Number of river users no deline so far.

Re: Number of river users no deline so far.

Coming under Cookham ....

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Water was a bit higher this time ....

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Everyone get ready to slap the face as we come out !! - High Jinks at Henley ....

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Happy days !! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
First boating holiday was on a boat hired from Tovil boatyard called the "JASSEY" and a whole wonderful week spent on the Medway during late 1950s.
All the rest of the fleet were called The San..........something,no idea why.
Dads first proper boat was a converted Queen Mary ships life boat with a cabin conversion done by a local shipwright.
This was the usual/only way into leisure boating for a working man.
Picture below shows three generations,from my grandfather with his "de riguer" flat cap and waistcoat but curiously without his jacket,to my baby brother and assorted relatives.
Favorite memory collecting the elvers which were once prolific around Yalding weir.
Photo1.jpg
 
Thats got nice lines ! I love the old photos of boating ....

My first family boat trip was on a hired Seamaster called 'Runnymede Lady' , then the bug caught and we bought an old wooden boat called 'Hibernia' , then onto a Seamaster called 'Aphodite' , then a Freeman called 'Mucsh-eta' and after that a trawler yacht called 'Clipper' ..... sadly we don't have a boat now ...

Actually , thats not true , i have the little day sailer , which is called 'Pingu' ...

Once boating's in your blood , it stays ....
 
Our Weekend Menu:
Saturday Breakfast
Scrambled eggs on Toast for 5- eggs @ £2.50/30 Asda
Fresh brewed coffee (£1.49 @ Lidl/Aldi
Cereal - £1.00 plus milk & Suger

Lunch: Chilli Con Carne (sachet spice mix 57p, Tesco mince £2.00kg, o nion 10p, oil 5p, rice 25p
Desert - Apple crumble, ingredients around £1.50 including custard. More tea or coffee say 50p
Evening Meal: Homemade cottage pie, cost around £3.00 for ingredients, no desert 'cos we're all bloated by then.
Supper: Lidl or Aldi home-bake rolls with cheese, cost £1.75, plus hot chocolate at around 50p for 5 cups.

Diesel for a day out - 4 litres, say 5 if we use the Eber.

Sunday much the same, something on toast, might be fried tomatoes, cereal etc for breakfast, Sphagetti for lunch, dinner at home.

Can anyone do it cheaper?
 
On behalf of Byrons mate, Yes.

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Brekkies: Forage in Tesco's dumpsters, find day-out Croissants, and scrounge coffee from Narrow Boat. £0

Midday: Hunt Duck, kill, pluck and cook on BBQ made from deadwood found on bankside, in shopping trolley BBQ. £0

Evening. Break into Marina, forage through Broom 42 for 1 bottle Whisky, Frozen meals and handheld VHF. Help ones self to slightly used outboard, great for charging battery on chair-boat.

Cost £0. Profit on used outboard £30 down the pub.

Total cost -£30.

Return to Raven's Ait for evening cocktails with Chrusty. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Old gits photo of his fathers first boat brought back memories of my fathers boat Rocinante.
She too was a converted ships boat from the Armadale Castle & converted by Toughs @ Teddington and was taken to Dunkirk from Toughs moorings. She was not lost despite what is stated on the ADLS website and was in our ownership until about 1967 when she was sold after my fathers death.I believe that she was eventually broken up at Shepperton.
We had many holidays on her between Ramsgate & Henley through the fifties & sixties. Times were no better then just different. I will try to add a photo.
 
After my initial post on this thread. I had a bit of a moment. Having lost my dear old mum this year I was going through some old photograph albums and paperwork and found a couple of things. First the photographs of our boating holidays on the Thames and soft sod that I am I have to say Teddington Lock's memories brought a tear to my eye, as many of the same memories. I will never forget coming out of Walton On Thames on the hire boat Jubilee princess and my dear departed Dad scaring several sailing dinghy's and the first lock gates looked like the gates to hell. So much so that my Mum, older brother and I left poor old Dad in the cockpit alone and disappeared into the Cabin much to his screams of horror saying, you'll be fine Dad and laughing ourselves silly at the panic on his face. My mum always had a wicked sense of humor lol.

