Psst - we have a new baby!

Proudly announcing the arrival of The Jam Butty

June 2013

What can I say? We went, we saw and we agreed to purchase!

Some of you will know of our medium term plans to take extended cruises and our idea to combine these travels with the burgeoning preserves business. We flirted with the idea of buying a longer boat but the more we thought about it the more we fancied a short butty which, taken with Wand'ring Bark, would fit into a single lock.

Maybe we were swayed by the name but "The Jam Butty" does have a lovely ring to it. She will sit nicely in the firmament already occupied by the Fudge Boat and the Cheese Boat.

And so the seeds of a dream were planted in our imaginations and once visualised these things have a way of taking physical form. The form started with the stern in the shape of Montgomery's back cabin which we spied stacked on top of a container at Stretton Wharf. Enquiries revealed that Montgomery had been looking for a new life for years and when the purpose was explained the stern was soon introduced to the bows of a BCN day boat and hey presto - the Jam Butty is born.

We went to have a look at the components today and were both surprised and delighted to see that Keith had not only laid the bits out in the yard, he had actually rebottomed her and welded it together! He was clearly as taken with the end result as we were, observing the symmetry of the bows and stern which both rise with the same subtle curve. A bit of a gamble on his part though!

Ok, it still needs a bit of imagination when you look at the shot blasted and blacked stern contrasting the bare rusty metal front end but believe me, this cut and shut will be one cute little butty when we are through with her.

The bare bones specs are 11ft of Montgomery, about 20 years old and built by Keith on the wharf mated to 15 ft of a 1911 BCN Day boat with more rivets penetrating her antique plating that a body piercers fantasy!

I think you can safely expect to see a long series of posts on this topic as we bring The Jam Butty / Montgomery to life and prepare her to be one of the more unique and memorable boats on the network.

Go on - admit it, you are smiling as you read this post!