Busy day so far

Well Thursday has got off to a busy start, you can tell its winter as the shared boats are coming back in early! David and I have been making room on the wharf for their Impending return.

Sue off No Problem has cast her ropes off and has now disappeared in to the distance to try her new prop and see if it stops her 'prop walk' I remain sceptical! She had a bit of a lie in this morning and scared the hell out of me when she appeared at the window in nothing but here Pyjamas!! poor Old Vic! Just kidding Sue xx

Empress is all pressure washed and cleaned off and as i promised yesterday here are some pictures of the old girl, Empress that is and not Sue!





















Empress is quite special as she is reputed to be the oldest surviving purpose built motor narrow boat in this country, she dates from 1887 and was originally a steamer for the former FMC (Fellows Morton Clayton The prop on this boat was 33 inches when she was in steam! that is one BIG prop. I rebuilt the boat over a few years between 1995 and 2000 the worked the boat for about three years before finally selling her to the current owner Jim Taylor who is doing a grand job of looking after her, and it is a pleasure to have her on the dock her at Norbury again.

I think we are becoming experts in the renovation of burnt out boats, here is the latest one to arrive and be lifted out of the water to have a full make over, this will be the third one that we have done in the last few years and is the second one this year, although this one is pretty bad and not only needs half a new cabin but will require two new sections of hull where it is badly buckled, Will keep you up to speed as and when things are taking shape, no rush with this one!













here is an old springer that we have started to plate, this one is about 20 years old and was only built of of thin steel in the first place so now it needs over plating, quite an easy job and should take about a week, well if the rain holds off, once completed it should last for another 20 years without any issues.














Mick is busy today, he has sorted out the leak on a shared boat and is now stuck in to the engine eclectics on another shared boat, Bernard is winterising Nebulae, Lee is still busy applying more paint to the one in the Wet dock, David, well David is doing what David does and i never quite know what that is most of the time but he does seem to get it done, what ever it is! and me well I'm typing a long blog today so i can stay in a nice warm office!!! Arr i have just remembered what David was doing, he has been rapping up a vintage engine that is being collected for delivery down to London, that reminds me we have another engine that has got to be palletised for delivery down to Southampton, i suppose i better go and sort that out.

Until tomorrow
Simon