It’s been another scorcher.

Although I am not complaining it has been very nearly unbearable to work in today. The front page of the newspaper this morning declared that we are experiencing an Indian summer. Fred has been complaining that he is too hot in his black uniform, he used to moan when we had yellow shirts and the flies attacked him – you just can’t please some people. I’ve still been lighting a fire of an evening as the temperature does dip somewhat, although I did wake up at about 3am this morning and open the doors to let a bit of heat escape!

We’ve turned five shared owned boats around today, one hire boat and two dayboats. That has kept Bernard and Mick busy along with Amy and Cheryl who have completed the internal valets.

Matt’s now at the stage that he will be applying some undercoat to ‘Calm Down’. Here is a picture of his work so far. You might think that he is a bit further behind than normal, but we have had International’s Technical Manager here for a few days giving us all a bit of extra advice on their products and their application. Richard was a really nice chap and incredibly informative, he is certainly an asset to International and we will be working with him again in the future.

Graham has started to fabricate a rear slide, new door and frame for one of the shared boats. They have decided to have the wooden door and frame removed and a solid one made out of steel with a wooden panel on the inside. Once it starts taking shape I will get you some pictures.

Lorraine has been working hard in the kitchen again today; I don’t know how she does it. The heat is intense in there, but she just carries on regardless, doing her very best for every customer. Ange had to dive in and help too over lunch as we were flooded out with customers. Other than that Ange has been busy in the office as it’s that time of the month again when accounts are settled and invoices drawn up.

I’m off to the Black Country Museum again tonight to drop Lucy off as she will be boating on ‘Ibex’ and ‘Ilford’ for a couple of days. They will be heading for their base at Stone on the Trent and Mersey. That means that there will be even more boaty pictures after the weekend on Facebook to make me jealous when I am sat here in the office…

Anyway that’s about it from me today, so enjoy your evening and I’ll be back again tomorrow.

Best regards,

David.

Floating homes

Another guest blog entry by Peter Underwood today.

Living on board a boat seems to be becoming officially sanctioned with the Government encouraging councils to give planning permission for residential moorings as a way of solving the housing crisis and British Waterways going for official residential berths in their marinas and hiking the prices as a result.

I suppose I should welcome it as a liveaboard boater but, in a way, I quite like it that the official system finds us a bit difficult to deal with.

I do not have the concern of many that it will mean miles of canals, especially around London lined with boats that never move – they are there already and I find even the scruffiest an interesting part of the canal scene. Often they house some real characters who are well worth getting to know.

Living on board a boat out on the system means being pretty self sufficient.

Quite frankly I don’t see it becoming that much of a problem, especially on the narrow canals because there are not that many people who are able to confine their lives to a steel box just 7ft wide, 7ft tall and 50-70ft long.

A wide beam boat may be about the same area as a studio apartment but even that is very restricted, especially for anyone with children. There will be more liveaboards around London but that is simply a reflection of the ludicrous property market in the capital.

The fact is that in order to live on a boat you have to be willing to shed many of the things everyone else takes for granted. Even wall space for family photos or knick-knacks is strictly limited and most boats are not over-endowed with wardrobe space for a full collection of clothes and shoes.

Unless you are constantly running a generator power is also limited and large flat-screen HD TVs and all the gubbins will soon drain a battery bank. On many bloats running a washing machine means running the engine and a tumble dryer is only really possible with shore-power or a large integral generator.

Many urban canals – where we have to assume the biggest demand will come for residential moorings from those who want to work in the cities – are not exactly the most desirable places and I cannot see a great upsurge in demand for residential moorings along much of the BCN, or through the back end of Blackburn, Leicester or similar urban areas.

Houseboats, currently limited to the lower end of the Grand Union and parts of the London river system, may be a different proposition and I can see some entrepreneurial genius wanting to set up floating mobile home parks in the Home Counties but like marinas, they would have little impact on the waterways themselves, especially as these are floating homes that would never move.

I do see a steady growth in living on board narrowboats as more people use that as a way of taking retirement and limiting their living costs – but that will only happen if they have confidence in the future of our waterways and that is fairly limited while we go through the trauma of transition to some sort of charity.

Finally there may be an initial surge as more novices are encouraged to move onto the water but I suspect many will be moving ashore again fairly quickly as reality bites.

Another warm one

It’s certainly been another warm one today, with not that much to report.

