COMMENCING NEW BOAT BUILD

I took the one hour drive down to Long Itchington on Wednesday to check the build progress of our new 58ft narrowboat. Although i knew the boat had been started last week I half expected to arrive to see just the base plate welded together, but to my surprise the team of welders at Colecraft had already formed the basic shape of the hull as seen here.

It’s amazing to watch how the graceful curves of the boats are formed out of flat, two dimensional sheets of steel. The workshop contains another five boats all at different stages of fabrication and all with welders working on them – basically a production line. This production line continues into the industrial units opposite where there are another half dozen boats at various stages of being lined out with one being virtually finished having been painted and fully fitted.

I love to visit workshops like these with all there loud noises, smells and bursts of welding flashes -particularly as I’ve never worked in such an environment. I suppose the novelty might wear off if you work there 5 days a week!

I spent the rest of the visit with Dom Cole discussing the plan of the boat and some small alterations that we need to incorporate. I shall be visiting again early next week to take a few more photos so i’ll update the blog soon after.

P.s To all our customers who have already booked this boat for next year, particularly those in March & April – don’t worry it will be ready in time, but bring along a painting brush just in case!

Cheers Justin.

1 Comment

• 
  Andy October 11, 2007 at 4:09 pm

  Just read the Granny Buttons blog where it says your having a naming competition: given your watery theme, how about H2Eau?
  Guess the 2 should be superscript but can’t quite figure that out in here!
  Good luck anyway!
  acme11@hotmail.com

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