Grassman

Last year we arrived at Colwich Lock on the T&M to find that the lock beam had snapped when the boat in front went through. CRT were there within an hour, fitted a kind of rodded adjustable sleeve, and the navigation re-opened within a couple of hours. I was told that nowadays all their crews carry a few sets of these as it’s such an easy quick fix to get boats moving again. I’ve noticed quite a few of these on my travels, some of which look as if they’ve been in place for a while. So it does question the ‘temporary’ nature of the repair, but if they do the job and last a long time, and save CRT the cost of a complete beam replacement until the gate is due for renewal then I haven’t a problem with that. It's surely so much better than in days gone by when a lock could be out of action for weeks. Your thoughts?

Yes, and an expensive accurate one too.

I've always found that from cruising at about 3mph it takes 3 - 4 boat lengths to reduce to 2mph.

While out driving yesterday I was listening to the local BBC radio station and the show's host asked a CRT representative if they should fence off all the canals . I nearly crashed the car! That takes naivety to a new level, and the CRT person seemed quite taken aback by the question,

I was in a similar situation to Hairywill. I bought my boat 12 years ago after 30+ years of hiring and sharing. When I first started looking it was a minefield. For example why was such and such boat more expensive than a similar spec newer one? But after a lot of trawling through the internet studying lots of boats for sale, and researching on this forum, I began to get an idea of the whys and wherefores. Then going to physically go to view boats increased this knowledge and experience and I began to suss out what was and wasn't value for money. It was a ballache and hard work, but it had to be done and paid off in the end. However even this didn't prevent me nearly buying a dud. The survey I commissioned revealed the hull to be badly rusted and rotten so as the purchase (from a broker) was 'subject to survey' I was able to get my deposit back. Also, because the hull was the first thing the surveyor checked, we agreed there was no point continuing with it, so he just charged me 25% of his fee and we put the rest towards the cost of the next survey. So Hairywill you wouldn't necessarily 'waste' the full cost of your survey. Doing lots of research both online and physically should significantly increase the chance of you buying a decent boat. As the others have said, a paper trail and record of its history and ownership counts for a lot too.

I bought one of those bird song identification apps in their early days years ago and what a waste of money that was. Nearly everything was identified as an African Tree Parrot 😕. Regarding noise tolerance, we once had a mooring in Baddesley Wharf marina in the middle of the Atherstone lock flight. Those of you who are familiar with it know that the busy West Coast Main Line runs only a 100m or so from it. Within a few weeks of mooring there we became used to the noise, so much so that the only time we noticed it was there was on Bank Holidays when we would suddenly notice how quiet it was.

I spotted this in the September issue of Waterways World in an article about boat names

Some say that if the original name of the boat is left somewhere on it then no bad luck will come your way. I'm not particularly superstitious but as a precaution I wrote the former name of my boat on the inside of the bow gas locker lid in felt tip pen. A no cost, no hassle solution which gave me peace of mind just in case 🙂

Also the two gates were level instead angled in a V

We love the Mon & Brec Canal. We did it in 1993 and 2009 and are having another week on it in October despite us having our own boat. It's quite pretty, infact stunningly so in places, and there are some good pubs, cafe's and interesting places to walk or visit. Being an isolated canal the boating traffic is relatively quiet too. But with only 6 locks (including a flight of 5) there isn't much physical activity involved with the traveling, which might not suit your party.

I loved the way George Clark said they'd lined the inside with plywood to stop any leaks 😮😀. About 10 years ago I attended a wedding there and with both of us being smokers, throughout the day we spent quite a bit of time chatting outside having a ciggy. I told him I lived on a narrowboat and he was quite interested, asking me the usual questions etc, so maybe that planted the seed of his idea 🙂 He's quite a character and so laid back. He was telling me about the year before when they were featured on that Hotel Inspector programme and how behind the scenes the host and producer kept trying to wind him up in order to spice up the programme. But he kept his cool and wouldn't be rattled and he loved it because that would them up instead of him.

I'd cut 6 inches off, and it would be from the galley. My boat was advertised as 62ft but is in fact 62' 6". That extra 6 inches just makes it that bit harder for the shorter locks such as on the Leeds & Liverpool, or the lock at Thorne. If we weren't liveaboards I'd chop it down to 58ft, but the vast amount of storage in our boat is so good and I'd be loathe to live without it.

New refuge service?? Were CRT providing somewhere safe for people to escape the Covid virus? 😀

A great deal of the maintenance of the towpaths is carried out by (or commissioned and paid for by) the local authorities not CRT.

