Roseann

Roseann was the Bridge 19-40's only boat until 2006 and as such she had to fulfil many roles. We used her as a work boat to collect litter from the canal and its banks, we used her to give people boat trips and she was our main means of raising money. Quite a versatile little lady in fact.  She is basically a metal box about nineteen feet by five and is powered by an outboard engine which, it has to be said, had been less than reliable and in fact, in October 2003 we got a grant form Awards For All to buy a bigger better outboard.  Roseann had a canopy which not only gave her some style but helped keep the rain off. The canopy , which was made by Peter Brock, was also showing signs of wear and a new one was specially made for us by Sail Loft at Port Edgar. . See new canopy photos

Roseann has been far travelled this year (2003). Not only has she pottered about her home waters, she has been hired by members for  visits to the Bridge Inn at Ratho and has been to the Wheel - a long way for a wee boat.

The first Scottish Boat Show was held in August and BW asked the canal societies  to give members of the public free boat trips. This was too good a chance to  miss and plans were made! Fortunately, when we heard about the show, Roseann was undergoing a strip down and repaint etc and we reckoned that if we got our skates on she would be ready in time. Ian McDougall volunteered to take her through to Falkirk and he, with his sister and daughters on board set off on a nice sunny morning. Fortunately, Roseann had a support vessel (Gamebird) as the engine decided to stop working just after Lathallan bridge. Very mindful of the fact that we were now running  behind schedule to get down the wheel that night (Gamebird was being moored on the Forth and Clyde for the show), we attached Roseann to Gamebird with cross straps and towed her the rest of the way. We kept BW informed of our position and they very kindly let Gamebird down the staircase and wheel at 7pm that night. Roseann was left chained up at the top of the staircase where she would do boat trips in the company of the Kelvin from Edinburgh Canal Society.

Investigation the next day revealed that a sheer pin was bent and stuck in the prop and could not be removed using the tools to hand. BW came to our rescue by lending us their outboard for the event. This enabled Roseann to carry several hundred passengers over the three days of the show and by assiduous can rattling and by sponsorship from Canal Boat magazine, we raised enough money to make the trip worthwhile.

During the following years, Roseann made trips to the Lancaster canal and the Grantham canal.

However, on returning from the Grantham canal in May 2006, Roseann started to leak when w put her back in the Union canal. Investigation showed that her metal base was showing the signs of her age and several small holes had appeared. She was put back on her trailer and there she stayed while we discussed what to do with her. She was the Society's first boat and no one wanted to part with her but we couldn't afford the cost of repairing her. After exploring lots of blind alleys, we contacted BAe Systems (now BVT Surface Fleet) in Govan, Glasgow and they agreed to repair Roseann. However, when they saw her, they decided to build us a new boat! This they did to the same measurements as the old Roseann so that the canopy would still fit. Iain and I were delighted to see what a wonderful job the apprentices had made of her when we went to collect her in September (2007). She will start her passenger carrying role again on Sunday 5th of October when we will use both boats for our trip day.