Can anyone lend me a bucket?


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I dont think I have one big enough! !rotfl!

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Good few years ago now near as I recall 1980, bought that boat for £100, it had in an old landrover diesel engine, or rather most of one, if I could have picked it up it would have gone over the side! then I found out what it was worth and sold it for £160, a mate had a reliant side valve, all done up and ready to go, I matched up to the marine g/box and cooling system, and then the trouble started!

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no, that was another one! Anyway typical Ashley "the engine starts so lets go" that's what I did, but gingerly, round and round castle marina, seemed ok so quick blast up the canal? which first involved going through the "S bend" out the marina, it was then that the steering cables came off the rudder quadrant jamming such on full lock, and also when I wished I had coupled up some remote gear change to get reverse (a boat's brake) just as I got into "the engine room" below deck there was an almighty crash as I hit the bridge! No problem, just head for the end of the nearest pontoon, It was there my prop picked up the heavy chain anchoring said pontoon to a dustbin full of concrete 6ft below on the bottom of the marina! (more doom to follow)

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Bare with me , this one takes some describing.

A pal of mine (Who we will call Brian ) bought an old British Waterways boat, (About the size of a trawler!!) from their place on Meadow Lane. One problem, no bridge , it needed severely replacing due to wood worm or dry rot or both, and required stearing from below deck.

Any way , same as you Ashley , the engine started so let's take it for a spin ,!! only problem being, he was on his own and couldn't see a damned thing, and eventually (After about 2 hours) had to be towed in by the River Police !!! one servere rollocking later and he was let off with a warning and two expensive tickets to the policemens ball!!!

And Brian , if you read this , sorry mate, but it was bloody funny, watching your oil stained face constantly popping up from below deck to see where you were going!!!

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By then it was getting dark, couldn't do anything, so went home, there was a good crack in the front but way above waterline and a visit about 10pm showed no signs of leaks, Next day it was on the bottom! Think it was the day after, maybe 2, we, couple of mates, with every 30 gallon hot water cylinder clorius meters had in stock, plus a load of lorry innertubes and 2 NCB fitters off the district heating scheme c/w with 3 petrol driven pumps set about refloating such. By sinking the cylinders and roping to the boat then blowing out the water along with the inflated tubes with we got the thing bouyant, pumping out took hours (god help anyone on st anne's with a heating fault/leak that day!) but eventually it was up, just the small matter of an unreachable chain wrapped round the prop still connected to the dustbin of concrete!

Tune in same time same channel for next instalment! lol

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A few years ago I saw them trying to re-float a Coastguard launch in Milwaukee - the local yobbos had broken into it and pulled all the bilge plugs! To re-float it, they closed all the access ports and pumped in ping-pong balls!

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Whilst the chain to the bin couldn't be reached the one to the pontoon could, and I burnt through that with a porta pak (the pontoon still wobbles to this day!) it was then just a simple matter of towing it to the slipway, (dragging of course god knows what wieght of concrete along the bottom) not easy but slowly but surely it came but with the clutch on my fiesta starting to smell, a mate there offered his transit and things speeded up till the drum hit a (unknown to us) big step at end of the slip way. "one last effort and we'll be up" but we weren't, instead the bow post and front of the boat pulled away and glug glug glug we sank again in the position as seen in the photo.

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Lol, not quite, but whilst I'm at it might as well finish it? So there we were, a knackered boat, and I still had to get it out the water and dispose of it! ££££££££,s

Quite a crowd had assembled on the bridge watching all this! amongst such was a bloke who came into the marina, asked if it was scrap and on confirmation said he'd get it out FOC, He was a JCB driver working on the DIY depot then being built next to marina, IN he drove, parked up and put the back acter straight through the roof and started to lift, off came the roof and deck etc, followed by lots more as he smashed it all up finally driving in and shovelling up the big bits, a two day bonfire followed and that was it, gone! apart from the cushions and bits and bobs that bobbled up to the surface for days after to join the oil slick that remained

:hooked: anyone seen a boat?

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Good job you posted this in segments - it could have been a real "coffee out the nose" disaster for me!

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