INLAND NAVIGATORS

Tim Carter: canal craft repairs
Tim’s experience in repairing canal boats goes back over 40 years. As a small child he lived aboard the ex-Severn and Canal Carrying motorboat Ash and grew up with the Royalty class motor and butty George and Mary. On leaving school he spent the next twenty years working hotel boats, camping boats, passenger trip boats and commercial barges and in the off-seasons learning boat building and repair, working alongside some of the country’s leading experts in re-planking, corking and coach painting etc.

For those interested, vintage craft that Tim has either owned or currently owns: George and Mary, Mabel & Forget-me-Not (wooden hotel boats), Victoria (sister ship to William), Norfolk County (a steam sailing drifter), Coleshill & Virginis (Harland & Woolf) FMC Buffalo (part), LMS Exeter (part) BCN joey boat, Frieslan (small ex-commercial Dutch trading barge) and William (Royalty class motor boat)

At our small-holding we offer a repair service for canal craft. We take on some restoration and repair work of historic narrow boats and we work very closely with our customers on these projects making sure that as much of the historic fabric of the vessels are preserved and the correct type of construction or repair methods are used, whether this be hot-riveting, re-corking wooden bottom boards etc. Tim will openly admit he’s a bit of an anorak when it comes to chatting about the different number of rivets and variations in construction methods originally used! In their off-time Tim & Bridget can often be found tinkering with the Bolinder engine in their own boat William. Tim has an extensive knowledge of both vintage and modern canal boat engines.

A lot of the day-to-day work is the repair of more modern, welded steel narrowboats. We do undertake over-plating, it’s generally priced on a per foot basis, and we work to a particularly high standard ensuring plates are individually fully welded, adequately supported, keyed and plug-welded to the original hull. There are plenty of horror stories about over-plating and we can discuss the pros and cons and particulars of your craft. We detail the materials, welding method specifications and as you’d expect our welding is done to the ASME welding code standard.

Other Services:
We can arrange for your boat to have a hull survey. We can make an informal hull inspection for you, or we can arrange for a qualified surveyor to inspect your boat on your behalf which will provide you with a legally binding report which may be required by your insurance company. 

 Like a lot of repair facilities you can only appoint a surveyor to work in our yard that we approve of. We can then work from your survey report and carry out the essential and/or necessary hull repairs and we will provide you with a Statement of Works confirming in detail what has been done which will complement your survey. 

We can also arrange for a Boat Safety examiner to inspect your boat at our yard. We can undertake some but not all aspects of the repairs that are listed by the examiner. For example, a rusty or rotten gas locker which needs refabricating and welding we can do but gas or appliance work we can’t. We don’t undertake electrical work either. 

Hull blacking: we undertake all aspects of hull blacking, single pack coatings, two pack coatings, hull sides and hull bottoms. Pressure washing, pneumatic de-scaling, grit-blasting, pit welding and fitting anodes. These are generally priced per foot and will depend on the type and condition of your boat and what process is required. We are competitive on price, but we do have limited availability. 

 Generally speaking, we do not accommodate customers living on board their boats for any aspects of the work undertaken here but we do make some exceptions at our discretion. Equally we don’t offer hard standing for D.I.Y but again we do make a small number of exceptions. 

As a repair facility we are small scale, and it forms just part of what we do on our small holding. We live on site; this is a family home, and you shouldn’t expect the same level of activity that you would find at a regular boatyard. 

We are in the very fortunate position that demand always outstrips supply and we do choose our customers carefully but that said do phone for a chat or any questions and if we can’t accommodate you, we will try and point you in the direction of someone who can.