Paul&Sam

A civil difference of opinion is a rare thing these days! Can't disagree with second point I always tell my customers to politley decline help lock wheeling if they want to control their ascent or descent speed for a comfortable and safe locking. It's daunting enough at times without being bashed about to save someone 2 minutes paddle lifting too quickly.

I generally work upon if you can see another boat coming and it is in their favour. Normally you can see only 1 or 2 locks ahead unless they are very close, if the boat is coming out the next lock and its 50 yards to your lock I would have waited. Seems the consensus in the thread was that the protocol was such which I may have got mixed up on being your comment, apologies.

I think you should have waited. The bit I think missed here is the hire staff probably had just finished explaining to their guests how locks work and lock etiquette and right of way. You then go and do the exact opposite of what you acknowledged was protocol. You can't have it both ways, hire boaters aren't going to observe etiquette on locks if it isn't returned and their very first lock sequence during their training another boater throws it out the window. You've demonstrated to them it is optional so cest la vie when it occurs in reverse and someone turns a lock in their favour against you when it was already set. Rudeness can't be excused from the hire boat staff but, if they are trying to verbalise to you your error in order to fix the perception of their guests then I can see where this gets mis construed. They may well have thought they was helping you with your lock wheeling. The interaction is hard to call without being there and judging tone etc, the sequence of the locks by your account though seems clearly in their favour.

Thanks for providing the link to us Tumshie. K-Rod if you have any questions about routes near us or our boats then feel free to get in touch with us at floating Holidays. 07901588364 or info@floating-holidays.co.uk Wherever you go have a great holiday. Paul.

Not happened yet, however I guess we would have to improvise a solution, most likely walk a little further the same as anyone else looking for a mooring. There's a lot of towpath to choose from, we've faced many challenges over our 3 years operating and haven't let them beat us yet. A can do approach and cheery up beat outlook has served us well so far. To be fair we've a few alternative "visitor / towpath" mooring locations we have scouted ahead of time as alternatives so are well prepared.

Easter holidays so they've all been out over the last weekend. And are currently all with customers enjoying an Easter break. If you see me around there Welsh Cruiser be sure to stop and say hello.

Hi Howard We have only moved the arrow slightly closer to Bridge 15 on the Google map picture today, as that's where we meet guests to show them aboard. It appeared we may have been confused as at Lord Vernon's wharf which we are not and haven't any association with any other business there. To avoid confusion we have corrected this error as promptly as we could once made aware. All the best. Paul.

No offence taken should maybe have posted and introduced ourselves earlier as do read these forums, however you all seem to be boaters with boats and didn't want to "rock the boat" pitching to the wrong audience a hire boat proposition our cover is blown though so in all honesty any questions or concerns just ask and let me know. Paul

Hi All My wife and I are the operators of Floating Holidays, I guess until now the Macclesfield canals' best kept secret. To answer a few questions we are fully compliant with CRT licence for holiday boats and hire boat Bss certified. We have permanent moorings nearby which are purely for our storage of the boats when not on hire (which certainly aren't sub leased out at all and never will be) The CRT requested that we conduct handovers to customers on the visitor moorings by bridge 15 when we started operating to minimise any disruption to permanent moorers. This is also a handy location as there are two winding holes either side of those moorings for demonstrating boat navigation to customers. We are only on those moorings temporarily whilst prepping and handing over boats, this week the whole fleet had been with customers and therefore you may have spotted a couple boats there all at once. Hope that answers any questions but anything else just let us know. Paul