Marketing our share in Shadow (still only £1,250)

At last I have instructed BCBM, our management company, to market our half-share in Shadow. The BCBM ad is here; I've reproduced my posting from three months ago below (with some minor updating).

Shares this size - 1/20 - don't come on the market very often - this is your chance to get on the canals for a quarter the cost of hiring.

After about 12 years of brilliant boating on nb Shadow we now need to sell our 1/20 share as we hope to do more cruising on Jubilee. Especially when Ally and Ben have (eventually) moved into their house.

Shadow is a six-berth 58' semi-trad narrowboat built in 1995 by Pat Buckle.

The great advantage of a "half-share", as this is, is that all the costs are immediately halved compared with the more usual "full share". And you still get plenty of boating every year as there are often "spare" weeks to be had. Shadow started out as a 12-share boat but, following the collapse of management company OwnerShips a few years ago, it is now a 10-share boat, meaning that my share is effectively 1/20.

Think of all the running costs of a boat over a year and divide by 20, and you can see that it's not very much. Certainly much less than hiring for the same number of weeks. If you buy my share you will become a member of the syndicate which owns the boat outright. We currently choose to have the boat managed for us by BCBM, one of the biggest players in the shared boat world. If you look at their website (click here) you can see a breakdown of running costs for last year which will give you a good idea of the costs. Don't forget, you pay half the amount quoted for a full share, i.e. about £600 per year including the management fee. There is lots of other useful stuff about Shadow on the BCBM website.

saloon looking towards bow: the two armchairs convert to single beds

dinette: this converts to a double bed

galley with microwave oven, four-ring gas hob, gas oven, 12V fridge

view from galley past dinette to saloon

newly-fitted main bathroom with pump-out loo, sink, shower

battery charger and inverter

bedroom with fixed double bed: this extends to king size

view from bedroom to stern showing en-suite additional pump-out loo and sink to right of steps

semi-trad stern with plenty of space for crew

a lovely well-maintained boat ...

... with a very quiet engine, a BMC 1800 with hospital silencer

If we didn't have another boat we would not be selling, as Shadow is extremely good value for money, and a fantastic way of getting a couple of weeks' holiday each year. The boat is currently moored at Wigram's Turn Marina at Napton Junction (near Daventry). The mooring location is agreed by the syndicate at the annual general meeting, usually held in Walsall in the autumn (attendance not compulsory!)

All we are asking for our 1/20 share is £1,250.

Mystery photo - the answer

KevinTOO got it. It's the aqueduct which carries the Tame Valley Canal over the M5 near its junction with the M6. This is the view from the aqueduct:

As Kew crosses the aqueduct Rushall Junction is just visible in the distance.

What a contrast!

Top Thirty, 2013 week 40

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 1345 on Sunday 29th September 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 CanalPlanAC (=)

3 Pennine Waterways (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 Living on a Narrowboat (+2)

6 UKCanals Network (-1)

7 Retirement with No Problem (+1)

8 Boatshed Grand Union (-2)

9 Water Explorer (=)

10 Waterway Routes (=)

11 Towpath Treks (+2)

12 nb Epiphany (+2)

13 nb Waiouru (-2)

14 BCBM Ltd (+1)

15 boatshare (-3)

16 boatrent (+2)

17 Canal Shop Company (-1)

18 boats and cruising (+4)

19 Narrowboat Briar Rose (=)

20 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (=)

21 Narrowboat Chance (=)

22 NB The Manly Ferry (-5)

23 Contented Souls (+3)

24 Baddie the Pirate (-1)

25 Halfie (+6)

26 Seyella's Journey (+1)

27 Narrowboat Harnser (+8)

28 M. B. Willow (+2)

29 Eileen Inlanding (-1)

30 Narrowboat Dreaming .... Parisien Star (-1)

31 Boats and Canals Forum (-7)

32 Herbie (-)

33 Milburn Boats Ltd (=)

34 The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife (-9)

35 freespirit (-)

36 NABO (-)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 108 entries, the same as last week.

Mystery photo - the whole thing

All right, here is the entire photo.

Now, where could this be?

Mystery photo - yes, it's an aqueduct, but where?

Mystery photo - getting easier(?)

Any guesses?

Mystery photo - more revealed

Here's a bit more. Now can you see what it is?

I will admit it isn't that easy! More will be revealed tomorrow.

Mystery photo - another clue

Here's another part of the original photo, but related to yesterday's bit.

It'll get easier from tomorrow!

Another mystery photo

Here's a small part of a photo.

Not much to go on, I know, but can you identify it? I'll give you more tomorrow.

Clearing the prop the "easy way" (and getting very wet)

Being a converted butty, NB Kew has no weed hatch.* In order to clear the propeller the first approach is to put it into astern to try to throw off the rubbish. If that doesn't work then the hooked boat shaft is used to try to pull the obstruction free.

Success! David has removed a mangled jacket which stopped the boat at Perry Barr Top Lock.

Later in the trip, on the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, there was more prop clearance to be done.

David attacked the problem from both sides ...

... and even had to lie down on the job.

