safeway56

Good Afternoon...I live 'oop north close to the Sankey / St Helens Canal and we locals are having a heated debate on whether or not it was possible to navigate this canal using sails and windpower....Although it is / was a wide canal and had locks there are many paintings showing Mersey Flats sailing the canal usually with enough rigging to do a Trans-Atlantic voyage....I maintain this is artistic licence and it would be impossible to do in practical terms because even though it is quite a wide canal the boat would soon be blown into the bank and would be stuck there for evermore. Am I right or are the others right ?