Lily Rose Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 1 minute ago, howardang said: I think the RN connection may be a red herring. Invincible is the name of a share ownership boat based at Wigrams turn and I suspect that this might have been the boat in question. . Howard I don't think any of the contributors here really thought there was a RN connection, it was just an amusing digression. I'm pretty sure you're right about it being from Wigrams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 30 minutes ago, Lily Rose said: I don't think any of the contributors here really thought there was a RN connection, it was just an amusing digression. I'm pretty sure you're right about it being from Wigrams. Oh I think they did! The three Royal Navy-owned narrowboats and operated by Calcutt have recently been sold into private ownership, I believe anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 It did have the appearance of a share boat........................there is something about them isnt there that stands out for some reason like a sore thumb! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Rose Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 I didn't know the three navy boats had been sold off. That might explain why I can no longer find the website for them. At least one of the (ex?) navy boats that passed us at Banbury looked like it had the usual loud and all-male crew we've come to expect on those boats. Perhaps they are still being managed by Calcutt on behalf of a new private owner and for the same purpose i.e. all male booze cruise holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 Just now, Lily Rose said: I didn't know the three navy boats had been sold off. That might explain why I can no longer find the website for them. At least one of the (ex?) navy boats that passed us at Banbury looked like it had the usual loud and all-male crew we've come to expect on those boats. Perhaps they are still being managed by Calcutt on behalf of a new private owner and for the same purpose i.e. all male booze cruise holidays. Well at least one isn't. "THE ANDREW" has a permanent mooring on the Barby straight, a new paint job and looks to me like a liveaboard now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceinSanity Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 19 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: It did have the appearance of a share boat........................there is something about them isnt there that stands out for some reason like a sore thumb! All the Challenger boats had names like Invincible, don’t know if this is one of them. If so, they are pretty distinctive, all built at Hillmorton, weren’t they? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 Just now, BruceinSanity said: All the Challenger boats had names like Invincible, don’t know if this is one of them. If so, they are pretty distinctive, all built at Hillmorton, weren’t they? Indeed it was of that appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty40s Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 26 minutes ago, mrsmelly said: It did have the appearance of a share boat........................there is something about them isnt there that stands out for some reason like a sore thumb! Well if it's that Invincible, I think it's based at Gayton Marina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lily Rose Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 9 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Well at least one isn't. "THE ANDREW" has a permanent mooring on the Barby straight, a new paint job and looks to me like a liveaboard now. I think that might be a different boat. The boat at Calcutt is named Andrew, not THE Andrew. We definitely saw Trafalgar in Banbury, we definitely saw Emma in the area, possibly in Banbury and my wife is pretty sure she saw Andrew as well but not 100% on that. They still had the same paint scheme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 1 minute ago, Lily Rose said: The boat at Calcutt is named Andrew, not THE Andrew. Ah. The boat called "THE ANDREW" was definitely a Navy boat as I had a long chat with the steerer many years ago. He was a Navy Captain and said piloting a NB was surprisingly difficult as he had to do everything himself which came as a bit of a jolt as on his ship, he just issued orders and the stuff got done! and I asked him about the odd name, and he said "The Andrew" is an old nickname for "the Navy". I never knew that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsmelly Posted May 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 2 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Ah. The boat called "THE ANDREW" was definitely a Navy boat as I had a long chat with the steerer many years ago. He was a Navy Captain and said piloting a NB was surprisingly difficult as he had to do everything himself which came as a bit of a jolt as on his ship, he just issued orders and the stuff got done! and I asked him about the odd name, and he said "The Andrew" is an old nickname for "the Navy". I never knew that. The " Andrew " is indeed what we used to say when asked our jobs back in the day. HMS Andrew was a diesel sub when I was in the navy, long since scrapped as with all/most? diesel subs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 6 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Ah. The boat called "THE ANDREW" was definitely a Navy boat as I had a long chat with the steerer many years ago. He was a Navy Captain and said piloting a NB was surprisingly difficult as he had to do everything himself which came as a bit of a jolt as on his ship, he just issued orders and the stuff got done! If only he ordered a Hudson..... sorted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Well at least one isn't. "THE ANDREW" has a permanent mooring on the Barby straight, a new paint job and looks to me like a liveaboard now. I think it was