The 'reck' of Reckless at Streethay Wharf, Feb 25th 2006. Poor old Reckless. It was burned in unexplained circumstances early in January at Hassall Green,outside the waterside Lock 57 Restaurant, as both Crewe Guardian and Narrowboat World reported. Boatmeister Ray Bowern says the fire was due to vandals or burglars, which if correct echoes the misfortune of Emerald.
When this boat was called Recklis it used to moor in Granny's old spot at Fradley, then later moved to Streethay and was renamed.
Boaters are a superstitious breed and bad luck lurks around every bend. When I changed Jessel into Granny Buttons in early 1999, Ray Bowern told me it isn't bad luck to change the name so long as you make a paper boat with the old name written on it and ceremonially sink it. Which he said he did at the time. At no charge. To his credit that's the lowest bill I've ever had from Ray, and, touch wood, I think it's worked for Granny so far.
I fear the bill for Reckless will be a little more. It took most of last Saturday alone to empty the charred detritus of the fire into the wharfside skip. Then the entire (buckled) superstructure has to come off before the boat's old JP2 Lister engine can be removed and repair rebuilding can begin.
Aha, so that's why people keep displaying their old licences!
Posted by: Andrew Denny | Sunday, 04 March 2007 at 06:20 PM
I'd heard that if you change the boat name you should keep the old name displayed in the bathroom to prevent disaster - which is what I did when I renamed "Fellowship No. 1." into "Cosmos", by keeping an old licence disc on the wall. (maybe some old-timers were just having a laugh at my expense!)
Posted by: Jonathan | Sunday, 04 March 2007 at 05:52 PM