Missing boat - Holly - NOW FOUND!

[Janet S]

I fear that you are being unfair on the hire companies.

 

I cannot imagine that any company would allow a boat to go out in an unsafe condition.

 

No company can ever produce a boat that is invulnerable to incident, but to suggest that boats might be going out in an unsafe condition is scaremongering

 

We're regular hirers, and are currently looking forward to our next one in May. Every boat we've had, without exeption, has been perfectly clean, sound and safe, and we've experienced no major problems that weren't of our own making! I can't for one minute imagine that any of the places we've hired from would have let a boat out on hire without being sure it was up to scratch.

 

I think Sam's experience was very unfortunate, but just one of those incidents which could perhaps have been avoided if things had been picked up on when the boat was handed over. It does seem that the problem should have been evident at that point.

 

If we wish to discuss the safety, or otherwise, of hire boats, perhaps we should start a new thread, rather than taking this one off topic.

 

Janet

[Supermalc]

Now we are getting somewhere. Can we have a link to this photograph please?

 

Les

 

Exactly....so my 'fears' for his safety are unfounded.....unless the 'gent' on board is a different 'gentleman'.

 

So now we KNOW the boat looks different, people need to start looking for the 'new' boat. Bearing in mind the new 'owner' may also have access to this information, the boat may turn into a proper chameleon. So look for any clean, freshly painted boat.

[Mart]

The last boat we hired we had to have the engineer out to three times in four days. Half way through the fifth day an electrical wiring fault filled the boat full of acrid smoke......Game over.....

 

It is not unusual for a hire boat to go out at the end of an arduous season in a less than tip top condition.

 

We hired from Kempsey, Worcester in 1977 to do the Avon Ring. We were young and naiive in those days and to wake up with a large amount of water at the front of the saloon in the morning after a night on The Avon or Severn was a bit of an adventure. We thought a touch of early morning "bailing out" was the norm and obviously ignorant of the dangers of this scenario on the Severn and Avon!

[fuzzyduck]

Hosted by us, which is only fair as I hotlinked to Jon's here.

 

 

Reason for editing Jon's edit, to put our own cropped version back as proof we have done so.

Edited April 17, 2007 by fuzzyduck
Remove other boat at owners request - Jon

[nb Stockton]

Exactly....so my 'fears' for his safety are unfounded.....unless the 'gent' on board is a different 'gentleman'.

 

Something does not sound right to me. In my book you would need to be in a pretty bad way to leave your car at the hirer, credit card details and an empty house, all so as to start a new life on the run on a stolen narrow boat? Just does not add up. Unless the photographer can confirm that the 'owner' looked like the hirer I still smell a rat. Of course, if you wanted to fake your own death and escape from the mafia then this might be an option.

 

I am on the Thames, will keep an eye open there but I guess he may not come this far. Hope she turns up safe soon.

 

Richard

[Moley]

I can confirm that the boat has been spotted on the Hatton Flight on 29 March. A gentleman has sent us a picture which our Manager and engineers have confirmed is Holly, now painted blue, the cratch covers and cratch boards have been removed and so the boat does look totally different.

 

This doesn't make any sense!

 

Never having nicked anything I wouldn't know, but I'm guessing:

Tea-leaf's Rule 1: do everything possible to avoid being identified;

Tea-leaf's Rule 2: don't get caught.

 

While Mr. King has thus far succeeded with rule 2, he has failed miserably on no.1.

 

I've just been for a lunchtime natter with the lockie at the Bratch, and asked if he was aware of the missing boat Holly. “Yes”. Thereby implying that all BW lock keepers should be aware and on the look-out.

 

He also said that Mr. King has left some medication in his car, is this true?

[tomsk]

As one of the sites leading 'independant thinkers', I would concur with Moley, If this chap is a thief he must rank as one of the most incompetant ever.

 

Without knowing the full S.P. I would be more concerned with his state of mind than any criminal intention.

Edited April 17, 2007 by tomsk

[Middlewich Narrowboats]

Something does not sound right to me. In my book you would need to be in a pretty bad way to leave your car at the hirer, credit card details and an empty house, all so as to start a new life on the run on a stolen narrow boat? Just does not add up. Unless the photographer can confirm that the 'owner' looked like the hirer I still smell a rat. Of course, if you wanted to fake your own death and escape from the mafia then this might be an option.

