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Grassman

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Posts posted by Grassman

  1. The Caldon Canal has its challenges mainly due to poor maintenance, but it's well worth doing it.  Strangely some don't bother with the Leek Arm and they miss out on one of the nicest stretches of canal in the country. Plenty of quiet and rural moorings at the far end too.

  2. 14 hours ago, Mike Todd said:

     

    I also wonder how far the (very) modern trend to allowing vegetation to decorate canals banks is a factor. Many pictures from some time back show canals very shorn of trees and undergrowth. I also am aware that there seems to be two schools of thought: keep them clear to avoid storm damage when trees are brought down, the other that growth helps to bind the soil together and reduce erosion. I don't know enough to assess the balance. The current 'political' context favours greenery at any price - sometimes the longer term cost is now being shown to be greater.

     

    But I speculate.

     

    Recently when we were doing the offside veg cutting we had one of CRT's ecology persons tag along with us for the day. It was a nightmare because they kept saying you can't cut this, you can't cut that, even in parts where trees were causing a major problem, not just to navigation but also where they were compromising the safety of boaters too. 

    • Greenie 1
  3. For me, Birmingham is better by a long chalk. No matter what time you arrive you're pretty certain of finding somewhere to over-night. Not so with Manchester especially since they've turned some of the VM's into permanent moorings. Birmingham seems to encourage visiting boaters where as Manchester doesn't.

    • Greenie 1
  4. 19 hours ago, Ewan123 said:

    Crikey, makes £15 sound like a bargain! Which, to be fair, is probably reasonable. Just adds up when one is accustomed to free canalside moorings.

     

    That's the problem. It's like when the first time we booked a 3 days mooring in Little Venice, I was moaning about it to friends and family, and they pointed out that where else can you stay in the middle of London for £10 a night.

  5. 11 hours ago, Ewan123 said:

    Did you try these out? I'm wondering what good options there are for mooring in Liverpool. We're crossing the Mersey in April and can't really justify the £15/night (as of April 2024) for more than a night or two but would like to hang around in Liverpool for a couple of weeks.

     

    When we did the Mersey into Liverpool in 2021 and booked the locking off the river at Brunswick Lock into Liverpool Marina, they asked if we wanted to stay there for a few nights at £60 a night! Having already pre-booked a week at Salthouse we obviously declined the offer.

  6. 20 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

    So we can avoid them?

     

    I didn’t think they’d be about til Easter. 

     

    Some, and probably most, don't start until Easter. But in my winter cruising area I've often seen them at Penkridge and Atherstone. Never at Fradley though. They seem to be a strictly Easter to October operation, except for the last few weeks but that's only because they've been helping the dredging boats through the locks between Woodend and Hunts Lock.

  7. 8 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:

     

     

     

    HS2 will run from Old Oak Common to Handsacre in Staffordshire with a spur to Birmingham that allows access to and from the north as well as London.
     

    Direct services from London to Liverpool, Manchester, Lancashire, Glasgow and north Wales will all use the line as far as Handsacre where they will join the existing West Cost main line to complete their journeys. 

     

    I've been told from a very informed source that the once the HS2 trains join the existing WCML at Handsacre they will be slower than the existing trains for the rest of the journey north because they won't have the tilt mechanism, so any time gained coming from London will be lost once it joins the WCML.  Also the HS2 carriages will be shorter so the capacity might be less as well.

     

    The same person told me that there's already a bottleneck on the WCML caused by Handsacre Tunnel where the existing WCML has to reduce from 4 lines to 2 lines, so the addition of HS2 trains will make it even worse and probably slow  the journey down even more.

  8. 16 hours ago, IanD said:

     

    Sometimes you don't have much choice, given the canal tree pruning standards in many places today combined with inconsiderate mooring or incompetent steering of a boat coming the other way...

