Ernest at the London Canal Museum
John and Margaret Gwalter - nb Ernest
email: ernest@gwalter.co.uk
Built in 1998 by John White Fabrications of Liverpool and fitted-out by Hilux Narrowboats.
Length 57 feet (17.4 metres), Beam 6 feet 10 inches (2.1 metres), Draft 2 feet (0.6 metres)
Engine: BMC/Thornycroft 1.5 litre diesel with a PRM 150 Gearbox.
(Built in India and fitted with a 1.8 cylinder head and the injector pump for the industrial version of the engine.)
Our waterways story:
We first started canal boating in 1975 with a week on Greenweed from Concoform Marine (as they were then) at Weedon on the GUC. On the second day we were wearing shorts through Braunston and in a blizzard before Napton Junction. After hiring again from them the next year (without snow this time) we were hooked and, finances being what they were, bought a P&O (plastic and outboard) cruiser which we kept at Walton-on Thames and used on the Rivers Thames and Wey and the Grand Union, Oxford and K&A canals over the following 10 years.
A subsequent addiction to "camping and wine buying" holidays in France resulted in our doing less boating and the sale of Bunbury. However we kept up our membership of IWA and continued to hire whenever we could find the time in our busy working lives.
After early retirement from teaching, Margaret volunteered as Education Officer for the London Canal Museum in order to get a fix of children without the stress. John's redundancy with an early retirement package in 2000 then allowed us to buy Ernest which we keep in London, where many of our friends are. In 2003 Margaret stood down as Chair of the Canal Museum Trust having found that living in Wales and the acquisition of grandchildren leaves her with too little time to do justice to the position.
Ernest's story:
We bought Ernest lying at Newbury on the K&A in October 2000 having been previously used as a residential boat in the midlands. Then followed six months of frustration as we could not move to our permant moorings in Battlebridge Basin because of - Thames in flood, Kennet in flood, foot and mouth disease and more Thames in flood. I spent much of this time altering the mains side of the electrical system to something safe and legal, installing central heating with an Eberspacher boiler, and turning wasted space behind engine room panels into useful cubby-holes.
Our final purchase (apart from an adequate set of ropes and a reserve gas cylinder) before at last being able to move in May 2001 was a second cassette for the Elsan. This had the "interesting" problem of having the magnet for the level indicator fitted with the opposite polarity to the original - with embarassing consequences. Elsan were very helpful, though, and successfully talked me through the relatively simple process of reversing the magnet. I was glad to wash my hands of that job. Our boating since then has resulted in only a few changes:
The boat name story:
Algernon: You have invented a very useful younger brother called Ernest, in order that you may be able to come up to town as often as you like. I have invented an inaluable permanent invalid called Bunbury, in order that I may be able to go down into the country whenever I choose. Oscar Wilde - The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 1.