LUCY: the NB LUCY project home page

NB LUCY

New mast beam bracket - March 2010 - photo © Pete Boyce
What's new - March 16th 2010:

Survey and measurement ongoing
Timber sourcing
First parts made
New photo gallery sections - movies and new parts added

LUCY is a wooden butty built at Braunston for the carrying fleet of John Knill, entering the fleet in 1953. She started being built by Frank Nurser at the Samuel Barlow Coal Co.'s boat dock at Braunston in 1951, and was first registered at Daventry as number 548 on 24th February 1953.
She was re-registererd by Barlows Ltd. in January 1955, and worked by them until 1962. Finally she was re-registered by Blue Line Cruisers Ltd. on 12th April 1962. Steered by the Whitlocks, and paired with motors RENFREW and IAN, she finished carrying on the long distance Jam 'Ole Run in October 1970, and retired to Braunston with the Whitlocks in 1971. Rose Whitlock lived on her outside the Marina until 1977.
Since 1977, she had been a private residential boat, and latterly sank at Braunston Puddle Banks. In 2008, she was acquired by Pete Boyce as the start of a reconstruction project of this most important wooden Braunston-built butty. In May 2009, she was raised from the mud and placed on a purpose built cradle in the Tess yard at Braunston Turn.
LUCY is listed on the National Historic Ships Register, number 2017. Click here to see entry.

The Restoration Project

Progress up to November 2009

Survey November 2009
On 24th November a small party of friends worked on removing the last of the mud, and stripping off tarpaulins and plating to find all the scarf joints of the planks. These were all marked and photographed, and dimensions of hull planks measured. The plank lengths range from 15 to 35 ft, the bottom plank being 10 inches deep and the rest, 9 inches. The depth of some planks increases at the bow and stern. With 2 inches of gunnel depth, her 5 plank construction gives an internal side height of exactly 4 feet. On the starboard side, forward of the mast, a 9ft repair section of plank has been let in, with new scarf joints into original planking. We assume this is a repair because the new scarf joints are too close to other joints above and below to be in a new build, and do not appear in the photograph of the new LUCY in the shed in Nurser's yard. Further investigation will show how their fixings differ from an original joint, a 3D schematic of which is shown below.

Scarf joint schematic Feb 2010 - © Pete Boyce

Timber Sourcing 2009 and 2010
Last December I went to measure up several oak and beech logs at a farm in Cheshire. They were from storm and wind damaged trees. They will supply oak for stem and stern posts, hull frames, cabin frames, rudder parts and shearing pieces, and beech for cabin beams and furniture. We sliced them into suitable pieces with a mobile sawmill at the beginning of March, and brought back heavy pieces by road. Later in the month we loaded more oak and ash into SKYLARK on the Caldon Canal, and at Easter transhipped it into BETELGEUSE at the Coventry gathering of the Historic Narrow Boat Owners Club.
In December and January, I collected ash logs from Nick Hill's fields. Some are curved and suitable for tillers and ash plates for cant protection, and the straight pieces will provide shafts, and planks for cabin and furniture work.

Measuring and Recording
A new section in the gallery shows drawings of parts of LUCY using Google SketchUp7. I plan to have all measurements recorded on paper and in electronic form, although some of the complex curves and angles may present a challenge for the computer software. This does provide 3D presentation, with the ability to view from any angle and walk through or fly around the model.

Kelson scarf - photograph and drawing - Feb 2010 - © Pete Boyce

First new parts made
On 14th March 2010 I made the first new parts for LUCY - the two mast beam brackets. They are copied from the old bracket that fell off the liner plank last year, and use offcuts of oak from gunnel repairs to other boats.

Mast beam bracket - old, drawing, new - March 2010 - © Pete Boyce

The NB LUCY project address - The NB LUCY Project, Tess Buildings, London Road, Braunston, Northants, NN11 7HB. you can email the project at LUCY@phobox.com. Telephone Pete Boyce on 07729 139765.
Let me know if you can help, supply tools, or parts, or just would like to be informed. View tools and parts list

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Photographs are organised in a photo gallery.

You may find some historic photographs and other information by following the links below.

Links and references

Rose Whitlock's obituary from The Guardian

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