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Meanwhile on the other side of the fence!

Entries in this blog

La Miellette a boat for France.

It's been a while since I updated this blog due to my new "freelance " job status but in between the I.T. world bits I still have to do some boat bits including the electrics on La Miellette a 61'x13'6" barge we have just completed that is destined for France.           She is worlds away from what most people perseive living on a boat to be but is still a very capable boat rather than being just a floating apartment.   You can view some more picture HERE or just watch them in a
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Narrowboats, Yanks and the good old USA.

Over the last few months I have dealt with quite a few seemingly genuine enquiries for narrowboats to be built and shipped to the USA, maybe Terry Darlington's latest book Narrow Dog to Indian River might have something to do with this?   Now my first reaction was it's a bloody silly idea and why the hell would you want a narrow ditch crawler in the states?   But after about half a dozen enquiries I have begun to wonder.   I do know from looking at the web stats that a lot of the interest
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Scrap narrowboats?

In the past when we have been asked to scrap narrowboats we have run a mile because the costs of getting the thing out of the water and removing then disposing of the nasties would have rapidly outweighed the scrap value.   But with the scrap value now if you had access to a dry dock or slipway and winch you could probably make a nice little earner with a gas axe out of breaking the occasional boat.   It's about time that some of the real floating junk was thinned out a bit and I often wonde
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

1

It's A Record Breaker

Well at least it is for boat building in Mirfield!   Boats have been built in Mirfield alongside the Calder & Hebble since 1776 but this one is a bit special being the largest boat ever built in Mirfield.   Measuring 61′ x 13′6″ she is very much in keeping with Mirfield's boat building tradition by being a broad beam barge, narrowboats wheren't traditionally built in Mirfied until the modern plaything narrowboats arrived in more recent years.     Boat building in Mirfield as carrie
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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Cheap pump & fried rice sir!

Before parting with your hard earned cash at the local swindlers take a look at this-   A few months ago the email below arrived, it's not that uncommon these days to get this kind of offer.   Dear my friend , It's glad to email you and introduce our self: Our company is Specialized in producing many kinds of pump .at now we produce the copy of FLOJET pump. Meanwhile,we have improve the pump quality .so we have the good quality but competitive price.it means you will use less cost and get
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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Searching Canal World Discussion Forums

The Canal World Discussion Forums search feature is about as effective as the current UK government so I have cobbled together a search feature using Google which seems to work much better.   You can find it and add it to your bookmarks/favourites HERE.   It might not always be bang up to date being largely dependent on how often Google indexes the site but it should help looking for old post.
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

1

Solar power the truth!

So does solar power work on boats?   Well I really should be saying yes since we sell it shouldn't I?   I think the answer is yes for some no for most.   Lets look at it in simple terms (I like simple things!), how many of the houses on your street use solar power? Energy prices are rocketing so surely their must be lots of people using this green and free source of energy?   Well on mine none, you could say this is because we don't get enough sun in the UK? Well I have worked in some v
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

2

Crispy Fried Boaters

It seems that increasing numbers of boaters struggle with electrical power these days some whos existing boats were built with little in the way of it and others with new boats whos boats are very under spec.       I don't know if anyone else has noticed the increasing popularity of suitcase style generators along the lines of the one above purring away on the tow path or perched on the deck?   Well they may be the new boaters must have but it makes me a bit uneasy.   We wont even ment
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

1

Un Britannique en France

Moet Chandon features in Fluvial a French waterways magazine.   The article in FUVIAL tells of John and Irene Plunkett realising their dream on Moet Chandon, a cozy British wide beam narrow boat based in Carcassonne France.   You can read the English translation of the article HERE
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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The buildcam returns!

We are starting a new build today of a 57ft x 12ft 6in barge for Lesley & Stewart MacLennan.   Lesley & Stewart live in Australia and plan to take the boat to France to live aboard, Stewart is a wheelchair user and the boat is being built to accommodate his needs.   Because of the distances involved we have resurrected the buildcam so they can watch the build progress on-line. (And obviously it confirms where their money is going too! )   The picture below will refresh real time e
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

1

Am bored!

Old age set in big time on Tuesday morning when my knee collapsed for no apparent good reason resulting in me being sat at home very bored doing Long John Silver impressions around the house!   It might not be that unexpected, when I have now had chance to think of some of the possible causes- jumping off a ship and bending it the wrong way, a Bailey bridge being dropped on me and running around carrying everything and the kitchen sink on your back just because you could to name some of the m
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Buying a new build boat? A pearl of wisdom!

I would like to think that most boatbuilders are reputable and honest people but the horror stories still continue with stories of sub standard boats.   So what is a substandard boat?   Well I suppose it would be good to start with the basics and the hull. There are still boats out there and new ones being built that are just steel plate boxes constructed without any form scantling design. Some are done through total ignorance of marine practise by good engineering companies who thought a q
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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Well done to Irene & John!

This is a bit late the event happening in October but Irene & John Plunkett who live on a barge in France we built definetly deserve a very well done for going to the aid of a gentleman who ended up in the water in his wheelchair.         The full story is HERE  
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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Neither narrow or traditional!

