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Wherry Albion at IWA National Rally 1973 Ely


John Brightley

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Totally agree. This is where the fusiast comes in. Someone actually has to want to own a boat like that. Another thing is that existing owner has to be willing to sell it to someone who will retain it as is and this could result in getting less money for it. 

 

 

 

You can moan all you like about nice old boats getting converted but if that's where the value is people will go for the value. It would be unusual to find someone who would willingly take less money for a boat than the market value. 

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Vulcan is lovely. 

 

I agree. The thing with the Shell fen boat could be as simple as a tall person buying it and needing headroom.

 

I don't think it is a very hefty boat so a tall cabin, while looking terrible, may be needed. 

 

A bit like the old Dutch Tjalks. Nice to look at but no headroom. 

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It can be done:

 

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This was 'TWO BROTHERS' for sale a couple of years back. Good for the waterways of the Netherlands.

 

Our own Tjalk was much bigger with eleven feet headroom from the hold floor boards to beneath the centre of the hold covering boards. Not for English canals though.

 

I find nothing attractive in either SHELFEN or VULCAN. Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales.

 

 

Edited by Derek R.
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1 hour ago, Derek R. said:

It can be Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales.

 

Not sure what you mean here.

 

Vulcan was/is based on the larger Northern waterways. Moored on the S&K.

1 hour ago, Tam & Di said:

 

I find it difficult to imagine a more sickly paint job.

 

Tam

 

I could be mistaken but I think it has been kept as close to the original as poss, but either way it suits the boat and it's history perfectly IMHO.

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4 hours ago, M_JG said:

 

Not sure what you mean here.

 

Vulcan was/is based on the larger Northern waterways. Moored on the S&K.

 

I could be mistaken but I think it has been kept as close to the original as poss, but either way it suits the boat and it's history perfectly IMHO.

"It can be Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales."

 

By which, I mean that the boat is restricted to broad waterways and cannot access Wales, the West Midlands and other narrow canals. Fine if only broad waterways are intended to be cruised, and it's a 'orrible colour.

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12 minutes ago, Derek R. said:

"It can be Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales."

 

By which, I mean that the boat is restricted to broad waterways and cannot access Wales, the West Midlands and other narrow canals. Fine if only broad waterways are intended to be cruised, and it's a 'orrible colour.

 

Ah right. Much like lots of boats that get restored up here, like the Humber and Sheffield boats.

 

As to the colour I disagree. As I said above its possibly a colour it was painted in when it was working and as the restoration has been done sympatheticly its been retained.

 

It remains my 'lottery win' boat.

 

Loved it ever since I first filmed it 10 years ago.

 

 

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5 hours ago, M_JG said:

I could be mistaken but I think it has been kept as close to the original as poss, but either way it suits the boat and it's history perfectly IMHO.

I'm slightly surprised, but I've never seen any pictures of Vulcan, especially before conversion. There is a historic iron passenger boat in Scotland named Vulcan, but I assume this one is the 61' 1865 barge registered at Goole and sold relatively recently. I'd guess it would have had timber or canvas hatch covers which would relieve the large uniterrupted expanse of (to my taste) nauseous green. I'm sorry, but I just would not like to have to look at that colour roof in front of me all day.

 

Tam

 

edit to add - there is a video of Whitaker's Humber Pride following the YouTube link you give, and I find the rather darker green tone of that perfectly OK.

Edited by Tam & Di
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10 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

I'm slightly surprised, but I've never seen any pictures of Vulcan, especially before conversion. There is a historic iron passenger boat in Scotland named Vulcan, but I assume this one is the 61' 1865 barge registered at Goole and sold relatively recently. I'd guess it would have had timber or canvas hatch covers which would relieve the large uniterrupted expanse of (to my taste) nauseous green. I'm sorry, but I just would not like to have to look at that colour roof in front of me all day.

 

Tam

 

edit to add - there is a video of Whitaker's Humber Pride following the YouTube link you give, and I find the rather darker green tone of that perfectly OK.

 

Vulcan was originally based in Scotland. The reason I like the colour  is because it suits her utilitarian and functional appearence. I cant say for sure that she was previously painted in that colour but it seems possible.

 

 

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Vulcan, the Roman God of fire and forge. As the craft was built of iron in the mid to late 19th C. it seems an appropriate choice of name, as was the locomotive works that produced thousands of steam engines - The Vulcan foundry. (They were all turned out in grey primer).

 

As much of its working life would have been as an open boat, or covered with tarps over hatches, the only colour would have been applied to the wheelhouse, and which would have been chosen by the owner operator. OR, whatever cheap paint was available at the time, and I'm thinking of Matty's yellow now. It stood out like orange or red - the colours of 'plant', easily spotted even if chipped, flaked or muddied. But such colours seem to 'shout' too much on an ex-working boat. Something more subdued would take the eye away from the superstructure, and divert it to the hull shape, the more attractive element.

 

 

 

This takes me back to items of sculpture. I worked for a while in a sculpturs casting workshop, where artists would bring their pieces made of whatever medium they had chosen, to be moulded and cast in something more solid and durable. Many small pieces would be very attractive, but often the artists would ask for a particularly nice piece of marble or mahogany as a stand for the piece. We had to put it to them that placing their piece on an attractive base, took away from the most important element - the piece itself, and that a plain and simple base, often in satin black, would set their piece off far better, taking the eye away from the plain base and concentrating it on the piece.

 

With regard to SHELL FEN, the 'blog' shows it on dock late last year painted in orange and yellow, with a blue 'new' wheelhouse. Pass the bucket.

[Correction: I see it was an open decked tanker. No wheelhouse].

Edited by Derek R.
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