Previous owner or history

[Nicola haydon]

Hi, anyone know anything about an RW Davies narrowboat called Florence. Have recently purchased it. I think a member called Tillergirl may know something. Cheers

[Alan de Enfield]

18 minutes ago, Nicola haydon said:

Hi, anyone know anything about an RW Davies narrowboat called Florence. Have recently purchased it. I think a member called Tillergirl may know something. Cheers

 

She has not been active on the forum for the last 7 years.

[koukouvagia]

Florence was built for a friend of mine in the early 90s, if I remember correctly.  It originally had an HA3 Lister which seized up when the oil supply leaked out from a faulty oil gauge.  We were travelling together and when I went back to find out what was wrong I was confronted with an engine hole covered in oil!

My friend lived on the boat at Bulbourne for a short while.  I may be able to find some photos, but they were taken in pre-digital days, so they'll be stashed away in shoe boxes.

It's a very nice boat, but it's had an extensive refit since I knew it.

[Nicola haydon]

That's really good of you for your reply. Any info/photos would be lovely. Trying to send a photo of Florence as she is now but I'm not very good at techy stuff

Thank you

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, Nicola haydon said:

Trying to send a photo of Florence as she is now but I'm not very good at techy stuff

Posting images directly from your phone camera doesn't generally work as the file size is too big. Easiest way around that is to screenshot the image on your phone, then upload the screenshot to the forum.

[Nicola haydon]

Thank you David 

[matty40s]

I am pretty sure Dominic Miles, the original owner of Rugby Boats, owned Florence at some point between 2005-11. He can probably be tracked down on the Hymer Campervan forum nowadays.

It has been sold by Rugby Boats at least twice.

[Stroudwater1]

There are several Florence’s around. We looked at a 70 footer with a historic engine and a tug deck built by RW Davis 4 years ago. It had just been sold at Ashwood Marina. IIRC there was sleeping accommodation under the tug deck

 

The footage of the sale advert is still on Facebook, under Florence Ashwood Marina. Someone clever with FB  like @ditchcrawler may be able to post the link. Some trouble with the engine just after/at the time of being  sold which was sorted. This one had a Lister JP3. Lovely boat 

 

I would suspect a call with Sammy at Ashwood Marina may give you some of her recent history. I remember being disappointed that she had just been sold. 

[Nicola haydon]

Thanks Matty. Will look into it

 

Thank you Stroudwater. That is the Florence I bought. A lovely boat, my first. A few bow thruster issues but that can be fixed🤞🤔😁

[alan_fincher]

1 hour ago, Nicola haydon said:

A few bow thruster issues but that can be fixed🤞🤔😁

 

Yep!

 

Simply have a plate welded over each end of the tube.

[Nicola haydon]

May well do😁

[MrsM]

2 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

There are several Florence’s around. We looked at a 70 footer with a historic engine and a tug deck built by RW Davis 4 years ago. It had just been sold at Ashwood Marina. IIRC there was sleeping accommodation under the tug deck

 

The footage of the sale advert is still on Facebook, under Florence Ashwood Marina. Someone clever with FB  like @ditchcrawler may be able to post the link. Some trouble with the engine just after/at the time of being  sold which was sorted. This one had a Lister JP3. Lovely boat 

 

I would suspect a call with Sammy at Ashwood Marina may give you some of her recent history. I remember being disappointed that she had just been sold. 

(1) Video | Facebook this is the video. What a beautiful boat. You are very lucky!

[Stilllearning]

2 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:

There are several Florence’s around. We looked at a 70 footer with a historic engine and a tug deck built by RW Davis 4 years ago. It had just been sold at Ashwood Marina. IIRC there was sleeping accommodation under the tug deck

 

The footage of the sale advert is still on Facebook, under Florence Ashwood Marina. Someone clever with FB  like @ditchcrawler may be able to post the link. Some trouble with the engine just after/at the time of being  sold which was sorted. This one had a Lister JP3. Lovely boat 

 

I would suspect a call with Sammy at Ashwood Marina may give you some of her recent history. I remember being disappointed that she had just been sold. 

And Sammy is lovely and very helpful. A proper boater too.

[Jonny P]

1 hour ago, alan_fincher said:

 

Yep!

 

Simply have a plate welded over each end of the tube.

