Crick sun warms up share sales

It may not have been the weather at Crick on Saturday and Sunday that made the difference, but sales of shares in new shared ownership narrowboats were clearly warming up.

Visitors pick up their overshoes
before viewing Oakmere

First to report this surge of interest was BCBM, who had their new tug style boat Oakmere on show - and available for share purchase for the first time.  During the first two days of the show, 7½ shares were sold and there was a relentless stream of visitors wanting to view her.

Andrew Barton, BCBM's MD, told me, "Never in a million years would we have expected to sell so many shares in such a unique boat in the first two days of the show.  The comments we've received have just blown us away and, as the shares are priced at £10,950, it just goes to show that there is a strong market for such a special boat.  Previously owned shares were also in demand."

Some of the new owners of
Harmonia celebrate the launch
with Julia Bradbury

When I spoke to ABC, the story was the same.  Their new boat Harmonia, launched at the show by TV presenter Julia Bradbury, had only three shares left by midday on Sunday.

Solace, the latest shared ownership boat
from Carefree Cruising, is due to be
launched at the end of the show

Also reporting a very successful show was Carefree Cruising, whose new boat Solace was in the static display section.  Carefree Cruising does not have a fixed syndicate size, but 38 of the 48 available weeks had already been taken by Sunday afternoon.

This is all a very welcome change from shows earlier in the year, which were blighted by poor weather.