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If you are planning to take the Manchester Ship Canal (MSC) from Ellesmere Port to Salford Quays to avoid the Middlewich breach (June, 2018) and the damaged Marsh Lock onto the Weaver, this is what you need to know. I travelled this route on Friday 15/06/2018 on my narrowboat with one adult, a 13 year old and a dog. Another boater cruised solo on his narrowboat at the same time. This guide is aimed at those who have not transited the MSC before and who have limited experience on larger waterways. I'm very happy to hear your comments, experiences and suggestions and add them in. What you need: An anchor and sufficient chain (try to borrow one, as they are expensive and it is unlikely to be used). Tie to the front of the boat and make ready to deploy before setting off. Ropes for tying off in locks. The staff will dangle down ropes for you to tie yours onto, so don't worry too much about the length. Your surveyor will probably want to see that they're at least 15m long. Fire extinguishers. If you've passed your BSS, you'll have these already. A working horn. Personal floatation devices / life jackets for everyone on board. You're not going to fall in, but if you do, there's alot of water between you and the bank. Contrary to the Peel Ports Pleasure Craft Induction Pack, according to my surveyor, you do not need most of what they list. You are not permitted to transit during the night, or stop over, so lights are not necessary - especially colreg navigation lights. If you don't have them and don't want them, you don't need them. You do not even need a headlight. You do not need a VHF. Its actually easier to phone Eastham Control. Their number is: 0151 3274638. You do not need an admiralty chart or tidal almanac or a copy of the byelaws (although you will have a copy of that in the Induction Pack) Making Preparations: Download the Induction Pack Check out the map I made. Check stoppages. Remember the MSC is not operated by CRT. There's been a lot of long term stoppages recently. Check the Shropshire Union, Ellemere Port, MSC, Marsh Lock, Bridgewater (also non CRT) and Rochdale (if that's where you're heading). Your surveyor cannot be relied upon to know what is going on. I found out about the damage to Marsh Lock after I'd had my survey - the surveyor not only didn't know, but wasn't really interested in knowing. Organise your Certificate of Seaworthiness survey. Mine cost £50, plus £25 travel from a surveyor who lives in Middlewich - I found him listed in the induction pack. I've heard of people paying much more - but you don't have to. Frankly, £75 for a man to sign a piece of paper to say your boat will float and that you have an anchor etc is already a massive rip off. Fill in page 2 and 4 of the induction pack and send it with page 3 (completed by your surveyor) and a copy of your insurance policy to Paul Kirby msc-pleasurecraft@peelports.com 48 hours before you intend to travel. It will cost you £167 at the time of writing. Note that Paul almost never picks up the phone. Email is best. If you are planning to get onto the Bridgewater at Pomona Lock you will then need to contact BridgeWaterCanal@peel.co.uk stating the time/date you need it the lock opening. My suggestion (and the lock keeper's preference) is to overnight on Surrey Quays and go through Pomona at 8am the following morning. Include Owner/skipper name, Owner/skipper mobile tel, Owner/skipper email, Craft Name, CRT Index, Craft Length, Craft Width in your email. While entirely unnecessary to have 2 lock keepers to open a basic lock for you, Peel Ports not only insist on it, but will want £30 more for this "service". Captive market. At Ellesmere Port, there is a swing bridge going right over the lock you need to pass through to get onto the MSC. If you are planning to get onto the MSC at 8am, you'll need to arrange to get the bridge opened at 7:30am. Contact Cheshire West & Chester Council with 48 hrs notice on 07799 658814 or 07825 865944 during office hours. To berth in Ellesmere Port the night before you transit the MSC casts £4 per night. You can pay in the museum. The day before you transit contact Eastham Control (01513274638) to let them know that you're in position for transit the following morning. Follow their advise on what time you might leave. On The Day: Do your regular engine checks. Have you got enough fuel / oil / coolant? Cruising solo? Think about how you're going to manage ropes in the locks. How are you going to use the toilet if you need to? How are you going to eat? How will you deploy the anchor if you need to? You're not allowed to stop (unless its an emergency). Not that there's really anyone about to check. To save water in the locks and for safety, Peel Ports prefer to get narrowboats to transit at the same time. You might have to be flexible as to which day you're intending to travel. For example, if you're planning to travel on the Monday, but there's another boat coming in on Tuesday, they may ask you to wait another day. In this case, you can stop stressing and enjoy the museum which is full of interesting things. Peel Ports suggests breasting up with another boat for the transit for stability. Frankly I wouldn't bother unless you know the other boat and have lashed yours to theirs before. Contact Eastham Control to ask them if you're good to go. They do seem to try to not have you meet other traffic, especially huge ships. In our trip, there was gale force winds, so we had to wait until the following morning. Have a look at the map I made for a spot to moor in the lower basin. When you've got the go ahead, head out of the lower basin at Ellesmere Port and turn east (right). You're off! Cruising: Its pretty straightforward. Stick to the right of centre. I didn't meet any oncoming boats, but give them plenty of room if you do. My surveyor advised that after an oncoming boat has passed you, steer into its wake. Helps