Leaderboard

They are called brick counters and they have to creep out of locks to give them time to count the bricks on both sides of the lock 😀

You're welcome. Not to bombard you but something else that I'm not sure the hire company will cover is a point of etiquette at locks, as they never did when we were hiring. If you are working through a flight and catch up with another boat, which is entirely possible as you have a larger crew, it is perfectly acceptable to send some crew forward and offer to help with gates and paddles. You don't have to hang back and just work your own boat through. It is very rare that such an offer will be declined, particularly by single-handers and older couples, and if it is then I have only ever met one person who did so rudely - everyone else has been at least appreciative of the offer (and I can only think of two others who declined help, at least with opening and closing gates). The crew need to take their cues from the steerer of the boat, particularly on opening paddles (gates are pretty obvious when to open and close). If someone else catches you up, the same applies. Similarly, when you get to Knowle, if there is someone going the same way as you, expect to share the locks. It's one of those things which is in everybody's interests. If you were to meet a single hander going the same way as you at the top of Farmers' Bridge they would be in for a very hard day and you would be in for a very long day if you just left them to it. Work together and everyone has a more enjoyable time. Alec

^^^This^^^ If I ever sell my pretty little 'historic', I have a list of people in mind who have asked me to tell them if I ever sell before advertising it. My main concern will to choose someone who will appreciate the boat, understand it and look after it. If they can't afford the asking price I have in mind I am likely to be VERY flexible and virtually give it away to the right person as I'd rather that than than get top money from someone who doesn't seem that interested or well-informed about historics and canal history. It certainly won't be going to a broker.

"Please be advised there is a windblown tree at Bridge 12 on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal, which is blocking navigation. Contractors have been informed and we anticipate they will be on site to remove the obstruction tomorrow. Navigation will remain open, however, wide beams will not be able to pass until the tree has been removed." I'm a bit intrigued as to how a widebeam could get on to the Middlewich Branch, seeing as how all the locks are narrow, and there's one at each end. Still, it's nice that CRT lets them know.

I went through today, 5 boats down, 3 up. The VLKs will be looking after this from now on. Now at a glorious spot near Ivinghoe.

Since 2017 there have been 176 historic boats for sale mentioned on this site (including Greenlaw which has been for sale three times). So CWDF is a good place to start. When we sold our historic boat we put an advert on Apolloduck which produced only a crop of fender kickers - pretty useless. Word of mouth and an advert in the HNBC magazine did the trick. I was only prepared to sell it to someone I reckoned would appreciate it and look after it.

You mean you haven’t a bow thruster to get off the bank 🤦‍♀️ 😂😂😂

That's what I prefer an exiting boat to do, I am on the stern ready for them to draw me out and I can motor in as soon as the gap is big enough.

You will be absolutely fine. I would imagine you will be on your way somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00, leaving plenty of time for a pleasant trip up into Birmingham. If you are looking to eat on board then I suggest it is well worth heading beyond the first moorings - there is a sharp left turn when you get into Birmingham (Mailbox Turn) and then the moorings start on your left. Beyond that first set of moorings is a narrows (it used to be a stop lock), then a long bridge (Broad Street Tunnel) and shortly afterwards a roundabout (yes, really, but you don't have to treat it is such in terms of which side you pass). Beyond there are nice moorings on both sides and if you go on a few hundred feet it gets a bit quieter as there are nightclubs and pubs near the roundabout. It is worth walking back to have a look at it lit up at night as it's quite a good atmosphere but mooring down nearer Vincent Street Bridge is much quieter. You will need to turn round in the morning and go back to the roundabout and turn left. There are various arms along the main line so turning in one of those is the easy option. You will probably find this a bit tricky, and may well make a mess of it, but don't worry about it, everyone does at first! One trick is to put someone on the bank on the side opposite the entrance, with the stern rope. Point the bow down the entrance and have the person on the bank pull the stern round. This is -way- easier than trying to get the boat to do it through a combination of forward and reverse, although assisting the person pulling by using the engine can help, and can also give you a sense of how the boat is going to behave. Locks. You are best off working out your own system, but here is a starter for ten to give you an idea. You are starting off going downhill. Person A steers - they stay on the boat. Person B goes up to the lock, unlocks any handcuffs which stop the paddles opening (you will have a handcuff key - make sure you have two on the boat!), if the lock is with you (level is the same as the boat going in) they just open the gate. If it is against you, they check nobody is about to come in from the other direction and assuming not, they open first paddle, then cross over and open the other paddle. Once the lock is level they close the paddle on the offside, then cross back to the gate side, open the gate and lower the paddle (do it that way round as there is time to lower the paddle while the boat comes in, and it is also less hard work to push the gate when the paddle is open as it decreases the water resistance). The lock is now ready for the boat to come in. Person B then walks to the other end of the lock, towpath side, and waits, ready to open the paddle when the boat comes in. Person C then turns up, having walked down, arriving before the boat. They stand by the open gate, ready to close it when the boat comes in. Person D arrives around the same time as the boat, walks down to the offside gate at the lower end and stands ready to open the paddle. The boat comes in, C closes the gate, B and D open the paddles. As soon as their paddle is open, B heads on to the next lock and sets it up as before; C goes and stands by the paddle that B opened. When the level matches, C and D open the gates and the boat starts moving out while C and D lower the paddles and re-lock any handcuff locks. Once the boat is clear, C and D close the gates and C walks on. D walks to the other end of the lock and locks up the handcuff locks at the top end, then walks on to the next lock. Repeat. Not sure if the above makes any sense whatsoever, and if not it doesn't matter - there are millions of different ways of doing this and you will work it out, but the aim is to give an idea of an efficient way of working through a flight of locks. Key points to note in the above - not all locks have handcuff locks on but some do; not all of them work so sometimes you can't unlock it and have to work with only one paddle which is a bit slower and sometimes you can't re-lock it, so just leave it unlocked. When there are handcuff keys in place, the above working pattern has all of them unlocked while the boat is in the lock. It is very unlikely that anything will go wrong if you take care and watch what is happening, but if it does, the ability to open and close paddles quickly can be important so I prefer to leave them unlocked until the gates are open. It does not require tremendous strength, although some gates can be a bit awkward. My daughters (13 and 15) working Brades bottom lock on the BCN earlier this year. Alec p.s. but you have five people - what about Person E - Tea!!!

