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| Thames pageant: Broad-minded crew fulfil ambition in royal parade | Thames pageant: Broad-minded crew fulfil ambition in royal parade |
| (30 days later) | |
| The rain which had threatened all day finally settled in as Broad Ambition, the renovated Norfolk Broads cabin cruiser crewed by cheery Yorkshire folk, passed under Westminster Bridge. | The rain which had threatened all day finally settled in as Broad Ambition, the renovated Norfolk Broads cabin cruiser crewed by cheery Yorkshire folk, passed under Westminster Bridge. |
| It did little to dampen the spirit on board. An hour earlier as we set off downstream from Putney, with a sliver of hope that a slightly lighter grey sky presaged sun, a voice beside me murmured: "Ooh look, it's marvellous isn't it? You don't need the sun to have fun." | It did little to dampen the spirit on board. An hour earlier as we set off downstream from Putney, with a sliver of hope that a slightly lighter grey sky presaged sun, a voice beside me murmured: "Ooh look, it's marvellous isn't it? You don't need the sun to have fun." |
| Just as well. By Blackfriars as the line of cruisers, Dunkirk ships, floating gin palaces, dinghies and skiffs slowed to a stop with the queue backed up, the rain was sweeping up the river in stair rods. | Just as well. By Blackfriars as the line of cruisers, Dunkirk ships, floating gin palaces, dinghies and skiffs slowed to a stop with the queue backed up, the rain was sweeping up the river in stair rods. |
| Under Tower Bridge it was torrential and then, a few moments later, under an awning on her gold-encrusted barge, there was the small white-clad figure who is the focus of the jubilee celebrations, motionless and distant. | Under Tower Bridge it was torrential and then, a few moments later, under an awning on her gold-encrusted barge, there was the small white-clad figure who is the focus of the jubilee celebrations, motionless and distant. |
| Charlie Griffin, skipper of the Broad Ambition and an ex-navy man, had coached the passengers and crew: sodden straw boaters off at Hip! Hip! then waved in a circular clockwise motion on Hurrah. Times three. Her Majesty probably could not hear. | Charlie Griffin, skipper of the Broad Ambition and an ex-navy man, had coached the passengers and crew: sodden straw boaters off at Hip! Hip! then waved in a circular clockwise motion on Hurrah. Times three. Her Majesty probably could not hear. |
| It did not matter: they had seen the Queen, the culmination of the two-hour, seven-mile trip down the river – and for the crew, mainly from Doncaster, the high point of their 15-year quest to buy, renovate and sail their cruiser. | It did not matter: they had seen the Queen, the culmination of the two-hour, seven-mile trip down the river – and for the crew, mainly from Doncaster, the high point of their 15-year quest to buy, renovate and sail their cruiser. |
| For Griffin, now 51, his love of cruising the Broads started as a seven-year-old after his mum won a beauty contest at a Norfolk holiday camp with a week's cruise in the Broads as her prize. | For Griffin, now 51, his love of cruising the Broads started as a seven-year-old after his mum won a beauty contest at a Norfolk holiday camp with a week's cruise in the Broads as her prize. |
| The search for a cruiser he could part-own started in the mid-90s when he and some navy friends began their quest for a cheap secondhand boat and ended with a complete wreck, which ultimately cost them five years' work and more than £60,000 painstakingly to rebuild. | The search for a cruiser he could part-own started in the mid-90s when he and some navy friends began their quest for a cheap secondhand boat and ended with a complete wreck, which ultimately cost them five years' work and more than £60,000 painstakingly to rebuild. |
| The Broad Ambition, which when it was built in 1966 was the timber-framed template for a host of fibreglass models, is once more the gleaming pride of the Broads. "You can't tell what it cost us in blood, toil, tears and sweat, thousands of hours, a marriage, coats of paint," said Griffin, who now runs a tiling business. "But if someone had said to us, Griff, you're going to float down river in front of the Queen, well, it don't get better than that, does it? You can't be Royal Navy and not be a royalist." | The Broad Ambition, which when it was built in 1966 was the timber-framed template for a host of fibreglass models, is once more the gleaming pride of the Broads. "You can't tell what it cost us in blood, toil, tears and sweat, thousands of hours, a marriage, coats of paint," said Griffin, who now runs a tiling business. "But if someone had said to us, Griff, you're going to float down river in front of the Queen, well, it don't get better than that, does it? You can't be Royal Navy and not be a royalist." |
| With him on board were partner Laureen, ex-naval reserve, younger brother Howard, ex-submariner and chief engineer on board, Dave Dalton, 24 years in the navy and now a health and safety instructor to army recruits, and other partners and friends who helped the renovation such as Griffin's nextdoor neighbour Steve Wright, a painter and decorator, who supervised the painting of the boat – ardent monarchists all. | With him on board were partner Laureen, ex-naval reserve, younger brother Howard, ex-submariner and chief engineer on board, Dave Dalton, 24 years in the navy and now a health and safety instructor to army recruits, and other partners and friends who helped the renovation such as Griffin's nextdoor neighbour Steve Wright, a painter and decorator, who supervised the painting of the boat – ardent monarchists all. |
| As we passed downstream, Dalton wielded a brass megaphone. "We love you Battersea … Lambeth … London" he bellowed to those lining the banks and perched on the balconies of the apartment blocks. They waved and cheered back. | As we passed downstream, Dalton wielded a brass megaphone. "We love you Battersea … Lambeth … London" he bellowed to those lining the banks and perched on the balconies of the apartment blocks. They waved and cheered back. |
| If the crowd was perhaps thinner than it might have been a week earlier in the sun, it was still substantial. There were Commonwealth flags among the crowds but it was a distinctly white experience, exemplified perhaps by the gentleman in plum-coloured trousers waiting at Putney pier early in the morning for a water taxi to take him to his boat. "We're frightfully obedient," he assured the security checker. "Except for parking and speeding." | If the crowd was perhaps thinner than it might have been a week earlier in the sun, it was still substantial. There were Commonwealth flags among the crowds but it was a distinctly white experience, exemplified perhaps by the gentleman in plum-coloured trousers waiting at Putney pier early in the morning for a water taxi to take him to his boat. "We're frightfully obedient," he assured the security checker. "Except for parking and speeding." |
| Reflecting on the long struggle to create his dream Broads cruiser and parading it for the Queen, Griffin murmured: "This is what happens when dreams come true." | Reflecting on the long struggle to create his dream Broads cruiser and parading it for the Queen, Griffin murmured: "This is what happens when dreams come true." |
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