Les Wilson Narrowboats?

[Davo_Willow]

Hello,

 

Apparently Willow was built in November 2005 by Les Wilson Narrowboats. Have searched the Interweb buy can't find any information on them. Does anyone have any information about this boat yard?

 

Thanks - Davo

[ditchcrawler]

Hello,

 

Apparently Willow was built in November 2005 by Les Wilson Narrowboats. Have searched the Interweb buy can't find any information on them. Does anyone have any information about this boat yard?

 

Thanks - Davo

If its the one I am thinking of they don't much of a yard and fit out on the North Oxford at Ansty

[dave moore]

Hi

IIRC one of Norton Canes Boatbuilders customers has a Les Wilson boat. I'll check it out tomorrow and see if it's OK to put you in touch. A chief feature seemed to be the desire to do very aspect without subcontracting..brave bloke!!

Cheers

Dave

[alan_fincher]

Not a lot of help, but our boat, which is much older, was a Les Wilson fit-out of an Evans and Son shell.

 

The original bill of sale to it's first owner shows their contract was with Les Wilson.

 

All I can say is I hope their steelwork was better than their fitting abilities.

 

OK it's a 1995 boat, but the standard of workmanship, which included bare plywood edges and abysmal skills with a router would not pass muster for a new-build these days.

 

I know that by about 5 years ago they were supplying shells that were on sale new, at Whilton, but fitted out by other fitters.

 

It seems they moved from doing fitting to doing shells and lined sailaways, and the like.

 

You can usually find a minor ad for them in Waterways World - I have nothing more recent than September, where it is in the left hand column of page 153, about half way down. (I hate businesses like this that publish only a mobile number and no address.)

 

Also see here

 

Safe link to BoatsToGo

 

and maybe other boats advertised on this site.

 

The boats don't actually look at all bad, or at least those we saw at Whilton a few years back didn't.

[Richard T]

Hello,

 

Apparently Willow was built in November 2005 by Les Wilson Narrowboats. Have searched the Interweb buy can't find any information on them. Does anyone have any information about this boat yard?

 

Thanks - Davo

Send me a pm and I'll put you in touch with friends who bought a new fully fitted boat about 2 years ago. They are very happy with it - trad with a Beta BD3.

Out of interest who builds his shells? he does not appear to have the facilities to do so at the yard at Ansty or alternatively where are they built. My friends had a ready constructed shell fitted out so they don't know.

[Davo_Willow]

Thanks for your replies. 2 weeks into ownership and I am very happy - build quality is fantastic. I'm just trying to find out as much as I can about our new boat and was surprised by the lack of information on the net.

[dave moore]

From the December WW classifieds

Les Wilson Narrowboats

0797358969

email leswilsonnarrowboats@yahoo.co.uk

Hope this helps

Dave

[Athy]

We used to pass his premises quite often when we moored at Springwood Haven. Les seems to be one of those builders who just quietly gets on with it year after year while bigger names rise and fall. I think he'll supply any length as long as it's 57 feet.

[David6214]

On 08/12/2009 at 19:14, Davo_Willow said:

Hello,

 

Apparently Willow was built in November 2005 by Les Wilson Narrowboats. Have searched the Interweb buy can't find any information on them. Does anyone have any information about this boat yard?

 

Thanks - Davo

 

Digging up a very old thread. Have you still got it Davo?

[Jen-in-Wellies]

3 minutes ago, David6214 said:

 

Digging up a very old thread. Have you still got it Davo?

@Davo_Willow last logged in to CWDF three years ago. I've quoted his name with @, so he will be notified if/when he logs in again.

Welcome to the forum, by the way.

[David6214]

Thank you @Jen-in-Wellies, been a member a long time but dont really post. 

[Davo_Willow]

Hello!

Yes thanks, we still have Willow but don't get out as often as we would like these days. 

 

[David6214]

3 hours ago, Davo_Willow said:

Hello!

Yes thanks, we still have Willow but don't get out as often as we would like these days. 

 

 

@Davo_WillowDid you manage to find out much more about them? I'm having a trawl round to see what info I can find. I have a fairly good list of the ones I could find but no other real info.  I would PM you, but I havent made enough posts yet.

[Davo_Willow]

Not really found much more than the info above. I assume you have either acquired one or are looking at one. All I can say is that we have been very happy with our ownership to date. Let me know if you have any specific questions. 

 

 

[David6214]

Info from Trackman on another thread.

 

On 13/11/2023 at 17:30, Davo_Willow said:

Not really found much more than the info above. I assume you have either acquired one or are looking at one. All I can say is that we have been very happy with our ownership to date. Let me know if you have any specific questions. 

 

 

I found this info from Trackman on another thread

 

we have a Les Wilson boat of the type he describes as "tug style". We bought it 8 years ago last month after viewing the boat he and his wife Berni were living on.

The boats like ours are fitted out by Les himself and I can't really fault ours for the price we paid. Les is the son of a working boatman and lives aboard and regularly boats in one of his own boats. He uses the one he's on as a demo boat and tends to sell them on and move onto a new one every few years. He knows what works and doesn't do what doesn't work.

He seems normally only to build one tug style boat per year these days, the rest are mostly sailaways that are bought and fitted out by others. These boats have a shell which appears much like ours and so I imagine they are just as good. He fits Beta 38 engines in them whereas the tugs have a heftier Beta JD3 Tug engine. I rate Beta engines highly, our JD3 has been great. The 38 will be less powerful but adequate for a 57' boat, and I'd expect the same quality from Beta as with our engine.

I can't comment on the fit out of "your" boat as I don't know who did it. Les will probably know, and he's very helpful, though calls a spade a spade!

He's based on a farm near Brinklow on the Coventry, north of Rose Narrowboats, if you know where they are.

Look on Les' website and give him a call. He seems to keep tabs on where his boats get to.

 

There was a thread on Fantime which was at Rugby Boats a while back. I've compiled a bit of a list just by way of a record. We had acquired one and I just wanted to know a bit more about them.