| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Freyasday |
Posted - 20 Jan 2019 : 19:33:47
Hi.
When I was very young, in the 60s, my Dad had a small boat which we kept on the Bridgewater Canal and we had one massive adventurous trip from there to Tewksbury and back. Canals were very weedy and the lock walls sometimes positively frightening, but I loved it all. I have no photos of the boat but I'd love to know what it was so wondered if anyone could help.
The screen was one-piece and curved slightly.
In the cabin, there were front seats/converting to a double berth, going into the bows, and I presume acting as seating and a table during the day.
Then came a locker which had an Elsan in it, and opposite, another locker which was the cooking area. We had a meths stove as I think my Dad was very careful about gas. The stove sat on top of the locker and I assume crockery and a washing-up bowl and all else was inside it.
Before reaching the cabin door, at ground level on each side, were two single beds which ran out into the cockpit, where the wooden coverings of the berths acted as cockpit seats. No, the boat was NOT a Dandy, but I can't find any mention of other boats of that era having what we called coffin bunks!
My father lived in Saddleworth and Norman boats were made in Shaw, not far away.
He worked in Oldham as a Chief car salesman of the Oldham Motor Company.
Coincidentally, I attended the same school as the daughter of the Norman boat manufacturer Mr Wheeldon, and played hockey with her (Lynne Wheeldon).
Chances are, my Dad knew Mr Wheeldon and bought the boat from him, but I'm not aware any Norman ever having coffin bunks.
I wondered if anyone knew anything about the possibility it might have been a special or something, or could offer any other help about it.
Thanks, Sally.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Freyasday |
Posted - 29 Nov 2019 : 06:27:20
quote:
Originally posted by Fred
There is one picture of a CB15 lurking in the depths of google, Sally.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cb boats&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRuY7brvriAhVzolwKHelXAnoQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1829&bih=917 br /
Great story all round. So sorry that your boating has now been curtailed but lots of wonderful memories!
Better link here:
https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/Inland-Cruisers-for-sale/cb-boats-cb-15-delux/257925
Many, many thanks. So sorry it's been such a long time since I was last on this site. Delighted with those links and will keep them bookmarked. Sally |
| Fred |
Posted - 21 Jun 2019 : 11:34:34
There is one picture of a CB15 lurking in the depths of google, Sally.
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cb boats&tbm=isch&source=hp&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRuY7brvriAhVzolwKHelXAnoQsAR6BAgEEAE&biw=1829&bih=917 br /
Great story all round. So sorry that your boating has now been curtailed but lots of wonderful memories!
Better link here:
https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/Inland-Cruisers-for-sale/cb-boats-cb-15-delux/257925 |
| Freyasday |
Posted - 20 Jun 2019 : 19:28:22
Just hunting on Google to try and find information but drawing a complete blank. Ah, well - I'll keep trying! |
| Freyasday |
Posted - 20 Jun 2019 : 18:00:04
Thank you very, very much, Fred and Cliveshep, and to Trevork for putting the picture up!
We didn't get it as a kit, for sure! Quite how four of us (2 adults, 2 children aged 11 and 13) and a dog went all the way to Tewkesbury and back (from the Bridgewater in 1963) in a boat that size, I'm not sure! It was called Goupi because my Dad had a bet on a horse of that name, which won him enough money to buy the boat!!! It had a Suzuki petrol outboard as far as I can remember and we kept breaking shearpins.
Cooking was done on a two-burner methylated spirits stove and the loo was in a box between the front berth and one of the coffin berths. I recall my brother and I were whizzes as lock operators.
I so loved the time we had the boat (it had to go when Dad's eyesight failed due to various problems) I later entered a competion at school where we had to write about an educational holiday that we would actually be able to undertake. I wrote passionately about canals (nature, history, civil engineering and transport) and won! That was the start of a group of friends going each Easter for a one week canal trip until we all went off to college and uni.
Sadly just had to part with our Norman 20 due to mobility issues, which we'd had for three years.
