Nb Cobbett

[deletedaccount]

Let's hope she floats!

[rjasmith]

Good luck for the launch on Monday from us too!

 

Richard & Nessa

 

PS - finally managed to track down a source of that Super Isol board (not easy) to use with our SF stove. I now have a sample of it from John Opie's in Essex- it certainly looks the business! Thanks for all that advice around Christmas time.

[Bones]

Woooooooooooo hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I look forward to hearing all about the launch!

[andywatson]

And we want to see photos.

Big ones and plenty of them.

[wrigglefingers]

And we want to see photos.

Big ones and plenty of them.

 

Okay, I give in!

 

Cobbett was launched (floated? tipped in?) exactly four years to the day that we bought Surprise. The tipping in ceremony was a quiet affair, which was just as well as Ellen and I (and the rest of our family and Ellen's friends) had enjoyed a somewhat riotous weekend finally celebrating Ellen's 21st birthday at a Youth Hostel in Clun.

 

The first move (apart from poor Dave and Chris clearing the back end of the shed ready to pull up the planks to the slipway was to weld some temporary holding lugs to the bow plate.

 

 

 

She was pushed into a straight line with the slipway and the end doors opened. Very gradually she began to emerge from the shed and began to tip in.

 

 

 

David appeared from the shed and walked down the gunnels to check the weed hatch. He disappeared for about 30 secs and then popped up and wandered back to the forklift.

 

 

Cobbett tipped a bit more, Dave then cut the holding lugs off, checked with Chris and Cobbett gracefully slid in.

 

 

There were no anxious moments, no panics, and a quiet sense of a job well done at the end. Cobbett now looks very graceful sitting in the basin, rather like a swan and a little dwarfed by the two working boats she's moored by. She is unbelievably beautiful and I can't quite believe that she's finally in the water but she is and that's it.

 

 

We're still working on the fit out, but she's nearly there and we're off to Gailey for shotblasting in ten days time. The painting is interminable it seems and I still have to sort out the electrical fitments - lights, sockets and switches and so on. I'm hoping that if I keep plugging away it'll all be done eventually. In the meantime, the job search goes on and the search for a permanent mooring although I have a indefinite temporary one sorted.

 

She's going to need some ballast but on the whole she's swimming fairly evenly given that the water tank isn't full yet and Dave would like her to be lower at the front as she'll swim more effectively so it's day of lugging ballast today and trying to calculate just how much my books weigh.

 

The whole launching process is summed up by Ellen's face though and I'm very glad that she was there to see it.

 

 

Wriggly

[andywatson]

What a stunner.

Well done.

[Bones]

Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!

[Chris-B]

Top job Wriggly

Nice looking shell.......

 

Chris

[wrigglefingers]

Top job Wriggly

Nice looking shell.......

 

Chris

 

Ellen says "thanks"

[Chris-B]

Ellen says "thanks"

 

now all you need is a matching butty........

[wrigglefingers]

now all you need is a matching butty........

 

'sfunny you should say that - I'm still trying to work out where the 7,500 books are going to go?!! Apart from Dr Watson suggesting that I burn them on the Rayburn. Which has upset me greatly, grately, I tell you!

[alan_fincher]

Well done Jill (& Ellen).

 

That's one seriously good looking boat.

 

All I can say is that if it were Cath's total book collection you planned to put in there, it's already looking seriously over-ballasted, and some definitely needs to come out!

 

Is that a "highly traditional" cat flap we can see in the raised woodwork of the front door ?

[David Schweizer]

A very nice looking boat, and congratulations on joining the five rubbing strake club.

 

I look forward to seeing some pictures of Cobbett under way, but don't let Dave ballast the front down too much, a boat like that needs to sit up elegantly at the front saying "here I come" just like the empty Joshers used to do.

Edited March 17, 2010 by David Schweizer

[wrigglefingers]

Well done Jill (& Ellen).

 

That's one seriously good looking boat.

 

All I can say is that if it were Cath's total book collection you planned to put in there, it's already looking seriously over-ballasted, and some definitely needs to come out!

 

Is that a "highly traditional" cat flap we can see in the raised woodwork of the front door ?

 

Sadly yes , it is the second set of grievous holes Dave's had to cut in the steel and I can tell you that it's caused more grief than even the b*wthr*sters. Still the critical point was - Thea the wee-er gets out of the boat to do the necessary or she stays in the boat and destroys the nice oak floor Dave is laying at great expense. Hmmm, I wonder .... Dave assures me that when Thea goes off to the Great Lock in the Sky, 'twill be easy enough to repair or to make a new door. Unlike the b*wthr*ster tubes!

[soldthehouse]

Beautiful daughter and beautiful boat, you must be proud well done.

