Andora appears throughout the historic enthusiast archive as Bob Tidy’s ongoing project: a high-standard Josher-style hull with a single-cylinder Bolinder 1051 that passers-by still notice for its sound. The modern site recovers that story in the same spirit as the other boat pages — clean prose, with photographs kept near the parts of the narrative they illustrate.
Hull and early names
The boat was built in 1972 by Dennis Cooper of Canal Transport Services at Norton Canes, Josher-style and to a high standard. Her early history after launch is incomplete in the archive notes. From August 1978 she was owned by Mike Pipes, who bought her impulsively after a hire-boat weekend and moored her at Davison Marine, Sawley on the Trent. At that time she was still called Jagney.
Mike remembered flat maroon paint that was flaking, later repainted green, yellow and red; a chemical toilet, 12 V power, pumped water that froze over the 1978/79 winter, a coal stove, a double bedroom at the rear, side hatches, aluminium-framed windows, and a removable chimney. Superstructure cladding was recalled as “Iolite”-type waterproof hardboard; roof leaks were treated with thick roof paint from the Sawley chandlery. A Bolinder workshop manual travelled with the boat and was insisted upon by the next buyer.
Mike sold the boat on 24 August 1979 — the day before his wedding — for £7,000 to Mr P. A. Bunn of Soberton, Hampshire (after an initial hesitation and a return visit). Bunn later sent a crate of shrubs from his garden-centre business. After August 1979 the name changed to Scotia (date unrecorded in the notes), and to Andora in 2004.
Refits and structure
In 1982 Braunston Canal Services replaced the wooden front cants with steel. In 1983 Mike Heywood at Great Haywood built the front cockpit and gas lockers and refitted the interior. Through the years the boat was used year-round when not being refitted, with cruises ranging from the Oxford, Llangollen, Caldon, Staffs & Worcs, Trent & Mersey, Stratford, Birmingham & Fazeley, Shropshire Union, River Soar, Ashby, River Thames and Grand Union systems — including a summer on the Llangollen (1980), Stoke-on-Trent Garden Festival (1985), and a run to Hemel Hempstead and the Aylesbury Arm (1991).
The Bolinder 1051
The engine is a Bolinder 1051, recorded in the archive engine page as number 1537 1077, and described as of about 1953 origin. Malcolm Braine suggested it may have come from the Thomas Clayton tar boat Seven; that link remains unconfirmed in the notes. Earlier owners remembered the single-cylinder Bolinder always attracting comment for its distinctive note, and starting well once you had the knack.
These engine photographs sat on the original “Andora’s Engine” page immediately after the type and serial identification — the same pairing kept here: identity first, then the hardware.
Bob Tidy and the ongoing project
By the mid-2000s the boat is documented under Bob Tidy’s ownership as an ongoing project on the original bolinder-engines.info site (gallery, projects index, and related pages). Related archive material also records Bob’s interest in other Bolinder hardware — including a “Labour of Love” wing-engine find and the long dismantling sequence for Bolinder 1051 No. 1001.
Andora is therefore both a named historic hull with a traceable ownership chain and a living Bolinder 1051 installation of the kind this site exists to document.
Story reconstructed from archive project pages (Bob Tidy / Andora, Andora’s Engine) and gallery notes. Ownership details after about 1992 were flagged as incomplete in the original text.