Bernard disappeared down into the dock first thing this morning to put a new bottom rudder bearing on the boat currently in there; he has also given the engine a service and serviced the engine on Defiant.

Mick has fitted the lovely new hardwood cratch board to Calm Down that he has been making and we are now waiting for the canopy maker to come and pattern it up. He has then been looking at some charging problems on a private boat.

Matt has been cracking on with the boat in the wet dock – I’ll get you some pictures to view tomorrow.

We have had two more boats come in for brokerage and they are now advertised for sale and can be viewed on our website here www.norburywharfltd.co.uk.

That’s about it for now I think.

Until tomorrow.

Regards,

David

What a lovely day

What a lovely day it has been today. Glorious sunshine, I don’t know what temperature it has been, but it has certainly been a lot warmer than for the past few weeks.

I seem to have spent the majority of the day outside today, which has been a bit of luck I suppose, as I’ve been able to enjoy the sunshine. Firstly we had a boat to crane in and then I have given Steve a hand to load the sand and cement onto the boat and take it up the moorings so he can carry on.

Ange has been in the office/shop today and catching up with the laundry whilst Cheryl has been manning the tea room. We had to turn the freezers up about lunchtime as the sudden change in temperature played havoc with them.

Mick has been working on the cratch board that he has been making. Bernard has put the cylinder head back on that he has off on one of the brokerage boats and Julian has pressured washed a boat.

That’s it from me today. Enjoy your evening and what is left of the sun…

Regards,

David

Returned

Well I’m back and in full swing at Norbury after a few days away boating with good friends. I don’t know where the days go to when you have a break, they just seem to fly by.

As you know Simon is away, so we have had a bit of piece and quiet today, which has given me time to get back into the swing of things and to get on top of things. Graham is also off for a few days. So we have been a bit short handed, but I don’t think it has caused us any problems as things are getting a bit quieter during the week now.

Cheryl’s done a good job of manning the tea room today. Mick’s been doing jobs on several private boats, Matt’s been painting on the boat he has in the dock at the moment and Steve’s been hard at work on the moorings.

That’s everything from me today.

Until tomorrow.

Best regards,

David

Damp start

No I didn't need 'damp start' to get me going this morning however a sniff of easy start would have been useful this morning to get me out of my very warm and cosy bed, I looked out of the window and it was definitely a damp start to the morning, grey and overcast however i am suitably informed that next week is going to be the hottest week this year, apparently we are in for a mini heatwave, excellent as I am away, I am having a weeks break, I desperately need to catch up on some jobs at home!

Not really much to report about the 'goings on' at Norbury today, Mick has returned from the dead, he saw the two day boats out first thing, one of which were not quite with it when they turned up, they prevaricated between them selves about the money each of them had to pay, it made interesting watching as they all argued over money, Angela had to intervene in the end with a calculator to sort them out, Mick then went off to flood the dock, Fred is in today as he is putting his boat on the dock, so he pressure washed it himself which left Mick to do other jobs, He had an electrical job to sort out on a private boat and then set to on making a housing to fit on to an engine to facilitate its cooling, a bit of a tricky job but essential as it is an air cooled engine and when someone installed it in to the boat they neglected to fit it and ever since it has over heated! Angela has been catching up on washing and paperwork and Lorraine has been busy in the tea room all day.

As I said before I am off for a few days so David will keep you entertained in my absence, so until next week.
Simon

Busy busy Saturday

What a lovely start to a Saturday morning, the sun was shining when I awoke and when I arrived at Norbury it was well any truly a stunning morning, A little cold but then it is autumn, the day however became overcast and dull in the afternoon which was a shame for the new holiday makers when they arrived.

It been a very busy day today which is a Stark contrast to the rest of the week! We had three day boats out first thing this morning and what a lovely day they have had, we had four hire boats back in without any issues and couple of shared owned boats, Graham, Fred and Bernard turned the boats around and they have all got off this afternoon without any issues, I hope the weather stays nice this week so that they all have a lovely time, Graham went on to do some wiring and repairs on a private boat while Me and Bernard showed the people out on the hire boats, Freddie skulked off down the dock once he had finished pumping the hire boats out to go and finish off a blacking job and once the day boats had come back the lads dropped on to them and they are all ready for tomorrow.

That's it form me for today, I hope you all have a pleasant evening.
Simon