history of the maggie jean | voyage | mso boatyard | plumbing & electrical | exterior | overall interior stuff | final details

The Maggie Jean used to be the Hesperus 2, but before that she was called the Mythago. The Mythago was painted dark green and yellow, which is a bit surprising given the colours she was painted when I bought her.

She actually looks very well looked after in these pictures, and the colour scheme is quite nice too. The interior wasn't bad either - quite roomy, but with two rather inexplicable bulkheads at either end which, although they made nice, neat interior walls, seemed to do nothing but reduce the interior space.

Click on the images on the right for the full size picture.

Having bought the Mythago, Suzie clearly decided a more extroverted colour scheme was in order, so completely repainted her in the bright green, red and yellow she was when I bought her. She also changed the name to Hesperus 2 - apparently her Dad had once owned a boat called the Hesperus. Someone also told me it was the name of a famous wreck, but I haven't really bothered to research it.

The most drastic changes she made, though, were to the interior. Most of the things she did were really good ideas - removing most of the interior bulkheads to open up the space, for example. In doing this she made the overall space bigger, and made the whole kitchen/living area open plan, which helps too. The other clever change she made was to raise the bed considerably higher, thus creating loads more storage space.

The only real problem I have with what Suzie did was the quality of the craftsmanship. Basically, she did all the right things in an incredibly ramshackle fashion, which left the whole boat looking a bit of a state once all the stuff was removed. But if you look at the picture - left - of the interior when she lived aboard I get the impression these things didn't show up all that much.

Damian bought the Hesperus from Suzie about three years ago or so. He initially moved aboard and had lots of plans for rebuilding some of the rough-and-ready interior details and really smartening her up.

Damian's plans, although sound enough in themselves, were ultimately undone by a woman. He was ambushed by marriage, a child, and the onset of domesticity. Unsurprisingly, Kirsty wasn't entirely thrilled at the idea of spending her married life and raising a child aboard a narrowboat on the Thames, so the Hesperus rather drifted off the radar at this point.

The net result of this was a boat largely left to decay for several years, with the accumulation of Suzie's handiwork and Damian's altered priorities turning the Hesperus into something of a rusting wreck by the time I decided to involve myself.

But, I figured, what the heck!

history of the maggie jean | voyage | mso boatyard | plumbing & electrical | exterior | overall interior stuff | final details