Grassman

My (only) visit to the Erewash Canal a few years ago echos John's description. Yes it poses a few difficulties but it's well worth doing.

Yes it's a day when local IWA volunteers help boaters through the lock(s) and aim to make people aware of who they are and what they are about in order to try and recruit new members, as well as raising some money through sales of cakes and merchandise. In the midlands IWA Lichfield Branch do this once a year at Barton Lock on the Trent & Mersey Canal (4th August this year)

I thought this too, but after speaking to the lockie at Torksey, he said that the ramps (piles of stones or whatever) originally protruded slightly above the water and therefore were visible to the deer, but over time most had disintegrated enough to slip below the surface. We passed a struggling one on our way to Lincoln but after a few futile attempts to rescue it we were making the situation worse by tiring it as it tried to get away from us, so we left it in the hope that it would find one of the ramps. Sadly on our return a few days later we came across it floating and drowned.

This is what I did. The spec on the brokers info sheet said my tank was 1200L. Using that flow rate method it worked out at 1155L so it was not that far off. If it's any help, it's an integral tank and my boat is a 1995 Colecraft. It's capacity has probably increased now, judging by the amount of rust I fetched out of it when cleanng and re-painting the tank recently 😟

How about Ellesmere Port to Eastham then the Mersey down to Liverpool and the short stretch of the Leeds & Liverpool to the Rufford Branch? The cost would be similar but surely it would be much quicker than doing the Trent, the Yorkshire Navigations and most of the length of the L&L from the eastern direction. It would be a cheaper fee on the MSC because you're only doing 2 miles of it (saving about £200), however the combined locking fees of Eastham and Brunswick would be more than the cost of locking up Pamona, and you'd need a pilot for the Mersey part. The OP didn't fancy the River Trent, but I found the MSC and Mersey to be much easier than the Trent.

That was so dangerous and irresponsible I hope you reported him.

In 2017 in my capacity as a volunteer with the local IWA, I approached CRT about the state of offside vegetation in our area, particularly as my Nb was booked for a full re-paint the following year and I didn't want it to get scratched 🙂. Since then every winter we've run a joint IWA/CRT offside veg cutting operation based at Fradley and covering the T&M from Burton to Great Haywood, the Coventy Canal from Fradley to Polesworth, and sections of the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. Also the Staffs & Worcs from Great Haywood to Gailey (for CRT Stoke depot). IWA volunteers do 2 days a week and CRT Fradley volunteers (mainly their lockies) do 2 days also. We are trained to use long reach pole chainsaws (we can cut up to about 10 inches diameter) and other power tools, and the large wood chipper too. We use a workboat strapped to a hopper boat which houses the wood chipper. We don't need to have a CRT person with us as we are suitably trained enough not to need anyone. We begin every October but have to finish at the end of February due to the bird nesting season starting. I believe we were the first such volunteering operation and it now happens in other areas too. Due to time constraints and the amount of vegetation, we are only able to deal with the more severe offside problems such as on bends, narrow parts, opposite popular moorings, sightlines, bridge approaches etc. Somebody mentioned Willows, I presume they were referring to the long straggly type. If so then unfortunately we can only give them 'a haircut' because the actual branches are usually too high to reach even when standing on the roof of the workboat. If anyone is interested in joining us next winter please contact IWA Lichfield Branch or CRT Fradley depot.

I didn't need to do that. I won 6 of my 7 guidebooks years ago when Canal Boat Magazine used to give one as a prize for their 'letter of the month'. I managed to get the knack of writing a letter that would win 🙂. They replaced some of my previous editions which were about 10 years old.

I always use the Nicholsons guide. It never crashes or freezes, there’s no glare as viewing it is not affected by the sun, and it never needs charging up. When it rains I pop it into my little Perspex jewellery case where it stays nice and dry and I can read it easily. Oh and I like to do my own route planning rather than having an app doing it for me. And yes I am a dinosaur. 😀

I did it a couple of years ago in my Nb. Except for going under the Barton Swing Aqueduct and the 4 huge locks at the Manchester end, the rest of it was fairly boring until we got towards the Runcorn end where there were plenty of ships about, mainly moored up, but a few were on the move which made it quite exciting. Then going through the even larger Eastham Lock at the end and down the Mersey to Liverpool was a wonderful experience. The total cost including the pilot Stuart for the Mersey, and locking into Liverpool at Brunswick, was about £400 and I think it's nearer £500 now. The only scary thing about it is the cost, but IMO if you want to experience something different you have to pay the price. Some say you could get a fortnights holiday in Spain for that, but I know which I prefer. We did it on our own but maybe if you did it in a group it might save you a few bob.