This is the Dorothy Ellen she is 57'ft x 11'6"   You can click the thumbnails or click HERE to view the full set.   Well she's certainly not narrow, traditional, fat narrowboat or a replica dutch barge.   No well deck or cockpit or whatever at the front.   Coach roof built flat and to structual deck specification so it can be partied on!   Fixed steel wheelhouse with galley (Kitchen) in it.   Fridge freezer and washing machine.   Standard domestic kitchen.   Heritage range cooker
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Are new narrowboats becoming a bad proposition?

The "happy days" in the narrowboat building game seem to have come to an end and maybe it's time for those looking into buying new narrowboats to consider if they are becoming a bad proposition.     For various reasons the price of new boats increased rapidly over the last six years or so and this accompanied by ever increasing operating costs seems to have slowed the new build market to a crawl. In previous years narrowboats have maintained there values relatively well but two or three used
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Sinking in the dry dock, well not quite!

I was having a nice lazy morning yesterday and looking forward to it staying that way when we received a phone call from a boater at the local boat club.   "Help I'm in the dry dock and we have just refilled it and the boats filling with water!" was her claim, anyway the "Bat-mobile" was mobilised with pumps etc and sent to her aid.   By the time they got there the dock was drained and the narrowboat was once again sat on the trestles, sure enough there was quite a bit of water under the flo
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Turn on the heat!

Well it seems winter is here, and I am now reduced to sitting in my cupboard huddling my fan heater! We do have heating in the workshop but the Humpa Lumpas are all part Eskimo and like it cold or maybe they got hardened to it at the old place where we had a somewhat open to the seasons environment.     I quite like the darker evenings it means I don't have think of things to do with them and then feel guilty about not doing.     On the work front it's still no rest for the wicked lot's o
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Paint it, black (Or white)

Boaters are definitely changing a few years ago when Rosie & Jim were in their prime it used to be all roses and castles, brass and various shades of narrowboat green with dark woods and brass fittings inside and the mandatory wood burning stove..   Now I know that this will upset the purists but those days are gone the "new" boater is a different creature with little interest in the Rosie & Jim image so popular of days gone buy, this new breed are far more into house than boat often t
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

No more narrowboats

Well with the last narrowboat now gone this is the first time in the companies history that we haven't got a single narrowboat on the order book.   So it seems times are a changing and our world is turning into the bigger boat market destined for France or further afield across Europe.     Everything for the next year or so looks much like the beast above some being relativelly tame river cruisers others being very serious boats that would be well capable of a chanel crossing.   We are
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

It must be an age thing!

Today I am fitting a LPG detector to a boat with no LPG on it.   Or at least I was until in a moment of brilliance I realised it wasn't the thing to be doing!   Now it wasn't entirely my fault I was asked by some one, but even that isn't an excuse because I spent last Friday and Saturday installing the electrics for the oil fired cooker.   So it looks like I am in need of an holiday or maybe it's time to start looking for a comfortable care home with good looking nurses!
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Open day or not?

Do we or do we not have an open day this year?   A question we have been mulling over this week, we had a very good time when we had one in October last year with over a hundred people attending and a bit of money raised for local charities. The problem this year is time to organise it and do we need to do it being that the order book is really full enough for the time being. But it was really fun last year and without even thinking a bout trying to generate orders it might be an idea to just
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Tugs Buttys House boats & VAT

I have been expecting this for a while but have just had the inevitable phone call!   Question"Could you build me a tug and butty combination?" Answer "yes"   Followed by the "You do know that you wont need to charge us VAT on the butty don't you?"   Answer "Who says?"   This resulted in a conversation without many answers but pointing out that so and so his doing this.   Basically this might or might not be legal to claim the butty is a house boat and zero rated for VAT, the tug would
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

What do you get for £1,000 a foot?

What do you get for £1,000 a foot?       I wish I had a pound for every time I have been asked that question.     The answer is not a lot!     And nothing at all if you want us to build it for you. Customers don't seem to have noticed that narrowboat building in the UK is now expensive and the boats therefore are expensive.     If anything they are getting ridiculously expensive the average price of 58ft boat must now be around £85k and what you get for that can vary greatly, while
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

Eugene's replacement

It would seem the BW have found the ideal replacement for Eugene Baston we can now give you an exclusive picture of him at his first public questions and answer session.       Mr Saeed al-Sahaf comes to BW with a wealth of experience in public relations and is well known for is authentic, honest and open approach when dealing with the press.   After retiring from his previous employment with one of the big "movers & shakers" in Middle East politics BW tempted Mr Saeed al-Sahaf out o
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

0

A new boat leaving!

Despite the rumours we do occaisionally finish boats more or less on time and this 57' barge style narrowboat left this morning on it's way south towards London.     The boat is a bit of a one off, but most of ours are anyway.   If you're out and about over the next few weeks keep an eye out for it and say hello!     It's called Basingstoke and the name is on metal namplates which is a bit different.           This is a side view on the day she was craned in. (We were waiting for
Gary Peacock

Gary Peacock

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