Ben Harp

I'm still posting on Shobnall Fields Forever, but something's come up that I need to write about here. For quite some time now, I've been in communication with Tom Jones, a Kiwi recently working in Australia who commissioned Ben Harp Narrowboat Builders to build a liveaboard boat for his wife Jan and himself to cruise in the UK.

He got in touch just after he'd signed the contract, so it was too late to warn him of the problems others have had with this company. He was already aware of the difficulties that the owners of Trudy Ann had had, and which they've blogged about, and had appointed a good surveyor, so all I could do was cross my fingers and hope.

It didn't work.

In fact, it's gone about as wrong as it could be, as Tom's latest post tells. This is much, much worse than anything anyone's had before from this builder, and hopefully will be the end of the line for them.

I'm working on a permanent page about buying a boat, and will get back to it after we leave the Festival site. Meantime, if you are thinking about buying a boat  directly from Ben Harp, don't. Second hand Harps, on the other hand, have usually been lovingly reconstructed by their owners, and may well be fine. Just get them to tell you about the remedial work they've had done.