Another day, another Matt...

Hello there,

To continue the introductions, I am also called Matt. To save confusion if you call or come to Tooleys, I am known as Mechanic Matt, amongst other things.

My career started on rather larger vessels, as after studying Mechanical Engineering (Marine Bias) at Plymouth Poly, I spent 15 years in RMNB Devonport working on Royal Naval and RFA Ships.

During that time my small boat experience was keeping the boats, and believe it or not the jet-skis, of the Dockyard Police afloat and ticking over.

My interest in Narrowboats was kindled by spending a day on one with friends on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, this developed into a full time commitment when I convinced my young lady to live on one with me.

I started working on the canals as a mechanic with a local hire fleet, and have been at Tooleys for a couple of years,

I think the main reason for my continued enjoyment of the job is the sheer variety of engines and ancillaries that Narrowboaters and builders tend to fit, so if you have something unusual or a strange problem bring it to us, we’d love to see it!

Occasionally on the blog I am going to mention a maintenance task to jog some memories, this isn’t meant to put me out of a job, just to help make my tasks easier if I come to work on your boat.

The first one I’ll mention is clean out your deck drains, a simple five minute task that will help make working in your engine bay a lot nicer.

Ok that’s all for now, oh and sorry for the odd photograph but photography is another hobby, a free oil filter for your engine for the first person to email the canal name and lock number it was taken in.

Mech Matt.