Until a few years ago I never bothered with a spring because the vast majority of passing boats slowed down. Nowadays because most don't slow down I always make a spring. Better for my health than getting stressed every time it happens.

Fabricant had no interest in the waterways and had never been on a canal boat until the local IWA branch invited him and some of his constituents to go on a little cruise of the local canals (I presume the T&M or the Coventry). He loved it and was hooked. I'm not sure when this was but it was obviously a long time ago. Perhaps that's the way to go with trying to get the support of the new MP's around the country 🙂

They are trying to get volunteers to do the towpath vegetation cutting. The problem is the same as with most other organisations these days in that the amount of potential volunteers is decreasing year on year because many are either getting too old or passing away, and much of the next generation aren't interested in volunteering or have other activities to pursue. Add to that the fact that many volunteers are away on holidays or out boating for the summer, and it's no surprise the towpaths are getting out of hand. I appreciate the financial difficulties CRT have, but relying on volunteers for this just isn't going to work. It needs a regular time structured programme of cutting not the adhoc gathering together of a few volunteers whenever they happen to be available.

In the winter of 2010 I was iced in outside that pub for a couple of weeks. There are worse places to be stuck of course, the trouble was that at the time the pub was only open at weekends.

I insure my Nb with Nautical, and on the basis that you only find out how good an insurance company is when you make a claim, I've had 2 fairly substantial claims, both necessitating a dry docking, and they paid out both times with no hassle. The first was 8 years ago when my propeller dropped off, and the other was 2 years ago when I badly damaged the skeg on a submerged safe. Following each claim the premium wasn't badly affected either. Somebody mentioned Newton Crum who seem to have a good reputation. I was with them for a couple of years but when they found out I was a liveaboard they said they didn't offer cover for liveaboards (I hadn't declared this). That might have changed now of course but if you're a liveaboard it would be as well to check.

Talk to as many boaters as you can. Pick their brains, you’ll find that most should be happy to have a chat. Perhaps some moorers in Mercia Marina, but also walk the towpaths such as in nearby Willington, or Fradley Junction. Search this forum as has been suggested. It will all initially seem overwhelming but gradually as you soak up more and more information it will begin to make more sense and won’t be as stressful. When you start searching for potential boats to buy it’s difficult at first to gauge the value of boats. For example you will wonder why boat X, a 2001 built 60ft, is cheaper than boat Y, a 50ft 1995 build older boat. So you have to do a lot of searching, initially on the internet and then physically looking at boats. In time once you’ve done a lot of searching and price comparisons you will begin to get a feel for what is and isn’t value for money. There are also factors such as the quality and reputation of the boatbuilder, the quality of the interior fit out, the history of the boat (paper trail of maintenance and work carried out on it). Once you’ve decided on a specific boat have it independently surveyed. Most brokers will accept a purchase ‘subject to survey’ meaning that if any major problem is revealed in the survey you can pull out of the deal and get your deposit re-funded. We once fell in love with a boat, placed a deposit, then the survey revealed that it was a ‘rust bucket’ of a boat. The survey and dry docking wasn’t cheap but together with some other issues they found, it prevented us from buying a boat which would have needed in excess of £15k spending on it.

Possibly they pulled into the edge to let you pass so as not to hold you up while they were doing their winding. Naturally neither of you would know the intentions of the other 😀

Yes and there lies the problem. Unfortunately you've no way of knowing how experienced or competent the boater being overtaken is, hence the reason I rarely do it unless they are a particularly slow dawdler.

On the rare occasions I overtake another boat, my biggest issue is when I'm 3/4 of the way past them the displacement sucks their bows towards me. When I'm being overtaken I'm ready for it and try to steer against it and sometimes adjust my speed accordingly, often a quick thrust of power for a second or two does the trick. Inexperienced obviously boaters don't do this and are noticeably surprised when it happens. Despite me having boated extensively for many years, overtaking other boats is something I've always struggled with, so have you others any tips? Obviously I try to choose a wide and straight section to do it, I give it as wide a berth as possible, and not pass too quickly, but often despite them calling me on, the boat being overtaken doesn't slow down enough and I end up having to increase my speed because of a bend or narrows ahead, and this of course compounds the problem!

Apart from unplanned stoppages and structural failures, continuous cruisers (28% of the boaters surveyed) are obviously not going to be happy following the additional hikes in their licence fees. Also most owners of widebeams won’t be happy with their extra charges either. I reckon these would have a significantly negative impact on the feedback from the survey surely.

I didn't realise that. I've used those moorings as a stop off on my way up or down the Severn a fair few times and have never paid a fee. I've always thought that because it's below the Avon Lock it wouldn't come under the ANT's jurisdiction because it's not their waters.