Yes that's what it is, and I'm told it's going to be the largest one in Europe. I don't know if this is true but either way it's going to be a huge blot on the landscape.

I've spoken to so many people who have done it in the main summer school holidays and all have said it wasn't particularly busy. I wish I'd listened to them because one year I thought I'd be clever and leave it until early September once the schools had gone back, only to find that lots of other 'wrinklies' had done the same. From Whitchurch to Llangollen the amount of boating traffic was a nightmare. Previously and since then I've done it in the Spring and it's always been fine, but I'll never do September again!

Aston Marina is a great place to moor if you can put up with the noise from the twice weekly weddings which I'm told the marina has a licence until 1am for.

One the Shroppie I think they do it because when they see you moored there they know it means there's a pretty good chance that there isn't a ledge on that section. As for why they do it on other canals I don't know, but I presume they perceive it's more secure, as in safety in numbers.

It drives me mad people who put titles like this that give no indication of what the thread is about, and especially when all they do is put a link because they are too lazy to write anything. Time wasters and inconsiderate!

I wondered about this as well. I think they added it as an afterthought. I'll perhaps have it removed at the next blacking and take a look.

There was no noticeable change to how the boat handled or to the trim of the boat either. After that photo was taken they added a strip of steel virtically to the front of the extension at a 45 degree angle, the idea being that it would reduce the resistance by helping to deflect the water past the tank. I doubt it made much difference though and was probably not necessary. If there had been a difference in the boat's trim a simple adjustment to the ballast would have cured it any way, but in my case I didn't need to.

This was Bainland Camping site in Lincs.

My multifuel stove has come to end of it's life and I'm considering not replacing it and just using our Webasto, because I'm getting to the age when humping about bags of coal is becomming difficult, even with the smaller bags. This would mean during really cold spells it might be running it for around 20 hours a day. I'm a liveaboard (60ft boat) and it's a 5kw Thermotop with 4 rads plus the towel rad. But I've been told that it's not good to run them for those lengths of time on a regular basis, and that it can cause the burner or heat exchanger to bust (or other components to fail). Might this be true or should it be able to cope with that sort of regular use?

Thanks all for your helpful replies, I was thinking along the same lines so it's good that you've confirmed my suspicions and saved me 50 quid, even though I'm sure I'd have found a cheaper one 🙂. I've had a conventional stove top type one for about 12 years and although I believe it helps a bit, I think the difference is negligable, but was hoping that not having the galley worktop side blocking the air flow might have improved it. As some have mentioned, the best thing about one is when the fan stops, and although the fire is still quite hot I think it does at least warn you that the stove will need some attention albeit not necessarily straight away.

I know opinions on the effectiveness of ecofans are somewhat divided, and mine is that they are able to move the warm air down the boat, but the difference they make is minimal. Having said this, my stove is next to my galley worktop, so any wafting of air must struggle to get over the top of that. I’ve seen on the internet those fans with a collar which can be attached to anywhere on the flue pipe, and I was wondering if one of those might make a difference because of being able to mount it above the worktop. My concern is that because the flue is cooler than the top of the stove, would there be enough heat to ‘power’ the fan fast enough to move the air properly, especially as mine would need to be attached fairly high up on it where the flue gets cooler? In other words how do they compare with the stove mounted version? I don’t really want this post to turn into cassette versus pump out type argument about ecofans general effectiveness or not, but just hear from anyone who has the flue pipe mounted one, do they work, and your opinion of them as to whether or not they’re worth shelling out £50 for. Here’s the one I’ve been looking at https://simplyvaliant.co.uk/products/remora

I'm shocked and very saddened to hear this. Over many years we've had 2 chimneys and a new flue from them, and as they operate in my main cruising area we've always paused for a little chat with Kym and Tracy as we are passing by.

We want to do Boston to Wisbech sometime in September. I haven't contacted Daryl yet but I'm mentioning it here in case anyone else is interested in doing the crossing around that time.

Thanks to both of you who corrected me regarding the cottage at Lifford Guillotine lock. I moved away from the area not long after the cottage was demolished and had presumed (wrongly) that the road bridge was widened just after that.