Crick sun warms up share sales

It may not have been the weather at Crick on Saturday and Sunday that made the difference, but sales of shares in new shared ownership narrowboats were clearly warming up.

Visitors pick up their overshoes
before viewing Oakmere

First to report this surge of interest was BCBM, who had their new tug style boat Oakmere on show - and available for share purchase for the first time.  During the first two days of the show, 7½ shares were sold and there was a relentless stream of visitors wanting to view her.

Andrew Barton, BCBM's MD, told me, "Never in a million years would we have expected to sell so many shares in such a unique boat in the first two days of the show.  The comments we've received have just blown us away and, as the shares are priced at £10,950, it just goes to show that there is a strong market for such a special boat.  Previously owned shares were also in demand."

Some of the new owners of
Harmonia celebrate the launch
with Julia Bradbury

When I spoke to ABC, the story was the same.  Their new boat Harmonia, launched at the show by TV presenter Julia Bradbury, had only three shares left by midday on Sunday.

Solace, the latest shared ownership boat
from Carefree Cruising, is due to be
launched at the end of the show

Also reporting a very successful show was Carefree Cruising, whose new boat Solace was in the static display section.  Carefree Cruising does not have a fixed syndicate size, but 38 of the 48 available weeks had already been taken by Sunday afternoon.

This is all a very welcome change from shows earlier in the year, which were blighted by poor weather.

New shared ownership boats at Crick

ABC's new shared ownership boat Harmonia will be formally launched at the Crick Boat Show by TV presenter Julia Bradbury on Sunday.  The show runs from Saturday 25th to Monday 27th May.

Harmonia will be officially launched at Crick (ABC photo)

Harmonia is a 65ft 6 berth semi-trad featuring hydraulic drive, led lights throughout and self tracking satellite system with shares being offered for £9,750.  She will be in the marina (stand F12) for the whole weekend and ABC will give you a warm welcome both before and after the official launch.

Originallybuilt to a private owner's specification,
the award winning Oakmere was bought in by BCBM
recently to be offered for shared ownership. (BCBM photo)

Also new to Crick is BCBM's recent acquisition Oakmere.  She is a 59ft replica tug with 'Josher' bow, making her unique amongst shared ownership narrowboats.  Shares in Oakmere are offered at £10,950 and she will be inside the 'poly tunnel' in the marina.

If you can't get to Crick to see these new boats, there are virtual tours available on the respective websites.

Ownashare will not have a boat at Crick, but are holding their own open day at Fradley Junction over the weekend of 31st May to 2nd June, where they will be showing Forget Me Knot (£6,600) and a 2009 reverse layout boat with 3 weeks holiday booked for this year for a 1/12 share offered at a very special price of £3,000.

I shall be at the show on Sunday and Monday, so I may see you there.

Trophy winner boosts BCBM offering

BCBM has acquired narrowboat Oakmere to offer for shared ownership.  Oakmere won the Lionel Munk Trophy for the best new commercial boat at the Inland Waterways Association Festival in 2011 and is the current holder as there was no IWA Festival in 2012.

Oakmere was fitted out by the Navigation Narrowboat Company at Nantwich who also fit out the new boats commissioned by BCBM.  They also won the Lionel Munk Trophy in 2010 with BCBM's first new boat, First Dawn.

Oakmere is a 59 ft Josher style tug with trad stern, engine room and tug fore-deck originally built for a private owner to a very high specification.  There are very few shared ownership narrowboats with trad sterns and this will be the only one that I know of that is a Josher style tug.  The new syndicate will have twelve 8% shares and one 4% share, and a full share will cost £10,950.

Full details of Oakmere with pictures and specification should be on the BCBM Boat Share website very soon.

Two more new websites

Hard on the heels of ABC Boat Share, both BCBM and Ownashare have launched new websites.  These also include separate owner's areas to provide much of the syndicate management information owners need during the year and for their AGM's.

The new sites are easier to use and provide links to all the services offered by the respective companies.

We have also made some alterations to this site, which should be helpful for anyone looking for a share.  We have added a 'Find a share' form to allow a prospective owner to set a specification for the perfect share and to have this forwarded to all three of the main brokers.

We have also separated out the menu options so that it's easier for prospective owners to distinguish between the 'big three' brokerage and management companies and other sources of share information.