Paul@CW

Here's a new blog from the boatyard at Claymoore Canal Holidays. It's purpose is to inform and entertain and be a bit of fun rather than being a marketing exercise. It kicks off this Saturday 11th April and will be following our fact finding mission... ok holiday, for a week. We hope to post to it every day during our trip, internet connection allowing. Claymmore Canal Holidays Boatyard Blog

A discount eBay store can be found at: stores.ebay.co.uk/canals-and-waterways" Many waterways products all at below retail prices. Includes quite a number of auctions starting at 99p.

Well let me tell you that my families hire company don't charge a deposit and our principal interests are providing an enjoyable holiday and a boatyard service for waterways users and keeping staff earning a living. Money is provided to BW in the form of 15 commercial rate boat licences. If your boat is damaged by a hirer who leaves the scene and you are not around then of course this is wrong of them but the hire company cannot be blamed for this. If your parked car is hit by someone driving a rental car who then drives off you don't blame Hertz!

Well now when I "gave a ten minute talk" to a hirer when I worked at the boatyard last month, after showing them through the boat, I ran through the safety checklist and canal rules and etiquette. Then took them through a tunnel and lock, explaining how the lock worked, getting them to do it and explaining lock safety then after exiting the lock showed them how to moor the boat before accompanying them to a bridge some 20 minutes away. All in all that "ten minute talk" takes about 50 minutes.

I've met that woman, she told me she used to be a model as well. Good job I never believed her

I think if we go clockwise also we'd be 3-4 days behind you. If we go the other way we will probably pass you at some point. We are on Beeston Castle if you see us. I must admit I do fancy a bit of 4 Counties anti-clockwise plus Llangollen. Can anyone tell me how far down the Montgomery we could explore before having to turn?

How do you know if they are given instruction or not?

Hello All Please help in this humble appeal. I have spent the last week slowly but surely driving myself mad trying to decide a route to take for our upcoming holiday starting Aug 12th for 2 weeks. Any suggestions to add to the mix and my confusion would be much appreciated. We are out for 2 weeks from Preston Brook, have 3 experienced adults in the crew (one of whom is the owner of the hire company), have no worries with numbers of locks and usually travel 8-9 hours a day depending on how long we stop for lunch/break/visiting villages or towns. The obvious route would be to combine Cheshire and 4 Counties rings but am keen to look for other routes. Many Thanks Paul

Hi Janet It's Paul actually but don't worry (must be the way I walk ) The new 2 berth is the next project on the agenda I believe (this year is was an 8-10 berth). I think it may end up being a 2-4 though rather than just a 2 berth. Now that the old man (hope he doesn't read this) is moving things along nicely I can always hope that he can find a job for me there one day (I hope he reads this) rather than just getting me to do his website for nothing haha.

Ok I'm not proud of it but it is sooooo satisfying sometimes when at the locks with a hire boat and one of those rare breed of private boat snobs (and to be honest I have not met many, maybe one per trip) talks down to me because I am in a hire boat. I love the look on their face when I tell them my family owns that hire boat and a few more as well. Ok so its not a classy thing to do but sometimes you just have to make these people realise that no one is better than the other because they own a boat.

Hi there, you could give my father at Claymoore a ring. They hire all year round, including over Christmas and New Year for those that want a different sort of Christmas.

I hope you enjoy the gallery of my canal photos. You are welcome to comment on them or post your own for other to enjoy. http://www.canal-photos.co.uk

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Just had an email from my Dad as follows: BBC have told me that the programme will be broadcast w/c 9th January 2006 over one or two weeks (to be decided) Working Lunch is on BBC 2 every week day between 12.30 and 1.00 except Wednesday when it goes out at 1.30

Ha ha ! I always get her name wrong and I always say a name beginning with M. She'll be Meg or Mo next week :-) What a character she is though eh? Always leave that lock with a smile.

