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Who made these boats?


man1nvan

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36 minutes ago, hughc said:

These boats were built for Swan Line by Horace Greaves Ltd. in Derby. Regards, HughC.

Thank you for that information.

I have sometimes admired the sleek lines of these boats, one of which moors from time to time in nearby March, though I wonder whether the sleekness is achieved at the cost of limited headroom. I also wonder how often the occupants trip over when boarding via the well deck.

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4 hours ago, man1nvan said:

Every now and the i see one of these boats, they have really nice lines and i wondered if anyone knows what they are or where they came from.  i think i may want one....

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Swanline by the look pf it. Our first boat was  a swanline and its still around though quite recently been re bottomed. Lovely sheerline and quality build for the time.

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3 hours ago, mark99 said:

Sort of looks like a Harborough Marine boat. Not saying it is but similar.

Sorry to say, I don't see any similarity between them, to start with already completely different bows (Window breakers)

 

Peter.

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14 minutes ago, bargemast said:

Sorry to say, I don't see any similarity between them, to start with already completely different bows (Window breakers)

 

Peter.

I can see what he means: it looks like a Harborough Marine, until you see a Harborough Marine, whose "banana" bow is even more impressive.

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53 minutes ago, Athy said:

I can see what he means: it looks like a Harborough Marine, until you see a Harborough Marine, whose "banana" bow is even more impressive.

The Harborough Marine Bows were known as "Window Breakers" or "Window-Smashers", due to their shape, which probably wasn't clear enough in my previous posting.

 

Peter.

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12 hours ago, bargemast said:

The Harborough Marine Bows were known as "Window Breakers" or "Window-Smashers", due to their shape, which probably wasn't clear enough in my previous posting.

 

Peter.

Yes, it was clear, thanks. It's because of that bow shape that I think of them as "banana boats".

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2 minutes ago, X Alan W said:

IIRC the first couple or so the steel hulls were built by SUC a tNorbury & wood cabins built at Fradley by Swan line Again IIRC the complete boats were built at Fradley

This is correct. Swanline were turned out at Fradley junction. I am not totaly convinced now looking at these that they are swanline as they dont appear to have the fab sheerline that mine had? We owned a harborough after the swanline and these photos bear no resemblance to harborough whatsoever.

  • Greenie 1
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15 hours ago, bargemast said:

The Harborough Marine Bows were known as "Window Breakers" or "Window-Smashers", due to their shape, which probably wasn't clear enough in my previous posting.

 

Peter.

Like these!

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1 minute ago, Athy said:

One rarely sees boats with those curved guards - which I know as "bridge bars" but that may not be the right term - these days. I wonder why not.

I have been told they became unpopular after a fatality on the LLangollen due to a person caught between a bridge and the bar.

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22 minutes ago, Athy said:

One rarely sees boats with those curved guards - which I know as "bridge bars" but that may not be the right term - these days. I wonder why not.

I've always heared of the term "Bridge bars" too.

Lots of hire boaters remembered them at least for several weeks after having hired one for the headaches they caused them, hitting hard when getting off the boat in a hurry without paying enough attention, quite usual for inexperienced hire boaters.

 

Peter.

Edited by bargemast
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I had a 40' Harborough Marine for a number of years. Steered beautifully, and would steer in astern for miles accurately if needed. Long rear swims, fine bow entry. Fast too, needed very little power to bomb along. Lister SR2 engine. Mainly SR2's were put into Harborough boats in anything up to 50' long, over that and SR3's tended to be used. 

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2 hours ago, Athy said:

One rarely sees boats with those curved guards - which I know as "bridge bars" but that may not be the right term - these days. I wonder why not.

At lot of boats of that era had fibreglass tops, so the bridge bars were essential to prevent serious damage to the top. Once steel became the normal material for tops,  it was less easily damaged against bridges, so no need for them. 

I used to hate the bridge bars, not only did the look fugly,  but I kept hitting my head on them, because of the way they curve you can't always see exactly where they are. Soon learnt though :angry:

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The bridge bars were nothing to do with preventing damage to the cabin top. They started fitting them after a hire was seriously injured (or even killed) after being crushed between the front bulkhead and an unopened swing bridge (on the K&A ???) which the bows passed under when the steerer failed to stop.

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10 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

The bridge bars were nothing to do with preventing damage to the cabin top. They started fitting them after a hire was seriously injured (or even killed) after being crushed between the front bulkhead and an unopened swing bridge (on the K&A ???) which the bows passed under when the steerer failed to stop.

Not convinced, the K&A didn't reopen until 1990 and bridge bars were common in the 1970's. 

The reason I gave was told to me by Anglo Welsh at Norbury Junction when we hired from them in the late 70's. 

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3 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

This is correct. Swanline were turned out at Fradley junction. I am not totaly convinced now looking at these that they are swanline as they dont appear to have the fab sheerline that mine had? We owned a harborough after the swanline and these photos bear no resemblance to harborough whatsoever.

H&L definitely built some bare hulls only for Swan Line, and they were fitted with fibreglass tops at Fradley, so perhaps the differences in sheer are down to multiple builders. The last ones they had were steel top, and they were after H&L has ceased boatbuilding. I wonder if Colecraft ever did any as they picked up quite a few of H&Ls customers and have quietly built a number of boats over the years to other people's designs.

Swan Line also built at least one of fibreglass top versions for a private customer in the early 70s (called Gambler) which we did a lot of work to a few years ago.

I don't think the ones in the pictures at the start of this thread are ex-Swan Line either, but they've definitely been built by someone with access to the hull patterns.

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