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The title is deliberate, it would be wrong in this instance to refer to enthusiasm. A while ago a topic was raised on here and in other magazines which astounded many narrow boat enthusiasts. It was the re discovery that a tranche of former working boats which were assumed "lost forever" were in fact substantially intact in a gravel pit at Harefield.Hawtreys pit" to be precise which is alongside and behind todays Harefield Marina. Here is the link to the CWDF article which ran for a long time: https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php%3Fshowtopic%3D28897&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwiptIPW86HMAhVkAsAKHUnyDWgQFggGMAE&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNHucDlRkoZ1v_0zS1X8W_oTCJ_f5w The post ran for over 3 years attaining over 220 posts, this wasn't suprising given what was on the site. Apart from 11 intact "Josher" horse boat / butty hulls there was also the now extinct London area "wide boats" several of which are intact. It is /was the equivalent of finding a concealed "Barry Scrapyard", not for locomotives as Barry was but for our boat heritage. Despite massive research and investigation by Mark Pullinger in the main, assisted by other enthusiasts like myself who could help access and interpret what was there, scant interest came from the "right quarters" ie BW / CRT and the surrounding councils. However proven beyond doubt Hawtreys pit at Harefield contains a massive amount of recoverable, reusable, restorable hulls, there are 11 iron "Joshers" for starters. So what happened? Not a lot... had this been 20 years previous frenzied activity would likely to have occurred and whilst maybe being a little "illegal" the project to recover and record I am sure would have commenced. Now it seems no one is interested, I for one find that beyond comprehension, who are these so called "enthusuasts" today? Do they ever want to go and dig a hull out of the mud or are they over rich to the point that they get someone else to do it? But, is any of that near the truth? Is anyone really interested anymore? We lost a waterways stalwart this week, Max Sinclair, people like him would not have ignored this site or the oppurtunities it presents, so begs the question, Have all the true enthusiasts died away and is the interest gone? Does the future of boat preservation now lie around tattling up that which is floating and selling it time and time again within a small group of working boat owners? Or is there still the odd person who would take on a challenge well "out of the box"