The Financial Times website's Business Life section has a nice five-minute video of Braunston Marina owner Tim Coghlan.
He talks about his life in high-finance in the City in the Eighties, losing his job in the 1987 crash, stumbling on the faded grandeur of Braunston Marina, and the major career change that led him to take it over.
The video ends with him saying that when he finally secured the finance for the marina, it was "the most wonderful day of my life":
All I can say is this is my home, I have a lot of fun doing it, and I'm not envious at all of my friends who went on to do far better in the City and make greater fortunes than I did.
It would be nice to hear more about how he expanded and developed the Marina, developed the 'warehouse-style' flats, and hosted the Braunston Boat Show as it became the largest narrowboat-focused festival in the country.
The Braunston Boat Show moved to become the Crick Boat Show in 2000, when local planners refused him permission to enlarge the marina. I'm not sure if he ever got that permission, but it's no surprise that Crick itself has gone on to expand hugely and successfully. It's never quite replicated the charming 'village' feel of Braunston though.
And Braunston still hosts two other major shows - the Ownerships Show in February, and the Working Boat Rally in late June (the name of this latter show seems to vary every year, and the Marina's website says little about it).
On the two or three times I've met Tim Coghlan I've found him very polite and amenable, but other times when he's not been there I've found his staff's reception frosty and unwelcoming - I guess they don't suffer me gladly and must be friendlier to others.
[Thanks to Ken Kuester for alerting me to this]
Interesting last paragraph there, the only time Sandy and I called into Braunston the staff couldn't have been more offhand if they tried.
To be honest if I never went back to that Marina it would be too soon, which was a shame because just about everyone else we've met - including yourself - during our short time on the canals have been very free with their time and advice.
Living off their reputation I think.
Posted by: Colin | Thursday, 06 November 2008 at 09:01 PM