My Floating Home (channel 4)

[thamesS23]

Don't know if anyone has been watching this programme over the years, but there are a few Thames based episodes on it :

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/my-floating-home

Think there is also a new season staring this week.

 

[Wavey]

Only discovered this recently so I’m on catch-up starting from season one.

I’m curious about the longevity of waterproof concrete hulls.

And the sanity of the couple who spent £700K on one with an underwater window so they could watch the fish swim by. No safety features so if the window fails then bye bye home.

 

[Plum]

I’m curious about the longevity of waterproof concrete hulls.

.

This one was built in 1935: Barge Houseboat Mulberry 4 Bedroom Live-aboard For Sale, 26.00m, 1935

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[penfold]

Don't understand why it's being called a Mulberry; if it is it definitely wasn't built in 1935. Concrete Bob and others churned them out in 1943-44.

 

[madabouttheboat]

Don't understand why it's being called a Mulberry; if it is it definitely wasn't built in 1935. Concrete Bob and others churned them out in 1943-44.

Think Mulberry is it's name. I'll confirm later, as I'm about to walk past it.

 

[oldgit]

Only discovered this recently so I’m on catch-up starting from season one.

I’m curious about the longevity of waterproof concrete hulls.

And the sanity of the couple who spent £700K on one with an underwater window so they could watch the fish swim by. No safety features so if the window fails then bye bye home.

will this do ?
Violette | National Historic Ships
Helped tow the Violette, sometime in the 1960s, to her present location at Hoo on the Medway.
Also helped move a number of concrete hulled lighters used to transport "spirit" , built during the war when steel became hard to find.
A trip on just about any East Coast river will reveal hundreds of concrete hulls repurposed as everything from houseboats to breakwaters, most of them in as sound condition as the day somebody mixed the aggregate and cement in bucket.
Their wood and steel contemporaries having long disappeared beneath a sea wall or into history.

 

[Wavey]

Thanks OG.

IIRC a company in Norfolk (possibly Windboats?) built a series of boats with seacrete hulls back in the 1960s as hire boats. I don’t think they were terribly successful. I wonder if any have survived.

 

[Bouba]

I hate this program...all over the world, inland waterways are clogging up with people who can’t afford to live on land...soon there will be no navigation

 

[oldgit]

Thanks OG.

IIRC a company in Norfolk (possibly Windboats?) built a series of boats with seacrete hulls back in the 1960s as hire boats. I don’t think they were terribly successful. I wonder if any have survived.

The two coasters that were constructed were an absolute unmitigated disasters by all accounts and were quickly relegated to other vital jobs such as storage hulks, two of the spirit lighters were once used to moor Cresent Shipping tugs in Strood bight.
A single sad spirit lighter can still be seen semi abandoned on an old cement wharf just above Cuxton.
The area became notorious after a bunch of "Sarf" London ( and Essex) likely lads did a bit of gun running nearbye.
All pleaded not guilty even though the rozzers had loads of video of them unloading the stuff, all taken from the river bank opposite.

 

[Scapegoat]

Tonight’s episode should be interesting

 

[Bouba]

Tonight’s episode should be interesting

Do we know them?

 

[Scapegoat]

Do we know them?

Pretty sure that the boat is Eawynn (at Harleyford?) - backstory here
Eawynn: the owners’ tale - Piper Boats | Dutch Barge Builders

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Yup that’s them, watching it now on catchup. Very likeable.

 

[ryanroberts]

I hate this program...all over the world, inland waterways are clogging up with people who can’t afford to live on land...soon there will be no navigation

CRT/EA least are much more on top of this than they used to be, though the effective removal of casual mooring on much of the Thames because of the inability to harshly police an antisocial minority was a huge shame.

 

[Clancy Moped]

A bog working at 600°

 

[Meps1983]

I've not seen the actual programe. But was the bog on gas or eletric!?

 

[ProDave]

I've not seen the actual programe. But was the bog on gas or eletric!?

Gas. And it takes 20 minutes to process your deposit. I hope no other occupant of the boat needs the bog for 20 minutes or it is the bucket for them.

 

[Meps1983]

Looked like something from the spacestation. And you would still end up with ash blowing around the cabin after showing all your mates the new toy!