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EARLY ASTONS


Guest DAYTONA-BILL

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The Bourne hulls were designed by Rip Martin I think he also designed the DC 30 for Dawn craft who was one of the founders of Aquafibre.

The Ocean 30 was one of his which was also the Broom 30/ Captain.

I know that the Bourne 40 mould was cut up at Aquafibre a couple of years ago,

Here is some more info, look on the links on the bottom of the page.

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I've only just picked up on this thread, which is truly shocking as I'm thinking of making Aston Boats from the early 80s onwards my Mastermind specialist subject so thank you for all the pictures.

Dan, Rambling Freedom is definitely one of the river section of the Thames class, old layout A. Its not the Thames, because she is now Pearl Emblem, its not the Severn as she had a bowthruster and refit after having a slight disagreement with the 'Blackheath' and has since left the Broads. That leaves the Mersey and Humber. I do know that the Humber was the only Thames class to have a 2.5 BMC as apposed to a 2.2 and once had the reputation for being the fastest hire boat on the broads. (Certainly nothing passed us on Breydon!) Rambling has a 2.2 but that could have been changed. Through this process of elimination I've narrowed it down to the Mersey as well.

And before you ask I've already emailed Freedom to ask them, and annoyingly I knew more than they did!!!

Oh and Bill the white concorde class moored at Loddon in your other thread of old photos is probably Vada, Ex Nevada.

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Almost forgot, here is a piccy of the Loddon yard taken by my dad. Think this was taken at the end of my very first trip on a boat the brand spanking new Aston Otter, (second from the left) in 1982. Have lots more around. will have a dig in the loft at some stage.

post-226-136713716151_thumb.jpg

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Just a note that the yard we call Astons and what is now Princess was up to 1967 Princess Cruisers Ltd and was founded around 1958. Most of the fleet was in the style of Aston Lion but the also had two 3 berth boats Fairy and Pixie Princess which passed on to Alpha Craft as their Mustang and Spitfire. The last build for Princess was Emerald Princess in 1966 later to become Aston Emerald. Although like the rest of the Princess fleet she was an all wood, all varnished craft she had an Aston house look and plan about her. Aston's yard at this time was I think at Bill Maxted's and they ran a much smaller fleet of mainly Aston Poppy type classes. I have no idea who took over who or even if the were the same company using different agencies but in 1968 Princess cruisers basin became Aston boats main yard and the fleet (except Emerald) painted in Astons distinctive livery.

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Hi Charlie, please please have a dig round and post more photo's, always interested in seeing photo's of Astons.

Only wish i had got round to hireing them in the 80's, loved to see them in the brochure, only one i wasn't keen on was the Concorde class, thought they looked a bit 'stumpy' :lol::lol::lol: , could do with another 4' on the back :lol:

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What a cracking thread this is. Surely with all this info and some great photos coming to light there's enough info for someone to start an owners website? Would be great to see that happen, especially now the company has closed.

Sounds like the Aston Mersey as Rambling Freedom looks right then. I thought it was a BMC 2.5 actually but sounds like this has been checked and a 2.2. I did take her for a short cruise last year and she certainly handled superbly. Suprisingly responsive and light for a boat of her length cheersbar

All the best

Dan

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As soon as school work calms down a bit I'll be doing some weekends and then up and out for at least 2 weeks at the start of August. Haven't spent as much time on the boat as I usually do this year (getting serious withdrawal) as work has been madness.

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Scan of a Princess from the Blakes list of 1966, which was also the first Broads brochure to be produced in colour. Interesting note that the class which had been partially fitted with refrigerators had now reverted to the Blakes ice-box scheme after Blakes banned gas refrigerators for a number of years on safety grounds. Have heard that Aston Boats had blue hulls ( this might be just folk law) because Jim Prior, the Conservative politician was a director.post-205-136713716506_thumb.jpg

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL

Nice to see this thread is gaining interrest again. We hired Aston Orion in June 1970 when i was 12, and she was a year old. New to the fleet for 1970 was the Aston Mars class, and the Thames class were new in 71. The Orion was one of the Vega Class, being Vega, Castor, Srius and Orion. The Mars class also included Saturn, Mercury and Jupiter, which was later modified removing the aft double berth, and replacing it with an octagonal glass dining table and four chairs. My brothe and i hired her in Oct. 04 The Thames class was Thames, Mersey, Severn and Trent (i think). The Vega and Thames had the same fwd section layout but the aft section of the Thames class had the same layout, but reversed, with the saloon and galley just aft of the centre cockpit, where the Vega class had the saloon and galley aft. The Mars class had a completely different layout with twin cabin fwd, then the two single cabins, and a seperate toilet one side and seperate shower on the other side, then the centre cockpit, then coming aft, you had the galley to port, a toilet compartmant to stbd, then aft of the toilet, a double cabin. Then right aft you had a u shped sette/double berth, and opposite to port, a small single settee which i think could be used as a childs berth. I never really liked the Mars layout, but thought the best layout was of the thames class. Regards ............. Neil.

