SPEEDTRIPLE

Back in the mid 90s (20 years ago :eek: , a coleague at work loaned me a book called "The Norfolk Wherry", which had some excellent photos and stories about the wherries, their work, and their crews. I did have a search on the net to see if i could still get it, as it was quite an old book, but to no avail. Has anybody else heard of this book, or does anybody have a copy, or know where i could get one?.

Hi Marshman, thanks for that. Question, Obviously Albion is a trading wherry, and White Moth and Olive are Wherry Yachts, but what were Hathor and variants like her, are they purpose built "pleasure wherries", or just conversions of trading wherries?

Yes, i forgot about bed lengths. When my brothers brother-in-law hired "Tobago King" back in the late 90s (now Tobago Light from Herbert Woods), the yard informed him the fwd double was infact 6ft 10ins in length. Very appropriate as Mark is about 6ft 3ins tall. Also, when we hired Maffett Cruisers Kingfisher 2 years ago, we slept in the centrl cabin with the engine under the berth. This meant the berth was higher than usual, meaning there was not much hieght under the side deck, so anybody over 5ft 6ins had to pull their feet up to clear the deck before turning over. A real pain in the derierre, as i can vouch for being a tad over 5ft 10ins.

If the Government allow electric cars to be exempt from road tax, shall we all get together and sign an e-petition to get the government to instruct the BA to make electric boating toll free. If it`s good enough for cars, it should be good enough on the rivers. And Peter (Jenny Morgan), sailing boats should get a refundyes?. :naughty:

Very effective Trevor, and looking good at Rockland too.

Hi Strow, i posted that above before reading ALL the thread

Hi Strow, i know you do a lot of digging re varying subjects, so may i ask you, is it possible to register a rowing dinghy with the BCU, and on another topic, do the BA still charge a toll for ELECTRIC outboards?. Re your comment regarding pro rata sized tolls for 40 footers being £10,000, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE................ don`t give them ideas :

Hi Ian, you`ll have to hurry for Manston, i think it`s recently been sold, and earmarked for redevelopement. Yet another bloody housing estate built on a site of important heritage, just like Hawkinge and West Malling.

about 11 weeks for us. End of May / beginning of June we`re on Lightning if anybody is around?.

Yes, that`s the ones Ian, thanks for that. I first started building aircraft interiors for a company called "Metair Aircraft" at West Malling airdrome in 91. The airdrome was sold off for redevelopement and in late 92, the company moved to new buildings at Biggin Hill, and took on the name of the new owners being the Hunting group, where we stayed till mid 98 when the place was shut down and we all got made redundant. Ironically, both Biggin Hill and West Malling were WW2 airbases, Biggin Hill being the centre of operations for the Battle of Britain. I used to go for a walk in my lunch break round to the eastern side of West Malling airfield which was largely untouched I got the same feelings of the ghosts watching me, and could definitely feel some sort of spiritual prescence around me as i did when we used to visit my Aunt and Uncle who lived in the village of Hawkinge where we used to jclimb over their garden fence and walk around the airfeild. Both places were very spiritual, and very moving.

Thanks Ian. I used to make interiors for the Jetstream 41 back in the 90s, which i think (but not sure) were built at Prestwick. There again, it might have been some of the Nimrod stuff. Well, it was nearly 20 years ago.

Looking good boys, well done on the successful trial float. It looks like i`m going to be looking out for her at the end of May / beginning of June. Although it`s good to see this thread come to its conclusion, it`s also sad to know that its finished, and nothing left to see, apart from what must be one of the best fitted out Sabres around?. It`s been a great read, with some excellent and informative text and pictures. cheers cheers Here`s to you lads, well done.

And now i`ve found this too. http://www.lancastercanalboathire.com/ I must have done something wrong on previous searches :oops: .

SUCCESS. I searched on ask.com, and it came back with this http://www.waterfarmboathire.co.uk/index.html I`l have to have a chat with Karen, as she`s often said she might find being inside a narrowboat a bit chlostraphobic. She`ll love the fact there`s no locks though.

