SUIGENERIS

Hi. Check out North Kilworth Wharf, Narrowboat hire on the Leicester section of the Grand Union. Great boats, very peaceful section with few locks, great pub at Welford, and at Foxton and much choice at Market Harborough. Boats are excellent and they are well known for making you very welcome. Enjoy! Cheers, Mick

Nick Thorpe built our hull for us. Workmanship in 2015 was excellent , its a much admired boat. As for the rest of the fitting out we did ourselves so cannot comment on other than the hull and superstructure. I think he has probably built more than 130 boats in his time. Cheers. Mick

Another vote for Debdale. We had the full works to ours done in 2022 at Debdale. The set up is excellent and the chaps that actually did the physical work are happy to talk to you and that gives much confidence in their workmanship. Debdale allow you to have a look in by appointment throughout the process, during lunch and tea breaks, so you see all stages. All done without any drama, prices have risen because of the costs of materials and energy, but we consider has been well worthwhile. They do ask for a mid term inspection to keep up their guarantee.

I have successfully used Flag brand Elastomeric Floor paint. It is made by Wastnages in in Burnham on Crouch, Essex. They are a very longstanding paint manufacturer and I consulted their technical department for advise and they said it was definitely suitable. You will find them on the internet. They sell it directly and its very reasonably priced, The light grey colour is a nice shade and it is a matt finish so not slippery. They also do a darker shade of grey. Certainly seems to be wearing well after 4 years and an easy product to use as it goes on quite thick with a roller and gives a nice finish.

Ours was made by Protective Textiles at Kingston on Thames using a material called Top Gun which has proved to be very good and still like new after 7 years. Their manufacturing time was particularly quick and reasonably priced. They have a website.

The Protective Textiles co. at Kingston on Thames did mine about 7 years ago, excellent workmanship, brilliant price. Mine were done with a very good canvas looking product called Top Gun. Still in perfect condition. They have a website.

North Kilworth Wharf are a nice provider on the Leicester Summit. Good cruising and varied interesting bits like the Foxton Locks Flight, Husbands Bosworth Tunnel, Welford Wharf, Market harborough. They also have proper stoves on their boats! Great in the winter.

Our boat is actually in there at the moment being gritblasted, zinc sprayed and epoxy coated. Called in there on wednesday to have a look mid process and very impressed with the diligence of the work crew, and the perfect working conditions and as always Debdale very accomodating to their clients. Whole process completed in a week, photos taken at all appropriate intervals, price has risen a bit due to increased costs of materials and energy but still seems a very reasonable cost, Our boat only 7 years old so its effectively going to come out better than new! Mick

Note that the Llys Helig, a boat in Burnham on Crouch which overturned and sank some years ago has been raised and is set for restoration. As far as I know it was fitted with twin Glennifer 8 cylinder engines. The owner that i spoke to some 10 or more years ago told me they were then no longer functional. They have since been submerged for several years. Almost certainly they will not be fit to restore to use, but may certainly be worthy of yielding some rare spares. I gather the ship is expected to be moved to a dry dock soon. May i suggest you visit the website Llys Helig via google. It might well put you in touch with the owner to your advantage. Best regards. Mick ( a Fellow historic boat owner )

There is now a heritage visitor centre at the Weedon Barracks, Went there earlier in year and found it very interesting.

I used vinyl wrap on my rear door 4 years ago. Still looks good as new, and we are on the boat nearly all the time, so it gets lots of use, bags of coal carried through etc. I have always thought there is a great opportunity out there just waiting for some enterprising person to take it on. My pal has been wrapping police and emergency vehicles for years!

Sorry to hear of problems, Mtb's question is very relevent. Inlet manifolds are very low on these horizontal twins, and other openings for water to get into crankcase are not available except through oil filler, which ,if same as mine has a tight cap.. So suspect water drawn into inlet and maybe some internal damage, hope not though as these are interesting British made engines that get more rare in running order. Good luck. Mick. P.S. Kieron is the "hands on" man with these!

Tony tells me he thinks he has some old 8mm movie reel taken on that holiday. He is going to look for it, Will keep you posted if more info comes along. Cheers. Mick

Tony has been in touch again. The narrowboat owner was based in Birmingham, was well educated and had a "cast in his eye". Cheerrs. Mick

A friend of mine Tony Thurlow has written up the following and emailed me copies of his photos, Quality isnt good but still I include them and hope you enjoy them. About 1956-7 through the YHA I learned of a canal trip from Oxford to Llangollen which was to be horse drawn. Being an apprentice boat builder (on the Essex coast) and having ridden and driven farm horses as a teenager I thought I would give it a go. We started just outside Oxford, meeting the owner/crew and was told this was the first trial trip. As far as I can remember there was about 12 to 14 of us. The barge (the Glendower) was 70 feet in length having bunks each side, a cooking/dining area. The cook, come chaperon, called "Beth" looked after all of us. One lad from a narrow boat family made up the crew. The horse named "Nigger" came from British Rail and was used for shunting in the goods yard. He was on "holiday" for a fortnight and used to moving 21 ton trucks. When he put his shoulders into the job once moving he just strolled along. Once we had all settled down we did jobs to help like going ahead opening paddles on locks, or leading "Nigger" along the towpath. I cannot remember the route but do recall turnover bridges and a hinged bridge just like the Dutch have, taking on water, provisions from village stores. We stopped at Banbury to see the famous cross. Getting to the aquaduct in Wales was fun walking the horse over this, he was very staedy and done well. The canal into there was very shallow and took some navigating. When we got to Llangollen they were having an Eisteddfod, oh what a sight! Coming back I had made friends with the owner and was invited back for working holidays which I did later take up. Hope you enjoy my memories. Cheers. Tony Unfortunately Tony cannot recall the boatmans name, perhaps someone mighty know and remind him ! Hope you enjoy it.