with stability. He also suggested that if a boat is coming up behind you and wants to overtake, turn your boat 180˚ to face it and then steer into its wake after it's passed you. Then turn again 180˚ so you're following it. The whole trip will take 8+ hours, depending on your speed and other traffic on the MSC. I found it useful to print out the map section of the Induction Pack to see what was coming up. There did seem to be a few pages missing from that document though, not that it mattered. I used google maps too to check my position. The signal was pretty good throughout for phone and 4g (O2). Locks: Are massive. Prepare to be overwhelmed. The lock keepers should be visible and on hand to advise. Follow their instructions. The lock keepers are not used to small boats. They will try to shout instructions at you from afar. Indicate if you cannot hear. They also do not understand how fragile small boats are in comparison to ships. There are big forces at play in these locks. Some of the lock keepers will be clear and give good instructions, others will stand around not paying attention while they smoke a cig. In all cases, we cruised through the lock almost to the top gates and moored on the left. This gets you out of the way of turbulence coming into the lock behind you. The lock keepers then dangled a rope down. We tied off our centre line, which for the most part was fine. Bear in mind that the infrastructure of these locks is not designed for narrowboats, but massive ships. Keep your wits about you. Keep your eyes open because frankly, you cannot rely on the lock keepers for the safety of your vessel. See troubleshooting below. Learn how to tie a sheet bend, or a similarly useful knot for connecting the dangled rope in the lock with your boat's rope. A reef knot can spill when pulled, which will set your boat loose in the lock. The locks take a fair while to fill. Plenty of time for a cuppa. Also plenty of time for you to start losing focus - you'll have already been cruising many hours by this point. Stay frosty. Trouble: Situations can happen faster than you can think. Make sensible preparations and keep sharp on the day. There's no great cause for preemptive alarm and panic, but let the following two stories give you a sense of how things can go wrong. Tying up in the lock. In the first lock, the guy on the other boat went in first. He tied off onto a ladder, as suggested by the lock keeper. This was a really bad move. The water rose fast enough to pull the knots tight and he ended up having to cut his new ropes off with a stanley knife. The lock keepers said that the rising water could not be reversed once the rise is in progress. If you're going to use a ladder to keep your boat in, pass your centre line round a rung and hold onto it. That way you can pull it out as the water rises. It is better to tie off to their dangled rope and hold onto that. Just keep an eye on where your bow is going. Lesson - DO NOT TIE! The top lock gates. In the last lock, the lock keepers were nowhere to be seen. They were busy smoking and chatting and throughout the process were not paying any attention. They casually told us to bring our boats right onto the top lock gates. This was a really bad move. A very small protruding piece of metal on the bow of my boat (which I could not see, as I was in the middle holding the centre line) got caught under one of the horizontal cross beams of the lock gate ahead. My stern rose out of the water. Water began rushing into the front of my boat. I had to pick up the dog and throw him to the other boater. Very very scary. I tried to pry my boat out from its snag with my barge pole, but only succeeded in shattering the pole. These are forces that are beyond our power to control. I was faced with a sunk boat, but finally, the lock keepers recognised the gravity of the situation and let some water out. The boat was freed. The piece of metal on my boat that had snagged is about the size of an pebble. Yes, I take responsibility for not paying enough attention. But please, do not rely on the lock keepers to look out for you, they are just not used to small boats and they're evidently not that interested in engaing with what's going on before them. Lesson - KEEP WELL AWAY FROM THE TOP LOCK GATES! At the end of day 1: We did a victory doughnut in the big water at Salford Quays, relieved to have made it without the boat sinking. There's plenty of do not moor signs initially, but eventually we found a spot (see my map). A man told me he'd lived there for 15 years and never seen anyone more there. It was quite nice. The other boater found a different spot. Salford Quays are not MSC waters. Day 2: Make your way to Pomona lock at the agreed time (8am for us). The lock keepers were a little early. They let us up onto the Bridgewater and we then cruised to Castleford where we moored for a few nights. Conclusion In the end, it was not hard cruising and not as scary as I'd imagined, especially once I was on the calmer waters the day after the high winds. It is a fascinating and remarkable work of engineering and history, with loads to see - incredible long vistas, bridges, massive locks and the decaying remnants of industrial past. In total the costs for me were as follows: £35 - Purchase and installation of horn (which will be useful in the future) £75 - Certificate of Seaworthiness survey (lasts a year btw) £4 - Overnight in Ellesmere Port £167 - MSC transit - Ellesmere Port > Manchester £30 - Pomona Lock Total - £311 The other boater spent over £500 because he purchased, rather than borrowed an anchor, fitted colreg nav lights, and his survey cost more. Total distance (according to my map) 51.9km / 32.2 miles I hope this document can help you with your preparations, but please note that you are responsible for yourself, your boat and all the people on it. Stay safe. Have fun. It is for sure a most epic adventure... Graeme Walker, June, 2018

