Narrowboat

The boat management company Ownerships was a large company in the shared boat ownership world, managing over 100 boats. Its collapse earlier this year left it owing £1.8m in debts, including to the 100’s of owners (maybe 1000+ as the majority of boats had 12 shared owners) has led some to believe that “the public will have lost confidence in buying shares in either new or old boats in a once thriving industry”. With Challenger Syndicateships collapsing in 2008, that’s two major players in as many years, but does it really mean the future is bleak?

There are the 100+ boats cut free wondering which direction to go next and what to do for the long term. Many will have been self-managing these last couple of months until their boat syndicate can decide what route to take, but some have already found a new management company. There are several companies that have expressed an interest in offering management services to ex-ownerships boats – the ones I’m aware of so far include ABC Boat Management, BCBM, Carefree Cruising, Kate Boats, and Norbury Wharf. In addition I received a prospectus from a newly forming company Ownashare Cruising, being run by ex-Ownerships management. So a plethora of options for syndicates wanting to be managed, and additionally some will take the option to manage their boat themselves.

For many owners boat management means the ease of simply turning up at the start of your holiday knowing the boat will be ready whilst knowing its your own boat you use each time, and that it is worth paying a management fee plus additional costs for this. The range of companies expressing an interest to offer management, indicates it is a profitable business. Indeed at the Ownerships General Meeting in May that almost filled the 1200 seater auditorium, they stated that the business model of shared boat management was profitable, as well as willingness to set up a new company if there was enough interest. They received enough response that they “expect to have in excess of 600 members” join the new company.

So will Ownashare simply take over from where Ownerships left off and pick up over half the boats? It is hard to say, there are those who have expressed bitterness at losing money through Ownerships who have publicly stated they have no faith in a new company with the “old team”, and those who have expressed support at the General Meeting for a new company being set up. It’s probably reasonable to expect that some boats will have owners in both camps, and as there needs to be 100% agreement in a syndicate to go with them there could be some hot debates ahead.

On the 16th March we were cruising through Birmingham, my previous post described our trip along the Tame Valley Canal, and now the diary continues. The cruise along the Tame Valley was very straight forward, and at the junction we turned south towards Pudding Green Junction. Last July we had taken the TVC route and turned north at this junction up to Walsall itself and it had been slow going due to a lot of vegetation growth making the canal shallow, this time I was hoping the southern section was more used – indeed it was and we soon reached Ryder’s Green Locks. There are several decent mooring spots around Birmingham and my “plan” was really to see what time I got to Puddling Lane junction and choose then. On reaching the first lock we found some rubbish inside, not to be unexpected as there is a fairly strong wind so the odd bit will be blown in. I must have snagged on something in the lock as the boat handling felt strange as I went into the pound above. I did try shaking it off with a few blasts in reverse, but it wasn’t helping and as the entrance to the next lock was in a bridge hole it was fairly easy to stop there and clear the weed hatch out. It turned out to be a fair bit of plastic, fishing line, and assorted rubbish. Once cleared we carried on, opened up the lock gate to be welcomed by a blanket of discarded cans and general litter. Its almost as if someone tipped a bin liner full in! I guess its a case of proceeding with caution then. The pound above the second lock was fairly low, as its a short pound could easily be done by someone letting water out “for a laugh” or maybe just a leaky lock below? We went fairly quickly through the rest of this flight of eight locks using the leapfrog locking method of one going ahead to set the next lock whilst another operates the lock we’re in, as there was no other traffic about, exiting the top lock at 16:25.
Above the locks the canal junctions onto the Wednesbury Old Canal, and although I did contemplate going up the Ridgeacre branch we carried on to Pudding Green Junction and onto the Main Line (Birmingham Level). Rather than go all the way into the city centre I thought I’d head on up to the Wolverhampton Level as there’s mooring spots there. So at Bromfield Junction we went up the three Spon Lane locks. The entrance to the first had a carpet of rubbish, oh joy was this the litter trap for the Birmingham Level Main Line? It was a scene repeated at all three locks though, maybe they haven’t been used much recently? We left the top lock onto the Wolverhampton Level at 17:30 and decided to head for the Engine Branch moorings. I think some of that rubbish at the locks had become attached, so we just took our time. The Branch isn’t that far away and we reached the top of Smethwick Locks just after 6pm. There is secure mooring spot here, but its secure as in no-access to the surrounding area, but I wasn’t sure if there was accessible mooring at the end of Engine Branch (after all Ocker Hill is supposed to have secure visitor mooring), so we moored whilst I took a walk up the branch. I found there was long term mooring with a footpath gate accessible with a BWB key, so I quickly went back to get the boat as it was starting to get dark. We went up the branch and past all the long-term moored boats to find visitor moorings at the end. Very nice they are too with a “Sanitary station” with washing machines and showers.