Thank you again for the identification. Delighted to have that photo finally tracked down by my niece and delighted to know what the boat was. |
| cliveshep |
Posted - 20 Jun 2019 : 13:52:06
That's a CB18. I had a CB15 for a year or so, our first cabin boat. Cooking and washing up in two boxes I built in the cockpit, managed to squeeze a toilet into it using the whole width of the boat. Mine had half the cabin roof cut away and raised, still not full headroom of course but it made using the Elson possible.
I made the windscreen, trimmed with ali angle, the hood frame was 3/8" gas barrel removed from under the floors of a conversion in London to flats of an old house, the hood was plastic from Transatlantic Plastics in Surbiton.
Engine was an old Perkins 6hp carried over from a previous boat, later replaced with an Evinrude 35hp electric start, and finally a Chrysler 9.9 carried over onto a brand-new Norman 20 from Ladyline of Barbridge. We took the CB up the Shroppie and Langollen canals as far as Horseshoe falls and ordered the Norman on the way back for delivery 3 months later. Ladyline took the beat-up old CB and it's trailer in part ex.
Edit - CB boats dated themselves by that pronounced tumblehome aft more suited to ships of the line in earlier centuries. I can tell you that it would plane quite happily with the 35hp so long as you kept it in a straight line because if you tried to turn it on the plane the inward angle of the tumblehome caused it to heel outwards on the turn in a most alarming manner such that there was a real chance of a high-speed capsize.
The brand new Norman 20 was rubbish with an outboard, and I got some gel-coat from Ladyline, glassed-in the transom, fitted engine bearers, a brand-new Ford 1600 cross-flow and a new Enfield 130 stern-drive and home made trim-tabs and it became a glorious fast off-shore sea-boat I used regularly to zip between Langstone and Bembridge to my parents house on the Harbour there.
Finally living the dream!
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| trevork |
Posted - 19 Jun 2019 : 00:17:58
Thanks Fred, wondered if it would be yourself or Clive that came up with the answer. |
| Fred |
Posted - 18 Jun 2019 : 22:48:33
quote:
Originally posted by trevork
And here is the picture that Sally wants us to look at! I'm no wiser but I'm sure one of you encyclopaedic types must have ideas! Apologies for chucking up a faceache link!
https://scontent.flhr2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/64349197_10156276149040924_2605287897162579968_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr2-1.fna&oh=0354aa4dd32fd0f7555ea2b556bf52f5&oe=5D8D6D4E
 [/url]
Nice picture, Sally.
CB Boats, originally made near Epping, Essex from early 60s and later at Tollesbury, Essex. They were made from 15ft to 18ft of same basic design - GRP with wood interior and trim. The 15ft was priced £198 and the 18ft - £345 complete. They were also available in kit form for home construction.
It would be interesting to see what that reprsents in today's money but I know I was earning £6 a week in 1963! |
| trevork |
Posted - 17 Jun 2019 : 22:33:00
And here is the picture that Sally wants us to look at! I'm no wiser but I'm sure one of you encyclopaedic types must have ideas! Apologies for chucking up a faceache link!
https://scontent.flhr2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/64349197_10156276149040924_2605287897162579968_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr2-1.fna&oh=0354aa4dd32fd0f7555ea2b556bf52f5&oe=5D8D6D4E
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| Freyasday |
Posted - 17 Jun 2019 : 18:49:42
quote:
Originally posted by Fred
Clive provides a useful clue in suggesting that because of the quarter-berth arrangement this boat may have its origins in sailing craft. It's also from the 60s (Sally doesn't say exactly when) but must then pre-date some of the better known small cruisers mass-produced in the 70s. One other clue is in the curved shape of the forward cabin top.
Can I suggest that it might be a Tod Tuna? These were made at Weymouth from the 1950s on, first in wood and later in fibreglass, by a long established maker of wooden sailing craft. Over 300 were built. The use of quarter berths would tie-in with that pedigree, perhaps even to special order.
The Tuna has a noteable curve to the cabin roof and was fitted with the one piece curved screen.
There's some interesting (well, for us nerds anyway!) information here:
http://woodenboatassociation.com/TOD%20Boats.htm
and a little picture here
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| Freyasday |
Posted - 05 Apr 2019 : 13:00:56
quote:
Originally posted by cliveshep
"Oh, jolly hockey-sticks"!