From the esteemed Daily Mash... Clicky

Thank you, those are very fair questions to which I am happy to respond. Do you accept there has been a problem with mooring abuse at some or all of these sites? Yes If yes then what system would you like to see put in place to resolve the issue? The answer is a completely transparent and enforceable set of byelaws to control and prevent moorings abuse. The Environment Agency has been responsible for management of the River Thames since 1996 - a period of 22-years - and surely more than long enough to have got to grips with this problem before it escalated and they had to pretend to be taking action by farming it out to a third-party. The Environment Agency has a statutory power to create byelaws for this purpose under Section 233 of the Thames Conservancy Act 1932 and while it has tinkered with legislation on other matters has never taken the opportunity to use its powers to deal with this problem. Therein lies the real problem - EA incompetence. An appropriate byelaw, made after full consultation with all river users, would almost undoubtedly receive the approval of the Secretary of State quite promptly. A byelaw would make it a criminal offence to overstay the prescribed time limits and if, as is normal for this type of secondary legislation, penalties were set at the Standard Scale 3, fines of up to £1,000 could be imposed by a court and also create a criminal record for the guilty party. There would, I think, be very few that would risk such a clearly defined fully lawful penalty. This system works entirely satisfactorily on other EA managed waterways and abuse is much less frequent. A warning by a warranted EA river inspector backed by proper legislation inevitably persuades a vessel owner mooring unlawfully to move on. If no then are you happy for the abuse of the system to continue? No need to answer this one, I think.

But the TVM scheme has no basis in law. It may well be having some effect on use (both lawful and unlawful) of the moorings but can only be seen as a temporary fudge. You say that "overstayers are being dealt with" yet no £100 charge notices have been issued. The reason that no £100 penalties have been paid is simply that the EA, TVM, NSL, DE or any other of the seemingly ever-growing and totally confusing multitude of players in this elaborate charade know full well that it has no basis in law and is unenforceable. How long do you really think it will take the serious and serial abusers to catch on to this? Of course, the EA will then have someone else to blame for the mess. The EA has (or is empowered to create) the tools to do the job properly, i.e., lawfully and effectively and in line with its statutory duty to promote recreational navigation. Thames boaters should insist that after 22-years it starts to do just that.

Who know if they had a former. Sometimes its not needed.

How about if the new car was built by a chap on the canal bank to his own design including all the systems in it?

May I suggest it isn't Tim giving to the various charities but those who have paid the car parking fee.

Signwriting, when done properly, is a thing of beauty.

This is an incredibly cheap option if you find someone using Vinyl lettering and they give you the waste bits. It also helps if your boat is called the same as theirs. I've given Ron your details

A desirable canal side property.

Sometimes if the brakes were applied to sharply.

I thought the target was 50 that explains the raging queues of silver aldis ,sorry audis trying to get past me to the next traffic light, when i go for a drive in The country. I replaced my skoda vrs for i honda last week as part of my retirement . It has headroom for a hat. My new target speed is 40

No it can’t. I don’t believe any of them can because N & E are effectively the same thing, being bonded at some point (that exact point being determined by the particular earthing arrangement in use for that installation). You’ll note that the various arrangements of lights do not include “N-E Reversed”.

We moored at the Oxford East Street moorings about June last year. I don't remember signs stating I have to announce my arrival. If my memory serves me correctly it just said, like many other Thames moorings, first twentyfour hours free and a fiver thereafter. I can't remember if there was a limit to how many days but I'd expect there was. We paid the lockie at Osny Lock.

