Leaderboard

Interesting reading all the speculation, Unfortunately the article in the Bridgwater and Taunton Mercury is very misleading and the "unnamed man" is a disgruntled boat owner who has caused nothing but trouble for himself through his own behaviour, Also not an original bw docks boat owner... Thought he could buy a boat on the B&T and freeload from the situation, 1. The reality of the situation is. CRT gave up 28 marina's the same year as the bw docks, Somerset County Council were the only council to insist on all the boats having to leave (not crt's choice) 2. CRT worked with the boaters as yes some lived there had job's and families so lifting out and causing upheaval leaving there home was something crt recognised and helped by allowing the boats to move out onto the 14 miles of waterway, 3. As some on here have stated you can't meet Cc requirements moving over 20 miles a year as it obviously isn't that long a waterway, there were also no suitable identified mooring locations for the particular size of boats in question. 4. the docks future at that point was uncertain, potential leveling up funds for refurbishment but no timescale or guarantee so crt gave the boaters an agreement to bide by and it was reviewed every 6 months. 5. The time came where the town’s fund was secured and a date set for refurbishment was place to be the summer of 2025. 6. Once crt had this information they (last year) spoke with the boaters and indicated if the boats didn't have home moorings by January of this year they would have to be removed from the b&t. 7. Three locations were identified for moorings (pretty much where the boats had found homes over the past two years and local businesses approached with offers to lease and manage the locations, 8 (here's your new paper misinformation) all the original boat owners who left the docks have identified locations there is some finalising to be done with 4 but heading in the right direction. One original boat sadly the owner passed away and the family are removing the boat to be sold. Two of the original boats but not original owners are being removed, And a third that just showed up on the system thinking they could be clever and play the system these 3 boats received eviction notices, Two of the three have done nothing but try to play the system claiming squatting rights cause fights and upsetting the local areas,ect, the 3rd was recently sold and the new owner is lifting it for a refit. So 10 people loosing there homes/boats? Not true. There has been nothing but support for the boaters from crt and the local bridgwater town council, yes some difficult pills to swallow at times loosing the facilities at the docks for example (the county council again insisting they had to be closed) and life adjustments to make but everyone is still local to there families and job's. The Bridgwater mercury didn't fact check before publication.

I don't think all that many have issues with the CRT. Most people just get on with it and enjoy boating. Nothing is perfect. it is a basic and normal feature of human behaviour that someone who feels hard done by for some reason will be more vocal than 100 people who are happy with the same situation they are presented with. Nothing new about this it is basic psychology and with the internet the negative moaners can become all the more vocal. People who are irrelevant still have a platform where they can promote their irrelevance widely. This is obviously a Good Thing in general terms but it will cause a bias which one must be aware of. For every one person who moans there will be literally countless others in a similar basic situation who are happy with their lot. Such is life.

Thank you so much for posting and illuminating the real situation. Have a greenie. CRT always seem to me to bend over backwards to help boaters in difficult situations, and your detailed post seems to confirm they've done exactly this in this situation. Such a shame the odd boater here and there abuses their helpfulness mercilessly. Same story again and again. I really find it hard to understand why so many boaters hate CRT with such a passion when CRT are so cooperative and helpful when the chips are down.

Maybe it's still better than spending most of your life on an internet forum?

After many years of boating we have come to rely on three types of windlasses. For use on the canals its a Dunton Double Anglian waterways its a Walsh Alloy one as they have untapered holes and fit the paddles better than a Dunton. and The ubiquitous Middle Level socketed windlass for the gear that requires it. We have both long throw and short throw of the Dunton and the Walsh Different windlass for different paddle gear. A total of about 8 windlass not including the steel ones in the front locker

No longer a boat owner, I have little need to visit chandleries these days. I’ve followed the windlass thread with interest and occasional revulsion and thought then that I’d look to see what is available from a couple of chandlers. My searches turned up disappointment in droves. The wretched open welded monstrosity was readily available ( I can only endorse Tracy’s comments on that one ) along with double eyed aluminium things which didn’t seem to have a tapered socket. Other than Duntons there doesn’t seem to be anything decent to buy. The only exception I know of is one made by Simon Wain at Brinklow Boat Services, which would be a one off custom made proper job. A friend acquired one recently and was delighted with it…..I’m guessing it wasn’t cheap but a decent windlass is a joy to use….

Seconded. I really don't get this obsession some boaters have with covering enormous distances in the minimum possible numbers of days and boasting about it later, as if it is something to be proud of. Savouring the journey and enjoying the landmarks and learning a bit about them is my own preference. I appreciate others see it differently but they are WRONG, lol!!

Maybe that’s the problem, thousands of miles every year(yeh ok) Maybe she’s fed up with moving so much and wants to see the local area and just enjoy boating at her pace not yours? You sound like Michael of YouTube minimalist, thrashing around the country to try and do every canal with his wife, while not really seeing what’s around them or truly enjoying it.

Fit only for scrap. Detestable junk, should not be allowed as they do not fit on the spindles properly, damage the squares corners. Dangerously poor design. I throw every one I can find into the deepest hole around.

Ymca pontoon has boats moored, facilities wise are what's available in the center itself so members access, LOWER MAUNSEL has toilets ans elsan no shower, Bathpool has toilets shower and elsan.

Depends what you're trying to light it with, especially if you're a newbie At the best of times, it's more of effort than twiddling a temperature knob, at the worst of times it goes out overnight when it's -6 outside, or you're trying to relight and refuel it yesterday and the wind keeps blowing smoke in your face...