John, have just spoken to my Dad tonight who got back with the BBC crew yesterday afternoon. The canal segments on the show are due to go out some time in December. Apparently they have absolute mounds of film to get through and edit. My Dad said that if it moved they filmed it plus he had to be wearing a radio mike the whole time ! Luckily he worked out how to switch it off They interviewed lots of people, inlcuding Margaret at Wardle Lock in Middlewich, boat builders, folk singers, a couple of people running businesses from working boats etc. Apparently the presenter got so into the whole thing that he got really stuck in with operating the boat. When I find out a firm date I'll let you know.

Claymoore paid me David, not the BBC. I was just a simple steerer and lock wheeler taking the boat to Stone. It was a tough job but someone had to do it I'll be hearing from my Dad within the next few days so hopefully he will have found out when its going out. I don't think it can be a live broadcast or nearly live as there is no outside broadcast type equipment (not that I know much about these things) with them and no plans to drop any tapes off with anyone. There's an editor, sound man, director and two camera crew. I'll keep you posted when I get updated with info.

The BBC are currently afloat and will be filming pieces for several slots on their working lunch programme. They are travelling from Stone to Preston Brook and interviewing several people along the way. How do I know this I don't hear you cry. Well I've just got home (to London) from moving the boat to Stone for them to get onboard. Three days free holiday and I got paid for it as well Certainly beats proper work ! If you see them about on Beeston Castle over the next few days give my father a wave. He'll be the poor old sod on the back turning all "media" darling

No I don't think the companies should wash their hands of it and the one I know certainly doesn't. In fact 2 days ago a hire group past one of the workers in the near dark and they were told to stop. I do, on occasion, work with a hire boat company and trust me when i say that you can tell peoplen safety until you are blue in the face but once they are away from you they will do what they like. That it not an assumption on my part, that is fact. People do ignore it.

Personally I'm not to fussy about people going past me a little faster than usual. To be honest its not like I don't have any warning that something is coming, what with the engine sound, the slight pull on the ropes etc before it arrives so I try not to put the boiling hot tea to my mouth just as the boat arrives Seeing as my main concern day to day is are the local drug dealers going to target my son? have we been burgled today? has my car been nicked etc. being bumped around in a boat is the least of my concerns. (God, I should really think above moving house!)

But you are assuming that not much of a safety talk was given. What can the hire firm do if the hirer chooses to ignore it? Follow them around for a week? As John says, there is nothing wrong with moving around in a lock providing you are alert to you surroundings and what is going on. If the boat almost got caught up then I assume they were going down the lock which would mean even less need for ropes than going up. Personally I never use ropes in wide locks when we are the single boat. Going up the tried and trusted method of boat near the bottom gates and open the paddle on the same side of the boat works wonders. My rant comes from your statement that implies that hire companies should be responsible for the actions of the hirers rather than those hirers being responsible for their own actions. After all, the man who sells a private owner his boat is not responsible for that owners actions.

wow gaggle, I am happy for you that you are lucky enough to be able to afford to do such a thing. Unfortunately a lot of us are not in that position and so hire companies are our only way of getting on the canals.

These "rental firms" as well as running as business, are letting those people who are unable to buy their own boat enjoy our canals. I'm fairly sure that the bloke who goes out and buys a brand new boat is pretty clueless the first time he takes it out unless he does some sort of course and so we all have to learn somewhere. As far as I'm aware there are no narrowboat simulators that let you practise in safety before being allowed out. Hire boat companies will usually give instruction to people on how to operate the boat, how to navigate canal structures such as locks and tunnels and canal etiquette and safety. However they cannot really be held responsible for people's mistakes along the cut just as hire car companies cannot be held responsible if the driver has a crash. I do believe that without hireboats on the canals the system would die out pretty quickly as there would be no one to attract new users. The system would be like a ghost town with the remaining few alive boat owners and the few people they have pursuaded to buy their own boat pottering around. My rant over too.