Well, I’m back. I suppose I could have posted something by paying for WiFi access at Crick, but to be honest, I was just too busy to bother.
Crick was a) brilliant and b) exhausting, as usual. We had loads of interest in Sanity Again, and she was much admired. Peter had several very serious discussions with potential customers, and I’ll be very surprised if at least two, quite possibly three, and maybe four orders don’t result between now and the Open Day in September.
It was great to meet up with so many blog readers; I’m seriously chuffed to hear that you all take such an interest. I was particularly struck by the man who told me I was a source of hope to him when things were going badly at the office.
At the end of the show, we were just pipped into second place for Favourite Boat by the Barn Owl boat, Oak Apple, but seemingly the votes for the top four boats were very close, on an unusually large poll.
The Show itself was smaller again than last year, and the crowd on the Monday was quite sparse, probably because the weather wasn’t anything to write home about; not raining, the way it was on the Saturday, but cold and gloomy. From our point of view, it meant that we saw more serious visitors than usual for the third day, but it won’t have cheered the stall holders or the organisers very much.
We are at the bottom of a severe recession, I know, but I do worry about the future for Crick. The IWA is poised to take over if ever Crick folds, but it would be one less decent inland boat show to go to.
Incidentally, if you are planning to become the owner of a new Braidbar in the next 18 months, don't hang about. The next available build slot is in May 2011, delivery in August, and the one after that is June, delivery late September/early October, so it wouldn’t need too many of those potential orders to become definite for the next delivery slot to disappear into 2012.
We were able to buy the few bits and bobs we wanted in our morning off, especially a LED light for the cratch, so the only non-LEDs we have now are the tunnel light and the shower, neither of which represent much demand on the battery bank.
We left the marina yesterday. I had planned to pull Sanity Again out myself, but was given a clear signal that, as she’s 70 foot, and there was very little room for manoeuvre, the staff were much happier to have their expert pilot Chris take her out. Mind you, he rammed the towpath in leaving the marina, so I’m not sure I’d have done any worse.
We’ve stopped at the top of Foxton today, planning to go down and have a couple of days in Market Harborough, chilling out and restocking the food and wine storage. Then it will Southward Ho! for Oxford and the Thames.
Two things to ponder: I’m thinking of getting a Twitter account, just to post easily accessible updates of our location, and the T-mobile internet contract runs out this month, so I’m planning to change it. 3 looks like the best deal both on price and coverage, but all comments gratefully received as always.
5 comments:
Are you saying that IWA has plans to run the Crick Boat Show as well as the National?
If the present organisers can't make a go of it I don’t see how IWA could. Even with all the volunteer labour they still lose a lot of money at the National each year.
You have a brilliant boat, of all the builders Peter didn't try to change the basic designs we had laid out in our sketch although we have taken his thoughts onboard (no pun intended) and we await the estimates from all the builders we talked to but Braidbar is at the top of the list at the moment
Brian: Um, no, as I think is plain from my remark that there would be one less Boat Show if Crick went. Jerry Saunders is working hard at recruiting more builders to show at the National, but won't break through unless Crick folds, IMHO.
And your statement that they lose a lot of money every year isn't true; the last Beale Park made a reasonable return as I understand it.
However, this is not a blog for discussing IWA politics!
aticatac: thanks for the kind remarks; we too found Peter remarkably flexible in his approach to design.
Cheers
Bruce
Bruce,
Re mobile broadband, I thought the same about 3 but it proved to be the most unreliable network. T mobile have merged with Orange so their coverage should improve. I have a 30 day £15 a month oranage contract (3gb)that has proven reliable and can be cancelled with 30 days notice.
Nev
We gave up on 3 for voice communication, mostly because the coverage at home was dreadful, but it wasn't that good along the K&A. For the last 2 years we've been using a Voda-Dongle for interweb access away from home and that has better [but not continuous] coverage on the canal. It's brilliant around Newbury, but that's because, as Graham of Jannock has explained, Vodafone 'carpet bombed' the town with antennas to help things along in their nearby HQ.
Baz
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