 

I am on the Thames, will keep an eye open there but I guess he may not come this far. Hope she turns up safe soon.

 

Richard

 

Hi All,

 

The man who took this photograph of what we beleive to be HOLLY from Middlewich Narrowboats, has seen the picture of Mr King and he is sure that the man on the boat was Mr King.

 

Please also down load the poster of Holly.

 

I have sent Jon a new poster showing Holly in it's original colours and in this new colour.

 

Please all keep a good look out

 

Paul Foskett

Middlewich Narrowboats

[fuzzyduck]

I have to say it's a good job I didn't see Holly last week. I'd have wandered up to the "hirer" and said "don't suppose you've seen Holly on your travels?"

[mayalld]

The last boat we hired we had to have the engineer out to three times in four days. Half way through the fifth day an electrical wiring fault filled the boat full of acrid smoke......Game over.....

 

Boats will inevitably develop faults, and some of those faults will be impossible to detect in advance.

 

However, I stand by my point. No hire company is going to send a boat out that it knows to be unsafe. They have too much to lose

[Les Mitchell Hynd]

The man who took this photograph of what we beleive to be HOLLY from Middlewich Narrowboats, has seen the picture of Mr King and he is sure that the man on the boat was Mr King.

 

Paul Foskett

Middlewich Narrowboats

 

 

My worry now is that some poor sod is going to part with a load of hard-earned cash to buy "Mr King's" boat! :-(

 

Les

[Supermalc]

My worry now is that some poor sod is going to part with a load of hard-earned cash to buy "Mr King's" boat! :-(

 

Les

 

I'm not so sure. I feel he's just had enough, and wants to disappear for a while. Life can become so cruel you get to a point the conscequences don't matter anymore.

[Matthew Dowson]

Better than the telly this, judging by the number of simultaneous viewers I'm not the only one who finds this fascinating, why? who? etc. Real life, that's where the action is. Better get off the interweb and go find some.

[Graham Blott]

Better than the telly this, judging by the number of simultaneous viewers I'm not the only one who finds this fascinating, why? who? etc. Real life, that's where the action is. Better get off the interweb and go find some.

 

And for those of us poor sods who are stuck in an office and not on our boats this is a link to real life.

 

Isn't it a good thing that this has generated so much interest as someone may now find Holly.

[gaggle]

Boats will inevitably develop faults, and some of those faults will be impossible to detect in advance.

 

However, I stand by my point. No hire company is going to send a boat out that it knows to be unsafe. They have too much to lose

plane crashes , oil rig explosions , train derailments and passenger ferries have all been involved in disasters that investigations later established occured because the safety procedures were not upheld or in the worse cases ignored.

 

dont kid yourself that those in charge have only your safety in their minds, more likely they are thinking of profit margins or if they will keep their job if they raise to many concerns about safety or lack of it.

 

yesterday, today and tomorrow lives will be knowingly put at risk in pursuit of the extra penny.

[Tiny]

And for those of us poor sods who are stuck in an office and not on our boats this is a link to real life.

 

Isn't it a good thing that this has generated so much interest as someone may now find Holly.

 

 

Don't bet on it yet. We are still 3 weeks behind Hollys movements since this picture was taken. From Hatton she is moving into the hub of the canal system and from there in three weeks she could be in Newark, St Ives, London or even Bath. In other words she could be anywhere by now - though maybe not near Oxford - going on past performance.

 

Maybe even now she is approaching the area where the gent who nickked her lives.

 

Also, given the photo was 3 weeks old and we know Holly 'changed colour' in a week, in the three weeks since the photo her appearence might have changed again.

 

But whatever the changes THOSE WINDOWS are the givaway - any boat of no matter what colour and cratch etc could be Holly if it approx 47' and has those windows.

 

Surely someone will notice them soon on a boat they see and phone in...

[Audi Fan]

Can anybody tell me what the rectangular hole is on Holly's side?

 

I noticed it on a previous photo as a distinguishing feature and i'm pleased to also see it on 'Blue Holly'

 

[trish]

Can anybody tell me what the rectangular hole is on Holly's side?