As usual here’s a nice video version:

We had spent the night of 15th moored at Cuckoo Wharf, and can recommend it as a secure site, though off-site amenities are limited – there’s a take-away and a Working Men’s Club for food, though I suppose you could walk to Star City and go to the cinema. We set off just after 9am, initially thinking of reversing the whole way back to Salford Junction, but a boater on the long term moorings at the wharf saw what I intended to do and informed me that you can wind at one of the old wharf bridges below the wharf. I hadn’t even thought of trying as usually many of these have been blocked off. So, thanking him, I set off, turned round and headed back to Salford Junction. Once we got there we turned onto the Tame Valley Canal. We had done TVC in July 2009, but as the camera I was then using for time lapse had bust shortly after we started along the canal, I wanted to try again.

On this trip through Birmingham we were aiming to head up through Wolverhampton Locks and onto the Shropshire Union Canal. My planning, as such as it was, mainly consisted of segmenting the whole route to see roughly where I’d need to be after each day’s cruise, tomorrow’s cruise should take us up Wolverhampton Locks so tonight I needed to stay somewhere after coming off the Tame Valley and before them. Okay, bravado license, I’d actually spent a fair bit of time finding out where was good to moor, I just hadn’t chosen specifically where to stop. This was because reality can be different from information on the web, and what at one point may have been a good place for visitor mooring may not now be. It is possible to get from the City Centre out to Aldersley Junction in a day, so I was thinking that I could take a route back towards the centre and check out possible points along the way.
Tame Valley Canal starts from under a mass of M6 motorway bridges, with massive pillars lodged in the bed of the canal, which gives you a dilemma “which side” – you can religiously stick to one side or maybe weave and alternate between. Once through we got to Perry Barr bottom lock, the first of 13 on this flight that change the hight of the canal by 103 feet. I say flight, its all the locks on the Tame Valley, the first pair are closed together then there’s a long pound of over a mile before the next lock, so you’d expect the first pair to be named differently.
After going through the first two whilst we are still in an industrial part of Birmingham it doesn’t seem to encroach onto the canal ans its a pleasant trip, there are even locals out walking along enjoying the sunshine. Next up we pass under the M6 motorway again, it seems the canal and motorway are entwined as it crosses over the canal a few times until the full flight of locks takes us high enough that it runs parallel with us for a section. The canal now has a towpath on both sides of the canal, or so the map says, I suppose its more accurately to say you can walk along either side but one has a wider path. Perry Lock 3 starts the flight proper and we progress up four locks passing another iron bridge in the towpath showing that at one time there was a wharf there, before saying hello to the M6 as it passes over once more as we continuing on. Perry Barr locks 7 to 13 are all together within about half a mile of canal.
We haven’t met any boats on this canal so far and the locks seem to be set against us, so on this section we operate a method of setting the lock ahead, that is opening the paddle to empty whilst we are ascending the lock below. It does involve more walking, but not much as the locks are close, and does speed up progression through the locks. We got through Perry Barr Top Lock, the last on this canal, at 12.40pm so we were doing quiet well.
There’s a small supermarket not far from the top lock, so we despatched a crew member to get some supplies whilst we went through the final lock. From here we have a long lock-less stretch, allowing us to have lunch on the go. The canal above the locks starts off in a cutting though land drops down to canal level every so often to give you a glance of life beyond, making this a well hidden canal. This all changes after the junction with the Rushall Canal (which takes the BCN on its most northerly, still navigable, route) as the hills fall away and you can see out across the residential areas of Birmingham. The M5 motorway passes over the canal just before the junction, and under the canal just after as it has its own junctions with the M6. The M6 travels parallel to the canal for a while, and can be seen best when you pass over an aqueduct. Indeed, if you time your passage right you could wave to drivers stuck in one of the frequent traffic jams as you cruise on by . We continued along the canal and then reached Tame Valley Junction by 2.30pm and turned left onto Walsall Canal.
Here’s a time lapse video covering the length Tame Valley Canal, compressing over 5 hours canal time into under 10 minutes.

