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It was cheaper than a holiday in Ibiza, so, I bought a boat.

Alan de Enfield

By Alan de Enfield
in General Boating

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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For the price of a week in Ibiza, my friends and I have bought a boat for life (telegraph.co.uk)

For the price of a week in Ibiza, my friends and I have bought a boat for life

Buying a 35-year-old boat with eight nautically inept friends was a risk worth taking, says Greg Dickinson

Like all good love stories, this one was born against the odds. Before I saw Ripple, I knew nothing about boats and had zero desire to own one. Boats were for rich yachting types, or for canal people with dreadlocks who showered in cold, brown water. But after I saw this little vessel on Regent’s Canal two summers ago, with a scribbled “For Sale” sign in the window, everything changed.

Things got off to a wobbly start. On the first two test-drives, the previous owner failed to get the engine started. “This is weird,” he said each time, in a scenario that reminded me of the drivers in the Truman Show, stalling their engines so Truman couldn’t escape his trapped-in universe. But I went to see Ripple for a third time in the hope that she would, at the very least, move. And move she did, at a chugging speed along the post-industrial waterways of east London.

 

 

 

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Bee Veteran

Bee

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Have to agree with Hudds lad about the writing. Nice little boat though, shame there wasn't a bit more about the boat and the stuff that mattered. I expect when the nautically inept bunch get fed up with it it'll be for sale again at some sort of daft price and the boat might get the owners it deserves.

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magpie patrick Veteran II

magpie patrickDonate to Canal World

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62 foot ex-Clifton Cruiser semi-trad? 

 

Although that particular Ripple (my old boat) is only 22 years old, and I often wish I'd never parted with her

Edited to add - I've got into the article now - no, it's not my old boat...

 

Further edited to add - looks a delightful little boat! What is it? 

Edited by magpie patrick
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Phoenix_V Rising Star

Phoenix_V

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41 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

For the price of a week in Ibiza, my friends and I have bought a boat for life (telegraph.co.uk)

For the price of a week in Ibiza, my friends and I have bought a boat for life

Buying a 35-year-old boat with eight nautically inept friends was a risk worth taking, says Greg Dickinson

Like all good love stories, this one was born against the odds. Before I saw Ripple, I knew nothing about boats and had zero desire to own one. Boats were for rich yachting types, or for canal people with dreadlocks who showered in cold, brown water. But after I saw this little vessel on Regent’s Canal two summers ago, with a scribbled “For Sale” sign in the window, everything changed.

Things got off to a wobbly start. On the first two test-drives, the previous owner failed to get the engine started. “This is weird,” he said each time, in a scenario that reminded me of the drivers in the Truman Show, stalling their engines so Truman couldn’t escape his trapped-in universe. But I went to see Ripple for a third time in the hope that she would, at the very least, move. And move she did, at a chugging speed along the post-industrial waterways of east London.

 

 

 

shame they couldn't be bothered to get a mooring

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Chagall Experienced

Chagall

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Nothing wrong with the writing, it isn't written for the practicalities of boat ownership, but for the Telegraph readers and as such it is perfectly pleasant and humorous article. It did have one paragraph that stood out for a positive ....

 

"Indeed, the boating life has a way of bringing people together. Rather than keeping eyes to the ground, as is decreed for all Londoners on the Underground, boat folk wave hello or sometimes even stop and chat. On plenty of occasions we have called on our temporary neighbours for advice or assistance, when Ripple has fallen into a spot of bother. So much so, in fact, that when navigating the canals it is perfectly normal to hear somebody shout over “How’s the filter?” or “Is the bilge pump working now?”

 

So whilst it may be a rose tinted view it has some truth and merit I think. ... and is a very pretty little boat.

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GRLMK38 Community Regular

GRLMK38Donate to Canal World

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11 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Whilst they don't have a mooring (and they are not exactly easy to come by in London) it looks like they have bought the boat for adventure and with ownership shared between 8 people it is likely they will always have someone on hand to move it regularly! 

 

The steerer will need the other 7 to do the "left hand down a bit....."

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DandV Rising Star

DandV

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Late in the 19th Century the access across Lake Te Anau in the NZ Southern fjords to the start of the just opened Milford track, was by way of a already elderly  and by  then notoriously unreliable steamer, Ripple. Passengers were evidently regularily sent ashore with axes to harvest more firewood for journeys to continue.

The owner was purportedly miffed when he discovered why for some days people had been smirking upon seeing her name. Somebody had added a carefully painted C in front of the already painted name.

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