Two speeding hire boats sink narrowboat

TWO hire boats manned by drunks speeding against each other swamped and sank a resident's boat leaving him homeless.

This happened on the Kennet & Avon Canal near Bradford on Avon with the two passing hire boats causing such a bow wave they swamped George Ward's narrowboat causing it it sink, Alan Tilbury reports.

Without success

Fellow boaters attempted to raise the boat but without success, with a campaign being launched to pay for it to be raised and cleaned-out.

The two boats were manned by drunken young men who had already abused other boaters on the moorings when told to slow down, but came back at, according to one witness, at full throttle, that then swamped George's narrowboat causing it to sink.

Crashed into boats

The men were obviously not in fuill control as they crashed into boats as they sped past.

The two boats had been hired from ABC Boat Hire of Alvechurch in Worcestershire.