Taylors Boatyard : Lights Out

The Narrowboat after it was condemned by independent surveyors

Dry dock in daylight. Note the steep drops

After returning to the Chester moorings dry dock last night, our unhappy customer discovered all the lights had been cut in the dry dock making access to their home extremely dangerous. Nevertheless they negotiated the 15ft drops, numerous steps and wobbly ladder in the pitch blackness. They then dropped Peter Askey a very polite email once they had clambered on board requesting he took a look at the problem the next day. Better than waking him up in the small hours to check it out, right?

The dry dock with lights out. You can just make out a rolled up package on the top of the boat on the
bottom left

>> FFWD to Sunday morning, 9:15 am. The unhappy customer was rudely awoken by thunderous banging on the hull. After donning a dressing gown, they peered gingerly through the cratch cover to see what all the commotion was. The customer was greeted by a growling, bouncing thug swearing at them..yes, you guessed it, Peter Askey was on the rampage, "You have to send me an email to turn the f*****g lights on !!?? I want you out of this f*****g dock now !"

What an awakening. The customer had no choice but to dial 999 as the man was clearly imbalanced. Who knows what he may have done? The Cheshire police attended and advised him a more civilized approach would keep him out of jail.

So that was that, or so the customer thought. After the police had gone Peter Askey and wife Yvette were back to disconnect the power supply and deliver a letter, the contents of which I will divulge in the next installment...

Incon are due again within 24 hours to survey the hull damage. Our Unhappy customer had to check into a hotel in Chester due to lack of power, and the dock lights still out. The incident was reported to the Chester City Council Health and Safety Executive ref 101000415192