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canal boat escapes, Barnoldswick.


pomkitanner

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13 hours ago, pomkitanner said:

I hired "Grace " from this company 3 years ago. Lovely boat. Seems they are no longer around ,  victim of Covid  ? 

No.

 

IIRC - They ceased trading a few years back. Not Covid related at all.

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5 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

No.

 

IIRC - They ceased trading a few years back. Not Covid related at all.

Yes, correct, I moved two of their boats for them to their new hire company owners just before they ceased operations. One boat went to Nantwich and the other has been repainted and renamed and is based here at Skipton with Pennine Cruisers.

Roger

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2 hours ago, Albion said:

Yes, correct, I moved two of their boats for them to their new hire company owners just before they ceased operations. One boat went to Nantwich and the other has been repainted and renamed and is based here at Skipton with Pennine Cruisers.

Roger

I checked out Pennine cruisers website , but dont recognise Grace in the layout . Do you know the new name ? Or if it was the Nantwich boat ?

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1 hour ago, pomkitanner said:

I checked out Pennine cruisers website , but dont recognise Grace in the layout . Do you know the new name ? Or if it was the Nantwich boat ?

Grace (the tug IIRC) went to Nantwich. Can’t remember off the top of my head what the cruiser style boat that we brought to Skipton was now. I only live across the canal from Pennine and know Ian Clarke (and Zoe to a lesser extent) but it’s a difficult time with Covid to go over asking questions with the current lockdown. If I get a chance I will certainly try for you but I suspect it is Grace that you are really interested in, would that be the case?

Roger

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2 hours ago, Albion said:

Grace (the tug IIRC) went to Nantwich. Can’t remember off the top of my head what the cruiser style boat that we brought to Skipton was now. I only live across the canal from Pennine and know Ian Clarke (and Zoe to a lesser extent) but it’s a difficult time with Covid to go over asking questions with the current lockdown. If I get a chance I will certainly try for you but I suspect it is Grace that you are really interested in, would that be the case?

Roger

Actually the more I think about it I am not at all sure that it is Canal Boat Escapes or could it be? It is years ago now and it was a husband and wife team running it although he had some employment elsewhere IIRC. I have looked at Canal Boat Escapes though on the web and the house that is shown associated with the site looks very familiar, close to the canal, and yet the various sites seem to show that the business is still running BUT with 7 boats. When we were involved with it (whatever it might have been now back in our memory banks) they only had two boats IIRC (a tug style Grace and a cruiser style, possibly an ex Black Prince boat). However one of the sites that I can find mentions 7 boats. So, unless the name is wrong is it possible that they have started up again, or has someone taken over the name? They were certainly packing up when we took the boats away to their new owners. Hmmm, intriguing.

Roger

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6 minutes ago, pomkitanner said:

Yes its Grace. i would seriously consider hiring again , especially if its now based on the T & M . 

See my further thoughts just below your reply. But, I cannot remember who the boat was delivered to as we delivered it and were collected by the couple in their car IIRC. It was all done in a bit of a hurry.

Roger

 

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1 minute ago, Albion said:

Actually the more I think about it I am not at all sure that it is Canal Boat Escapes or could it be? It is years ago now and it was a husband and wife team running it although he had some employment elsewhere IIRC. I have looked at Canal Boat Escapes though on the web and the house that is shown associated with the site looks very familiar, close to the canal, and yet the various sites seem to show that the business is still running BUT with 7 boats. When we were involved with it (whatever it might have been now back in our memory banks) they only had two boats IIRC (a tug style Grace and a cruiser style, possibly an ex Black Prince boat). However one of the sites that I can find mentions 7 boats. So, unless the name is wrong is it possible that they have started up again, or has someone taken over the name? They were certainly packing up when we took the boats away to their new owners. Hmmm, intriguing.

Roger

Some sites seem to have a latent reference to them.

 

Their old web address is defo. defunkt.

 

 

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ISTR the guy that ran the company was called Richard and also hired out a very nice short Doug Moore boat too.

 

We once had to re tie it at Gargrave when it had been poorly tied up.

 

They sold that first and then the remaining boats.

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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13 minutes ago, pomkitanner said:

Yes its Grace. i would seriously consider hiring again , especially if its now based on the T & M . 

Ah, then if it is Grace (which now is correctly identified as the ex Black Prince cruiser style) then that went to Pennine. Whether it is still in the fleet I have no idea but I will go for a wander tomorrow and see if I can see it moored close by up the Springs Branch as the boats are all in now to the best of my knowledge. If I can't find it then maybe it has moved on or maybe it is down at their dry dock more towards the outskirts of Skipton. Leave it with me and I'll wander around tomorrow.

Roger

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1 minute ago, The Happy Nomad said:

ISTR the guy that ran the company was called Richard and also hired out a very nice short Doug Moore boat too.

 

They sold that first and then the remaining boats.

We took the tug style down to Nantwich but it was not in a good mechanical condition. We picked up the boat from a nearby boatyard where we had been told that it had been repainted and fettled mechanically IIRC. We had a major issue with a shot prop shaft bearing and seal and had to constantly limp along all the way because of the fettling that had not been done by the yard.

Roger

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10 hours ago, pomkitanner said:

Yes its Grace. i would seriously consider hiring again , especially if its now based on the T & M . 

So as promised I went for a walk round Pennine Cruisers' L&L Springs Branch moorings today and I can't see any signs of an ex-Black Prince boat that Grace was. However, that isn't definitive because I only saw 4 of their weekly hire boats, their 6 day boats and their 2 trip boats. Looking at Pennines site they have 6 weekly hire boats so the other two might be down at their dry dock area. However, only one of those 6 boats advertised doesn't have the bow showing in their pictures (Cray 47ft cruiser style) which is a shame because the bow nose rubber fendering is a dead give away for an ex Black Prince. The place was completely closed due to Covid restrictions so there was no-one that I could ask. So, there are only two possibilities, Grace is now Cray (and yet the pictures shown above in this thread make it look longer than 47 ft) or that they have sold it at some time. Can't help any more than that at the moment. If I every get a chance to chat to Ian of Pennine I'll ask him but that's about the best that I can do I'm afraid.

Roger

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Edit-

 

Confused Pennine and Shire cruisers

 

Further edit-

 

I suspect they no longer have the boat 'formerly known as Grace'.

 

I can't find a boat on the Pennine Cruisers web site that has the same distinctive bow with it's 'hire boat rubber bumper' or the same pattern of windows down the cabin sides. 

 

Different pic. of Grace.

 

 

 

Grace.jpg

Edited by The Happy Nomad
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Roger, yes Grace certainly was longer than 47 foot, although i forget exactly how long . Its a 2 double berth boat and was very spacious in the saloon area, with room for 2 reclining armchairs, as the above picture suggests. Anyhow thank you so much for all your efforts in attempting to locate her, much appreciated. We may yet one day pass on our travels, but who knows when that may be , with my government giving little away . 

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