Place your bets -- where's going to be next?

P.S. Not blaming CRT for this, climate change isn't their fault... 😉 

Query: Have there been any measurements made as to how much water is saved by lock restrictions?

Nick

Please just post that lovely dawn photo today and more. Spring in Britain is beautifully photogenic, and as this goes on, so is summer, and then autumn, and winter. Share the views please. 

Don and Val

To start off, does anyone else experience what I might call "tiller shoulder"?  This is the second time I've hired a boat that left my shoulder in pain that lasts through the night and beyond.  Experiences, identified causes, remedies, and sympathetic grousing are all welcome.  

The field just the other side of the hedge is well below canal level which makes me wonder if the towpath level has dropped here almost to the point where water could start escaping.

Any thoughts?

P.S. I have reported it, with a photo, to CRT and suggested they take a look.

In a nutshell: I made an app for us boaters! Keep reading please

Do we need another app? Maybe or maybe not. The thing is I found myself keeping a record on a map of all the places I moored my boat. The reason was simple. I wanted to prove to CRT that I did enough miles so they could not say anything.

Managing everything with a custom map on Google was becoming quite boring so since I work as an Android Developer I thought about making an app.

Over the last year, I worked in my spare time to make Float. It’s a free and open-source app for Android (iOS will come next). I put the essentials in the first version but my idea is to have a “democratic” way based on a voting system to decide what to add next. There are foundations for making a really useful app for us so if you are interested in helping me please give me a shout. Please have a look and read about it, download it, play with it, and give me your honest feedback. And I hope it’s gonna be useful!

App link: Google Play

More info at: Float App website

I posted the app just today in the London Boaters FB group and someone posted about another app in alpha made by @Tasemu called Drift Diary. It's nice to see good ideas to improve our boat lives! I'm thinking it would be a good idea to join forces given we're essentially working in parallel? Float is open-source and the whole idea was to involve others, so let me know what you think 🙂

As you might expect, I don’t have a backup! I’ve reached out to the boat builder and am waiting to hear back, but if that doesn’t work I’d really appreciate some help – I’m looking for someone who can set it up from scratch. It’s not a straightforward job because it’s an electric narrowboat. I’m currently on the Shropshire Union.

Having completed our 2 week Chrismas trip to Birmingham we have decided that the matres on the boat probably needs replacing, can we  replace it with a standard matress or do we need a special boat matress (or are there certain features of a standard matress we need?

Happy New year to you all!

If a marina / mooring is at 75% capacity, the charge would represent 12%

The agreement says,

"The annual fee payable to us is calculated by multiplying your mooring rate (the rate charged to customers mooring in your marina) by an agreed gross mooring capacity (GMC) and then taking 9% of the resultant figure. Read our code of practice for determining GMC."

Or have I misunderstood the details?

If I'm right, what do contributors reckon is the average / typical % occupancy of the various mooring options?

Ta as ever for any insights.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/environment-agency-invites-boating-community-views-on-waterways?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=govuk-notifications-topic&utm_source=eb4cedb7-a74a-45c3-b39f-50ea00205fdd&utm_content=daily

Seems another consultation.

Bod.

Making an overly simple description so that I can understand the principal, let me make that simple description first before I ask my question:

Full Lock, empty side pond: Empty the top 1/3 of the lock into the empty pond, The pond is located between the 1/3 and 2/3 levels of the lock. Then empty the bottom 2/3 of the lock into the waterway below. On refilling the lock that stored 1/3 of a lockfull can be dropped into the bottom of the empty lock. The remaining 2/3s comes from the waterway above the lock.