[andywatson]

Beautiful daughter and beautiful boat, you must be proud well done.

 

And the icing on the cake.................

 

In the last 2 minutes I have just been informed that Wriggley (+ Ellen and Thea) have found a really nice mooring for Cobbett.

I'll not be too free with the details .

[soldthehouse]

And the icing on the cake.................

 

In the last 2 minutes I have just been informed that Wriggley (+ Ellen and Thea) have found a really nice mooring for Cobbett.

I'll not be too free with the details .

Result, Jill informed me that she had made an ofer on a spot ,good news.

[Grace and Favour]

Wonderful stuff, Wriggly - - - -

 

It's a great relief to see Cobbett in the water

 

(and a wonderful pic of Ellen!)

[Keeping Up]

Fantastic, Wriggly. Fantastic pictures of a wonderful boat, I love the one of the stern nearly disappearing under the waters (I can see why he wanted to double-check the weed hatch!).

 

And that's a great picture of Ellen too - I hope she didn't do what our Vicki did when "Keeping Up" was launched, and name her "Oh, er, Dad I can't I'm too shy"

[wrigglefingers]

Beautiful daughter and beautiful boat, you must be proud well done.

 

Thanks Stuart and Allan, very proud of both of them. Although Ellen was after having Cobbett painted to match her hair, but has agreed with John that she'd look best painted to an FMC paint scheme, so green with red panels it is. I'm thinking of styling her Shepherd and Daughter in place of the FMC lettering, and it looks like it'll be Audlem Wharf but I was seriously thinking about Dadford's Wharf as she was built there. Decisions, decisions!

 

Fantastic, Wriggly. Fantastic pictures of a wonderful boat, I love the one of the stern nearly disappearing under the waters (I can see why he wanted to double-check the weed hatch!).

 

And that's a great picture of Ellen too - I hope she didn't do what our Vicki did when "Keeping Up" was launched, and name her "Oh, er, Dad I can't I'm too shy"

 

Funnily enough, she had to be bullied into tipping a bottle of Batham's Best Bitter over her but the deed was done and the boys cheered! She's officially Nb Cobbett for ever now. Best buy a copy of William Cobbett's Rural Rides now and follow his route!

Edited March 17, 2010 by wrigglefingers

[RLWP]

Thanks Allan, very proud of both of them. Although Ellen was after having Cobbett painted to match her hair, but has agreed with John that she'd look best painted to an FMC paint scheme, so green with red panels it is. I'm thinking of styling her Shepherd and Daughter in place of the FMC lettering, and it looks like it'll be Audlem Wharf but I was seriously thinking about Dadford's Wharf as she was built there. Decisions, decisions!

 

What an exciting time! It's your decision of course, but I wouldn't put a place name in as part of the signwriting. It always gets confusing when you change moorings and it doesn't match anymore.

 

Richard

 

It's worse if you ever sell the boat as it commits the new owners to signwriting which they'll negotiate off the selling price

[Chris-B]

What an exciting time! It's your decision of course, but I wouldn't put a place name in as part of the signwriting. It always gets confusing when you change moorings and it doesn't match anymore.

 

Richard

 

It's worse if you ever sell the boat as it commits the new owners to signwriting which they'll negotiate off the selling price

 

 

I think the chances of Jill selling Cobbett in the lifetime of the signwriting is about as likely as Gibbo and Charles Stirling going into business together !!!

 

Chris

[mayalld]

about as likely as Gibbo and Charles Stirling going into business together !!!

You mean you hadn't heard?

 

Charles Sterling is the man behind the new product to complement the Smatgauge and Smartbank...

 

The Smartarse

[Chris-B]

You mean you hadn't heard?

 

Charles Sterling is the man behind the new product to complement the Smatgauge and Smartbank...

 

The Smartarse

:lol: :lol:

[wrigglefingers]

And the icing on the cake.................

 

In the last 2 minutes I have just been informed that Wriggley (+ Ellen and Thea) have found a really nice mooring for Cobbett.

I'll not be too free with the details .

 

Yes, 'tis true, we are off to Audlem for the foreseeable future, I am really, really excited. Casper encouraged me to go and have a look at the moorings when I was considering the Kinver and Norbury ones and eventually I got round to doing so yesterday. Audlem's just lovely and the mooring is offside, so apart from tranversing the lockgates (tricky when icy though) and the either 8 locks down or 24 locks up to get water, I think it'll be fine, plus with no job, the fact that it was less than £90 a month was a bit of a bonus! Need to sort it out now though, as it's my firm belief that the Bad Fairy may just steal it all away from me if I'm not good and sort out the paperwork - Where do I sign Ellen away in return for the mooring?