Do that and you wont be 'embracing' much else

good news is the land owner took your payment and have permission for you to be there. That absolutely trumps anything any third party may say.

Ah! Upper Class poo is much more solid that everyone else's - or were there some rivets in it?

London ? Saves moving and losing your 'spot'.

You say this, but start off in your first post saying you can't be bothered to search the forum. Not a great way of encouraging constructive replies. My advice would be buy a cheap(ish) boat to start with (say £25k) and just use it for a year or two. This way you'll learn what you really want in a boat. Until you've owned one, you won't know and your views and wants will change with experience. Trust me on this. You could easily blow £25k anyway making the changes you describe to the boat you like and then changing it back again later One further point, how do you think the pump-out tank gets emptied? Cassettes are not pleasant but pump-outs are worse. People seem to have to poke about through the bog hole with sticks and hoses to loosen the 'solids' when pumping out. Lovely! I've also had a bloke standing behind me in a marina near the pump-out and covered in effluent after a piumping out 'incident'. He was fuming in more ways then one lol!

I think you may have misunderstood the 'message'. As someone who has 'made a couple of trips on a boat' I (we) have no idea about your knowledge of the legal requirements of boat ownership and the need to either pay for a mooring, or to move every few days to a new 'place'. Rather than wait for the cry "its so unfair C&RT have taken my boat from me" it is better to assume you have minimum knowledge and provide the information so you can either say "thanks I already know that from my research", or "that's a big help I didn't know that". Here is a summary of actions taken (a couple of years ago) over a 12 month period by C&RT for overstaying / not moving enough : Refusal to renew licence and a restricted licence offered and accepted = 652 Boater 'changed habits' to comply and were issued with a full 12 month licence = 25 Boaters who accepted they cannot comply with the CC requirements and took a 'home mooring' = 131 Sold boat = 98 Still subject to ongoing enforcement action =56 Boat removed from network = 40 Still unlicensed = 47 Grand Total 1049 If you contravene C&RTs conditions / Licence conditions etc they act by cancelling your licence, they then take action / take you to court for not having a valid boat licence. The Government (DEFRA), local Councils and C&RT are currently undertaking a review of Boats / Boating in the London Area - it is unlikely to be beneficial for many of the boaters already in the area.

Hi Jack Listen to everyone on here then take heed!! Its 100k. Its very shiney, in a year or two it will not be so shiney. It is second hand the day you buy it and becomes an 80k boat. Do your self a favour buy a lovely secondhand ( Thats the term that we used for years till the bullshit term pre owned came in) boat for about 60k and with the fittings you already want and live with it for a year and find out what you realy like/need and spend the other 40k on something sensible like err beer

I can confirm its £20 per day for visitors to park. Entry to the Rally without a car is free. I have printed separate car park passes for Saturday and Sunday. Tim decided, against our advice, to double the parking charge. We don't advise trying to park in the village, you may find the residents will make it very difficult to find a parking space. We have 79 Historic Boats already registered and from previous years experience another 10% turn up on spec. Apart from Raymond receiving £2000 Tim has given a further £4000 to other charities connected with the waterways. A further appeal for funds will be made by Steam powered boat President, she needs a new boiler. Other events include Morris dancers, theatre performances and a tribute to the late David Blagrove. Good live music and of course a very good beer tent with some strong local beers, all real ale of course. David Suchet (Poirot) will open the rally and well known moorers and hit and run boaters Timothy West and Prunella Scales will also be present. If anyone wants to know anything else will be in the office from 8am everyday this week. Graham N.

A flight up a flight! Enjoy the views over Marsworth locks, and reservoirs. https://youtu.be/72OPhBfo5hQ Cheers, Mike

My view is that the TC Navigation Inspectors USED to patrol their patch by boat very regularly so a photo and note to keep an eye and then take action would only sanction those taking Michael. Now there seems to be no Navigation Inspectors and many lock keepers are volunteers, not on duty, or summer reliefs it is a free for all in the quest to save money so the EA choose to assume every boater has a mobile phone or computer access and penalise those who do not.

No, no. The rules that boaters, exercising their statutory right to moor free of charge at night or for a reasonable time, must register their arrival with TVM or be subject to a £100 penalty charge were made up entirely by TVM. And not least this most obnoxious one: "If a vessel is found on a mooring without having registered on the TVM site we reserve the right to deem it to have been present for a full 24 hours and charge accordingly."

