The Simpsons

I've not seen much on the web about Simpsons Boats since my post on them a couple of weeks back.   

I was careful about the rumours, since they might have been just that, with no foundation in truth.

But I do know that Simpsons were building a fine replica tunnel tug called Gloucester (pictured here by John Gascoign in sailaway form at the Saul Canal Festival in June). 

And recently the owner of Gloucester commented:

Sadly Simpsons Boats have gone into voluntary liquidation following amalgamation of operations with Big Fish Narrowboats at the Old Sawmill, Sharpness.

After the excitement of the launch of my tunnel tug, Gloucester, at Saul Festival [YouTube video here]  problems began to emerge to customers of Simpsons. 

In the intervening six weeks precisely no progress was made.

Fortunately I was able to remove Gloucester as a sailaway by mutual consent before the poop hit the air conditioning.  She's now back in the old Simpsons shed at Brimscombe, Stroud where she is being fitted out by two of Simpsons ex-employees.

I have no idea of the exact nature of the financial problems as no one from either Simpsons or Big Fish saw fit to contact me directly to let me know my boat had been towed from the site and moored on the towpath. 

I heard it from one of the Simpsons employees who had just that morning been made redundant.

I typed 'simpsons boats' into Google tonight and a Google ad for the company was still at the top of the page, three weeks after I first heard the news.  ("Every boat is hand-built and finished by professional craftsmen.") 

In the age of the internet, commerce is on autopilot.

 
Incidentally, I got the company's name wrong.  In my original post I wrote 'Simpson Boats' - i.e. Simpson in the singular - but it seems Simpson comes in families. In other words, it's The Simpsons.  I've changed my original post to reflect that.

Now, all I need to know is what's happened to Big Fish Narrowboats.  They had a stand at the IWA Festival last weekend, and lots of leaflets were in evidence, but I think I came too late (6pm) to the stand to catch anyone there.