     

    It's main reason I approached CRT 6 years ago about starting a joint IWA/CRT offside vegetation cutting venture in our area and why I've been part of the volunteering team since I started it 🙂.  I had booked a full back to metal re-paint job on my boat for 2 years ahead and wanted it sorted before I splashed out all that money!

     

    Suffice to say that 4 years since the re-paint (by CTS, Cannock), and a brush job not spray paint job, it's still looking great. I've incurred the occasional scratch from protruding vegetation but because of the quality of the paint job and depth of paint, I've been able to polish them out quite easily.

    • Greenie 1
  9. It's probably a combination of the above possible explanations, but I think the change in our climate has a lot to do with it. Heavier downpours of rain saturating the ground before it has chance to drain/seep away is bound to put more pressure on the stability of embankments. Also not just heavier downpours but we seem to be having more prolonged spells of rain meaning that in places the ground is already saturated and struggles to cope with any more.

    • Greenie 1
  10. 11 hours ago, PaulD said:

     

     

     

     

    I stood next to Bob Hawke in the gents urinal. Does that count ?

     

    Similar to mine. I stood with Sir Alf Ramsey in the gents urinal.

     

    That ought to count as it was in a pub, and we were both getting rid of our pints after consuming them 🙂.

    • Greenie 1
  11. I think it's getting increasingly difficult to get volunteers. Obviously this depends to a degree upon what type of volunteering it is, but generally they tend to be retired or semi-retired people, and as each generation of retirees evolve, more of them seem to have other interests to pursue so don't have the time or inclination to volunteer.

     

    Add to this is the fact that many are having to stay in work for longer due to the changes in the retirement age and/or due to economic necessity and this exacerbates the problem further.

     

     

    • Greenie 2
    • Sad 1
  12. Nobody has mentioned CRT's contracting out some of the work which must figure in the equation somewhere. I wonder how the cost of that compares with using their own staff and/or volunteers?

     

    For our (IWA) offside vegetation cutting I have 2 teams of 6 volunteers and each team does about 6 hours a day. I think the UK minimum wage for paid staff is £10 an hour, so using volunteers is saving them at least £360 per each days work. Some (not all) of us are trained to use a pole chain saw and wood chipper which cost CRT about £150 for each course but the certificate lasts for 5 years. All other training such as helming, is done 'in house'.

     

    Other costs are medicals (about £100 a year per volunteer), a mileage allowance (£0.43ppm) which less than 50% actually claim. Then there's things like the provision of PPE etc, but they'd have those costs using their own staff anyway.

     

    I think the value of volunteers is subjective, in that it comes down to how important what they do is deemed to be. Things like litter picking, painting, other 'cosmetic' jobs, and lock volunteering. The navigations could manage without them but would be a worse place if these jobs weren't done.  Each has its value and merits but are they as important as something like vegetation cutting which has a direct benefit to navigation? Opinions on this will no doubt differ.

     

    Then there's the perceived benefits of volunteers being the public face of CRT. When doing the offside veg cutting we get a lot of nice compliments from the public as well as boaters, and like them or loathe them the lock keepers engagement with the general public is good for CRT, especially given the fact that they are trying to get the public's support at the moment.

     

    Whether it's a good thing or not, CRT are currently looking to deploy volunteers more and more for vital maintenance work such as dredging for example. Starting shortly they will be doing some dredging in our area, and we will be assisting with shuffling the hopper boats, taking away a full ones and feeding the dredger with empty ones. Is this a good thing or should they stick to contractors or their own staff for this type of work?

    • Greenie 3
  13. I’m looking to do the Wash crossing in September and would be grateful for some advice please, specifically with regard to the pros and cons of which direction to do it, and not just with the Wash crossing but also the pros and cons of which direction to do the River Nene in.

     

    I’ve researched on here and watched some vlogs so I’ve a general idea of what to expect, and I’m fairly experienced with some other big tidals having done the Severn Estuary, Ribble Link, Mersey etc, but with the wealth of knowledge and experience on this forum I’d really appreciate your thoughts and suggestions please.

