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Watercraft Ltd Worcester - Boat builder


DHutch

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Doing a bit of thinking about the history of our boat, EmilyAnne, built by this firm circa 1990.

 

The hull was build by 'Watercraft Ltd' a small fabrication firm with a history of making a numbers of narrowboats, based in Worcester, and I have always wondered if anyone else knew anything about them, or the boats they produced.

 

I believe uncle who lived in the area spotted a narrowboat of a slightly unusual dutch-barge style in their yard, enquires where made and permission from the customer of that boat given to make a second of a similar style, with my grandfather commissioning them build a hull for him, modified to a deeper draught to suit the steam plant and larger propeller, bespoke cabin layout etc, which after being fitted out back home in Bolton (including the folding wheelhouse), became Emily Anne. Therefore specifically, there should and or could, well be a 'sister boat' of very similar design, which would be very noticeable to me if I ever saw it, key traits would be the bow and stern fabrications, and 'shear' seen in the gunnels, I would assume, unless these where changed for our boat.

 

But yes, if anyone knows anything about this builder I would be very interested. 

 

Spoke briefly to 'Crafted Boats' in Worcester earlier in the week, and they have confirmed that they are not the same firm, but the proprietors father ' remembers a company by that name in the 70’s but can’t remember any more information about it', nothing else on the internet really at all. So presumably they ran sort of 70-90s but didn't really make the internet age.

 

Thanks

 

Daniel

 

emilyanne@tarleton.jpg

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25 minutes ago, Tonka said:

There was a Watercraft Ltd in Molesey Surrey that built the lifeboats for the QE2

I think we had some Watercraft as offshore survival craft but not 100% on that

Edit to add.

I am now, but Danial's boat is much nicer.

 

 

image.thumb.png.5b454de157d38797f7c752527bbaa3f8.png

Edited by ditchcrawler
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Was this the company that for a time were down in the shed in the arm that runs parallel to the two locks down into the river, on the other side of the Lock Keepers house?
(To the left of "Cafe Afloat in this map)
https://goo.gl/maps/sBDw3oENkdLqbejYA

Edited by Graham Davis
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Some outfits claim Ltd company status to make themselves look more professional but I suppose in the old days it was not as easy to verify as it is these days with modern IT systems and free online access to Companies House.

 

Watercraft Ltd incorporated 1947

 

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00435867

 
   
 

Previous company names

Previous company names
Name Period
VIKING MARINE COMPANY LIMITED 27 May 1947 - 31 Dec 1978

 

 

Data from "advanced company search" by name on companies house website.

 

Could be them?

 

 

ETA looking at them I think that might be the Molesey one as there seems to be a rowing club on or near their previous site just above Molesey lock.

Edited by magnetman
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10 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Some outfits claim Ltd company status to make themselves look more professional but I suppose in the old days it was not as easy to verify as it is these days with modern IT systems and free online access to Companies House.

 

Watercraft Ltd incorporated 1947

 

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00435867

 
   
 

Previous company names

Previous company names
Name Period
VIKING MARINE COMPANY LIMITED 27 May 1947 - 31 Dec 1978

 

 

Data from "advanced company search" by name on companies house website.

 

Could be them?

 

 

ETA looking at them I think that might be the Molesey one as there seems to be a rowing club on or near their previous site just above Molesey lock.

The Watercraft Ltd from Molesey used to have a slipway next to Molesey Rowing Club. I remember as a kid seeing them test a lifeboat for QE2 out there on the Thames

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16 minutes ago, Tonka said:

The Watercraft Ltd from Molesey used to have a slipway next to Molesey Rowing Club. I remember as a kid seeing them test a lifeboat for QE2 out there on the Thames

 

They made some of the Thames police launches as well. Banana skin fibreglass construction with two separate parts of the hull bolted together down the middle like the lifeboats.

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4 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

Weren't Viking Marine the hire boat company that were based in Lowesmoor Basin?
We were hiring from them the week they went bust and never got our deposit back.

Viking Afloat was the hire company. Yellow and burgundy livery. We hired from them once in the 1980s from Worcester.

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20 hours ago, BilgePump said:

Viking Afloat was the hire company. Yellow and burgundy livery. We hired from them once in the 1980s from Worcester.

Yes. Appears they got swallowed up by ABC Leisure. 

On 08/03/2023 at 13:42, Tonka said:

There was a Watercraft Ltd in Molesey Surrey that built the lifeboats for the QE2

Interesting, but presumably unrelated?

On 08/03/2023 at 19:11, Graham Davis said:

Was this the company that for a time were down in the shed in the arm that runs parallel to the two locks down into the river, on the other side of the Lock Keepers house?
(To the left of "Cafe Afloat in this map)
https://goo.gl/maps/sBDw3oENkdLqbejYA

I was two at the time andas far as I know never visited.

 

However that does half ring a bell with a similar description given during a conversation with someone local when we where down that way with the boat. And I'm fairly sure they where based by Diglis Basin as another name which half rings a bell.

 

Daniel 

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We lived in Worcester from 1978 to 2003 and often walked down the canal and around Diglis Dock and I do remember the shed I mentioned having wide beam steel hulls in it, as well as narrow boats. Just can't remember what the business name was.

If I remember rightly they built in the shed to the side and either sideslipped them in or had a big industrial crane in the building.

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3 hours ago, Graham Davis said:

We lived in Worcester from 1978 to 2003 and often walked down the canal and around Diglis Dock and I do remember the shed I mentioned having wide beam steel hulls in it, as well as narrow boats. Just can't remember what the business name was.

If I remember rightly they built in the shed to the side and either sideslipped them in or had a big industrial crane in the building.


