Wednesday 26 November 2008

We have lift off

Well when I say lift off, I mean boat lifting off lorry, just had a SMS from our builder, the shell arrives next Wednesday 3rd December.

Birthday present will arrive early. Hooray.

Thursday 13 November 2008

Oh! Well

You may remember that on the 24th October, I posted that the shell was to be delivered to our boat builder, the week commencing 10th November and that we were not holding our breath.

Just as well we did not, as we would be very short of breath by now.

You guessed it there is another delay and again it is not our builders fault, it is their suppliers. When items are ordered in good faith, with plenty of time for delivery, it must be very frustrating for them not to arrive.

Our builders now have a boat, finished except for the last few items but cannot hand it over to the new owners obviously.

That boat is now occupying the space that is for our boat, I have not verified this but suspect that our builder is now effectively losing money.

In this economic climate, we have recently seen a few builders fall by the wayside, we can begin to understand why now, if this is the way they are treated by their suppliers.

Am I glad not to be a boat builder, you bet I am.

Oh! Well we will just have to be patient.

Thursday 6 November 2008

"Josher and Birmingham Square"

An old school friend asked, so I thought I would post an answer, this is to the best of my knowledge correct but I am sure that those that know will post a comment

A 'Josher' is the style/shape of the bow, it was first designed and built by a Joshua Fellows.

He was part of the company, Fellows, Moreton and Clayton, one of the more well known companies trading on the canals.

A true 'Josher', which mine is not, has a subtle double curve, difficult to see in a photo.

'Birmingham square' is to do with the shape of the hull, the majority of narrowboats hulls slope inwards as they go down but a 'square' as the name implies, are more vertical, you gain a few inches in width.