South West Durham steelworks

[JerryP]

I'm intending to buy a NB in the next few months to use as a liveaboard ,I've seen one i like the look of ,the hull was made by South West Durham steelworks ,i know this builder ceased trading a few years ago and i've been unable to find out much about them ,does anyone know anything about the quality of their hulls ?.

 

I've also been advised not to buy a NB unless it has a kelson fitted ? ,but after reading several articles it would appear that kelson's aren't really needed on steel boats and welding them in can cause distortion problems with the base plate, and were fitted to mainly wooden hulls ,is this true ?

 

Jerry

[magpie patrick]

Ripple has a South West Durham Steel Craft hull, and she was very solid. Clifton Cruisers (where Ripple came from) always used them I think.

 

That said, still needs a survey

[alan_fincher]

SW Durham Steelcraft built most of the "Canaltime", (and all the companies they have been called since!), boats, I believe.

 

Without doors to the front, these are definitely not to my personal taste, but in my view are very strongly constructed boats. (They probably needed to be, given how little training Canaltime seemed to give many of their hirers!)

 

I'd have few worries about their solidity, if you have found a boat you like.

 

If by "keelson" you mean a central internal "girder" down the middle of the baseplate, I'd have thought that most mass produced steel leisure narrow boats do not have this. Most shells I have seen rely solely on girders across the width of the baseplate, (usually also acting as floor supports), and I can't imagine why if this is done properly it is not sufficient.

 

As well as my 1995 leisure boat, I have a 1936 ex working boat, the latter obviously designed originally to carry large tonnages. Neither have one, and the 76 year old boat has not fallen apart yet!

[CV32]

Canaltime boats were also South West Durham - seemed to be solidly built and withstood the hardship of hire craft.

[john6767]

Ours is a South West Durham.

 

They are most known for building the Canaltime boats, which are very easily recognisable, but they obviously did build other more traditional shells. Went bust in 2007 I believe.

 

From what I have seen of ours and the comments that the surveyor made, I would say that they are well built, but perhaps lack the finesse in finish that a more expensive shell might have. They only built shells I believe, so someone else will have done the fit-out, CV Marine in our case which I understand fit out many of them, and perhaps had some commercial connection, I don't know.

[Guest]

Blummin heck did they really build narrow-boats in Bishop Auckland...

 

Fascinating...

[Athy]

A couple of previous posters echo my thoughts: if they have withstood the rigours of being Canaltime craft they must be bloomin' armour-plated. Jerry, is yours an ex-Canaltime boat? They are recognisable by having (as mentioned above) no front well-deck, but a pair of side doors just behind the front bulkhead. I looked round one once, a 45' (they also came in 55' size), pleasant fit-out, good galley, bedroom at the front, rather posh-looking four-poster style bed.

 

Martin, if Gdansk and China, why not Durham?

[Tony Brooks]

I'm intending to buy a NB in the next few months to use as a liveaboard ,I've seen one i like the look of ,the hull was made by South West Durham steelworks ,i know this builder ceased trading a few years ago and i've been unable to find out much about them ,does anyone know anything about the quality of their hulls ?.

 

I've also been advised not to buy a NB unless it has a kelson fitted ? ,but after reading several articles it would appear that kelson's aren't really needed on steel boats and welding them in can cause distortion problems with the base plate, and were fitted to mainly wooden hulls ,is this true ?

 

Jerry

 

 

Keelsons on wooden boats where one could expect movement between the planks was vital to help prevent the hull bowing with uneven loads etc. On a steel leisure boat of adequate thickness I would have thought the angle formed between the baseplate and hull sides would be more than adequate. My own boat(Colecraft) also has substantial longitudinal frames running the full length of the flat part of the hull sides, plus the thwartship framing to support the floor. Unless Tim & co say something different I can see no reason why a steel narrowboat should require a keelson. In any case if it was built after 1999 ish for sale the scantlings SHOULD comply with the requirements of the RCD.

[JerryP]

Blummin heck did they really build narrow-boats in Bishop Auckland...

 

Fascinating...

 

and reading the above posts , it sounds like they made a good job of them to .

 

Jerry

Edited February 29, 2012 by JerryP

[Guest]

Martin, if Gdansk and China, why not Durham?

 

I just hadn't appreciated we made narrow-boats up this neck of the woods and I suppose if they sourced their steel from the local works (I don't know if they did) before it was shut down then that would be quite handy too, just the completed shell cost transport by road to consider after that...

[mrsmelly]

I'm intending to buy a NB in the next few months to use as a liveaboard ,I've seen one i like the look of ,the hull was made by South West Durham steelworks ,i know this builder ceased trading a few years ago and i've been unable to find out much about them ,does anyone know anything about the quality of their hulls ?.

