Airborne again –and still on my mind
I CAME across some old photos of one of my old boats Still Waters and thought it would make an interesting read to anyone who may recall what was once known as a ‘drop tank’. I know the late Harry Arnold would have been.
It was in the early 1990s, having sailed out of Sheffield’s canal basin on my clinker-built ex-lifeboat Huntress, that I came across Still Waters on hard standing at Gunthorpe Marina on the Trent. ‘Rainbow’ Dave owned it and Eric was at that time gaffer at the marina.
Well, having stayed there a couple of weeks, I sailed on up the Trent, then the Trent & Mersey as far as Dallows Lane Lock where the ‘narrows’ begin. And because Huntress was wide at the beam I vowed to return one day with a narrowboat so as to journey beyond Burton.
I think back then that I’d already got Still Waters in mind. And so on returning to Gunthorpe, and a few beers later, I did a deal with Dave and that was that! He even threw in a one-pot Lister which came out of a cement mixer, four-and-a-half horsepower!
During three months of work on her she was craned and lifted, airborne again, and returned to the ‘still waters’ of the Trent.
I did get back and through Dallows Lane Lock and beyond. I had the boat and its history for three years before passing it on to a guy at Beeston. Last I heard she was retired at Red Hill?
Had some fantastic adventures up and down the Trent, Sheffield & Tinsley, River Witham, Boston and all the drains and Chesterfield Canal anon.
Happy cruising.
Bernard Crossland
Nb Lion Star
PS I guess when the Mark 3s were sold off, they were converted into narrowboats. Still Waters had a tumbled down pitch pine cabin, clad with aluminium sheeting portholed three on each side.