Electric Boats at Lowestoft

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Electric Boats at Lowestoft

Postby r_learmouth » 26 Dec 2007, 22:41

Hello, new to these forums after googling for Dreamland in Margate.

Does anyone have any information or photos of a very unusual ride at Lowestoft. It was a boating lake featuring elecric boats. The power was picked up from an overhead grid that operated exactly like a dodgem ride!

It was not part of an amusement park to the best of my knowledge just part of some gardens. But the concept is fascinating and the subject is surely worthy of discussion here?

It would have existed in the early 1970s. Im not sure how long it was there and I would guess it met its demise not many years after. The gardens are still there but the boating lake is long since filled in.

I have the faintest of recollections as a small child. But its still something we occasionally remind ourselves of all these years later.

Thanks!
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Postby Nick » 27 Dec 2007, 07:37

I didn't visit Lowestoft in the 1970s, but I know that a similar attraction operated at Dreamland. There is a photograph of the ride in the book 'Dreamland Remembered':

http://www.joylandbooks.com/books_secon ... mbered.htm

Can anybody else remember the Lowestoft version?
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Postby EAS » 27 Dec 2007, 21:11

Gary didn't get any answer to this query either:

http://www.joylandbooks.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78

Not the same type of ride of course, but someone's memory may be jogged.
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Postby r_learmouth » 01 Jan 2008, 22:52

Result! A Christmas slide show has turned up a photo of these boats at Lowestoft after all. I don't have any slide scanning facility (yet) so for now it's a very dodgy digital photo taken of the projected image.

I hope you enjoy this picture of a very rare ride - me and my Mum by the way. It's certainly stuck in my mind since childhood!

Image
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Postby Gary » 02 Jan 2008, 18:36

Fantastic photo!! :D

I love boat rides but have never seen a ride quite like this!

Did you steer the boats around a set course?
Please pass through the turnstiles if you are riding again.
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Postby SNPL » 03 Jan 2008, 10:07

Whoa,

Water Dodgems

exactly like normal dodgems except you piloted boats, and it was set in a tank.

Never thought i'd see a set of them again,

Cheers.
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