Dave123

I imagine there are some wealthy weekend boaters, who think this change to licences will magically make the untidy boats they hate so much, dissappear.

I thought the profile of rivers is usually deepest immediately above a weir, and shallowest below?

I found going in at Keadby far less nerve-wracking than steering through Standedge tunnel!

I was living on my narrowboat whilst working as a post doc at uni in London (which is close to being a student I guess)😅. If anything it was easier than living on a boat and working for a company (which I now do) as Uni is a very flexible sort of workplace.

Most boats aren't set up to be heated by electricity though? I've always thought this is a major oversight of all these schemes to make town centre moorings smoke/emission free by installing electric bollards...it might save engine or generator running to charge batteries but in the winter most emissions are stoves or diesel heaters, which won't change with electric bollards...

What about shutting the navigation during the hours of darkness, providing more secure moorings, and increasing the flow rate significantly after dark?

Can't really think of anything that would justify this...unless the couple on the boat were the last two Prime Ministers 😂

Crofton was open for a couple of months at least...but I am generally encouraged that CRT are investing in big projects like the work at Crofton. It isn't meant to be shut this coming winter

I suppose...though I think it makes people feel a bit safer and more inclined to share info?

True. I'm in two minds about this. Having a high flow rate on these canals would cause navigational issues and structural ones (eg errosion of banks; CRT blamed the Middlewich breach on someone opening all the paddles on a lock and causing a high flow on the canal). Equally, anything that gives the canals increased relevance and funding is a good thing. Boats manage on the Llangollen and also some of the narrower faster parts of the K&A, eg Theale VMs and below Thatcham

Generally if a canal has a specific facebook page it's very useful, eg the K&A, Oxford&Cov, L&L etc

Increasingly news related to canals appears on Facebook and not on here though. Take the stoppage page on here for example, it used to be the first place I checked before a cruise but now I don't bother and rely on Facebook instead, stoppage info appears there much quicker now.

Aren't there already back pumps at most of those locks? If they went via Warwick and Napton then certainly there are back pumps all the way at each lock flight.

K&A has had multiple stoppages over the last few months that never appear on here. Guessing not many forum members in this area...heard rumours of too many scruffy boats😂 but just wanted to post this as it was the fastest repair I've encountered in about 20 years! Was preparing for a long wait after the balance beam snapped off Copse lock 80, but two working days later it was fixed with this....

Same thing happens to the Devizes elsan each week. Conspiracy theories range from broken/blocked piping somewhere underground to idiot liveabords to local street drinkers...

A few points to add to this; 1) It was comprehensively demonstrated (but I can't find the references) that the cost of closing a canal is close to the cost of maintaining it. You can't just walk away from a canal and stop spending anything on it. Locks would need damming up, embankments and cuttings either complete removal or regular inspection and maintenance anyway. Every watercourse joining a canal (eg sewers and streams) needs diverting or culverting etc etc plus the towpaths would still need maintaining, they couldn't be closed (as was demonstrated during lockdown when various groups of boaters tried this themselves in places). Many canals provide a water supply to sewage works/farms/factories/fiber optic cable cooling so this would need to continue? 2) No one ever discusses the many canal restoration projects when talking of the imminent demise of the CRT navigations. I do wonder if some of the resource put into these should or could be diverted? 3) Am quite concerned by the lack of planned winter closures this year though, so obviously CRT have some idea they are going to be left with little money?

But that won't work in the deeper locks (which these mostly are). The bow would initially be sliding up the cill not the gate, and as it got high enough it would jump forwards and bang into the gate

I can't think of many places on the typical narrow canal where I'd let a boat overtake. Only if it was sufficiently wide and straight that I knew I wouldn't go aground or get pushed into overhanging trees or moored boats, and could see nothing was coming the other way...

Cross guns was doing food the other week. Best moorings for Avoncliff are before/East of the aqueduct. For some stupid reason BW put the visitor mooring bollards the other side where there is a big underwater ledge. I guess if anything your observations show people do move about as Dundas and BoA had quite a lot of spaces both times we went through earlier this month. Probably Bath will be quieter then, also the Avon is opening up now so boats will head down there too.

Crt giving a further update today. Initial fix seemed not to work and may be a longer closure or limited supervised passage

Just returned from a fortnight's cruise over to Bath and back. Was pleasantly surprised at how quiet and easy to moor it was on the whole stretch from below Caen hill to Bath. Bath itself was the only place that was very busy and we had to go down 3 of the Widcombe locks to find a mooring. There are good 2 day moorings in the pound here and plenty of room to wind if you don't fancy doing more locks onto the river. BoA was pretty quiet and moored on the visitor mooring rings on the way there and the way back. Plenty of general towpath space too all along the way from Bathampton through Claverton, Dundas and Avoncliff. In fact only Honey Street (and above the locks in Bath) were noticeably bad in terms of obvious overstaying on the short stay moorings

Just saw this on the BBC. Very shocking! As someone else said, it must be someone with a very specific grievance against the W&A trust. Be surprised if it was just a disgruntled landowner, they'll more than likely be 6 feet under by the time boats ever get to navigate the canal so why bother draining it now🙈

Disagree...for many visitors/tourists the boats are the most interesting thing about the canal. Number of times I've been at the end of a line of moored boats and all the tourists and other people out for a wonder stopped and turned back when they reach the end of the line of boats, because there was nothing else interesting to look at when the view became just ducks, muddy water and trees😅

So presumably this option was chosen over the other option (of having navigation permitted every day and no single day of complete closure) because boaters voted for it? Surely its better to have the option to move every/any day, albeit on a narrower timeframe, rather than no movement at all on Tuesday? What if the weather prevents moving on other days?

They need to find a way to make the bridges and locks on the Severn boater operated out of hours, same with the Weaver. Boaters can operate the big locks on the south Yorkshire and trent navigations so why not these? I read once somewhere this was because there was no way to set them to only a 'slow filling' option?