Its a boat job!

[Kent]

Well its not automotive and it aint no bike! Its a panel beating job on a Barge. Oxy fuel and sledge hammer stylie

 

[Kent]

oops did I bit of double clicking it seemeth Anyhow more of the on going story On Bowland Fabrications Ltd facebook page

 

[Wallace]

Wtf did they hit?

 

[Kent]

Its a big and very heavy wide beam! A big stone tunnel entrance My client has a Holiday hire fleet, re-built one totally sunk in a lock by a client on their first day last year! The plate bent is 1/4-3/8" thick

 

[roofman]

look forward to not hitting anything in may when i hire one for a couple of days on the Shropshire union

 

[Kent]

The trick is not to fob off the guy doing your induction training that your experienced and competent, that seems to be very good for me and very bad for my buddy To be fair most of his customers have a great time and the rate of repeat bookings he gets is astronomic! Look it up Hapton Valley Boats based out of Reedly marina in Burnley 18miles cruise to Skipton N.Yorkshire

 

[brightspark]

what can u expect when u hire nurds a boat with minimum instructions and no idea

 

[roofman]

what can u expect when u hire nurds a boat with minimum instructions and no idea

 

[Kent]

what can u expect when u hire nurds a boat with minimum instructions and no idea

Actually there is quite a bit of stipulations on Induction from British waterways. The instruction is great its just when you tell the staff big fat lies about what you know. I will try and get pictures of Ruby the boat that a client sunk in his first Leeds Liverpool lock ( I mean on its side at the bottom of the cut!). Bought back from the insurance and re-built by yours truly as a restaurant / function boat

 

[brightspark]

i had a tool hire business and u wouldnt believe some of the stuff they did . punters will tell u all sorts of lies that they knowwhat the score is and they understand . most do but some are as thick as pig...hit and wreck your gear

 

[TechnicAl]

Round here they stick a bit of plate over the dents and blend it in

 

[normspanners]

We rally lads hired one many years ago for stag weekend, and the induction run was spent plumbing in the beer barrel at the bow, and the guy instructing us, had drunk two pints before he got off at the first bridge.
great fun was had, we even had a bow figurehead on the way back into chester------ it was roger tied naked to the bow!! that part of the canal has all the gardens running down to the canal bank through chrisleton ----a 'powwsh' little village

and there on top of the last bridge we saw a figure it was alison, his bride to be, filming us on the run back!!
To be fair we where good bouys and didnt damage the boat,coz they knew most of us and just asked for twice the normal deposit,

 

[Kent]

Round here they stick a bit of plate over the dents and blend it in

yeah, that was discussed, even replacing the front section in AR ! the finished look is quite important though it being part of his holiday hire fleet so a series of convex bars (they call them rubbing stakes) will be curved round and fitted over the repair extending right up to the bow line. reason was I didn't crack on and get that done on the day was two fold 1. I wanted to see how good it could be beaten out first before ordering the bar in 2. if it wasn't great I should have cut it out and fitted new plate flush ( I filled in a load of windows and a big hole in the curve of a roof on one last year. In fact I am working on that one in my Avatar.

 

[TechnicAl]

The repairs Ive seen were on working boats so I assume the looks arent as important.

 

[Kent]

The repairs Ive seen were on working boats so I assume the looks arent as important.

As in used to transport goods on a Canal system?

 

[TechnicAl]

As in used to transport goods on a Canal system?

yep...........Waddingtons at Swinton

 

[Kent]

Great! Was in the café at the marina today sheltering and eating bacon barms having told my client he was in for rain and it wasn't worth me coming over, I was proved correct and got half hour in on a full day job Anyhow they had some pictures of transporting stuff from a big boiler makers at Blackburn by barge ( perhaps 1920-30) anyhow one was of a rather large boiler half sunk dockside . Other than mishaps like that it does make sense to use this legacy of the past as road links are way better but traffic is far worse! It takes a week to go from Burnley / Blackburn area all the way to Liverpool by barge but why do we not just set off earlier

 

[TechnicAl]

Found this http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?s=f260726a7f659c26eaa83a72aa7b954a&showtopic=19195&page=2

All I can see are Sheffield width (I think its the Keadby to Sheffield canal links with Trent or Humber inlets) which are quite wide. They also have some narrowboats for other canals. You can see the dry dock basin on google maps. Its at Swinton Bridge near Rotherham.
I used to call from time to time and chat with Mr Waddington (3rd or 4th generation maybe more). He is a master at not spending and doing things wrong but getting a decent outcome.

 

[Kent]

Its fascinating what people are into. I do like the historical aspect of these things. I have seen some mega size "big jumbo air liner" bits coming up the Dee - things so big you might have to shut Cheshire for the day if they went by Road Could you imagine the effect that might have on the fake tan industry if it were a friday

 

[tomsutton529]

Its fascinating what people are into. I do like the historical aspect of these things. I have seen some mega size "big jumbo air liner" bits coming up the Dee - things so big you might have to shut Cheshire for the day if they went by Road Could you imagine the effect that might have on the fake tan industry if it were a friday

Airbus have in the past sailed wings down the River Dee from the Broughton facility. seems more common to fly them out now. (How they got from Broughton to the River is beyond me though.