     

  14. We did it on our own. Stuart the pilot reckoned you could fit 100 60ft narrowboats in Eastham Lock. I'm not so sure you could, but it certainly was a massive one.  Did you have one pilot for the whole convoy? 

     

    My only disappointment was that we didn't encounter any large ships on the move, just a dredger and a tug was all we had.

  15. On 11/01/2024 at 19:07, Ewan123 said:

     

     

    which does a decent job of making it sound scary enough to take the crossing seriously. Sounds like we need to invest in a radar reflector too (otherwise I think we have the required kit at least).

     

    Time to look for a pilot then 👍

     

    We did it from EP to Liverpool 2 years ago. Don't be put off by the Peel Ports guidance notes, as there's a lot in there that you don't need and that includes a radar reflector. You don't even need navigation lights on your cabin (we don't have them). Just a suitable anchor, life vests etc and do your usual pre-trip checks. You will need the Peel Ports Certificate of Seaworthiness for which the criteria is very basic and nothing to worry about.

     

    I would recommend using a pilot, we used Stuart Wood, and I'm fairly sure that Peel won't let you through Eastham Lock unless you have one. Also your insurance company might insist you use one. As well as piloting, Stuart is like having your own tour guide as he gives you snippets of interesting information about what you're passing.

     

    The turn into Brunswick Lock in Liverpool is fairly straightforward depending on the tide and wind conditions, but the timing of the opening isn't an exact science and can sometimes mean an uncomfortable wait outside for 5 or 10 minutes before they let you in.

    It's a great trip and well worth doing despite the cost.

     

     

  16. 13 hours ago, StephenA said:

     

    Indeed - we were moored at Braunston a good long time ago and the rain was so heavy that the entire marina went up by several inches and water was starting to top the puddle banks.

     

     

    Similar to this??

    Floods 5.JPG

    Floods 6.JPG

    Floods 8.JPG

  17. Naturally with my job as a pest controller I came across many strange and bizarre wasps nests. The largest one I dealt with was the size of a fridge freezer (in a barn) and the strangest one was in a bed in a gap between the pillow and duvet.

     

    It was a rarely used spare bedroom at the end of a cottage, and south facing. There was a hole in the wooden window frame where there’d once been an aerial cable through it, and this is where the wasps were getting in and out.

     

    Regrettably I haven’t a photo because it was in the days before camera phones.

  18. My Webasto is secured to the cabin bulkhead and I've had no problems despite having quite a leaky cruiser stern (deck boards, drainage channels etc). Because the unit is slim the steel part of the deck protrudes from the cabin far enough to protect it from dripping rainwater. It's mounted on the port side so the exhaust outlet is easily routed through the skin of the hull.

     

    I may be wrong but I think the Eberspachers are of similar size and shape, however the Hurricane heaters are much bigger and not as slim.

  19. 11 hours ago, Jerra said:

    Possibly only one year.  In the main, the colony dies off apart from Queens who seek somewhere to hibernate like a snug narrowboat.

     

    After a bit of a Google Pestuk.com say:

     

    Firstly, wasps nests cannot be reused. Each year the queen wasp will build her own nest. Queens will not reuse other nests and it is unlikely that another colony would move into an already built nest.

     

    During 10 years as a pest controller, every year I received calls about wasps in the weeks leading up to Christmas. People were going into their lofts to get the Xmas decorations out, and disturbing hibernating queens. 

     

    Someone commented on there seeming to be less wasps around last summer. This may have been because the preceding winter was mild. As a pest controller mild winters were bad for business because the warmer days would rouse hibernating queens into thinking it was Springtime so they would emerge and then find the was no food around (insects etc) and they'd die. As a consequence less queens obviously meant less wasp nests in the summer. Whereas a cold winter meant the queens would stay safely hibernated. It varied so much, for example one year I dealt with 507 nests but the following summer I only did 85.

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