I think that’s right, it was never easy to see what was going on - I seem to remember a wobbly bridge you had to cross by the entrance so sadly most of the time I concentrated on my next step and not what was happening around.
Dad moored his boat in Diglis from early 80s to 1991, but I can’t find any photos from the area. It wasn’t the most photogenic place, rather run down, boats with tarpaulins that could be lovely but weren’t and even the semi sunken Severn Trow Spry for a while . 
Sorry 

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1 hour ago, Graham Davis said:

I've looked through my photos and can't find anything either.

This is the arm I'm thinking of and yes there was a wobbly bridge across the head of it:
image.jpeg.423a3325418b21d80a30e6ae45eec06b.jpeg

Found this on the web which I think is the same shed.:
Tug at Diglis - History & Heritage - Canal World

 

From this thread:

 

 

51 minutes ago, BuckbyLocks said:

Isn't that the pumphouse outlet arm?

 

The location of the tug photo is at the back of the main part of Diglis marina.

 

The location circled on the map is the pumphouse spur but it's completely open today and sometimes used to moor workboats. I have no idea if it's ever been covered over in the past.

 

There is covered shed to the north/west of the upper of the two barge locks and that is Pinder's dry dock.

 

 

 

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I’m pretty sure it was covered  too, could see it from opposite to where Dads boat was moored, never saw much going in or our. 
 

it’s obviously all changed a lot round there and  sanitised- even the dry dock which I believe is what’s called Pinders shed the other side of the lock is all shrouded now. It was open rather like a Dutch barn then. Apart from blacking/ painting nothing much happened there if I remember. Used to watch the painting going on. 

Found an old photo of the dry dock opposite now I think called Pinders when all open 

 

9B07FB25-BAE2-4CDF-B0CC-A070EB219981.thumb.png.b1e920beed0c9166ee0ab19a8d1524b0.png

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Watercraft was run by Roger Apperley. I liked him, he was a nice bloke and rebuilt an old tug for me that I'd bought off Fred Larkham. Fred, in his usual style brought her up-river from his yard at Newnham on a flood, over the weir and round the corner into Gloucester Lock. On an outboard.

She'd been used by Fred for work on the Severn Lights Board and Roger did a good job on the steelwork. We did her by eye, out of water and when we put her back in, she looked too top-heavy. I'd half modelled her on a Pedro Donky. I called her Severn, but the ladies I sold her to re-named her Severn Belle.

This would have been about 1986 at a guess. 

2 minutes ago, johnthebridge said:

Watercraft was run by Roger Apperley. I liked him, he was a nice bloke and rebuilt an old tug for me that I'd bought off Fred Larkham. Fred, in his usual style brought her up-river from his yard at Newnham on a flood, over the weir and round the corner into Gloucester Lock. On an outboard.

She'd been used by Fred for work on the Severn Lights Board and Roger did a good job on the steelwork. We did her by eye, out of water and when we put her back in, she looked too top-heavy. I'd half modelled her on a Pedro Donky. I called her Severn, but the ladies I sold her to re-named her Severn Belle.

This would have been about 1986 at a guess. 

I should have added that Roger's main interest were the Sprays designed by Bruce Roberts. I believe Roger went on to become Engineer on the Avon., although I think he's probably retired by now.

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If anyone knows it'll be Roger Hatchard, who used to be the (canal) lock-keeper at Diglis and still moors in the basin (a few berths along from us!). I don't have a number for him, but I imagine if you dropped a line to the marina office they'd forward it onto him.

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The OP wrote: "But yes, if anyone knows anything about this builder I would be very interested."

For those who apparently missed it, I answered that in my post.

Watercraft was owned by Roger Apperley.

Roger Hatchard would say the same, and I'm not aware of Bryan Jones being connected with Watercraft.

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3 hours ago, johnthebridge said:

The OP wrote: "But yes, if anyone knows anything about this builder I would be very interested."

For those who apparently missed it, I answered that in my post.

Watercraft was owned by Roger Apperley.

Roger Hatchard would say the same, and I'm not aware of Bryan Jones being connected with Watercraft.

 

I dont believe anyone missed your interesting and useful post, it seems that there have been various boatbuilders and related works in Diglis over a relatively short time, despite Diglis basin being only able to accommodate a fairly small area for boat builders/ works. It would be useful for the OP to know when Watercraft started and finished and whether they took over their area from others such as Bryan Jones, it may interest the OP and others coming back to this at a later date perhaps. Its also stimulated some pictures which has been really interesting to see from the 60s. 

 

Pinders and Grist Mill  current structures seem to figure later. I was always under the impression that the dry dock was owned by BWB in the 80s but that may well be incorrect.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On 12/03/2023 at 08:47, johnthebridge said:

Watercraft was run by Roger Apperley. I liked him, he was a nice bloke and rebuilt an old tug for me that I'd bought off Fred Larkham. Fred, in his usual style brought her up-river from his yard at Newnham on a flood, over the weir and round the corner into Gloucester Lock. On an outboard.

She'd been used by Fred for work on the Severn Lights Board and Roger did a good job on the steelwork. We did her by eye, out of water and when we put her back in, she looked too top-heavy. I'd half modelled her on a Pedro Donky. I called her Severn, but the ladies I sold her to re-named her Severn Belle.

This would have been about 1986 at a guess. 

Thanks John,

 

Good information by yourself and others here on the firm and other firms in the areas. 

Somewhere, I have a letter from my grandfather instructing the firm/proprietor to begin the build of the boat in question, although I cannot currently put my hand on the image I took of it, and the physical document is in at my parents not our house.   

 

Does anyone know of any other boats made by Watercraft? 

 

 

Daniel

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