Sandie & Bernard Morton - nb Lexa



We first got interested in boats via a friend of ours who was a member of the Mid Nene Cruising Club at Titchmarsh. We were invited to the annual gathering of the Nene cruising clubs in 1999 (Late Spring Bank Holiday).

We thoroughly enjoyed our day out, met lots of friendly boaters on a mixture of Cruisers and Narrowboats, had lots to drink (how unusual!) and had a look around Oundle Marina. Sandie and I had definitely got the bug and when we departed for home we was looking forward to finding our own boat - it would be interesting as we had never raced or rallied a boat in our lives!! I bought the magazines on the Tuesday and by Wednesday we were on the lookout! We checked all local Marinas and adverts and I was looking to purchase a Seamaster 26' or a Dawncraft 30'. Unbeknown to me, Sandie had set her heart on a Narrowboat.

Eventually, we came across what was to be our first boat at Canal Craft in June 1999. She'd only been there an hour when we saw her, but we both liked her from the start - NB Roseberry, a 1974 45' cruiser stern , GRP topped Teddersley boat fitted with a Lister SR2 and LM100 manual gearbox. A lovely boat and we applied lots of TLC and 4 months later sold her at a reasonable profit to buy our second boat, Opus, in October 1999.

Opus was a 1984 47' all steel Peter Nichols tug style with a trad stern fitted with a Mitsubishi 1.4 litre diesel CT Marine conversion and Hurth LM 100 gearbox. She was also an electrical nightmare which I set off to simplify and improve on (Electrics, Electronics and telecomms/radio comms being my speciality) After sorting her out and fitting a decent Squirrel Stove with the help of my old pal Eric Young, we took her on our first major cruise on the BCN in August. We really enjoying the freedom and amazed at the integration of Industry and countryside around Birmingham. All 4 of us went Sandie, me and the two girls Sam and Becky.

We had planned to return via Calcutt Boats to see a survey on what was to be our third boat NB Lexa. We arrived at Calcutt Boats to meet up with Trevor Whitling our surveyor. He gave her a very big thumbs up so we took the plunge, bought her and put Opus up for sale at Canal Craft the following Tuesday. Opus sold on the Thursday and we received the cheque within two weeks.

NB Lexa is a 1988 Colecraft Boat built in Rugby and is a 59' 3" trad stern all steel narrowboat. She has a boatmans cabin and an engine room fitted at present with a Vetus 414 diesel engine and a Hurth HBW100 Gearbox. She sleeps 6 , one permanent double, convertible settee in the lounge and double bed in the boatmans cabin. She has two stoves (one in the BC and one in the lounge) and has a Eberspacher Diesel central heating system with 5 radiators. She is a very light, airy and roomy boat like Opus and Roseberry. The engine drives a 16" prop and is a well balanced combination.

Lexa is named after the previous owners mother-in-law! We are anxious to rename her for obvious reasons - any bright ideas??

However, there was a problem - my surveyor reckoned that a CE2 would look nice in the engine room and thereby sowed the seed of discontent. This was followed by certain senior members of this group at Waltham Abbey barracking me about my starter motor (Vetus414) and telling me I needed a proper engine!!

Eric Young spotted an advert for a 1948 CE2 in the Stationary Engine Magazine and yours truly went and bought it in October 2000. It duly arrived and after cleaning it, spraying it the correct colour for the CE2, I set about the fabrication of the engine to marinise it for installation in Lexa in February 2001.

The main source of help came in the form of Tony Redshaw at Hillmorton who sorted the flywheel, turned it down and fitted the starter ring and supplied the BS5 reconditioned starter. He cast in bronze two replacement flanges for the water cooling system, incorporating the thermostat/housing in the return feed to the Keel tank. Tony also provided the new pulley to drive a dual belt feed to the new alternator and a single belt feed to the newly fitted water pump. His ability to fabricate anything required amazed me and with his son Paul they make a good team.

So,together with my old mate Eric, we manufactured the water pump mount and fitted the alternator all ready for installation late February 2001. We look forward to meeting you all with the new(!) Engine.