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History of 1970s working boats


Adrian99

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Hi everyone,

and hello CW forum - it's my first post!

I'm interested in understanding if there's any truth in a story i heard about a fleet of BW working boats built in the early 70s. I understand that some poor family boat builders won the contract and produced the boats only to hit cash flow issues and go bust as the BW didn't give them favourable payment terms. My mate has asked me to research this as he owns a working boat and has had a few poeple tell him this story or variations on it. Would love to know if its true and perhaps some more info/ context.

Cheers 
A

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The board had too many boats in the 60s and 70s "too many boats" being written about the issue. Hence the shortening of the ex fleet boats into maintainance boats, the creation of hire cruisers and the mothballing  ( shameful neglect and abandonment)!of boats at wend over and braunston. Would be surprised if carrying having finished they commissioned more boats unless they were work flats and maintance boats which as I recal were built at bwb owned yards bulls bridge Brentford and i think Leeds for the wide boats.

however logic and bwb were often far apart so someone may come along with info.

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Thanks 

His boat is the open fronted sort very square looking, almost like a skip, small cabin with tool storage sections, cruiser stern. He thinks it was commissioned in 1972 but doesn't know exactly.

A

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6 hours ago, Adrian99 said:

Hi everyone,

and hello CW forum - it's my first post!

I'm interested in understanding if there's any truth in a story i heard about a fleet of BW working boats built in the early 70s. I understand that some poor family boat builders won the contract and produced the boats only to hit cash flow issues and go bust as the BW didn't give them favourable payment terms. My mate has asked me to research this as he owns a working boat and has had a few poeple tell him this story or variations on it. Would love to know if its true and perhaps some more info/ context.

Cheers 
A

The boat in your picture is a maintenance boat rather than a working boat, and to be precise it is a Class RY-131 motor boat.

Various similar designs were built from about 1970 up to the mid 1980s by British Waterways Boards own yards at Goole, Bulls Bridge, Newark, Northwich(?), Wigan (?) and Stanley Ferry(?) and as Bee says a batch were also built in Daventry by Hancock and Lane in the late 1970s.

BW can be blamed (sometimes even justly) for many things, but not bankrupting anyone building those. In fact I suspect BW built or modified some boats in the 70's it didn't really need to keep their own yards working.

Edited by Rose Narrowboats
Added a word
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I think the op has thrown a curve ball by mentioning the term 'working boat'. I think he means those type of boats that CRT use for maintenence. I think quite a few of them date from the 70's & 80's. I'm not sure who made them, but you could be right about them being built by the 'leisure' boatbuilders. I know the old Pipers yard in Kidsgrove does a lot of maintenance on the ones round here. 

I see quite a lot of this type of boat popping up now with full cabins on having been converted to leisure boats. And of course they were originally built to work, so i think the OP can be forgiven for making all the old sweats on here instantly think 'historic' by using the term 'working boat'.

  • Greenie 1
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22 minutes ago, junior said:

 

I see quite a lot of this type of boat popping up now with full cabins on having been converted to leisure boats. And of course they were originally built to work, so i think the OP can be forgiven for making all the old sweats on here instantly think 'historic' by using the term 'working boat'.

What a difference a syllable makes. Few would raise an eyebrow if such craft were referred to as "work boats" yet, as you say, "workING boats" conjures up a quite different image.

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13 hours ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

The boat in your picture is a maintenance boat rather than a working boat, and to be precise it is a Class RY-131 motor boat.

Various similar designs were built from about 1970 up to the mid 1980s by British Waterways Boards own yards at Goole, Bulls Bridge, Newark, Northwich(?), Wigan (?) and Stanley Ferry(?) and as Bee says a batch were also built in Daventry by Hancock and Lane in the late 1970s.

BW can be blamed (sometimes even justly) for many things, but not bankrupting anyone building those. In fact I suspect BW built or modified some boats in the 70's it didn't really need to keep their own yards working.

 

If the stories are true about the eye-watering amounts that BW paid to Hancock & Lane for the ones they built for them, then far from bankrupting them, they were actually gifting them large amounts of cash.

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11 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

If the stories are true about the eye-watering amounts that BW paid to Hancock & Lane for the ones they built for them, then far from bankrupting them, they were actually gifting them large amounts of cash.

I have the details for the vast majority of these boats, including the cost of each individual boat and who built it - and the prices were quite high for the time :captain:

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On 07/04/2017 at 12:52, Adrian99 said:

Hi everyone,

and hello CW forum - it's my first post!

My mate has asked me to research this as he owns a working boat and has had a few poeple tell him this story or variations on it. Would love to know if its true and perhaps some more info/ context.

Cheers 
A

A name for this boat would be helpful :captain: 

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On 08/04/2017 at 19:56, pete harrison said:

I have the details for the vast majority of these boats, including the cost of each individual boat and who built it - and the prices were quite high for the time :captain:

Is there a plate to look for somewhere on the boat with builders details on it?

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Got a few images of TRING, found two, but the good one is proving hard to find - I'll keep looking.

Here's TRING at Berko with a crew member on the fore end, and one at Cow Roast having broken through some thin ice in the early eighties.

58ebaae5479c1_TRINGBerko1(Medium).jpg.d650e5c56e229ce57301aa0aa838d122.jpg

58ebab1672502_TRINGCowRoast1(Medium).jpg.269734e06d37dd0cb6d52f283831938b.jpg

And one of ITCHEN at Hartshill. Same format but longer.

58ebab42a1ef7_ITCHENHartshill(Medium).jpg.9241de56260f594358c1351a630a3ca1.jpg

 

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12 hours ago, Adrian99 said:

The boat is called Tring. Any more info would be great, fascinating so far.

TRING

commissioned = period 01/1980 (= April 1979 - I do not have the builder for this boat)

Class = RY-135

engine = Lister ST2MGR2/2679

original cost - £14029.0

based - Bulbourne

B.W.B. Asset Number = 82068

B.W.B. Index Number = 501277

All from British Waterways Board records :captain:

 

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6 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

TRING

commissioned = period 01/1980 (= April 1979 - I do not have the builder for this boat)

Class = RY-135

engine = Lister ST2MGR2/2679

original cost - £14029.0

based - Bulbourne

B.W.B. Asset Number = 82068

B.W.B. Index Number = 501277

All from British Waterways Board records :captain:

 

The record for this boat on the boat listing in CanalPlanAC suggesrs it to be one of the Hancock and Lane builds.....
 

Quote

Tring Built by Hancock And Lane - Length : 11.5 metres ( 37 feet 9 inches ) - Beam : 2 metres ( 6 feet 7 inches ). Metal hull N/A . Registered with Canal & River Trust number 501277 as a Private Pleasure Craft Narrowboat.  ( Last updated on Thursday 1st May 2014 )

 

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Mike and Lindy's boats on the left, an eclectic hire fleet, boats sourced from different builders, all with long names. Remember rescuing one of them after a sinking incident at Leighton or grove and towing it back. Lethally covered in diesel and sump oil, and just the wrong length to work with a full length motor.

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