 

I've also been advised not to buy a NB unless it has a kelson fitted ? ,but after reading several articles it would appear that kelson's aren't really needed on steel boats and welding them in can cause distortion problems with the base plate, and were fitted to mainly wooden hulls ,is this true ?

 

Jerry

 

Hi

 

Friends of mine have had one for many years they are very sturdy if not pretty. I also know of a 57 x 11.5 widebeam they built which also is a good boat. As for keelsons, my last boat had one and also solid steel stem post and was incredibly well built, but 99 percent of shells do not have them and all survive well in my opinion. Having said that the bit about keelsons causing distortion will have been made up by someone who didnt have one but would have liked one if you know what I mean.

If you like the boat, buy it.

[KevMc]

I'm intending to buy a NB in the next few months to use as a liveaboard ,I've seen one i like the look of ,the hull was made by South West Durham steelworks ,i know this builder ceased trading a few years ago and i've been unable to find out much about them ,does anyone know anything about the quality of their hulls ?.

 

I've also been advised not to buy a NB unless it has a kelson fitted ? ,but after reading several articles it would appear that kelson's aren't really needed on steel boats and welding them in can cause distortion problems with the base plate, and were fitted to mainly wooden hulls ,is this true ?

 

Jerry

Hi Jerry

 

I bought a SWD boat last year and have no concerns - she waltzed through the survey.... but it wasn't an ex-hire boat; it was one of (I think) the Castle class built in 2003.

[Athy]

I just hadn't appreciated we made narrow-boats up this neck of the woods and I suppose if they sourced their steel from the local works (I don't know if they did) before it was shut down then that would be quite handy too, just the completed shell cost transport by road to consider after that...

 

I believe that they supplied most of their shells to fleets such as Canaltime and Clifton, they also quite recently built the Castle boats sold at Nottingham Castle Marina; they did not have a high profile under their own name in the retail market, so they weren't as well known to the boating public as Colecraft, Liverpool and so on.

 

After they closed down there was an attempt to resuscitate them under a new name, which I can't remember, maybe Classic Narrowboats, but I think that's closed down now also.

 

EDIT: whoops sorry Kev, our posts crossed I think.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Athy

[Albion]

I believe that they supplied most of their shells to fleets such as Canaltime and Clifton, they also quite recently built the Castle boats sold at Nottingham Castle Marina; they did not have a high profile under their own name in the retail market, so they weren't as well known to the boating public as Colecraft, Liverpool and so on.

 

After they closed down there was an attempt to resuscitate them under a new name, which I can't remember, maybe Classic Narrowboats, but I think that's closed down now also.

 

EDIT: whoops sorry Kev, our posts crossed I think.

 

When they folded as South West Durham Steelcraft they opened again in the same premises and under the same owners as Le Skerne Boatbuilders. This was in an effort to dodge warranty issues that they had had with the wide beams that they were building for Classic Boats (including my own Classic Peniche 'Brunel'). They didn't last long as Le Skerne before folding again.

they did do their own fit outs to a poor standard towards the end of their life but this was exacerbated by a fit-out foreman who didn't give a damn. As an example I surveyed behind light switches and fittings on Brunel and found an average of 1/4" of sprayfoam depth.

Their steelwork was OK, strong but not finessed, as others have said. I believe that their earlier fit-outs may have been better than I experienced, which was when the workforce seemed to be getting fed up and lackadaisical under the aforementioned foreman.

They were contracted to provide Canaltime boats as others have said and also Castle Class boats for Nottingham Castle Marina. This latter contract fell through, it was rumoured at the time, because NC Marina wanted the boats built cheaper and at a price that SWD felt they couldn't do anymore so there was a parting of the ways. This wasn't too long before they folded as SWD only to rise again as Le Skerne.

Roger

[Athy]

Thanks for the info, Roger - now I remember the name Le Skeme, an odd name unless it was the surname of the owner. They appear to have vanished into history: an internet search revealed nothing at all about them.

You can't have kept 'Brunel' for long, as I see from your avatar that you now have a different craft. Was she as bad as that? Good name for a broad-gauge boat, though.

[Albion]

Thanks for the info, Roger - now I remember the name Le Skeme, an odd name unless it was the surname of the owner. They appear to have vanished into history: an internet search revealed nothing at all about them.

You can't have kept 'Brunel' for long, as I see from your avatar that you now have a different craft. Was she as bad as that? Good name for a broad-gauge boat, though.

