Bluebell finally carries paying passengers!

When Roseann developed a leak after her trip to Grantham, we had to get Bluebell ready for use in a rush. This involved getting the front doors fitted, tidying all the tools etc into the store, cleaning the windows and most importantly, having Bluebell surveyed under the  Boat Safety Scheme. We were quietly confident that she would pass as all the time we had been restoring her, we had worked to the BSS standards and a few months ago we carefully checked each item in the BSS manual to make sure she would comply. She did! We then had to have her insurance changed from "a boat in fit out" to  "a passenger boat which could carry up to 12 passengers". This was all accomplished with a day to spare and we even managed to squeeze in a quick familiarisation trip for Chris and Ann who would be the drivers for the first trips.

The first trips were to be as part of Broxburn Gala day, June 2007,  when we planned to offer a water taxi service to the shows as well as round trips. In the event, it was such a wet day, that we only did round trips and carried very few passengers. However, Bluebell performed admirably and as chairman I felt really proud of her and I think all the hard work put in by so many club members over the last couple of years has paid off and we have a boat to be proud of. We still have fairly minor improvements we want to do and these are in hand. For example, Bill is making cratch to cover the front deck and when it is complete, we will have a canopy made to go over it. this will greatly increase the passenger area on wet days. When this is done, we will lay the floor coverings and hang the curtains. Oh, and Iain wants to do a bit of welding to strengthen the stern floor board supports.

A friend of Brenda has painted some beautiful bluebells and Brenda is having them framed to hang on the boat. We also have to make the list of our benefactors which we will also have framed  - so many people and organisations have been so helpful to us that we wish to let everyone know about them.

We are at last in a position  to look for customers who wish to charter  Bluebell.

The renovation of Bluebell has taken much longer than any of us anticipated at the outset but the work has all been done by club members in their spare time and it   has been done to a very high standard.

Well done to everyone who helped!

Here are some photos taken on the Broxburn gala day