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Gordon's Pleasure Cruisers - Lutine Bell


magpie patrick

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17 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

 

Anyone any idea what those big blue grills on the back bulkhead would have been for? There is an engine air outlet on the side of the hull so I don't think it's that. (Lutine also has an air outlet in the same place).

 

Alternative engine air outlet to warm the steerer standing outside in the cold and rain?

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I remember that one of the features advertised on some of their boats was deck heating. Warm air was blown over the deck and then anywhere but you. I didn't take much notice but I wonder if they were air cooled. 

 

Cheers Graham

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11 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Anyone any idea what those big blue grills on the back bulkhead would have been for?

Air Inlets?

The engine has to draw air from somewhere (both cooling and combustion), maybe in those days they didn't just rely on loose fitting deck boards?

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I'd go with air cooling inlets as they were generally fitted with Lister S-range engines.

 

Most of the Napton fleet I remember were SUC or Harborough built, but Lutine Bell, Banbury Naviigator and the one in Graham & Jo's pics above are definitely Boughton Products hulls (as used by Rugby Boatbuilders).

 

As said further up the cabin style is definitely not that of Rugby Boatbuilders wooden or fibreglass tops which were a more traditional shape.

 

The top as fitted to Lutine Bell looks a lot more like a Teddesley style fibreglass cabin to me.

 

I'd always though that Boughton only built for Rugby Boatbuilders, but maybe not. Given the proximity of Napton to Boughton Products (in Rugby, down Boughton Road, amazingly enough) and the then owner of Teddesley (Peter Jones) living in Dunchurch I can envisage a link.

 

Off topic: Boughton Products carried on as general fabricators long after they gave up boat building, and the owner later ended up working for G&J Reeves at Napton IIRC.

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13 hours ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

I'd go with air cooling inlets as they were generally fitted with Lister S-range engines.

 

Originally had a lister SR3 I think. Now has an ST2

 

The presence of those inlets accounts for this feature on the cabin structure by the back deck (there'sone on each side) 

20180502_170220.jpg

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On 01/05/2018 at 20:48, Graham and Jo said:

Here is another snap showing the blue boxes on the back deck.

 

Could they be gas lockers?

 

The second pic also shows them - not quite sure what is going on here. We were students you know. 

 

Cheers Graham

 

 

9-21-2010_016-1.JPG

9-21-2010_014-1.JPG

These pictures show very clearly that the back deck was quite a bit higher than it is now - and TBH it would work better as it was as not so much rain water would end up in the bilge. The deck could also have better soundproofing than the B&Q patio decking that has been used on the present arrangement

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On 03/05/2018 at 17:42, Graham and Jo said:

Thought you might be interested in these two photos of the inside. Cheers Graham

inside.jpg

9-21-2010_004-1.JPG

Just realised on photo 1 you can see one of those catalytic heaters they used to have. Cheers Graham

Thanks for these - I've now been asked if I intend to refit Lutine like this - the answer is NO, NO, NO, no and well not yet anyway.....

 

I think if I can get the engine installation right everything else can follow on, and there are plenty of clues in this and another current thread on that one. it's gonna take a year or two tho... 2021 is my 55th Birthday, and 2022 is Lutine's 50th, watch out for a 45 foot narrow boat in white and blue livery cruising the network by then!

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  • 3 years later...

For the past six years I've been tootling around the Midlands canals I've always kept a lookout for the early hire boat(s) we hired as a family back in the late 70s/early 80s. I think I've finally found one of the three 40' sleeps 4/5 Gordon's boats of the same class that were named Thrupp, Claydon and Cropredy Navigator respectively.

 

We took Thrupp Navigator from Napton to Coventry, Oxford and Snarestone in consecutive years from 1977 and later on took Claydon Navigator to Aylesbury. In between we took Granny and had a bigger boat (50' for 6 people!).

 

 

IMG_1550.jpg

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