The Inverter is fitted with a cooling fan. So when you connect largish loads, like an electric blanket, the cooling fan will very shortly after whir into life. Boat batteries, even new ones, are very capacity constrained, and then this capacity diminishes. And diminishes even much faster, every time you drain the batteries to the stage things start complaining, alarms sound, red lights come on and room lights dim. Any demand for heat from a battery supplied electrical system is to be actively avoided. Dry your hair naturally, heat the water for your hot water bottle on your gas hob. Make sure all your light bulbs are led. And make sure any electric heating in your calorifier can only be connected when you are on shore power.

There is a difference between voltage and capacity. You can have a 12 volt battery the size of your finger nail, or one the size of a car. They are both 12 volts but their capacity (how many Ah) they have is the difference. A lead acid battery needs to be recharged every day (ideally) to 100% state of charge, this can take 3-4-6 hours of engine running depending on how much you have used. If you do not recharge it fully then it becomes clogged up with lead bits'sludge (it is called sulphation) this reduces the capacity of the battery. The next day you do not fully charge the battery again and it gets more sulpahtion, same next day, same next day and your battery that when new had a capacity of 100Ah now has a capacity of (maybe) 20AH. Think of it like a 3 gallon bucket. It holds water (voltage) and has a capacity of 3 gallons of water (amphour) Put some mud in the bottom and it is a still a bucket and holds water (voltage) but it now has the capacity of 2.5 gallons, add more mud and it becomes a 2 gallon bucket.. One a battery starts to sulphate then you will find that it charges quickly (because it takes less to fill it from empty) - think filling the bucket with water when it is already half full of mud. And because it has a lower capacity it goes flat very quickly. Are you running your engine every day ? If so for how many hours ?

Day 3 - UPpermill was a nice stop over. Spent a couple of nights on the towpath side and a few on the non towpath side. The non towpath moorings are better, you could probably use the old trip boat moorings too. Fair bit of noise from the pubs but only on Saturday night. Plenty of depth. Pubs all a bit posh for us commoners. Moved off up 2 locks to the services at 24W/Wool Road.There is even a pump out here! Unsure if it actually works. Services are In a old restored building and very clean. Water pressure is abysmal on the waterpoint. The HCS office was closed, looking online it isn't really manned anymore - joined online anyway £9. Also note the bins are on the opposite side of the canal and there isn't really a lock mooring, we stopped In the narrow channel under the bridges to empty rubbish. We got stuck in the channel below 24W. Water levels weren't low but ran a little water down and bow hauled the boat in. I assume it's silt built up where the bywash comes in. After this one only 7 more to the summit, the bottom gate is a single gate so quite heavy but no worse than a broad lock bottom gate. Some of the paddle gear was a little stiff but nothing crazy. Only one paddle not working which is on the top lock. Noted how Deep the sill is on this one, I assume so they can run the summit pound low. Note not many lock moorings for single handed although not really required with the distance between locks. There is step's on the lock Tails. There is some good moorings on the summit pound, now there is no restrictions you could come up for 14 days , wind and return to the safety of the South if you don't want / can't do the tunnel. The climb up was nice, good views lots and lots of walkists, the ice cream place seems to be doing well and very busy. Note the bywash/ resovoir feed? That runs over the canal here. 2 boats up at the summit and one climbing the locks when we walked back for the car. A lot of people commenting they don't see boat's up here much. Moored on the waterpoint outside the tunnel entrance, water pressure is excellent. We have moved our appointment to 9.30am, there is a overunning stoppage at 5E so only us going through tomorrow. West side done , this side certainly doesn't deserve it's reputation.

Final update. I found that upgrading the bulb in the charge/battery cct from a 2w to 3w made a significant change to the alternator excite behaviour. It now only needs a little blip of the throttle and the light goes out. So problem finally solved. I have now also finished the changes to the original instrument panel. Instead of a buzzer on the glow plug heat cct, I added an orange led light. So now have a spare instrument panel

How about Bibo, ergo sum (Loosely, I go to the pub, therefore I am ...hopefully!)

Being annoyingly pedantic, I think you mean "vadam".

The boats would need to be moved to the marina for the CRT to lift them onto road transport and take them to secure storage. Presumably the owners can't get anyone to do this but the CRT can move them under S8 powers. I think that is what "are being moved to the marina" means in this context. I would hazard a guess that if this is what happens they may be taken to Greenwalls Farm Dodleston. An advantage of the wide boats is they have some value so an expensive lift and road transport is not too financially straining for the CRT. This is what they do. It is nothing new. The two L&L boats were road transported there and they are even bigger than a normal wide bean.

I suspect (I'm only guessing, as we all are) that the lease was offered again, but with an enormous price hike and/or more conditions than previously, such that CRT made the business decision to not renew it. It might have been due to a Council reorganisation, or new/changing staff taking a different approach to it, or correcting previous inconsistencies, or complaints made by locals (which might/might not have been anything to do with what a boater did or didn't do etc). We just don't know, and will never know because there's commercial confidentiality, especially with a prospective lease which was never taken on. Its true to say, on the canals, there's some weird leasing - sub-leasing arrangements out there, which are just a quirk of a 200 year old system which has made it into the 21st century. So maybe its was technically possible for CRT to renew but it would have been worse for all boaters.

You must have done something really bad

Ron Seal?

The dry dock was owned and run by BW up until about 1990. I used it in 1987 and again I think in 1988, I feel sure that the next time I went to book it it was under the management of Pinders. The day to day management under BW at that time was carried out by Roger Hatchard. Stourport was also a BW dry dock which was subsequently leased out to a third party.