Charlotte has
been
sold as a project boat for fitting out to Mr Patrick Ryan of Swindon and was collected from Raynsway marina
on Thursday 5 June 2008.
He and colleagues are relocating the boat
to the Kennet and Avon canal in order to undertake the necessary refit of
the boat. Charlotte was prepared in April and May 2008 for sale as a
'sail-away' boat as a project for
completion by others.
Charlotte
was taken over by the Trust in late 2002, from Leicester City
Council, at the same time as narrow boat
Dandelion. They were to be repaired and restored, if possible, for
community use. After some initial work on both boats in 2003 by
volunteers priority was given to restoring Dandelion which continued
through 2003 and it was returned to full use in 2004.
During 2003 Charlotte was made watertight but 'mothballed' awaiting the
availability of manpower to do the necessary work. In late 2003 an
agreement was reached with the Inside-Out Trust ( iotrust
) to make Charlotte available as a project to be undertaken by prisoners at HMP Gartree. The boat was moved to Foxton where she was hoisted
from the water and transported to Gartree.
Work on the boat continued through
2004 and 2005 and she was released from prison on Saturday 1 July 2006
and returned to the Baldwin Trust However some of the work
undertaken whilst in HMP Gartree was not of an acceptable standard and
all internal
fitting remained to be done. After some 18 months back at Raynsway
the decision was taken to offer the boat for sale.
I
Back at Raynsway
Handover to Patrick Ryan
