Friday, July 31, 2009

Dream boats

Many people, it seems, dream of owning a boat. That's fine, but I sometimes wish they would keep their dreams to themselves. I'm amazed by how many people like to point this out by calling their boat Dreamcatcher. We've seen several of them lately. Jim Shead lists over 30 of them!

There's worse. Just imagine having to ring up to book a passage through a lock and when they ask the name of the boat having to say Our Dream. It would stick in my throat I'm afraid. Then we recently saw Our Destiny. Is it just me, or is that wearing your heart on your sleeve a bit too much?

There are some we find OK, such as Indigo Dream, or (at a pinch, because written in a jolly font) Wildest Dreams.

Well, I shouldn't criticise. People can call their boats what they like I suppose. Personally I like simple names. Some I have seen that I really like are fish names like Dace or Bream, and the old working boat names like Badsey (the village where I was born), or Stour shown below, and Bison.


Don't you just love that lively signwriting?

We passed a wonderful tug style Bison for sale in Milton Keynes. This 57 footer was originally built by Yorkshire boatbuilders Sagar Marine in who built their last narrowboat in 1998 and now specialise in luxury Dutch barges. The engine is listed by Jim Shead as 22BHP which means it might be an old slow revver. Chug chug.


That would be something like my dream boat. I'm quite sure it would be beyond our means or I'd be queueing up to buy it. Externally it looks immaculate.


I'll give them a free advert here so you can phone up and buy it. If you do, can I come for a ride?.

2 comments:

Vallypee said...

I'm with you on this one Neil, and you're right! It is immaculate. This morning one of our number here started up his old slow revver. What a wonderful sound it was too. It's a Kromhout single cylinder hot bulb engine and it makes smoke rings too. I LOVE it.

Anonymous said...

Phew, so glad we pass muster :-) Naming a boat is such a difficult job - get it right and you have the respect of the waterways; get it wrong and even the ducks snigger as you cruise past!
Sue