Name Rudd

RUDD is a motor narrowboat, built by W. J. Yarwood & Sons Ltd. at Northwich in 1936. She was commissioned by Fellows, Morton & Clayton and operated under fleet number 323. RUDD was part of a class of vessels named at this time after freshwater fish. She was built as a bare hull and Fellows Morton & Clayton fitted her out and put the cabin on at Saltley, in Birmingham. RUDD was launched in February 1937 as a single motor, intended to work alone without a butty or tow. She traded for Fellows, Morton & Clayton until nationalisation and then worked for the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive which later became the British Waterways Board. After 1963, she was transferred to the maintenance fleet. Her hull has wrought iron riveted sides and her three inch thick elm bottom is held by steel bolts through the chine angles. She has a counter stern and a raked curved stem. The current engine is an inboard two-stroke, single cylinder, semi-diesel which was originally fitted to FMC ASTER, built in 1931. It was made by Bolinder Co. of Sweden in 1929, model B9M10 and has fifteen brake horsepower. RUDD has now been restored and, since 1980, the bottom, gunwales, engine room, back cabin, foredeck and running gear have all been replaced to original specifications. The engine room was rebuilt as seven feet long which is representative for this type of vessel, although RUDD, like others of her class, originally had an engine room of only five feet.