noddyboater

There’s an entry in Christine Richardson’s Archive that mentions “George Moat of Clarborough” who’s a coal merchant and selling a boat that is 53’ by 12’7”. There’s no place of mooring stated but I assumed Clarborough. I believe our friends fat boat is 57’ x 12’ but Peter Boat will confirm this as yes, it was Richard and Simon in their early boating days.

Yes that’s Manor Bridge just after the winding hole. It was rebuilt narrower to increase the weight capacity it can carry to Manor Farm. It’s around 9’ I think, a bit crap when officially it’s 14’ to Retford.

You’d probably wreck them on the shoal that’s mid channel before the first lock, it’s been building up from the by-wash for years. Would NC fit through the regular arched bridges? We convinced some friends from Sheffield to have a run up to the first winding hole at Walkeringham in their fat narrowboat, that was over 10 years ago and I don’t think anything wide has done it since. It’s hard to believe now that it was built wide to Retford.

The resident keeper would also get up and shut the flood gates in the middle of the night if needed, this included Cranfleet which bizarrely can only be accessed in a small boat. What boaters on the cut will notice though is that he would be out knocking sliding poles down the side of moored boats, usually ones left unattended. He’s also been known to ferry people around by dinghy and outboard who have been stranded by the flood. I don’t imagine you’ll see volockies turning up to do such things.

Not entirely true. Although the resident landlord was relieved of his lock operating duties as volunteers took over, he was given a van full of tools and equipment for work on the “bank”. The trouble was he’s old school you might say, and would rather fix things to keep them open for boaters than slap an “out of order” sign on them- things like locks. This didn’t sit well with management for some reason, but putting information signs up addressed to dogs didn’t sit well with our landlord either, so he took early retirement. Keeping an eye on river levels was also part of his old job as resident keeper, you’ll notice the difference now if you use Sawley cut as a safe haven to sit out a flood.

A bit obvious once you’ve done it, but not if it’s your first time- Although you can use either lock if approaching from downstream, if there’s nobody working them use the mooring on the left as you come under the bridge. It’s far easier than trying to tie up to the wall for the right hand lock. And don’t forget the pontoon for the service block and water is the “wrong” way up the river. Also a good spot to enjoy a quick pint while your tank is filling.

Never mind a working narrowboat, have you seen what people are asking for old springers once they’ve been to IKEA and done a refit?! I’ve always admired shermini, if I could afford a 2nd boat to have based on the river it would definitely be her. In a line of pointy plastic things she stands out by a mile.

And pretty sure that’s the Trent not the Thames. Shermini moors at Sawley and is currently for sale on A/duck, unless some lucky bugger has bought her.

Someone told me their mooring in Sawley Marina had increased to over £4,000 recently. That’s for a full length fat boat, I believe residential. They were discussing leaving and coming out onto the “cut” with their neighbours, and you can’t blame them. Expect to see an increase in residential wide beams on the towpath as prices rise.

A whine.. that’s a tricky one. ...When they’d done she gave a whine, said ‘Thank you for a lovely time’... Pleasure and pain? But you’re right, this has gone far enough off topic now. Anyway another thread seems to have been turned into a gripe about volunteers!

It’s nothing to do with the dictionary, just common sense. Moaning is not the same as whinging. Moaning can mean someone is experiencing a degree of pleasure, whinging does not.

There’s a huge difference between the two and I don’t need www. anything to define it. Can’t you think of a situation where hearing “another moan” would be most acceptable but a “general whinge” certainly wouldn’t?

Bloomin hell, is that the only thing you could pick me up on from my last post? You should read it again and try harder. And I think you’ll find that “another moan” is nothing like a “general whinge”.

Thanks, I really enjoyed watching that engine being started. It beats my previous favourite- “ Hotbulb engine startup... drunk”. Which is an absolute classic!

My original post was a warning to other boaters that may be in the area, not a general whinge. If you’re approaching a lock and someone appears with a life jacket and windlass, you’d expect them to know what they’re doing. Briefly, the conversation I had with the volunteer was as follows; Me-Everything ok? V-He’s shouted at me to drop the paddle Me-Yes, he looks a bit distressed. If you open the opposite side ground paddle instead on these locks it holds the boat against the wall nicely, and slowly, not all the way up in one go. Then do the gate paddle on that side too. If you’re not in a rush don’t bother with the paddles on the same side as the boat at all. V-Oh, thanks I’ll try that next time. I thought on wide locks you do the boat side first and the water comes underneath and holds it? Me-Not on these locks, but yes, on most it does. I hope this gives a clearer picture of what happened, I’m sure the volunteer took my advice on board and apart from maybe a broken glass or two in the unfortunate boat in the lock everything turned out fine. I don’t feel the need to report it to CRT, if the chap on the boat in the lock does that’s fair enough. I go boating to enjoy myself, not to stack up a list of complaints to email off to CRT at the first opportunity. To be honest the only time I have felt the urge to complain about an absolute pillock of a (paid) keeper, it fell on deaf ears anyway.