I answered it! The OP also rolled in the amount of time cruising to his question, which is why I came up with 10 hours a week. I maintain this is a realistic average estimate even though the actual time required can vary widely. One week it might be half an hour, other occasional weeks it might be 30 or 40 hours.

That's a good thought. The OP did mention an interest in seeing some of the history of Birmingham from the canals and going round one of the loops would give a good perspective. It's about a 45min round trip from Vincent Street Bridge, so I think if I got an early enough departure from Alvechurch to be arriving with time to do it, I would go round the loop that evening and moor pointing towards Farmer's Bridge, ready to head off that direction in the morning. I still suggest it is worth a stroll down the top couple of locks of the Farmers' Bridge flight in the evening after mooring up, after dark as it is a surprisingly pleasant place. This was when we came through in May. It reminded me of walking around a Mediterranean city. Alec

It sounds as if he may be planning a lay-out and if so I wonder if he has considered where his project boat or sail away builder has put the windows.

That’s so sad….Mary was responsible for me getting into boating via a mutual friend of my fathers…we visited her on Swan in battlesbridge basin and I was immediately hooked…that’s now probably 35 years ago now….I last saw Mary at Audlem last year and was looking forward to catching up again soon. I’m a little lost for words right now….

Exactly. Whitfield attracted so much derision because most of the 'tech' was pointless and done 'just because they can'. It became a beacon of how not to do it and put a lot of people off trying new ideas, sadly.

Paddle boarders and canoes will be OK then.

The alternative to avoid winding is to carry on a short way out of town, go around the Icknield Port loop and come back. It's one of very few bits of canal without a towpath so the boat is your only opportunity to see it! Admittedly a lot of it is a building site at the moment but I always like to take the detour if time to spare.

I did not want to make a direct correlation between idle speculation and named businesses.

Many posters on CWDF seem to have a pathological hatred/fear of technology even when it can do something useful -- or indeed anything that didn't exist in "the good old days". The fact that they're only able to post on CWDF or use their smartphone (if they have one!) due to such technology seems to escape them... 😉 I'm sure they could also go back to using incandescent light bulbs that get hot and have short lifetimes and consume 10x the power of LED ones (flattened batteries!) if they wanted to -- or doesn't this count as "technology"? Boats are no different to cars or houses, there are a lot of people nowadays over-impressed by the latest "woo-woo" technology for the sake of it, even if it's no better (or even worse) than doing it "the old way", and so there are plenty of suppliers willing to provide such technology because their customers want it and will pay for it. That's not a technology problem, it's an attitude/education problem -- just like the "tech phobia" I referred to in the first paragraph, but the other way round... 😉

Just to echo the other posts here, avoid the non genuine ones on ebay and also don't have Timpsons make a copy. Neither work reliably, some locks need a jiggle, some don't turn at all, some are fine in my experience.

Whitefield was the boat you're thinking of

As you are quicky discovering, it's not just the demands of maintaining and living on the boat that determine how realistic CCing is for those onboard commuting to work everyday, that's just one aspect of it. The other demands are those of the waterways authority and also the vagaries of the weather. Rivers flood especially in winter and if you're stuck on a river on an unsafe mooring you could be in big trouble. It's not really practical. Also why is it that 9 times out of 10, whenever these type of questions come up from people new to the waterways, they ask about the most difficult way to start a new life living on a boat? Not only do you want to move from a house or a flat onto a boat, which isn't easy for everyone, you also want to CC all year round including on rivers all while working full time and commuting into Cambridge and London! Sorry but that's just bl@@dy ridiculous. I've been living on boats for 23 years and I wouldn't fancy that. It's just too hard, especially for people new to boats and the waterways. Make it a bit easier on yourselves and get a long term mooring - one which turns a blind eye to liveaboards. Then you can go out cruising and when it gets too hard you can come back to the mooring. If I'm wrong and you find winter is easier than I'm suggesting then simply give up the mooring.

I don’t know what we’re supposed to do, but I think exiting the lock swiftly for a waiting boat seems the best solution. I think I may soon have to reset the default button in my head. It’s possible I'm getting too impatient. Turn the dial back down from 11…to…3 or even 2. I’m always slow after coming out for someone like yourself. But I do wonder why your not chasing at the bit and hovering 😃 I guess you know a boat coming out will often pull you away from the bank/landing/offside and set you up for the lock if you’re ready to deal with that. Sometimes I go a little fast to encourage it but I think it might get lost on folk and they just think something rude about me. Perhaps tick over is the way then.

^^ very true - plus the speed of going from forward to reverse also depends a lot on the gearbox. A hydraulic modern box on an old engine is far more forgiving than an old mechanical one.

Few hundred yards is not boating in my book but a incovience for people who do boating. 🤔