Latest News from Drew's www.workingboats.info

Josher Otter is now back in deconverted status after having her wooden cabin taken off at Grendon Dock on the 14th June 2010

The boat pages now contain Ownership history. If you have anything to add I'd be very grateful if you could either post the info to the page or email me drew@joshers.info.

Boats are heading past thick and fast on their way to Shackerstone many having come from the IWA National last weekend. The floatilla leaving Alvecote alone consists of 8 joshers - Jaguar, Kangaroo & Australia, Kestrel & Vienna, Monarch & Grimsby and Stafford.

Michael Pinnock Jnr and Fazeley won the Alfred Ritchie Challenge Cockerel at this years IWA National Boat Festival.

The estimates for workingboats at this years Braunston Festival is believed to be around 80 to 85. President and Kildare and Monarch and Grimsby made a nice black and white display up the arm and it was nice to see Kestrel and Southern Cross with their cabins off as much as Stafford and Hare with cabins on! Other notables

Boats heading to Braunston are coming past thick and fast. Boats leaving or passing Alvecote yesterday were Swallow, Monarch and Grimsby, Stafford and after stopping over last night Southern Cross, Ilford, Aquarius and Sweden left this morning. Hare, Clover and Fazeley are leaving this afternoon/evening and Dove and Thea due tonight.

The 2009 summer season has kicked off in earnest today with Little Venice's Canalway Cavalcade. Workingboats in attendance are. . .

I've been working on the History section of www.workingboats.info including canal companies and canal engines, especially of course Bolinders. I hope you will find it a useful and informative resource.

Now you can post news and items about boats for sale or wanted at Drew's workingboats.info for sale page! Hopefully this will be able to help prospective buyers and sellers get together so the right homes can be found for all our workingboats.

Boatman Joe Safe, known to many of you sadly died in early December. His Funeral will be held in Winson Green on Tuesday 16th December. He was 86.

Stafford has now returned from being refurbished and restored in Poland and is at Alvecote awaiting craning. Work can now re-commence on Greyhound. Comments on the pics please!

The seventh Braunston Historic Narrowboat Rally will be held over the 27 & 28 June 2009. This year the theme will be FMC. The 2008 event attracted 80 Historic boats.

Corona, Kismet - Modern Cabin Boat, Stanton, Swallow, Towcestor & Warbler attended the smallest re-enactment (18th October to 25th October) to date as many boats had dropped out for various reasons.
I've not had a first hand report as yet but believe all went pretty well to plan.

Regular visitors will no doubt have noticed the amount of rubbish being posted by spambots to the site. I have therefore added reCAPTCHA to the boat information form. This adds a slight hinderence to posting but I am sure you understand why it is necessary. If you find any problems with using it please email me to drew@joshers.info.

After the failure with the database i've managed to rebuild much of the data and thank all those that have helped by reposting information.

Due to a database fault workingboats.info has lost a lot of information. I'm trying to rebuild it but if you've posted info and its been lost please repost! I'm working on restoring it all but is a large task so all posts will be greatly appreciated.

The 2008 Braunston Rally takes place this weekend where no doubt a large number of Joshers will be in attendance.

the joshers: owl & hampton, clover & fazeley, dolphin, grange, bream, hare, apollo, jubilee attended the gathering at stoke bruerne over the easter weekend.

At the traditional Easter gathering at Ellesmere Port boat museum this morning I spotted the following Joshers: Kangaroo, Lamprey, Cactus, Roach, Empress, Dory, Ferret, Shad (on the dock with no blade having bottom boards replaced), Chiltern (Still awaiting repair) Ilkeston (With cabin sides removed).

The Joshers forums are now up and running! Its a little untidy at the moment but I hope to clean it up over the next few days, and probably weeks! Have fun!

The form to add picture comments is now working again. Enjoy posting thoughts and observations!

I\'ve noticed that the script to comment on pictures hasn\'t been working. I\'m resolving this now.

A return to Shackerstone today saw Joshers Kestrel, Lamprey, Empress, Jaguar and Sunny Valley all painted in various liveries. President and Kildare, Monarch and also Dove were in attendance in the black and white colour scheme which surely Dove would never have carried?

Boats are gathering at the Shackerstone festival on the Ashby Canal. Joshers spotted there today were Jaguar, Sunny Valley (Northolt), Kestrel, Lamprey, Empress and President and Kildare were spotted nearby presumably heading there too.

You can now add to each of the boats individual pages and help build the worlds foremost Joshers archive! Just fill in the form at the bottom of each boats page, and don\'t forget to include your name!

The 2007 Braunston gathering saw (depending on counting methods) 79 working and ex-working boats in attendance.