Up-Side-Down

For those who read the recent thread on the return of aggregate traffic to the A&C, running between Goole and Fleet (and are tentatively creeping round each bend expecting the looming hull of a 180ft sand barge to be bearing down on them) you can relax for a wee while yet! CRT's announcement was a little previous and nothing will in fact be moving before the end of the 3rd quarter of this year. Canal Boat magazine got it badly wrong as in their April issue they announced that "Regular commercial freight traffic has returned to a large part of the Aire & Calder Navigation's Main Line , with the start of twice weekly tanker operations ............ ." This is a good example of sloppy journalism on several counts! However, when all the setbacks have been overcome, this is an acorn from which large (barging) oaks may very well grow and the prospects medium to long term are potentially exciting for the rebirth of aggregate traffic in the north east.

Blue Lias Road Bridge 23 is actually 12' 6" wide but awkward in its approach and profile.

Other isolated sections are of course navigable but not connected to this length.

I take your point Iain but the detailed modelling undertaken by LUCS (it doesn't seem to have occurred to SC that this would be the sensible starting point in assessing the impact of the scheme on boating) clearly demonstrates that capacity through the Wheel is severely reduced, especially for wide beams. I would regard this in itself as a change in the design capability/capacity. SC have indicated that the pod will only be removed occasionally and not on a regular basis to, say, accommodate hire boat turn around at weekends and their return from Edinburgh early to mid-week. Of course with the enforced demise of hire boating on the Lowland Canals this will soon cease to be an issue.

This happened last year to one of Scottish Canal's weed cutters. It had been moored next to me for the duration of the winter having broken down the previous autumn and not been fixed. I sent a pic into HQ in Glasgow and the vessel was out of commission for a further 4 months until after the first brood had left the nest!

And a petition on Change.org is gaining traction. https://www.change.org/p/scottish-canals-save-the-falkirk-wheel-canal-link/u/19831343?utm_medium=email&utm_source=51489&utm_campaign=petition_update&sfmc_tk=ZDa1IHEVv7R1W3smjM%2bH3%2fOaXUVsnGGl3YbumomXkKT1vV1t88wulHYbZv9nwg2%2f

Even the Dark Side are quoting the excellent IWA press release, covering this debacle, with a surprising degree of accuracy. http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/news-flash/9782-iwa-condemn-scottish-canals

An interesting and, I believe, a very valid observation Mike. This highlights the bigger picture that SC might do well to reflect upon.

I knew I shouldn't have asked ...........

Was that deduction based on an equal weighting being given to my observations 1 – 5 .......... or on 5 alone? Just curious! Of course nothing in life is cut and dried ........... or black and white for that matter: added by way of a disclaimer.

That is undoubtedly SC's forte! Yes, they are a quango just as BW were, and they report to the Scottish Government. It seems that at CEO level a lot of time is put in convincing Holyrood that SC is doing a splendid job!

Perhaps I can help you draw some conclusions: 1) Once upon a time there was a local area manager for the Lowland Canals who was responsible for all day to day (and longer term) navigational matters. The bank staff were answerable to him and he could be approached by all SC boating customers who had a problem. Bit like in England really. He also had responsibility for the Falkirk Wheel and steadily grew the numbers visiting this attraction over the years, making it the success it has become today. When his position became untenable he left and is now pursuing a very successful career with ScotRail. He was followed, shortly afterwards, by the director responsible for operational matters on the Scottish waterways. 2) The local area manager was not replaced and boaters etc now have to deal directly with a 'Head of Customer of Operations'. 3) Most operational matters now seem to effectively fall under the auspices of the Property Department which, supported by two full time spin doctors, is responsible for running the Falkirk Wheel and operating all moorings. Naturally it deals with all commercial lettings and all forms of property development. This department has grown hydra-like in the last seven years and there is nowhere that is influence is not now felt across the entire Scottish canal system. 4) The Property Department is staffed exclusively by estate agents with no boating experience or, indeed, interest in boating. They are also the masters of mis-information: one oft quoted example, given to an inexperienced boater bringing a boat onto the western end of the Forth & Clyde Canal, following launching at a local boatyard on the tidal River Clyde, was that high tide at Bowling Sea Lock was always at ten past ten every morning. Fortunately the hapless skipper spoke to the Bowling Harbourmaster just before setting out on his voyage! 5) So in making any decisions about the overall veracity of the SC press release I would consider your own personal experience of the estate agency profession as a whole when, say, renting, buying or selling a property, remembering that your average estate agent isn't supported by an entire PR department!