As a compromise between signwriting and vinyl, you can have vinyl stencils cut, then paint through them and remove the stencils. This gives the look of paint, without the skill required to signwrite properly. Stencils here used for the name and the index number. I realised as I did it why most boat names are curved when placed in what would have been the back cabin area on a working boat. The curve of the steel on most narrowboats at the rear makes a straight name look very weird. Live and learn. Jen

One wonders if Matty knows this cuz he installed it

Just a note to the elderly, The Daily Mash is a satirical newspaper. You know, like the other one you all frequent, Narrowmind World.

Yes, they are traction batteries, so happy to be almost fully discharged and still give 1000's of cycles use. When we had our last shareboat, a co-owner was telling me about a boat he had seen which had four clift batteries, which apparently were the bees knees. Took me a while to realise that he had misheard ?

Yes. The 60mph limit on some country roads can be quite a challenge I find, some pretty tight bends to get around...

I agree. In a a similar vein, few people understand speed limits on roads. A 30mph limit for example actually means you are supposed to try to drive everywhere at 30mph

Thank you, thats very kind. I think. ??

As your engine "ole" front bulkhead gets in to the "narrows of the bridge hole",experiment a bit try shutting off to tick over or that plus knock out of gear & note the effect not fool proof though as some one could have flung a load of "crap"in since the last passage through or the "crap" been moved fished out & the passage is much more pleasant.

Visitor moorings should be divided into sunny areas for solar power boats, and shaded areas for engine runners. The latter could sit in the gloom running their generators in their own little ghetto.?

Also after just two days you will often find that the paint under the tape is still soft so a rag & white spirit will often take the bleeds off.

Bouncing and tipping through urban bridges 'goes with the territory' of owning / operating these boats, but I do not recall ever being tipped that severely towards the arch. As I started my boating in Birmingham I was taught to drive into a bridgehole hard(ish) and throttle back hard as it narrowed to ride the wave as described by Mr Murrell in Post No. 55. The wave lifts and pushes the boat through the bridge, and even if you knock out of gear (if it is known to be a bad bridge) the boat will not slow down. I demonstrated this to my son when we bought my boat up the Oxford Canal last month and he easily mastered the timing, enjoying the confirmation of getting it right as the fore end appears to drop but is really the stern end rising on the wave. Traditional boating using traditional practices is really rewarding when you get it right, the only problem I find being you catch up with slower boat in front that much quicker

So ,that makes TVM rather pointless?The people who pay for the one or two days extra on an EA mooring would have paid it anyway ,without the use of Confusing and rather Impolite Signage IMO .I just see it as a Scam in itself.

We bought a new 40' sailing yacht thinking it would be 'plug and play', to go off racing and then long distance cruising. The first year was spent fixing all the things that the builders had got wrong. It took us 3 months to get the engine starting properly as there was a serious fault on the brand new Volvo Penta engine. When it was craned in, it was craned out 5 mins later as the depth sounder hadnt been installed properly. During the build, we worried about our money! The deposit. The builder. The agent. Would someone go bust and our cash in limbo. We had at least had a similar but smaller boat before so we knew what we needed in terms of layout and kit. For someone new to narrowboats, you cant possibly know what you want – so if you want a new boat, get an old one first, see what you like then go for new. After the 'luxury' of having a new sailing yacht, we went for a 15 year old narrowboat and it is just perfect. 1/3rd of the price and it will last us another 10 years. Strip out any bits you don't like and get it refitted. If you like, spend another £90K for new one but dont plan to go too far in the first few months.

These are the type of batteries i cut my teeth on. Came in a range of capacities from 100Ah to 600Ah Only after charging the battery can you see if its sulphated. With a fully charged healthy battery the positive plate is a chocolate brown cour and the negative plate is grey. If it is heavily sulphated charged battery or healthy flat battery, both plates are grey. The main advantage of glass or clear polycarbonate cases is you can see the amount of material shed from the plates, or "trees" (caused by impurities in the topping up water) bridging plates and causing shorts. The really large cells were in open topped, wooden boxes, where a dealing stick could be pushed between the plates to remove trees, and individual plates could be cut out and new ones lead welded back in.

The Brinklow Arm that shows it leading to Brinklow Wharf on the OS six inch 1888 - 1913 http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=52.4156&lon=-1.3522&layers=171&right=BingHyb

Exellent ? We need more stuff like this to keep eeejuts like these off boats.

No I didn't, I just grew old...

I have collected some inspirational pics here.