 

1 hour ago, Nicola haydon said:

May well do😁

Hopefully that’s said in jest. Would be a daft thing to do unless faced with a very expensive repair bill in relation to what you’ve already spent.

 

12 minutes ago, Stilllearning said:

And Sammy is lovely and very helpful. A proper boater too.

The qualification for a proper boater must therefore be being born on a boat. A (ex-?)working one too.

 

As the owner of another Ashwood sold boat well known around that area I recall Florence had an offside mooring on the southern Staffs & Worcs, at least up until a sale five or so years ago IIRC.

[Nicola haydon]

Thank you guys for all your comments, keep them coming. Previous owners continually cruised. Only had the boat 3 years

[Tony Brooks]

5 hours ago, Jonny P said:

Hopefully that’s said in jest. Would be a daft thing to do unless faced with a very expensive repair bill in relation to what you’ve already spent.

 

Not totally. Depending upon the hull design, the first thing the OP might know about an expensive repair bill is when the boat sinks or the carpet squelch. It is not unknown for bow thruster tubes to rust through because they can not be internally re-coated properly or erode through caused by cavitation.

[Jonny P]

13 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

 

Not totally. Depending upon the hull design, the first thing the OP might know about an expensive repair bill is when the boat sinks or the carpet squelch. It is not unknown for bow thruster tubes to rust through because they can not be internally re-coated properly or erode through caused by cavitation.

As this is a boat built by a shipbuilder I’d hope that risk has been mitigated but it’s something for the OP to consider.

 

I wouldn’t be discarding a useful and expensive bit of kit lightly.

[Bujler]

Just wanted to say, what a beautiful boat.

[magnetman]

I'm no fan of fake rivets but the RW Davis replicas are certainly better than some others! 

 

Being a ship builder does result in a durable vessel although if I am being picky the mooring dollies seem too long. I think there is a chance there unless they are extended below of overloading and bending the plating. 

 

They certainly go well. The Thames Diesel workboat is a RWD which now has a JCB 444 unit and that really does go well on the River. 

 

 

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, Jonny P said:

I wouldn’t be discarding a useful and expensive bit of kit lightly.

I thought it was only the tube 

[Jonny P]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I thought it was only the tube 

The OP refers to “a few bow thruster issues but that can be fixed”. I took that to be the actual thruster.

 

 

[Stroudwater1]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

I thought it was only the tube 

 

The Ashwood Marina video seems to confirm there is a working Bowthruster. TBH it’s probably worthwhile fixing as if the OP is new to boating it could be useful for a 70 footer. 
 

It’s better not to use it much at all and learn to handle a boat without as much as possible. 

[Jonny P]

16 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

 

The Ashwood Marina video seems to confirm there is a working Bowthruster. TBH it’s probably worthwhile fixing as if the OP is new to boating it could be useful for a 70 footer. 
 

It’s better not to use it much at all and learn to handle a boat without as much as possible. 

You’ve won CWDF bingo with that last sentence. It’s been coming.

 

A bow thruster is useful on any canal boat while at the same time not being a necessity on any canal boat.

 

But given this is a big heavy boat and appears to have a near or partially functioning bow thruster the first option for the owner surely isn’t to discard it for the avoidance of risks that there is no evidence exist.

 

Today I am bow thruster free so I can align myself with the Kings of the Waterways that can handle a boat without them. But a couple of days ago descending Buckby locks in a stiff cross breeze and low pounds with a pair of breasted up boats thrusters were very useful. As they would be on occasions with my own 35’ mock tug; particularly when it’s being used as an actual tug.

[Nicola haydon]

The bow thruster, on operation, will engage for two seconds then nothing. Both batteries fully charged. Switch off now thruster then switch on again, the process will repeat, then nothing at all. Advised on purchase that I should switch battery isolator off when moored

Don't know why this should be but surely the two batteries (24v) will not charge 🤔

[Jonny P]

4 minutes ago, Nicola haydon said:

The bow thruster, on operation, will engage for two seconds then nothing. Both batteries fully charged. Switch off now thruster then switch on again, the process will repeat, then nothing at all. Advised on purchase that I should switch battery isolator off when moored

Don't know why this should be but surely the two batteries (24v) will not charge 🤔

They should still charge assuming you are referring to an isolator between the battery and the thruster. But not sure how that helps with the underlying problem.