Vera and I had a narrowboat holiday back in 2021, briefly covered in one of my earlier blogs. We wanted a holiday that was less likely to get cancelled by changing covid restrictions. Searching for boats to hire on the Norfolk Broads - quite a different type of craft - Vera came across details of Queenie, a very comfortable looking narrowboat on the Bridgewater canal. We loved our time afloat and pondered the practicalities of buying and owning our own boat. This was a dream shared by many people in those pandemic days, but there was a worldwide shortage of narrowboats for sale.
It was a chance conversation with Chris Grazebrook, where he mentioned friends of his that were part of a narrowboat cooperative, that sent me down the path of looking at shared ownership models. Sceptre was the second boat we viewed, and the oldest vessel on our shortlist.
We were shown round the boat on a chilly and blustery February day by William, one of the other syndicate members and the group's Chief Engineer. We all went on a short journey up the Shropshire Union canal, through one lock, and then turning around to return to the marina
The boat appeared to go very well, though William explained that the engine mounting blocks needed to be replaced - I would never have noticed, it is good to be with people with greater knowledge and experience than you and who know what they're doing
What William hadn't noticed, and neither had I during my inspection of the boat's interior, was the major plumbing incident that had occurred. When Vera looked in the cupboard under the sink she saw what everyone else had missed. Why is everything full of water, she demanded. Sure enough, all of the pots and pans were brimful with water. Same story with the cupboard under the bathroom sink.
The cause? We pieced together a likely explanation. Someone had failed to switch off the water pump. When the boat was taken out of the water for its winter service it was left unconnected for a while to mains power for the frost protection heaters. There had been a severe frost, bursting the pipe joints, which then sprayed water everywhere when power was reconnected and the pipes had thawed out.
Strangely this did not put us off joining the group, and I helped William a few days later with the plumbing repairs
So when I received a message the day before our first trip, from the people with the boat the week before us, talking about a leak and how they were going to sell their share and never return - I wondered whether we had made the right decision.
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