Hi Alan, thanks for the links, though they both seem to limk to the same page???????. I`l have another google search and see what i can find.

I remember back in 1970, Hoseasons advert for the (Aston Vega" class. It had the picture of the boat, with the picture of the yard pennant, then sleeps 6-8. Then it said Aston boats, Loddon. then it had "Length 39ft 6inins then beam 11ft 6ins, then Headroom 6ft 2ins then described in great detail which was purposely done to actually "sell" the boat to you. It even described the beds having dunlapillow foam matresses, it even advertised the engine as a 2.2ltr BMC Commander deisel with single lever control. I know exactly what Robin is saying, and i agree with him, but as Dan rightly says, times have changed, and with the internet and colour photos and video footage etc, people no longer have to think about it, or use their imagination to pick the right boat. However, i do like Johns point (Maurice Mynor) about the bridge height. A couple of years back, we were chatting to a couple on a high top boat that were disappointed to not being able to get under Wroxham bridge, as the yard had`nt informed them about going under low bridges when they booked. The first time they knew about it was when the engineer told them on handover they don`t nee to know about bridges, as this boat won`t go under them.

There are some excellent books on "Airfields of the second world war", of which i have 6, with more to come. The first one i bought was Dorset, after borrowing a friends copy (ex RAF mechanic), then in June 2013 when we were moored at Reedham, Karen saw the one for Norfolk in the riverside post office store, and bought it for me, as she knew i wanted it, but had`nt seen it. Then i got the Suffolk one, and 2 weeks ago, i bought 3 from Play.com, being Lincolnshire, (where we`re going in Aughust in a cottage), Hampshire, which borders Dorset about 3 miles away, and Kent, where i was born and brought up, and of which i have some of the best memories of second world war airfields. Any threads, stories, or pictures from WW2 airfields are very interresting to me, so please, anybody with anything to post, please do, i`l always appreciate it.

I don`t know whether they`re doing the Lancaster canal, but it`s one of the waterways i`ve always wanted to do. I looked into it early last year, but could`nt find any boatyard operating a hire fleet, anybody know any different?. I`ve looked on google satelite view, and it looks pretty good, with a branch down to Glasson dock. Has anybody had any experience of it, and was on one of the old hireboats through Hoseasons?. I think it was a company calle "Nu way" cruisers from Carnforth, who had a small range of modern GRP narrow beam cruisers, including a Norman 32?. I also saw on the satelite view, a "Calypso 28" moored in Lancaster (i think) so it must be pretty wide?.

Yep, me too. I found their last series very enjoyable, and to see Prunella Scales climbing up and down lock ladders at the age of 82 shows that age should not be a limiting factor in life, providing you live a healthy lifestyle that is?.

Just off the top of peoples heads, how many wherries are there still in existance?. I know of Albion (who does`nt?), and Hathor, and there`s the Wherry Yachts, Maud, Olive, and White Moth. Are there any others still around that can still be recognised as Wherries?. I remember years back when Martham boats had Hathor as a houseboat, and they also had "Bramble", but i don`t know what happened to her, anyone know?.

What about "Kevincraft"?. Boats such as Boy Alan, Paula Dawn, and i think one called Kevin Boy, or Boy Kevin?.

Yes, i`d agree with that. Very funny, but possibly a bit near the knuckle?.

Hi Alan, i thought this might interrest you?. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Cockerell Though it does`nt say a lot about the yard, it still gets a mention.

Well done lads, she looks absolutely stunning. :clap . I hope the trial launch goes very well, and there are no problems. Karen and i will be up on the Broads the end May / beginning June on Lightning, so hopefully, we`ll see you afloat, as what i`m really hoping to do is get a photo of Orca and her crew under way. It`s really hard to imagine without going back to the beginning of this thread that you`ve actually achieved such an astonishing job without the benefits of a full workshop and machine tools etc. Karen and i should be back up in Kent for Easter, as it`s my brothers birthday on the 3rd. We`ll have a drive over and see if she`s still there, but if not, we hope the transport and lift in at Somerleyton goes "SWIMMINGLY". Ok, i`l get my coat .