 

Brunel was launched in France in early 2006. We sold in Nov 2008. We spent most of the time (and a lot of money) making underwater mods to improve the handling and steering as she (and the rest of her class - Classic Boats 'Peniche') handled like a pig. This link Brunel shows you what she looked like just before we launched her back into the water for the final time in 2008 having made loads of underwater mods (look carefully and you can just make out the bow fin and keel, the skeg keel and (what you can't see) the folding rudder. With these mods we finally got her to steer and handle like a normal boat. We had also just completed a full paint job on her so she is looking quite smart at that time. We had also earlier removed all the grotty rubber section rubbing strakes that this class had held on by steel brackets. There were about 360 75mm x 5mm steel brackets all personally cut off with an angle grinder by myself....took me several days and I was so tired at times it was as much as I could do to lift the full size angle grinder

My CWF name is that of my beloved Norton Canes narrowboat that we had before and just alongside Brunel. Both now sold as we just weren't able to use Albion when spending so much time in France.

Got a much better boat in France now, a Sagar with which I am delighted called Phoenix.

Roger

PS. I don't know where they got the name Le Skerne from as the owner was called John Flynn.

Edited February 29, 2012 by Albion

[Guest]

Brunel was launched in France in early 2006. We sold in Nov 2008. We spent most of the time (and a lot of money) making underwater mods to improve the handling and steering as she (and the rest of her class - Classic Boats 'Peniche') handled like a pig.

 

I really like the look of that boat....

 

[Albion]

I really like the look of that boat....

 

 

The internal accommodation was fantastic. Two full sized bedrooms both with en-suite showers etc, a galley, a large cockpit/saloon area, washing machine etc (on Brunel...there were other designs). All this in just under 15 metres length. It was designed to cope with any low bridge on the French system and we never had any problem although it was reputed to be a lot tighter on some of the Midi bridges such as the one at Capestang. Just a shame that the build quality and the handling/steering were so SHoneT. After the early complaints (Brunel was number 2 of a class of 12) they started making underwater shape mods to make them more like an narrowboat at the underwater bow and stern sections but the downside of this was that you lost headroom in the bow and stern bedrooms and en-suites to such an extent that most ordinary height people would be slightly hunched in certain areas. I think my mods gave the best of both worlds but I couldn't do anything about the fit out.

Forgot to mention other underwater mods that were to cut out some of the stern swim to allow water to the prop and extending the prop shaft to allow the prop to see more water. That mod gave a 20% improvement in fuel economy for the same speed through the water. It also allowed us to stop as the prop wasn't baulked by the close, very flat, stern swim.

Roger

[soldthehouse]

Blummin heck did they really build narrow-boats in Bishop Auckland...

 

Fascinating...

No It was Tindale Crescent actually they were the days, only built one at a time in those days and they were v good quality, but bland [in my opinion] dont know what happened later but they seemed to expand, move and go belly up.

[Guest]

No It was Tindale Crescent actually they were the days, only built one at a time in those days and they were v good quality, but bland [in my opinion] dont know what happened later but they seemed to expand, move and go belly up.

 

Was that when did they found out there wasn't a canal nearby??

 

 

 

..

Edited February 29, 2012 by MJG

[soldthehouse]

Was that when did they found out there wasn't a canal nearby??

 

 

 

..

I suppose they worked on the principal that a crane lift is a crane lift no matter where you are and the haulage would only be a little more to get it the extra few miles to the nearest canal. They were very good quality if a little stayed in fitout design, again my opinion but the quality was very good. I can only persume that something changed radically because it seemed a steady ship

Edited February 29, 2012 by soldthehouse

[Guest]

I suppose they worked on the principal that a crane lift is a crane lift no matter where you are and the haulage would only be a little more to get it the extra few miles to the nearest canal. They were very good quality if a little stayed in fitout design, again my opinion but the quality was very good. I can only persume that something changed radically because it seemed a steady ship

 

 

I'm pulling your leg - it's all covered back up in the thread.

 

I was genuinely interested that we had a builder of NB's in the North east and not that far from us either.

[Athy]

Thank you Roger, for the info and photo. She was a looker all right - rather like a "proper" version of the "penichettes" found in some French hire fleets, but they're only plastic.

Martin, in case you are interested, the Classic peniche is still sold - but built these days by Peter Nicholls which may be a better bet in terms of quality. Cheque book at the ready, lad...

[soldthehouse]

 

I'm pulling your leg - it's all covered back up in the thread.

 

I was genuinely interested that we had a builder of NB's in the North east and not that far from us either.

Me a little slow on the uptake again!. Aye its about fifteen minutes from us. I,m sure they moved in your direction to Trimdon or near there. Then I lost touch but something in the set up seemed to alter apparently and the reputation wasnt the same

[Guest]

Martin, in case you are interested, the Classic peniche is still sold - but built these days by Peter Nicholls which may be a better bet in terms of quality. Cheque book at the ready, lad...

 

Now that's an interesting co-incidence given I was saying the other day how much I like Timothy Spall's boat 'The Princess Matilda'-

 

http://www.steelboats.com/wide_beam_barges.htm

 

Turns out that is who built her too.

 

http://www.steelboats.com/widebeam_barges/FCN_barge.htm