I meant to post this before, but been a but busy and it slipped my mind . The old Ownerships forum was seen as not-fit-for-purpose and in light of the company going under and the website being pulled, some owners decided to set up on another existing forum Boats and Canals as a sub forum and many existing owners have since also joined. I’m on there as a moderator, so if people have problems they can contact me. The sub forum was initially named Ownerships, but has now been generalised to Shared Owners, since although many people are from boats that were managed by Ownerships and that a new “OS2″ company is planned, some boats are going to be managed elsewhere and some managing themselves.

After my last post, it does seem that as there are many people who didn’t attend the meeting (and may well find the Ownerships forum too busy/muddled) and don’t know what happened. Hopefully the links do point out what went on (I could have reiterated it again, but it seemed succinct enough), but essentially Anthony Trueman explained that as Allan Mathews embezzled £1.8million which could rise to mean the Ownerships have a £4m debt, the company is to be wound up. A transcript, or maybe just a summary, of the meeting is to be posted out to all owners this week so everyone should at least know what’s going on. It is going to be reported to various places such as The Serious Fraud Office so that no-one is under the illusion things are being pushed under the carpet, but essentially any owner investing in the various schemes has probably lost their money (as Ownerships has no cash left, and its main asset is now the bank’s), additionally all owners (including those who never joined any scheme and just boated) have lost their sinking fund.
The meeting was also discussing a new company, which before the meeting I was highly sceptical of (you hear about people who declare bankruptcy to clear their debts and reopen with their wife as a director), but was convinced by the meeting – I’m sure I’m not alone. The core business model of Ownerships : managing boats for a fee (not to mention the share sales of new build boats, and brokerage of re-sales of existing shares) is a profitable one – if it wasn’t there wouldn’t be other companies out there offering to take over boats wanting to bail. After Challenger Syndicateships went under their new management company paid the receiver £20K so they could take over managing! Luckily we own our own boats (it was mentioned that a paragraph in the ownership document says that Ownerships keeps our boats in trust, to which Anthony Trueman said he would look into and agree to sell back to each owner for a nominal fee of £1).
So a company goes bust, should we trust a new company? Well the meeting was mainly a Q&A which included about the “potential” new company and to ask whether owners to consider if they wanted the new company to go ahead – without support from owners waning their boats to be managed there is no business! The new company would be a mutual – because Joan Linderman, the new director who was left the poison chalice of OS in Allen’s will, feels sorry so many people were duped so aims for shares be allocated equal to the debt owed. These shares will initially be worthless, and we don’t have to invest, but it is hoped they will give dividends and so accrue value over time. I would assume that people will be asked if they want to receive the shares and can refuse. Transparency is to be the watchword of the new company, with monthly accounts to be publicly available so that miss use of funds couldn’t happen or would be noticed quickly (the downfall of Ownerships was Allen Mathews kept funds into accounts he didn’t keep records for and used like some Vegas gambler to invest in new “big schemes” in the hope the next one would reap enough to repay everyone back). This was roughly all the detail given really, because at this stage they just want an indication as to whether to go ahead and set it up, if so then a proper prospectus would be produced. Anthony Trueman also outlined that his involvement would be purely to set the company up, and afterwards he was aiming to walk away – his professional advice had been that Joan Linderman didn’t have to accept Allen Mathews’ “gift” of ownerships, but had stayed on (unpaid) to sort out the mess as a favour.
As a final element I would like to extend my thanks to Ownerships staff – there has been many, probably libellous, things said about how Ownerships staff “must have known”, but some were there at the meeting on Saturday, and all the staff had been continuing to work trying to help owners in all this mess, even though they would not be paid (as they are paid monthly on 12th). I ask you, how many would, once being told that the company is going under because it has no funds and you won’t get paid, would carry on helping increasingly frustrated and probably irate client base.