LeeW

Duke for sale on Apollo Duck... https://m.apolloduck.com/display.phtml?aid=494373&rid=gb&cid=140&z=gb140

Did anyone else have a go for this? I've only just seen this post but also stumbled upon the job advert the other week and submitted an application myself. Would be interesting to know if there are any other boaters going for it...

We are currently taking a slow trip back down the GU post Braunston as other commitments get in the way - currently in Cosgrove having spent a fortnight at Gayton and a couple of enjoyable cycles along the Northampton arm. Pleased to discover recently via Windlass in my Belt that Wilf Townsend was also a fan of the short day followed by a pint - so we're keeping to tradition in a way... Barnet will be going to the somewhat off piste Hayes Canal Festival in September - hopefully we'll not be the only historic boat at the festival even though it is a bit of an unusual one. We're also going to be at Woking on the Saturday though we are coming by car - hopefully we'll see some familiar faces there. Laurence you might be able to help me - I met a gentleman named Joe at Braunston who used to steer Barnet in BW days as a mud hopper - I didn't make a note of his surname unfortunately and wonder if you might be able to place him as he knew the boat whilst it was yours. It definitely wasn't Joe Hollingshead but beyond that I'm stumped.

Think this might be a new one... Icebreaker BALTIC now listed on the duck: http://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/advert.phtml?id=473412

Barnet (5C) is currently moored on the outside of our other boat (10C) at Rickie. Might be a first time all round for both us and Barnet.

As Barnet has been mentioned in separate discussions on here and on Facebook in the past couple of days I thought there might be some interest in seeing how Barnet is faring these downs south of the BCN in London. Barnet has been at South Island Marina on the Lee for the past few weeks having some maintenance work done to her running gear and has received a new set of cloths. I'm extremely pleased to go see Mike today and see them today fully fitted and looking great. We'll be bringing Barnet through London bank holiday Monday and will be gatecrashing the end of Little Venice Cavalcade before heading up to both Rickmansworth and Braunston. We met lot's of people who knew the boat from Laurence's custodianship on the way down from Wolverhampton last year, hopefully will see a few more of you over the summer. Whilst we have a great collection of stuff thank's to Laurence we'd be more than interested in seeing/hearing anything related to Barnet's 80 years which might be lurking in peoples collections or memories. Feel free to get in touch with me directly or on this thread if anything pops up. Cheers Lee

Time will tell I guess. Would have been nice to see some more photos looked in lovely condition. Some showing the hold might also have reduced the how many bedrooms type of questions they inevitably received!

Balham is paired with Edgware iirc - we passed it when we brought Barnet south I think. As we now own Barnet and Kennington which are two ends of the Northern line I remember wondering if there was a boat called Morden (there is but not historic AFAIK?) or Mill Hill East (nobody is that odd) which would be the full set along with Edgware.

Most of the Lea is fine nowadays even if it doesn't look it some of the time - loads of ccers and the resultant spreading out since CRT introduced the current process has peppered a few boats in places which might have been solo mooring in the past so you'll be able to use them as a guide. I'd probably avoid the bit around the point where the North Circular crosses the canal but that would be for the smell from the north London waste plant as much as security, other than that can't think of anywhere we've moored which didn't feel safe. We did the Lea & Stort extensively this time last year - Hertford was really nice but yes a bit busy and too narrow to sensibly breast up if it's rammed when you get there so a bit of a toss up whether you end up having to turn around (under the very low end of navigation bridge) and return to the countryside on the edge of the town. Would maybe avoid Rye House too but again because of the go-kart track noise rather than security. Actually the only incident we had which was a one off guy from a stag party in Stortford peeing on the boat in the middle of the night from the towpath. By the time we'd worked out what the odd noise was it was too late to go out and shout at the bloke. When I did got up in the morning and assessed the issue I was actually impressed as much as annoyed - the towpath was about 10ft away from the boat through thick grass... Despite that incident the moorings there were quiet and well positioned in the town. I've found a lot of the areas on the upper Lee & Stort fluctuate rather wildly between full and empty - Broxbourne for example is lovely and half the time the boats stretch off down the towpath but the last time we turned up there we were on our own, Hertford and Stortford the same. Further south of course Three Mills, Hackney Marshes etc are lovely too though it's busy so you might have to breast up if you can't find a spot.

We did the roof on our 50ft boat with an angle grinder powered scabbler - did the whole roof in under two days. A pretty dusty and thankless task but got the job done much quicker than with sanding discs etc which we tried first. As to noisy we had the scabbler and a site genny under the sheds in Brentford, definitely the sort of task to shatter the peace and quite! We hired the scabbler from Brandon tool hire - they have two nationwide and had to get it down from Middlesborough for us but despite that don't think it was too expensive.

I think it's a terrible shame about Harefield. Like Junior I've read the original thread a few times before but as has been mentioned there are buttys being chopped all the time so perhaps the boats in Harefield might be safest where they are. Perhaps an alternative would be to look at something smaller, simply getting some interpretation etc in place and get the wider public interested/aware. After that funding would be easier and hopefully the interest of the council would also be piqued too. On a different note I hope the Facebook thread Alan Fincher mentioned is not referring to sticking a motor in Alperton though I suspect it is.

If anyone cares to loan me £20k for an unspecified period of time I'd be happy to take this London bound and leave it just as it is. Would be lovely paired with Barnet.

Here is a photo from the tiller passing Warwickshire Fly Boat just before Ditchcrawlers sighting at the weekend: We're still getting used to the additional 20ft over our other boat but making good progress down the GU - currently squeezed in on the puddle banks just before Braunston turn - my theory that everyone would be at Stoke Bruerne for the Village at War weekend was totally wrong - we had pretty much the only spot left when we got there on Saturday. The plan for now is to try to continue Barnets long history of work down in London where we're based. We have a few potential options on the table at the moment, as Laurence says - watch this space for news.