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Who made these boats?


man1nvan

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On 25/06/2017 at 13:14, 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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Funny you should post this. Only yesterday I was trying to explain to Starcoaster why I too find them attractive, and how there is not a straight line anywhere on those hulls.

I've been keeping a weather eye open for one for a while now. Would also like a Harborough. I can't see anyone would confuse the two though. They look completely different to me.

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1 hour 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 K and A ... my photo (above) was 1976 and the K and A wasn't open then..... could well be somewhere else obviously.

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2 hours ago, Rose Narrowboats said:

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.

I think she was built by Davison Bros, at Sawley. They were called Trentcraft and were available from 35' to 55'. Page 25 of the 1976 "Waterways World guide to Pleasure Craft" carries a photograph that could be the very boat in the first photo of the OP's query.

Edited by johnthebridge
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2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

. Would also like a Harborough. I can't see anyone would confuse the two though. They look completely different to me.

That's because you look at narrowboats with a trained and experienced eye, as (to a lesser extent) do I. But the tyro would simply see a long slim thing with a high bow - just as you could tell the difference between, say, a JP2 and an RN DM2 instantly, whereas an uninitiated person would see only two big green things wot go plunk.

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2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Funny you should post this. Only yesterday I was trying to explain to Starcoaster why I too find them attractive, and how there is not a straight line anywhere on those hulls.

I've been keeping a weather eye open for one for a while now. Would also like a Harborough. I can't see anyone would confuse the two though. They look completely different to me.

No one did confuse them. The thread is a runaway chinese whisper type thread. ;)

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5 hours ago, johnthebridge said:

I think she was built by Davison Bros, at Sawley. They were called Trentcraft and were available from 35' to 55'. Page 25 of the 1976 "Waterways World guide to Pleasure Craft" carries a photograph that could be the very boat in the first photo of the OP's query.

I didn't think the Davison Brothers built steel boats, moving straight from wooden to ferro-cement construction.

They do look remarkably similar to the concrete versions though so perhaps I am wrong.

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1 hour ago, carlt said:

I didn't think the Davison Brothers built steel boats, moving straight from wooden to ferro-cement construction.

They do look remarkably similar to the concrete versions though so perhaps I am wrong.

The ad. in the publication I've quoted from states they were of 6, 5,4mm steel. It goes on to say,"....basically the same boat that we developed over15 years,  which we have built in timber, ferro-concrete, and now in steel" and, "...the most striking feature of the Trentcraft range are the sophisticated curvatures of the hull shape and the use of panoramic windows."

They appear to have been quite expensive, quoted prices starting at " 35' from £7500, 40' from£8000, 45' from £8500 and 55' from £9500."

I think the head man then was Derek Davison.

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Thanks for all the replies.

They aren't Dartline, i have had a couple of those, or harborough, so we are down to 
Swanline by Horace greeaves or
Trentcraft Davison brothers

I have looked online for the publications quoted but failed (as usual) to find anything, does anyone have a link please?

I reckon to have seen half a dozen of these from devizes up to the Trent and Mersey so there must have been a fair few around, the one at devizes had an sr2 but don't know if it was original.

They do look to have low headroom, but the built for comfort or speed question will never be resolved :-)

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1 hour ago, johnthebridge said:

 

I think the head man then was Derek Davison.

Derrick was one of three brothers who operated Sawley before selling it to BW.

I knew Derrick quite well, often discussing his concrete and wooden boats (I have his concrete/polymer recipe here somewhere) 

Im1960BW11-Saw.jpg

 

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22 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.

I have always known of them as "idiot bars" since hire companies first introduced them.

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8 hours ago, carlt said:

Derrick was one of three brothers who operated Sawley before selling it to BW.

I knew Derrick quite well, often discussing his concrete and wooden boats (I have his concrete/polymer recipe here somewhere) 

Im1960BW11-Saw.jpg

 

Thanks for that,  i saw this one the other day near Watford and it looks like the same shaped hull for sure with the square transom so maybe the ones i liked were an evolution of these.   I wonder if any of the fero-cement ones are still going?

kl01.jpg.32bd2a456ea8ac132ff23ed1ff13167e.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, man1nvan said:

Thanks for that,  i saw this one the other day near Watford and it looks like the same shaped hull for sure with the square transom so maybe the ones i liked were an evolution of these.   I wonder if any of the fero-cement ones are still going?

kl01.jpg.32bd2a456ea8ac132ff23ed1ff13167e.jpg

 

I knew of one that exchanged hands regularly on the continuous mooring circuit. I nearly owned it myself and spent a couple of sessions in dock "repointing" it. Last time I saw it it had the dodgiest of home built cabins and the concrete was delaminating from the rebar (usually the death rattle for f-c boats). 

There was also one at Sutton Stop that was in pretty good nick but that may have been Concoform (Weedon) rather than Davisons.

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On 6/26/2017 at 09:54, 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 realise we are drifting off topic but...

The bridge guards were mainly for the Llangollen where there was at least one fatal accident at a lift bridge: the Llangollen lift bridges used to tilt only to 60 degrees rather than vertical and are hinged close to the waterline so the risk of catching the cabin was significant. One company (Maestermyn I think) didn't fit them but insisted the boat was "walked" through the bridge, with a crew member on the towpath holding the bow rope rather in the manner walking a dog on a leash. 

BW gradually resolved most of the issue by moving the hinges further back, so although they still only open 60 degrees they aren't low over the navigation channel. In addition, the bars also created a hazard when getting on and off at the front.

(This knowledge was gained from a childhood spent reading Waterways World...)

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19 hours ago, man1nvan said:

 

I have looked online for the publications quoted but failed (as usual) to find anything, does anyone have a link please?

 

Here is the relevant page from the Waterways World Guide to Canal Pleasure Craft 1976:

Trentcraft.jpg.ff05677a823a0be46a6a187c3266b714.jpg

I think it is most likely that the boats in the original photos in this thread are by Davison Bros. The hulls of the Swan Line boats were very similar but the windows were generally different and not as large. 

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Thats the kiddie!  9500 for the 55   that looks like a bargain  probably about the same that you would pay for a new boat today.

Not sure i like the sound of melamine walls though   all a bit harbour tug

 

Thanks for that,   now  has anyone got a trentcraft going cheap?

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On 27/06/2017 at 22:53, man1nvan said:

Thats the kiddie!  9500 for the 55   that looks like a bargain  probably about the same that you would pay for a new boat today.

Not sure i like the sound of melamine walls though   all a bit harbour tug

 

Thanks for that,   now  has anyone got a trentcraft going cheap?

 

There's one on the bank for sale at Clifton Cruisers.

Its a total basket case and colander though. Even the extensive overplating has rusted through in places.

Even I declined to make an offer so it must be really bad! 

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  • 1 year later...

This post is the only post I can find with pictures that bear any resemblance to my boat, so here's my boat...!

 

I've been told it's a Swanline, but it's very difficult to find any information about them online. It has a very distinctive curve with a fibreglass top that has been skinned in OSB with the intention of a fresh layer of fibreglass, though I intend to put a steel top on it.

 

Any information about the boat would be really cool though! 

 

:)

 

Thanks,

Sam

20170525_095352.jpg

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The windows in my boat aren't as angular as the boats in the most recent pictures - much more rectangular with rounded corners. The front of the boat is very similar though! The curve seems more pronounced but perhaps because it's not in the water? The D-bars are in the same positions too.

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