That is easy to understand (I think!) but is not how side ponds actually work. Side ponds have two chambers with a dividing wall and separate sluices connecting them to the lock. So how do they really work?

https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/aintree-25-cruiser-stern-for-sale/833171




 

I wasn't around last summer so can't remember how long it was before anything reopened. Certainly the pounds down towards Leicester are low and empty but the summit looks OK. The CaRT site says they are waiting for reservoirs to refill but that could take months.  After 1st November stoppages start in earnest so I want to get clear by then. I thought there was back pumping at Watford locks but I don't know if they are using it. The only other option is a lorry but as the boat is nearly 100years old I am concerned  the transport could  loosen some  rivets but that might be the only option.

Can anyone elaborate?

Anything else on  that stretch to be mindful of?

Google has offered various suggestions but I'm still not sure what they were. Wondering if something seasonal like the flying ants. Windows and door open again this morning and none to be seen. 

Despite the published dimensions of 2.1m beam and 21.9 length, it would seem that CRT have not objected to these boats being moored at Dunchurch Pools [Onley "Monster Marina"] and Barby Moorings. On my return trip to Cropredy last week, I saw 4 wide beams in Dunchurch  and 2 in Barby.  The former's entrance from the canal has clearly been constructed to allow these boats to gain access and egress.

The local licensing officer even said there was nothing they could do. Really?  But let's look at the real issue, and disregarding the fact that only narrow beam boats can travel through Hillmorton Locks:  the canal profile is totally unsuitable for anything over 6ft 10" nominal beam!

Several pinch points exist which will render meeting a wide beam an accident waiting to happen include

a. the length between bridge 90 and 89, with 14 day mooring and overgrown offside vegetation,

b. between bridges 83 and 84, again overgrown vegetation on the offside, not to mention the slope of the towpath edge

c. the blind approach to bridge 80, only recently repaired. 

CRT have said they doubt if these boats will actually go out, but I do know that Dunchurch have constructed a wide beam slipway so we can expect movement along this 3 mile section.  I for one would not want to come up against a wide beam at the locations noted above.  An even worse scenario would be one going down to Hillmorton, finding they cannot go further the trying to reverse back to Tarry's bridge winding hole.

Maybe it is time to campaign for a narrows to be constructed at bridge 90 of 8ft beam.  I'm sure it would get the support of most narrow beam boaters.

We're travelling east on the K&A as we need to get as close to Milton Keynes, as soon as possible, for my girlfriends new job.

We had to stop for a couple of days, as our section of canal closed due to low water. As soon as CRT lifted the restriction we started moving again...

We didn't even get through the first lock at Great Bedwyn before we had two very aggressive boaters shouting abuse in my and my girlfriends face. They very strongly believed that all movement was banned until the 30th September and wouldn't listen to anything else.

We both avoid confrontation, are very placid, considerate people and new to boating. As such, we continuously offered these people (as politely as possible) the opportunity to explain to us what we'd missed and why we were wrong about the canal being reopened. This only resulted in them shouting more abuse and insults at us. It quickly descended to the point that it could've become physical.

Anyway, after a very tense hour or so of being abused at our first lock of the day. We confirmed (with a phone call to CRT) that the canal was indeed open as normal and we could proceed. Despite what the local boaters were trying to enforce by intimidation.

This has left me with a sour taste in my mouth and a very negative feeling about the boater 'community'. There's the two of us living in a cheap 90's 40'er, so it's not like we're swanning around in some massive, shiny new widebeam. We're very average people, just trying to get by, like everyone else.

I know I've got at least a fortnight of solo cruising to do once my GF starts her new job near MK and I'm now really wishing we didn't bother doing this at all.

These guys were insistent that the 14 day movement suspension notice meant that you're not allowed to move until 30th September. That's not how I read it at all.

What's the general opinion on the notice?

Can I move if CRT say the canal is open?

Or am I going to get (verbally / physically?) abused at every set of lock gates I have to stop for the next 3 weeks???

Thanks for reading.

Not surprisingly there has been an outcry from many of their members saying this is an attack on their freedom of speech and restricting healthy debate, but apparently the moderators are unrepentant. I think it’s likely many members will now leave and join this forum. 
 

This isn’t a joke btw. Here’s their new rule …