Tug Gazelle...

[Derek R.]

To be pedantic, Daedalus was based on some measurements taken from Kimberley (which was in Roger's shed while Daedalus was being built), so Saltley rather than Braithwaite - but it was never supposed to be a replica!

 

Chris G

 

Well you do surprise me. The fore end of Yarmouth was so admired by the owners (am I addressing that very same?) of the first Daedalus (cruiser stern) that it was copied by Roger at their request. Looking at the fore end of Kimberley as it was Enterprise in the Narrow Boat magazines article on passenger operations in Reading, looks nothing like how I remember the 'new' Daedalus.

 

Derek

[Canopus36]

Interestingly enough, I believe Andy Watson the current owner of Oslo is selling her because he's ordered a shell from Dave Harris. We own number 36 from Dave Harris - Canopus which is loosey modelled on a small Northwich, and was fitted out by David Gunby at Brinklow Boat Services.

[Batavia]

Well you do surprise me. The fore end of Yarmouth was so admired by the owners (am I addressing that very same?) of the first Daedalus (cruiser stern) that it was copied by Roger at their request. Looking at the fore end of Kimberley as it was Enterprise in the Narrow Boat magazines article on passenger operations in Reading, looks nothing like how I remember the 'new' Daedalus.

 

Derek

Hi Derek,

 

Yes, you are (but we have never had a cruiser stern!).

 

This (very bad) picture shows the bow of Daedalus under development and at the time Kimberley was in the shed alongside (the only photo I have looking the other way just shows a black smudge, which could be any boat) and Roger took measurements off it as he went along.

 

 

The cabin on Daedalus does owe a fair bit to measurements that I took off Yarnmouth (thanks).

 

Chris G

[Derek R.]

Hi Derek,

 

Yes, you are (but we have never had a cruiser stern!).

 

Good Lord! How the memory fails!! It must 17 years at least since I saw either Daedalus.

To cap it all - I'm struggling to recall you good wife's name. I do remember she made most excellent curtains and cushions, or is the Alzheimers striking again?

 

Regards to both - Derek

 

Aaah! Is it Daphne?

Edited November 28, 2009 by Derek R.

[Batavia]

Good Lord! How the memory fails!! It must 17 years at least since I saw either Daedalus.

To cap it all - I'm struggling to recall you good wife's name. I do remember she made most excellent curtains and cushions, or is the Alzheimers striking again?

 

Regards to both - Derek

 

Aaah! Is it Daphne?

Got it in one! She still makes curtains, but only under duress these days!

 

I think that the last time we met was probably at one of the get-togethers in the Great Nepalese, at least 15 years ago.

 

Chris G

[Steve Priest]

I've just come across this thread, our internet connection has been playing up recently, I hope to get it sorted this week.

 

Alan, thanks for the compliments re Theophilus, we were pleased at the way it turned out. Although the hull has welded rivet washers, the back cabin and engine room were built as pretty much as Yarwoods did, and are pneumatically rivetted.

 

Although Gary has it for sale for 150K (120K now?) we only did the steel work, he fitted it out himself. The price came from an insurance valuation he had done, and is, shall we say, speculative, however it does not refect the price of our steelwork (wish it did, I'd be retired by now!)

 

Building to Yarwoods drawings is an interesting point. I may well be wrong here and stand to be corrected, but the only sets of drawings that I have seen that are complete enough to build from are the LMS station boats (presumably the LMS required more accurate drawings than most of their customers, and I can see that the LMS drawing office had a hand in it themselves) and the Admiral class boats build for BW in the late fifties. We have actually built a motor boat from these drawings, and can vouch for the fact that they do work. A lot of the other drawings tend to be general arrangements and not specific enough, perhaps Laurence Hogg can enlighten us?

 

I wonder what discretion the plating shop foreman had. My Dad was a foreman in charge of a fabrication shop, and his normal dialogue with the drawing office was ' do you want to draw this job?' ' no, you build it, then we'll draw it'. I think it may have been a bit like that at Yarwoods.

 

When we have an order to produce a boat of a particular shape we normally find an original boat, dry dock it, measure it, take templates from it, and produce the boat from these patterns. The boat we then build is accurate to the original, rather than accurate to drawings that may have evolved as the build priogressed. It is also easier to pattern three dimensional shapes from the original than it is to work it from drawings, even when they are accurate.

