Is There Anybody Out There?

As the lockdown eased with canals partially reopened, Tim Coghlan collected a brokerage-narrowboat in Oxford and brought it to Braunston Marina. He recalls an eerie experience: the canal was almost empty of boats and boaters....

- Tim Coghlan

They say things come to those who wait, but sometimes you have to wait a long time. I had been contacted in early October last year by Nick, the owner of narrowboat Melodeon – which was lying at Abingdon - with a view to selling it for him. The boat was a 40ft trad hull built by Colecraft in 1983 and fitted out by its team of true craftsmen, headed up by the legendary Lennie Beauchamp.

Despite the boat’s relative age – now over 35 years old – Nick assured me that Melodeon had been well maintained in an A1 condition since new – as had been proved by a recent survey. He was only the second owner, and it had been his for more than 30 years.

Now both their 80s, he and his wife could no longer cope with canal locks, which were getting tougher by the year, as maintenance seemed to slip in the priorities of the CRT.

Nick paid me the compliment of saying he had read several of my articles, including one in Canal Boat in which I had talked about my own boat - a 1991 45ft Colecraft, also fitted out by Lennie Beauchamp, and which likewise had had only two owners since new. We had never met before, but he told me that if there was any broker to sell his boat, it was me! With a compliment like that, I had to make the journey to go and see it.