Club Line Cruisers

[John Brightley]

Here's a photo of Club Commodore in 1980 - also posted in History & Heritage.

 

© Copyright John Brightley

Commodore plus one other boat whose name I can't remember had hulls which were different to the others - they were Harborough style but built by Fernie I think.

[Ange]

Blimey I'd forgotten about this thread!

 

Interestingly I've since visited a fellow forumite who moors at the old hire base (not sure whether she wants me to advertise her mooring location so I won't name any names). It felt good revisiting the place where our love of the canals began.

[deckhand]

The first nb i ever went on was from Clubline and if I recall it was very early 80's. 6 of us went down to Oxford and back. I remember pairs of jeans ending up in the cut , rescuing a sheep and a dog from out of the water and not even giving it a thought about locks , tying up, gas bottles etc. just did it. Admittedly, considerably younger then but it had some impact on me as I now live aboard.

[Ange]

The first nb i ever went on was from Clubline and if I recall it was very early 80's. 6 of us went down to Oxford and back. I remember pairs of jeans ending up in the cut , rescuing a sheep and a dog from out of the water and not even giving it a thought about locks , tying up, gas bottles etc. just did it. Admittedly, considerably younger then but it had some impact on me as I now live aboard.

Me too It was around 2000 when we took our next narrowboat holiday due to the cost but we never forgot the magic of it. We've now lived aboard for over five years after telling friends and family we were going to do it for a year or two.

[Pete & Helen]

Hi, I can't give you any info on the history or why Club Line is no longer at Swan Lane. All I can tell you is that its very much in use a the moment. I have a winter mooring here along with a number of others both inside the wharf and outside on line. The site is run by the Living Environment Trust. They operate a boat out of the wharf called Coventrain http://www.covsf.com/coventrian/index.htmlthis site will give you all the info.

 

As I said I don't know an awful lot about the place but believe it got to the point of disrepair that the locals wanted the wharf filling in.

I wish I could give you exact information but I think it was only 4 or 5 years ago that the wharf was dredged and made usable again. How hamsterfan got 21 boats in here I will never know, unless they were all 35 footers.

 

Pic of the wharf a couple of weeks ago. ours is second from the left

 

http://data9.blog.de/media/105/8333105_5e04cb346d_o.jpeg

Edited February 27, 2015 by Pete & Helen

[deckhand]

They were all sizes. The one we had was a long one (cant remember the name, but it slept 3 couples and had 3 separate sleeping compartments as well as the galley and bathroom. I remember picking her up and we had to wait whilst the cleaning process and shuffling of boats went on. Seemed to take forever as we wanted to get on the way and get to hawkesbury to moor up on the first night. Little space in the marina but they worked it very well

[Rod a mod from Tod]

I thought the forums new guidelines had reached new heights when I saw the OP being civil to MJG, then I looked at the date.

[John Brightley]

 

. How hamsterfan got 21 boats in here I will never know, unless they were all 35 footers.

 

I know some of the time circa 1980 a number of the boats were moored outside the basin on the offside, alongside the old Ordnance Depot site - this was when that site was vacant and before the industrial units that are there today were constructed. I have a photo somewhere- I'll dig it out sometime.

[Pete & Helen]

 

I know some of the time circa 1980 a number of the boats were moored outside the basin on the offside, alongside the old Ordnance Depot site - this was when that site was vacant and before the industrial units that are there today were constructed. I have a photo somewhere- I'll dig it out sometime.

Those moorings outside are still there and in use as well as the ones inside the wharf

[border collie]

I have just discovered this thread. Thanks for so much interesting info. This post follows from one by hamsterfan quite a while back.

 

My boat was built by Clubline Cruisers at Swan Lane Wharf in 1999. 50' long, engine Ford XLD, base plates 8mm (this recently confirmed and head shaken over when she went for hull blacking).

 

Her name is 'Out The Blue'. I have no reason to believe that it's not her original name. This name has been painted out on her superstructure but is becoming slowly more visible as the paint wears thinner. The other words read, as far as I can make out, 'Tamworth, Reardon F---gley'.

 

We bought her two years ago, and her history for the previous two years is known. Before that there is a period of mystery between her career as a hire boat and her being taken up from derelict by British Waterways and sold for refurbishing in 2011.

 

Some brasses on her cabin door: Ellesmere Basin, Warwickshire Ring, Shropshire Union, Oxford Canal, and 'Trent to Mersey'. I would be most grateful for any light that anyone could shed upon those years of mystery.