 

Swims on old boats invariably tapered, they length of the swim often being 15 - 16 ft at the bottom, but only 8 - 9 ft at the top. The reason for this was that if the swim was that long and vertically sided it would protrude through the cabin furniture at the top, and would also I think be more likely to suck air in between the top of the swim and the counter bottom, if this were that far forward. It also increased bouyancy at the stern end, which may not be so important on a boat ballasted to a set level, although in my experience a bit more bouyancy at the stern end is a great help to make sure that the stern doesn't sit too deep.

 

Also, I think that there was a comment about sides sloping outwards from the bottom of the boat to the top guard. Grand Union boats were build with the sides toed in below the bottom guard, in the same way that they were toed in above the top guard, the central portion of the side being vertical (ish). if this is done on a new boat (as we do ) it will increase the internal usable width slightly without increasing the overall width, and also mean that the edge of the bottom plate is well inside the bottom guard.

 

Oh, and by the way, Gazelle is a beautiful boat, as is every thing that Ian Kemp builds.

[The Pipe]

Hi All.

Only just found this forum and surprised to find that Gazelle has managed to raise a 6 page topic even if it ended in 2009.

She is off the market but was never really on anyway as what would I do to replace her except maybe do a proper job of a Bushel tug it and have her between 9’6” and 10’ beam and 4’+ draft. With barrel sides, round chine and a slight “V” in the bottom plate. Wood would be nice but not practical.

As for portholes I am still cannot remember any photo’s of the old tugs with any, if anybody has any please post them, post your pictures them even if they have none anyway.

Unfortunately last year she did 4 miles and no locks the year before about 1300 miles but allot of that on the Thames and this year from Anyho back to Dadfords shed is probably about all she will do as she is coming out of the water to be blacked and painted and another guard around the stern ready for another 10 years use or abuse whichever suits. Maybe I should have some washers welded on her all in the wrong place like most are, those rivets that are on her are real.

Unfortunately one is not always as free as we would like to be.

Ian Kemp did a very good job with the steel work there is nothing straight on her including the gunnels but you will probably not notice unless you looked down her the rest is just how you would find a wooden tug or any wooden boat from that era and just let the lines of the steel work provide the appearance not fancy scrollwork type decoration.

There are a few builders who could build an equal boat Steve Priest, Simon Wain certainly could there are a few others who have that eye for a line to do it as well and the ability to manipulate steel. The important thing is as a customer to be able to explain to the boat builder what you want and then step back and trust their capabilities to give you the shell you wanted.

Don’t expect it to be cheap and if what you want interests the boat builder you will get a better boat.

Regards Jim

[andywatson]

Congratulations on that fine looking boat.

[The Pipe]

Congratulations on that fine looking boat.

Thanks.

I started boating as a baby with my parents first boats hired were converted pontoons leading up to taking out hire boats from Earnest Thomas from Gailey then Hatherton. The first time I saw photo's of the William Mead tugs was in Phil & Rodney Weavers book steam on the canals. My father was a model engineer and we knew the Weaver's, Phil was certainly very knowledgeable about the history of the steam boats. After that there was only one style that I would have a boat built in.

Jim

[RLWP]

Thanks.

I started boating as a baby with my parents first boats hired were converted pontoons leading up to taking out hire boats from Earnest Thomas from Gailey then Hatherton. The first time I saw photo's of the William Mead tugs was in Phil & Rodney Weavers book steam on the canals. My father was a model engineer and we knew the Weaver's, Phil was certainly very knowledgeable about the history of the steam boats. After that there was only one style that I would have a boat built in.

Jim

 

I also knew Rodney through the L&NWR Society. A very knowledgeable man

 

Richard

[The Pipe]

I also knew Rodney through the L&NWR Society. A very knowledgeable man

 

Richard

Both were if you can find a book by "Bill Weaver" about Phil Weavers pre war pot holeing and cave diving seems like he was called Bill for some reason, he invented I believe the aqualung for it. Phil also worked on aircraft engines during the war for Bristol's and was also part of the Jaguar race team in the days of the "C" and "D" types. He also helped with the restoration of President as well.