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narrowboat Invincible


mrsmelly

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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. :boat:

 

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.

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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. 

 

 

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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!

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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.

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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. 

 

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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?

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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.

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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

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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.

 

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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. 

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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.

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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.   ;)

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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

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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 by cuthound
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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 by Dharl
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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 by Ray T
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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