Sometimes, though - as here - there's nothing for it but to feel what's going on with your hands. Easy enough through a weed hatch, but, for David, a bigger commitment is required.

I wouldn't fancy doing this in the depths of winter!

In the event David cut free a quantity of thin polypropylene rope using, of course, the bread knife.

*Update to add that I've had a message from Mary to say that Kew does indeed have a weedhatch; it's just that David often finds it easier to get into the water than undo and redo all the bolts!

Top Thirty, 2013 week 39

Here is the UK Waterways Site Ranking (top thirty places) as it stood at 2045 on Sunday 22nd September 2013. This is taken, with permission, from Tony Blews's UK Waterways Ranking Site.


1 Canal World Discussion Forums (=)

2 CanalPlanAC (=)

3 Pennine Waterways (=)

4 Jim Shead's Waterways Information (=)

5 UKCanals Network (+1)

6 Boatshed Grand Union (+1)

7 Living on a Narrowboat (-2)

8 Retirement with No Problem (=)

9 Water Explorer (=)

10 Waterway Routes (=)

11 nb Waiouru (+4)

12 boatshare (+2)

13 Towpath Treks (-2)

14 nb Epiphany (-1)

15 BCBM Ltd (-3)

16 Canal Shop Company (+1)

17 NB The Manly Ferry (+1)

18 boatrent (-2)

19 Narrowboat Briar Rose (+1)

20 Captain Ahab's Watery Tales (+3)

21 Narrowboat Chance (-2)

22 boats and cruising (-1)

23 Baddie the Pirate (-1)

24 Boats and Canals Forum (+3)

25 The Real Life of a Narrowboat Wife (=)

26 Contented Souls (+2)

27 Seyella's Journey (+8)

28 Eileen Inlanding (+2)

29 Narrowboat Dreaming .... Parisien Star (-5)

30 M. B. Willow (-1)

31 Halfie (-5)

32 Rock n Roll (-)

33 Milburn Boats Ltd (-1)

34 Tony Clayton's Canal Photographs (-)

35 Narrowboat Harnser (-4)

36 Narrowboat Tacet (-)


The figures in parentheses denote the number of places moved since the previous chart;
(-) denotes new entry or re-entry into the chart;
(=) denotes no change.

There are 108 entries, down from 113 two weeks ago.

Signs of a fightback against creeping metrication

Our route to the Black Country Boating Festival took us past Salford Junction at Gravelly Hill (aka Spaghetti Junction). Here the signpost has had the original (?) metric distances covered over with the far more sensible mileages. The (new) number covers over the old number and the "k" of "km".

(Even motorway distances are always in miles; canals have been around a lot longer than motorways.)

Whose crazy idea was it to mark the distances in kilometres in the first place? Was it the same person who had the distances on the many towpath signs in the Birmingham area given in metres? I find these signs difficult to read as they appear, on first glance, to be a jumble of letters and numbers. They have little clarity. (I should provide a photo of one here but I seem not to have taken one.)

Here is another fingerpost sign, this time with the distances in miles with no need for amendment.

Can you see the moon?

1946 tractor to the rescue of stemmed-up 1951 tug

As things were winding down at the Black Country Boating Festival I was taking a last look at some stands. By the Boshboil Branch I saw that the old Fordson tractor, which I'd been admiring earlier, was on the move.

It wasn't going far. At the end of the arm was Nansen II, a 1951 tug built by Yarwoods of Northwich. I don't know how long this boat had been here, but now it was held fast by the mud. Another boat had tried snatching it free, but without success.

Now it was the turn of the tractor (click on link for an account of its restoration).

I think the tractor would have been up to the task, but, sadly, the stern line was not.

It broke three times; Nick Wolfe was on hand to retie the ever shortening rope.

Despite our efforts (I helped to rock the boat when not taking photos) Nansen II behaved like a true stuck-in-the-mud and would not budge.

Time for the big boys!

It just so happened that a JCB was on site. A strap was attached between a dolly on the boat and the JCB ...

... and in seconds the arm was extended, the mud released its grip, and the boat was free.

And that was that!

Black Country Boating Festival 2013

Hello! Yes, I'm back. I've been crewing for David and Mary on their blue top "river class" Kew to and from the Black Country Boating Festival at Windmill End. It was my first time at the BCBF, and I enjoyed it hugely.

Kew had a good mooring under one of the towpath bridges, and we took many visitors on guided tours of the boat.

The Saturday was mostly warm and sunny, and the locals from Netherton and surrounding areas flocked in to see the boats, sample the ales, buy from the stands and listen to the bands in the beer tent.

At lunchtime we took part in a parade of boats. I'll show more photos of this in a subsequent post; for now I'll mention that we passed Captain Ahab.

He and Belle were selling their Wildside Preserves from Wand'ring Bark.

On Sunday they decided to leave early as the weather forecast wasn't too good. Perhaps they shouldn't have done: it wasn't nearly as bad as they had feared. It hardly rained at all. Wand'ring Bark was escorted by three swans as they headed towards Netherton Tunnel.

Good bye, Captain; it was good to see you and Belle.