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The planets were Mars, Jupiter, Mercury and Venus. The rivers; Thames, Mersey, Severn and Humber.

I think that over the course of 1982 until closure, we had Otter, Ash, Willow, Elm, Aries, Thames x2, Humber x2, Mersey x2, Mercury x2, Georgia & Viscount x2.

We ended up buying Viscount!

I had heard that the Blue was as a result of Wing Commander Aston's memories of the sky. But either way it worked, they were always very distinctive from a distance. If I had a pound for every time I had heard the words 'I can see an Aston boat'. I would be on the boat all the time, cos I would be so rich I wouldn't need to work.

Aston spotting has always been a major hobby of mine, the ladies in the office at the Loddon base always used to have a spotters list ready for me when we arrived for our holiday so I could spend the week (or 2) ticking them off. I now have a list that I've compiled myself (based on Craig's database) of all the Ex Astons and still do the same. I ticked off 50 in total last year!

Sad I know, but its the little kid in me that does it.

Charlie

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Guest DAYTONA-BILL

I second that Dan, as i don`t know the first thing about building websites, so the task falls fairly and squarely on your shoulders. Also, your own website is excellent, so you have the experience :naughty::naughty: .

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Hi Neil

There's no way I'm doing one! :grin:

Have enough on my plate with the Bounty, FB Wilds, Black Prince and my own websites really, plus we dont want all of these type of websites looking the same!

I am a complete bozo and non techie person, so if I can do it it really is true that anyone can. Running three of my websites costs less than £50 a year so it can also be done at little cost. The software I use is a bit out of date now (and only tends to run perfectly on Internet Explorer which has reduced in popularity/usage over the years) but there are lots of ways you can do it, including hosting packages and softwares that are still fairly cheap for small sites and sort out any tricky bits for you. I dipped my toe in it as I thought the story of the Caribbeans (and the influence/direction change they startted that is still significant & evident today) needed to be told and in the absence of anyone else doing it thought I best I did. There seems to be lots of people as interested in thre subject here so it would be great to see, especvially as this thread alone has generated & produced some great pictures.. you never know what more may emerge with a whole website about them!

Anyway if not hopefully more pictures will come to light here... I do enjoy looking back in time! cheersbar

Dan

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Hi All,

I am also very interested in the old Astons as well as the History of the company which had such a presence on the broads for so many years.

I also would like to see a website devoted to Astons rather like Dans Excellent site about the FB Wilds boats. I have not got the time to engage in extensive research but I would be happy to have a go at putting a suitable site together based on my own infornation and that suppied by other interested members. I already have webhosting available so it would simply be a matter of designing the site which is not that difficult a task. let me know if there is an interest in doing something about this.

I like your recent picture of Sweet Freedom dan.

Here is a picture of her in her previous role as Aston Broadsword

post-692-136713718434_thumb.jpg

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And Here's a picture of the Aston Boats Yard at Beccles.

Sorry this is a scan as I have not been able to find the original file. The real picture is clearer.

post-692-136713718455_thumb.jpg

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hi dan, just spent the last hour looking through your web sites and their great imho. all that only cost you £50?? arthur good photos and i also would like to know more of aston history.

I suspect that it is £50 a year to the hosting site, the web-sites themselves will have been done on the cheap using Dan's "blood, sweat and tears"

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Me, circa 1973, at the helm of Aston Pelican (I think) although, for years I was convinced we had hired Puffin!

ASTON%20PUFFIN%20OR%20GOOSE%20OR%20PELICAN%20CLASS.JPG

And this is my mate Ian trying to fill up with water at Reedham. I say trying because "Spitfire" from Alphacraft had a water tank that was forever blowing back so you couldn't just leave the hose in. So in an earlier life this was Aston Chrystal, Fairy or Pixie!

alpha%20spitfire%201973.jpg

Trevor

http://www.normanboats.co.uk

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really great pic guys.what a fantactic coulour scheme astons had the only other one that sticks to mind was castle craft. oxford blue hull with the red and white stripe at the water line. why did astons close their doors? is the yard at beccels still their?

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