 

I noticed it on a previous photo as a distinguishing feature and i'm pleased to also see it on 'Blue Holly'

 

 

 

Hi

 

It is an air inlet for the engine because the engine is an air cooled Lister SR3. You will also notice that the 'Blue Holly' also has side doors in the same location. This is the Engine Room.

 

Trish

[Moley]

Can anybody tell me what the rectangular hole is on Holly's side?

 

Looks to me like an air vent for a Lister.

 

So on the left (port) there are 3 very square windows and a side hatch, front has double doors and very angular windows, may or may not have cratch board and covers, do we have any pics of the other side?

 

 

edit: Trish beat me by a minute.

Edited April 17, 2007 by Moley

[mayalld]

plane crashes , oil rig explosions , train derailments and passenger ferries have all been involved in disasters that investigations later established occured because the safety procedures were not upheld or in the worse cases ignored.

 

dont kid yourself that those in charge have only your safety in their minds, more likely they are thinking of profit margins or if they will keep their job if they raise to many concerns about safety or lack of it.

 

yesterday, today and tomorrow lives will be knowingly put at risk in pursuit of the extra penny.

 

In the narrowboat hire industry, there are certain things that are different to the examples that you give.

 

1) Much simpler bit of kit.

2) Placed into the hands of a potential idiot.

3) Most consequences of failure will damage the owner more than the hirer.

 

There simply isn't a real profit motive to put an unsafe boat out on hire.

[Supermalc]

I've just had a walk on the riverbank, and 2 narrowboats came past. I asked (shouted myself hoarse) if they had seen Holly....or a blue boat.

 

Either not interested, or not heard about it.....didn't even slow up to inquire, however he DID say he has seen no more boats, and it was not a local one.

 

Make of that what you can.

[malc1110]

It was my wife and me that shared the Hatton Flight with the blue boat, when I asked what the name was he simply replied that it didn't have one yet as he was "doing it up to sell it." He was very pleasant and clearly an experienced narrowboater. We only finished our trip last Friday and, because we have lives outside of boats and the internet, I didn't bother checking the email from Canalworld until today. I was staggered when all the details came together so I phoned Trish and checked that Holly was still missing. Following that I Emailed her the picture that I took during the descent of the flight. Middlewich NB subsequently confirmed to me that the boat was Holly. I particularly asked that our cruiser be edited out of the picture before it was published on the net so I am a bit annoyed that it is shown in Fuzzyduck's reply. However if it helps get the boat back to its rightful owners then ah well so be it! Trish and I also discussed other details which I have not seen published anywhere so I will not mention them here but would say that these further corroborated the fact that this was indeed "Mr King". He was looking for somewhere to do more work to the boat and showed great interest in the fact that there were a lot of boats and working boats around the Itchington top lock, he felt it might be the kind of place where people would not object to someone working on their boat. So he might not have moved from this area very quickly.

[fuzzyduck]

. I particularly asked that our cruiser be edited out of the picture before it was published on the net so I am a bit annoyed that it is shown in Fuzzyduck's reply. However if it helps get the boat back to its rightful owners then ah well so be it!

 

That wish was not communicated to me. As I control the posted copy at the moment, it will be edited when I get home in about 2 hours. I will mail the edited pic back to Trish, for her use.

 

Apologies

 

whadda you mean a life? :-p

Edited April 17, 2007 by fuzzyduck

[malc1110]

Thank you Fuzzy. It is not that we mind pictures of our boat being shown it is just the association with the stolen boat that makes us a bit uncomfortable about the two being shown together. That may seem daft to many but it is how we feel.

 

Perhaps I should have said after four weeks away, eighteen days of which were cruising on our boat, we had several million things to do when we got back.

[Jon]

Hi Folks,

 

I between night shifts at the moment, so I was in bed when Trish called this morning and I need to get more sleep before I got up!

 

 

Here is the picture, minus the other boat. As Trish said, this was on the Hatton Flight on the 28th March, heading towards Warwick.

 

Since then I have walked the entire pound between Cape Locks and Radford Bottom Lock (last week) and I didn't see any boat resembling Holly's design at all. That is not to say the it hasn't returned to the area, so it sounds like a good excuse for a bike ride tomorrow afternoon in the sunshine!

 

 

Jon

 

I've removed the picture of your boat Malc as request. Trish did ask me to do that this morning, but unfortunately unless I got some sleep I'd be next to useless when I got to work tonight!

 

Jon