My next moment was finding my Dad's old payslips for that same year and realising just how little he earned then and how hard and long they saved to give me and my brother a two week holiday every year without fail. The level of overtime (remember that lol) coming up to our annual holiday was extensive and he always managed to come home smiling and have a play fight with us. If I was only half the Dad he was I would be proud.

Got me to thinking how lucky I am, through a lot of luck and hard work I have managed to achieve a pretty comfortable lifestyle and owning my own boat albeit an old one was in many ways a tribute to my Dad as our ancestors all originated from Rye in Sussex and were Fisherman, guess it was in our blood.

My next thought was how easily I had dismissed the cost of a license and upkeep of the boat as good value. Which I still believe to be true. However good value is relative to income and in the current economy no one can be guaranteed that their current income will continue. Business owner, employee, tradesman etc. Who knows where the economy is going and whose income is at risk. My Dads old pay slip served to remind me that hard work, love for your family and luck all come into life. (OMG this is heavy apologies guys) and that there are many many thousands of people, who have lost jobs through no real fault of their own and are struggling to keep their family let alone their boats and weekends away. Have to say I felt ashamed of my "my opinion is value for money" post, Yes value for money if you are still in a job and able to do what you love to do.

Anyway my wise and dear old mum left me and my brother a beautiful letter, the most part is mine and his to cherish but some words of wisdom I will share. "Never forget how lucky you are if you enjoy good health, always work hard and look after those you care for, never forget that whilst the sun shines for some there are dark clouds for others and remember your roots my boys, always remember your roots, who you are and where you came from should keep you grounded" So I did remember and hope in my heart I had never forgotten, council house, working class, great parents, I feel a lucky man.

Not trying to bring a great post down at all. I ended up laughing so hard at the pictures of my Dad reversing the boat back out and me forgetting that a boat in reverse is more powerful than a 14 year old holding a rope and ending up fully clothed in the river, my mum panicking and my brother screaming, where is that camera lol. The same Bovril drink in the rain, thanks Teddington Lock I had forgotten. Steve Wright on the transistor radio on Radio 210. Mooring for the night in deserted meadows, tree climbing, campfires and burnt sausages and what seemed a simpler life, cos Mum and Dad made sure our life was simple and fun.

So to finish this heavy post, my apologies if I brought it down, my thoughts to those struggling to get through this economy and survive and a toast to better weather, better times and an increase in boaters on the river, out to get value, have fun and remember that the simple things in life are often the cheapest and best enjoyed.

Nick
 
My earliest memories are of the families Broom speedboat on the tidal Thames. We used to launch at Putney, either on the slip at high tide, or the 'beach' at low tide, via a Snipe breakback and Land Rover Series II.

It had a Red band Mercury 50, and went pretty well!

After this, a Shetland 535 in Blue, with a 40hp Blueband Merc, apparently more reliable due to the improved Lightening ignition, ilo 'Thunderbolt' as the older unit had.

We used to go up or downstream as far as Battersea, the Tate & Lyle factory, until things got very bleak bankside.

Finally, a Microplus 501, which eventually found it's way to the Isle of Wight, gawd help us, and the resulting riptide waves probably pushed the little thing to it's limits, as we were either perched upon huge waves looking down a huge abyss, or in the abyss waiting to be engulfed by the huge wave!

No VHF, sod all other than lifejackets and plenty of fuel, with an alert crewmember aged 14 keeping watch!

Still alive to tell the tales... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Hence our forthcoming tidal trip holds no fear /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hence our forthcoming tidal trip holds no fear /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

For you maybe but what about Mrs No Regrets, last thing you want to do is scare her off tidal boating...
 
First boating memories are aged 3 or 4 at Horning in a day hire launch, followed by years of mucking about in and on the Medway and the occasional day hire on the Thames at Maidenhead where we had friends. Some will be appalled to know that the first proper boat holiday was on the Shropshire Union Canal, and that confimred any form of boating to me, and put my mother off with the rain. A few family narrowboat trios and a lot of ones with friends (and beer) got me stuck with it.

Oddly enough, Mum finally forgave me for being a boater on Easter Monday when she was sipping a chilled white, lying on the sunbed on Jedi's bridge! To be fair, both parents have always been on day trips in any of my powered boats, bet flatly refused to sail.
 
"Shropshire Union Canal,"











We did........ahem ....sotto voice.....a week on the Cheshire Ring.....and got told off
for speeding.
 
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