Sorry - just couldn't resist it Freyasday.
So you are selling your Norman 23 - giving up boating or replacing it with something bigger?
Finally living the dream!
I don't mind the Jolly Hockey Sticks :-) Norman 20, not Norman 23. With regret, arhtritis and a replaced hip have somewhat curtailed leaping on and off the boat, plus husband did it for love and he's had enough canal cruising now, so the two together have led to the sale. Cheers, Sally
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| cliveshep |
Posted - 02 Apr 2019 : 05:10:29
"Oh, jolly hockey-sticks"!
Sorry - just couldn't resist it Freyasday.
So you are selling your Norman 23 - giving up boating or replacing it with something bigger?
Finally living the dream!
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| Freyasday |
Posted - 07 Mar 2019 : 07:25:26
quote:
Originally posted by Margaret
Hi Sally. Slightly off the subject but I think a friend of mine Geoff Carter used to go out with Lynne in the 70s.
J.L mee
Hello, Margaret. I know I played hockey with Lynne Wheeldon and my friend who was at the same school also remembers the name, but it's possible she was older than me and I don't know if she went to university or where she ended up but she certainly came from the Oldham area.
That's nearly as good a coincidence as when I went into somewhere as part of my job and was asked if my husband was called Robin, then to be told her best friend had previously dated him! (We have a distinctive surname which is how she was confident enough to ask) |
| Freyasday |
Posted - 07 Mar 2019 : 07:19:47
I really appreciate everyone's help with trying to identify this boat! It's so frustrating not to be able to get hold of any old photos as I know two people who are likely to have one but both keep saying yes, they'll try to find the photos and time passes...well, I can understand. Maybe one day I'll manage to get hold of one!
The boat was ours between around 1962-1966. I think it might have been 1963 when we made our epic trip from the Bridgewater Canal to Tewkesbury. I say epic because in those days locks weren't very well maintained and water would squirt unexpectedly from the walls as the boat went down! Also, a lot of weed and crumbling banks. I agree the Tod berth description sounds the best yet. The Tod is a possibility, not dismissing it, best match yet and the more I look at it, the more I wonder. It was definitely GRP and if it helps, it was definitely an outboard engine Again, my thanks. |
| Fred |
Posted - 21 Feb 2019 : 15:39:05
Clive provides a useful clue in suggesting that because of the quarter-berth arrangement this boat may have its origins in sailing craft. It's also from the 60s (Sally doesn't say exactly when) but must then pre-date some of the better known small cruisers mass-produced in the 70s. One other clue is in the curved shape of the forward cabin top.
Can I suggest that it might be a Tod Tuna? These were made at Weymouth from the 1950s on, first in wood and later in fibreglass, by a long established maker of wooden sailing craft. Over 300 were built. The use of quarter berths would tie-in with that pedigree, perhaps even to special order.
The Tuna has a noteable curve to the cabin roof and was fitted with the one piece curved screen.
There's some interesting (well, for us nerds anyway!) information here:
http://woodenboatassociation.com/TOD%20Boats.htm
and a little picture here
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| cliveshep |
Posted - 21 Feb 2019 : 02:03:26
Quote Freyasday: "Before reaching the cabin door, at ground level on each side, were two single beds which ran out into the cockpit, where the wooden coverings of the berths acted as cockpit seats."
You description where cockpit berths are "at ground level" and "before reaching the cabin door" and "ran out into the cockpit" sounds like what we call "Quarter berths" which are found on many sailing yachts so I wonder if this boat was in fact a former sailing yacht converted to a motor boat? The layout does sound like that. There were openings in the main bulkhead either side of the door to allow a person to wriggle 2/3 of their body into their bed although one could sit up in the main cabin one's lower body and legs were under the cockpit seating.
It really does sound like a former sailing boat.
There was one cabin cruiser that had quarter berths I vaguely remember, but I'm racking my brain trying to think what make it was. Teal maybe? Albin?
Finally living the dream!
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