Hopefully early June 2002 - The Cat's Whiskers will get her paws wet! - loads of pictures will appear!

Stop Press - Preliminary launch date - 25th May - Floating Homes are exhibiting at Crick festival start of June so they will do their best to get TCW finished early. Needless to say we are quite happy about this!

Click for Launch Animation

We set off and the rain was lashing down - we got to the boatyard and the rain was lashing down! but there was TCW blacked & primed with windows, mushrooms and an engine ... and a ruddy great crane waiting to lift her onto the lorry which hadn't arrived yet (not surprising seeing as it was booked for 10.00am and it was only 9.20am. 

 Before the Lorry arrived we had to check the engine installation and hear it running - well it started and then died and wouldn't start again! The 'Engine man' was summoned who decided it was due to the boat being nose down resulting in fuel not being picked up from the tank - there was supposedly 10 gallons in there but he put another gallon for luck, reprimed it and it started and ran fine. About this time the lorry turned up, the sun came out and things seemed to be looking up - Oh how little we knew!!

By 11.00am TCW was on the lorry strapped down and ready to roll - we'd said goodbye to a rather large cheque and were ready to go - just then Malcolm, the local painter and signwriter appeared with a cauldron we'd asked him to paint - I must admit it looked a treat as I'm sure you'll agree!

Finally we were off having told the driver how to get to the marina - an hour and a half later we got to where we were putting the boat in the water only to find we had told the driver to go down a 7.5 ton weight limit road - now TCW weighed in at 9 ton when they craned her onto the lorry!

I quickly backtracked to try and flag down the lorry and tell him but due to a one way system got back to the main road only to see him turn down the road with the weight limit. When we finally caught up with the lorry I apologised for sending him that way only to be told that 'they didn't take any notice of those signs anyway!

It was now about 1 o'clock and with the same firm arranging the crane as well as the lorry I assumed that the crane would appear soon - Oh no - the driver rang his boss to find out the crane was not due 'til 3pm - Oh well- off to the pub for lunch. Back at 2.30pm - no crane yet - 3pm - no crane - 3.30pm no crane - 3.45pm - oh look there's a chap who looks like a crane driver - er where's the crane? - 1/2 mile down the road with a broken gearbox - Oh marvellous - 10 minutes of phoning by the crane driver resulted in the message that 'they were sending the BIG crane out' - be here in an hour. Erm how big is the 'BIG' crane - oh just 100 ton - well that should do the job then!

5pm and at last a crane! they were right it was big - but they soon had it set up and before we knew it TCW was swinging through the air to perform a very nice splashdown into her rightful element.

It was at this point that we realised that all four mushroom vent caps had come off with three of them loose on the roof and one completely missing - they were securely attached when we left - the driver checked. Never mind we were in the water and only 1 mile and 1 lock to go to reach the marina which was TCW's new home - what could go wrong now? - Famous last words!

It was gone 6 pm by the time we were ready to set off - start the engine - it died - Hmmm - prime the pump and it fired and ran lovely - must have been all the moving around on the lorry. So off we set on our maiden voyage - no problems to speak of - the tiller tube was way too long but that can be sorted. Without any water in the bow tank and no fitting out she was a little high in the water and somewhat susceptible to the stiff breeze blowing - but nothing that couldn't be handled. Bev worked us through the lock like a true professional and before we knew it we could see the entrance to the marina.

Now TCW's home marina has a very tight entrance channel but we did a very creditable entrance only to find that we needed to perform a very tight turn to starboard against the wind to head for our mooring - on with some power - get the stern turning - broadside on to the wind - the stern coming round nicely and .....the engine died! There we were, broadside to a very stiff breeze about 20ft from the sterns of a row of moored boats - frantically reprime the engine - it starts, splutters, picks up - open the throttle to try and get the stern round before we end up across the moorings and... yes it died again - there are times when you face the inevitable - you have no control of a situation - and yes this was one of them - to say we arrived with a bang is an understatement - there was more than one as we drifted side one into the moorings - Fortunately we hit the end of the staging which took most of the impact and even more fortunately we had assistance from some fellow boat owners to unceremoniously haul TCW stern first into a convenient vacant mooring - It was 7.30pm and whose daft idea was it to buy a narrowboat anyway! - lets go home!

Next day we returned to the scene - borrowed 4 jerrycans from the Marina owner, bought 80 litres of diesel and poured it into TCWs tank - primed the engine - fired first time - left it running for 20 minutes and motored very nicely into her proper berth - TCW was home at last!

We can only assume that the pick up in the tank is a little high or Floating Homes' 10 gallon was not enough! We have since dipped the tank and its just over a third full with the 80 litres added - when we fill her up we will work out the tank capacity and do some calculations!

Floating Homes have replaced the lost Mushroom - no one can understand how they came unscrewed - must have spun in the wind.

All in all a very eventful day!!!

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