) and Myra (walkers) both of whom have suffered many years of neglect since their restorations 30 or so years ago and despite requiring some restoration still have huge amounts of excellent timber in them. I have worked on many wooden hulls back when this was my job and I was often astonished by the resilience of these boats after their retirement from hard work. If you’d like to see the extensive restoration work that Bill and myself carried out on Hood please visit Facebook page Narrowboat Hood and have a look at the different albums showing the stages of restoration (the actual posts on the page don’t show much, it’s all in the albums) The work we carried out was under the guidance of Jem Bates and to this day we have not had to replace any planks from this restoration. You may also like to have a look at Ade’s recent restoration of Dane, where I believe they kept much of the wood put in by (I think) John Woolley 40 years ago. Cheers Nick