replaced by a new The Andrew, if I remember right there was also Lafter or something similar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 Aren't, or weren't, they signwritten as belonging to the "Nelson Portsmouth Line" or similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuthound Posted May 3, 2019 Report Share Posted May 3, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, BruceinSanity said: All the Challenger boats had names like Invincible, don’t know if this is one of them. If so, they are pretty distinctive, all built at Hillmorton, weren’t they? At least one was a Steve Hudson built boat. There was also a tug, built by a recognised builder whichi looked at but decided they were too blingy. Edited May 3, 2019 by cuthound Spillung Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dharl Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 (edited) On 03/05/2019 at 14:20, cuthound said: At least one was a Steve Hudson built boat. There was also a tug, built by a recognised builder whichi looked at but decided they were too blingy. The tug share boat, or at least one of them, is managed by BCBM and is painted i their fetching grey and black livery. Had a look around her in March as thinking of getting a second share and I quite fancy a boat with a real engine room. Need more time to convince both Mrs Dharl and our Labradoodle who has concerns over her tail in the fly wheel.....(that’s the dog and not Mrs Dharl BTW) Edited May 6, 2019 by Dharl Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray T Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 (edited) I think the ex Challenger fleet were built by Alexander Boats of Stourport on Severn. Invincible is an ex Challenger. Challenger’s base was originally at Market Drayton when run by Charles Edward Rimmer, aka Ed Rimmer. The boats were decorated by Ron Hough when new. David Suchet officially named some of them. Part of the sales blurb suggested the boats were “superior boats for discerning people.” The tug is named Arthur. Edited May 6, 2019 by Ray T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 5 minutes ago, Ray T said: I think the ex Challenger fleet were built by Alexander Boats of Stourport on Severn. Invincible is an ex Challenger. At least one was a Hudson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray T Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said: At least one was a Hudson Probably the tug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athy Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 On 03/05/2019 at 14:20, cuthound said: There was also a tug, built by a recognised builder whichi looked at but decided they were too blingy. Was that the one with the Rigas Dizelis engine? I remember asking the manager of the share fleet about it circa 2000 when we were thinking of ordering a Rigas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BruceinSanity Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 9 hours ago, ditchcrawler said: At least one was a Hudson And some were certainly built by Blue Haven at Hillmorton, because we had them on our shortlist for our first boat in the early noughties for that reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Bob W Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 4 minutes ago, BruceinSanity said: And some were certainly built by Blue Haven at Hillmorton, because we had them on our shortlist for our first boat in the early noughties for that reason. We used to have a share in ex-Challenger boat Victorious. That was definitely a Blue Haven boat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hudds Lad Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 https://www.bcbm.co.uk/boats/narrowboats-page-122.html that one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuthound Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 10 hours ago, Ray T said: I think the ex Challenger fleet were built by Alexander Boats of Stourport on Severn. Invincible is an ex Challenger. Challenger’s base was originally at Market Drayton when run by Charles Edward Rimmer, aka Ed Rimmer. The boats were decorated by Ron Hough when new. David Suchet officially named some of them. Part of the sales blurb suggested the boats were “superior boats for discerning people.” The tug is named Arthur. Yes, I looked at Arthur at Blue Haven circa 2001-2 when I was selling my share in my first shareboat and looking for another. It was there that Ed Rimmer told me he had another tug built by Steve Hudson, but wouldn't buy another from him because he was too inflexible to build what Challenger wanted. I felt sorry for his wife, Gill. He had her running around after potential customers like a headless chicken. I decided not to buy a Challenger share because the boats were very "blingy", Challenger retained a 4% share, you could only get 4 x 1 week holidays and Ed Rimmer was evasive answering my searching questions on maintenance pity and resale values. 9 hours ago, ditchcrawler said: At least one was a Hudson Yes, see above. 40 minutes ago, Athy said: Was that the one with the Rigas Dizelis engine? I remember asking the manager of the share fleet about it circa 2000 when we were thinking of ordering a Rigas. Don't know. 34 minutes ago, BruceinSanity said: And some were certainly built by Blue Haven at Hillmorton, because we had them on our shortlist for our first boat in the early noughties for that reason. Yes Ed Rimmer held open days at Blue Haven 27 minutes ago, Big Bob W said: We used to have a share in ex-Challenger boat Victorious. That was definitely a Blue Haven boat. Most were fitted out by Blue Haven I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ditchcrawler Posted May 7, 2019 Report Share Posted May 7, 2019 I was at one of the boat shows and Ed was talking to one of his mates about all these mugs who bought shares in his boats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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