Jump to content

Curious about age of boat


Happy Go Lucky

Featured Posts

Cleaning up my engine room I found the engine plate and worked out that the engine dated from 1984. Due to the hole cut into the roof of the engine room I'm pretty certain that it is not the original engine. This made me start wondering how old our boat actually is. Was it a reconditioned engine and the boat was built after 1984 or was it built before that date?

 

Our boat is called Minerva and is a 70' trad that used to belong to the 'Black Country Narrowboat Experience'. She had a sister boat called Probatica that was sold at the same time and, we were told, the two of them were used to give canal trips to customers of the probation service. This might explain the solid steel bulkhead between forward accomodation and engine room/back cabin!

 

Minerva does appear on Jim Shead's list but, alas, no build date. Does anyone have any memories of the past that might help satisfy my curiosity?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi HGL

I think I can give you some of the answers you are looking for, we looked at Minerva and Probatica when they were for sale at Alvechurch in 2008. The condition of both boats was pretty poor (including the engine rooms flooded up to the engine bearers) as they had been sitting for a year without much enthusiasm from either the staff at Alvechurch or the owners (still WMPS). Anyway after a bit of negotiation we bought Probatica (mainly because we preferred the newer engine in her and we felt that Minerva would be a harder re fit as she was laid out as a floating restaurant ).

if my memory serves me right the paper work we had stated that Probatica was built in 84 with Minerva being built a year later.

The boats about 6 in all were built at Minerva wharf in Wolverhampton by lads on probation under the supervision of a couple of different boat builders, I'm not sure who supervised the building of Minerva but I may be able to give you a couple of leads if you want to try and research it.

I've been looking out to see if Minerva would pop up again as my minimal research drew a blank as to her whereabouts we where given to understand by Alvechurch (both boats sold within a short space of time in the end) that the purchasers planned to keep her as a restaurant.

I'm also in casual contact with the owners of Carp 2 one of the other boats built by WMPS and have a small number of pics from the working days thanks to one of the volunteer skippers.

As for Probatica we still live aboard although she has had a name change and yes after 5 years we are STILL working on the conversion, and spend our year around the Thames ring

 

Regards

 

Chris

(Posting on the missus log in)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The index Number for your boat may help you date it, they were first introduced for boats on British Waterways . Boats built before 1980 are also incluided in the lists between 60011 and 79999

 

Edited to add:- The only 70ft boat named Minerva on Jim Shead's list has index number 47995, which suggests that she was registered in 1990. This is somewhat later than the found date for your engine, but it is not uncommon for Narrowboats to have reconditioned Road vehicle engines installed in them, particuolarly BMC 1.5 and 1.8 engines.

 

60011 to 70561 1980/1
77500 to 77599 1980/1
77700 to 79999 1980/1
76000 to 77499 1982
77600 to 77699 1982
73000 to 73099 1983
75000 to 75399 1983
70562 to 71580 1984
71581 to 72567 1985
72568 to 72599 1986
73100 to 73800 1986
72600 to 72999 1987
73801 to 74856 1987
45501 to 45505 1988
74857 to 74999 1988
75400 to 75999 1988
45506 to 47299 1989
47300 to 49586 1990
49587 to 51320 1991
51321 to 52606 1992
52607 to 53554 1993
53555 to 54394 1994
54395 to 55000 1995
500010 to 500398 1995
500399 to 501364 1996
501365 to 502357 1997
502358 to 503369 1998
503370 to 504424 1999
504425 to 2000

Edited by David Schweizer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The index Number for your boat may help you date it, they were first introduced for boats on British Waterways . Boats built before 1980 are also incluided in the lists between 60011 and 79999

 

60011 to 70561 1980/1

77500 to 77599 1980/1

77700 to 79999 1980/1

76000 to 77499 1982

77600 to 77699 1982

73000 to 73099 1983

75000 to 75399 1983

70562 to 71580 1984

71581 to 72567 1985

72568 to 72599 1986

73100 to 73800 1986

72600 to 72999 1987

73801 to 74856 1987

45501 to 45505 1988

74857 to 74999 1988

75400 to 75999 1988

45506 to 47299 1989

47300 to 49586 1990

49587 to 51320 1991

51321 to 52606 1992

52607 to 53554 1993

53555 to 54394 1994

54395 to 55000 1995

500010 to 500398 1995

500399 to 501364 1996

501365 to 502357 1997

502358 to 503369 1998

503370 to 504424 1999

504425 to 2000

Didn't realise the BW numbers were age related.

 

When did the 11 series come about?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi HGL

I think I can give you some of the answers you are looking for.

 

Thank you for the information, you got more paperwork than we did! A 1985 build would imply that the engine is original and the fact that the access hatch cut through one of the roof supports was due to careless measuring rather than a subsequent replacement!

 

We were the purchasers of Minerva in 2008 and also made the decision based on engine and ease of conversion, the sunroof was the final point in it's favour. I'm surprised that Alvechurch thought that we were going to use it as a restaurant boat as they allowed us to use their skip to dispose of the first three dinettes. I'm glad it's not just us that hasn't finished the conversion process after 5 years. However,I'm going to claim that there are only minor cosmetic things still on my list ... honest guv. The steel bulkhead I will have to cut through to get to the back cabin may be reducing my enthusiasm to get to that bit. Besides, I need the space to store all the stuff I've put aside to finish converting the back cabin smile.png

 

The index Number for your boat may help you date it, they were first introduced for boats on British Waterways . Boats built before 1980 are also incluided in the lists between 60011 and 79999

 

Edited to add:- The only 70ft boat named Minerva on Jim Shead's list has index number 47995, which suggests that she was registered in 1990. This is somewhat later than the found date for your engine, but it is not uncommon for Narrowboats to have reconditioned Road vehicle engines installed in them, particuolarly BMC 1.5 and 1.8 engines.

 

47300 to 49586 1990

 

Typical of British Waterways to develop an non-intuitive numbering system to confuse the issue. We were 47995 (on the rivers now so not currently registered with CRT) but the 1990 date conflicts with Chris's information and the date of the engine (a Lister ST3 which was built as a marine engine).

 

Thanks to all

 

Geoff

Edited by Happy Go Lucky
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.