Or that the wait times are somewhat reduced? The trip boats are active throughout the week and the hire boats tend to return from Edinburgh in the early part of the week to cruise to Glasgow. Just saying what I've observed when I've been moored in the basin at the bottom of the Wheel.

Encouraging boats, boaters and boating is not terribly high on SC's list. At the World Canals Conference in Inverness last year they were proud to present themselves as a regeneration agency rather than a navigation authority.

"A fraction of its capacity": Perhaps if you'd seen the hire boats queuing for their place on the wheel throughout Saturday and Sunday afternoons you would come up with a different assessment! But then, of course, with SC having effectively driven the hire boating industry off the Lowland Canals it does become a non-story as demand for the Wheel has been decimated in one go. Clever, eh!

Actually the only hire boat operator on the Lowland Canals. As well as running their own boats they are the agents for ABC and Black Prince: a total of 21 hire boats in all. Some responses from Scottish boaters include: "Put that together with SC's vision of the canals as "linear parks" and the future for navigation and boaters isn't looking safe in their hands". "This will be 'Parks" as in somewhere to park a boat I take it? The idea that someone would actually want to untie a couple of mooring ropes and cruise to a different location is clearly anathema to SC and would require dredging, maintenance, a healthy level of staff and all the associated infrastructure, when exactly the same level of income is available if boats remain static. This appears to be a simple piece of mathematics that has come to underpin SC's current philosophy and, for instance, will enable a gondola on the Wheel to be permanently taken over by a pod unmolested by those pesky hire boats that queued up for passage on a weekend". "This is an absolute disaster for Scottish Canals and for Scottish canals". "So this puts SC well on the way to achieving their aim of becoming a regeneration agency rather than a navigation authority: a role that many delegates left last year's World Canals Conference in Inverness feeling was SC's primary objective. This is, therefore, a very sad day for the Lowland Canals indeed and there are people within SC Property Department that should be hanging their heads in shame".

MC have announced that Trade Tuesday is coming shortly ........... but as yet no date.

As I understand it the OP has to choose between retaining her boat and living on it ......... and selling her boat and renting accommodation. The renting option is clearly a 'static' option therefore the fact that the boat moored in Bridgwater only has access to 14 miles of cruising would seem to be of secondary importance. The fact that there is the added expense of getting her boat from Bath/Bristol to Bridgwater (depending on which boatyard crane she uses) when defrayed over the time she will be undertaking her PhD will be minimal, while she gets to keep her boat (which she implies is quite important too her). As a PhD student I expect she's quite good at doing research so the detached nature of the Bridgwater & Taunton Canal would readily become apparent! The single word 'Yes' together with its accompanying question mark just seemed an easy way of avoiding writing 3 paras!

Yes?

Or a bit of lateral thinking (although more north/south in this instance!): CRT mooring at Bridgwater and season ticket Bridgwater – Bristol. Would think that will be a similar price to the Trowbridge – Bristol equivalent.

I've checked my own pics of the Tavistock Canal and while the disused railway viaduct over the tub boat canal and adjacent River Lumburn does have the same slender arches, I can't make the terrain or the actual length of the viaduct fit. (unless the perspective is very strange) So if it isn't a Welsh tub boat canal, how about the Bude Canal once it divides into its three separate tub boat arms? Mike Todd will soon put me right on this one!

As Nick Norman says: 5% on the units of electrickery and 20% on the standing charge. Anything else on the units would be breaking the law.

Mill leat or tub boat canal. I can't quite make it into the Tavistock Canal but the scale of the channel is spot on.

Digger's Yard as suggested is probably your best bet. It's beside Bridge 197 and as the previous poster says, it's beside the Warminster Road in the Claverrton area. Diggers mobile is 07790 872705 but he rarely seems to answer it. It's very much one of those places where you really need to turn up in person. Think laterally: he's probably got more hard standing than floating space so living on your boat ashore might be a solution.

Thanks for these responses re Clara's origins.