Manchester Blog

This is aimed at those who’d love to live in houseboats, own their own liveaboard, maybe run their own boat charter or have their own sea-going fishing boat.

This post is slightly unusual as a Manchester friend has asked me to see if you’re interested in his pride and joy, a 20 metre 14 berth launch.

So here goes…

The Osprey Liveaboard

The boat is an ex-RAF launch called Osprey. My friend is an ex chief engineer who loves to make things work exactly right. So he’s taken a long time making it into a comfortable liveaboard for divers and he’s run Osprey as a boat charter operation.

He got the boat approved in early 2005 and she chartered in the Western Isles, in Scotland, during that season and was due to return for the 2006 season.

Unfortunately due to serious health problems in the family he wasn’t able to take the Osprey out in 2006 and she was moved to Yoker, Glasgow where’s she’s been cared for ever since.

The family’s health issues remain unresolved and as he’s now reached retirement he and his wife are reluctantly putting the Osprey onto the market.

Some Liveaboard photos

View Full Album

A Bit Of Boating History!

The boat was built in 1959 by Saunders Roe in Anglesey for the RAF as a rescue target towing launch.

She was stationed in Portrush (Northern Ireland) servicing the North Atlantic until 1968. She was then transferred to the Royal Navy as a fast despatch craft for the Commodore of the Clyde.

She was stationed in the Grand Harbour, Greenock, until 1984 when she was sold and converted into a dive vessel, with dive platform at the back and accommodation for 12 divers, plus crew and captain. You can see the layout and accommodation in the picture below:

Liveaboard Layout and Boat Accommodation

The boat is 20 metres long with a beam of 6 metres and a draft of 1.7 metres and weights 43 tons.

If you’re interested in knowing more about the boat, including equipment  email me at Osprey at acornservice dot com. Alternatively just leave me a comment!

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Well we had a beautiful day on Thursday, 4th June. Friday was great until about 4pm and then the heavens opened.

Today? Well Saturday is looking gloomier.

Basically, today’s weather has been a lot more of the same. It’s chucking it down. I can see a couple of very bedraggled marshals standing at the front of the main gates.

It has brightened a little since about 8:30am but it is still pouring down.

Luckily the concert site is up on a rise so there is reasonable drainage down into the rest of the park.

Hopefully, the weather will clear but at the moment it looks as though it wants to keep going all day.

Good luck if you’re coming to the concert today!

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Situated where we are we can’t hear the Oasis gig at all, as the concert is on the Bury Old Road side of the park.

Two of Kay’s cousins borrowed a small bit of our drive to park their car and went to the concert.

Their verdict? Fantastic!

Our verdict on the how everything seemed to work?

Traffic appeared to keep moving and there didn’t seem to be the horrific traffic jams we all expected.

There was an enormous amount of people walking around Middleton Road but the park and ride buses seemed to be working well.

Having said that the Middleton Road main gate wasn’t really the focus of foot or car traffic as most people were channeled out of the gig through the Bury Old road gates and the Sheep Foot Lane one.

I know the plan was that tram passengers should make their way to Bowker Vale to get their trams home. That is they wouldn’t be able to use the closer Heaton Park tram station, possibly because it’s smaller than Bowker Vale. All I can say is I hope Metrolink laid on special tram services with double carriages for everyone.

I suspect the traffic will be much more chaotic for the remaining Oasis dates at Heaton park if the weather continues nice, although the forecast is rather gloomy over the weekend: rain is expected.

Remember there are a vast raft of parking restrictions around the area. And as I said before the Heaton Park Sainsbury’s car park is closed to Oasis traffic and again the car park’s 8 foot high gates will close long before the gig finishes!

For those who want to see how the park is laid out check the Heaton Park map and note that there are now 2 further large gates for pedestrians to exit between the Grand Lodge entrance and the text saying Bury Old road on the left of the map at the bottom.

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I live right outside Heaton Park where the Oasis concerts are being held. Looking around the area my advice would be to use the park and ride facilities at Prestwich and elsewhere or to come […] Continue Reading…

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Heaton Park is still (probably) Europe’s biggest municipal park. I live near the main gates and obviously enjoy walks in the park with my children. Over the last few years there has been a lot […] Continue Reading…

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It’s a beautiful day here in sunny Manchester. A time when my mind turns to the wonders of modern government and how it affects the Mancunion. This "New" Labour government seems to have a […] Continue Reading…

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Yes folks, it’s that time of year again when thoughts turn to racing ducks. Once again Clayton Vale plays host to a fiercely contested duck race where the ducks are dropped off the bridge near […] Continue Reading…

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Well here we are once again, another hole in the road.

Over the weekend a few bollards were artfully displayed along one of the lanes on Middleton Road leading away from Manchester and towards the M60.

Today the bollards […] Continue Reading…

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As I checked Bury’s web site for the Radcliffe pool opening times I noticed that highly attractive phrase "free swimming." Apparently anyone who’s under 16 or above 60 can swim for free in Bury’s pools. It’s […] Continue Reading…

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Clayton Vale played host to a fun run today. Diane Modhal, the Auckland Commonwealth Games 800 metre gold medal winner had a hectic weekend as she kindly started the Clayton Vale Fun Run. The course […] Continue Reading…

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