Meet the new No Problem....

Moored Devizes, Kennet and Avon Canal

Well you have had the first of many pictures you are likely to see of our new narrowboat named No Problem. The naming ceremony taking place this morning very soon after the surveyor had finished doing his errrrrrr survey! Here is one of the traditional chalk marks they use giving the thickness of this part of the hull. You can see that the surveyor scrapes away at the weed and grim on the edge of the boat to take a reading to see how thick the steel is, see the little chalk circle below the line. In this case 5.9mm on a piece of steel that started out at 6mm, so no loss there of note.

No Problem is an ex hire boat from the Black Prince fleet of boats, this one was from a class called 'Elgar'. The hire fleets all have 'classes' of boat.. denoting a particular type.. each boat in the class is given a name. No Problem is 3 years old and has been in private ownership for 2 years. Black Prince sold this particular boat after only a year in the fleet. I still have to find out why, but I have had a good guess.. it might have been that it was only a six berth originally, and maybe was not popular because it would be expensive for 6 people on the price that would have been charged on such a length of boat. The longer the boat the more the hire boat companies can get for their boats if you see what I mean. Normally a 67ft boat would be a 10 or 12 birth.. maybe someone out there will know the reason why.. I would be very interested to find out..

Over the next few days I'll add more about our plans for the interior, and a bit more about the new No Problem, but I read some interesting stuff on narrowboatworld.com tonight which has really tickled me pink... I suppose really I should be worried, maybe we will be stuck on this canal for ever!!...

The canal (Kennet & Avon) is closed to navigation from Sheffield Lock 101 to Sulhamstead Swing Bridge with the lock and bridge being padlocked, until repairs can be undertaken

It seems that there are weirs on the Kennet & Avon Canal that are in private ownership, and not under the ownership of either British Waterways or the Environment Agency. We therefore have to depend on private individuals to repair any breakages to these weirs!!

Would you believe in this case, tis Kate Bush!

Sheffield Mill Weir is owned by Kate Bush, and her agent said that an engineer has been engaged to design a new weir, and is preparing a list of contractors for British Waterways and Environment Agency approval

Goodness gracious..