doratheexplorer

Horses for courses. Doesn't mean it won't have been edited back if you check again in a week though.

Not tosh. I'd agree that on the correct canals, a widebeam is acceptable. These canals exist in a fairly small geographical area around Yorkshire and neighbouring counties. I'll say again, the best canals are generally the narrow canals. The only people who dispute this are widebeam owners. Oh and standard widebeam narrowboats are fugly. Dutch Barges look lovely but have even more issues with draft and air draft once you leave the rivers.

Just to add: I grow chillies on my boat. I start them off in spring in a plug tray on my draining rack in front of my kitchen window. From June onwards I transplant them to growbags on my roof of medium sized pots on my rear deck. I don't use any additional power and I edn up with some really big and tasty chillies. The more I think about it, the idea of growing plants under high powered lights while cruising on a boat simply doesn't work. Most liveaboards had to give things up from our previous life, some big, some small. For me it was my precious chickens. I spent months trying to work out how to bring them with me until I had to accept I was putting my needs ahead of theirs. They didn't want to come and were happier staying on land.

Please don't buy a widebeam. 1. It's not just the fact that you exclude all those narrow canals, it's that those as generally the best canals. 2. Extended cruising on anything wider than the norm is degrees harder than on a narrowboat. Visibility can be poor and the canals down south just were not designed for them. If you just want to potter around Yorkshire and the Trent, it's fine. Otherwise, no. 3. Other boaters will be annoyed by you. See :

Except it's not as easy as you might think. Someone I know is sort of a bit famous, enough to have a wikipedia page. The page has a number of minor mistakes and one huge whopper of a lie (nothing illegal or libellous, just utterly ridiculous). When they tried to get it changed, wikipedia asked for comprehensive proof of who they were before allowing it. Eventually they relented and the mistakes were rectified. A week later, the original errors were added back in.

I've seen worse and these sort of rust issues generally look a lot worse than they actually are. If you're really scared of blowing a puncture, get it onto some hardstanding or a dry dock first. Then get a hull survey before doing anything else. It shouldn't be too hard to get it out of the water, surveyed and back in the same day. My guess is that if you started with 10mm, you'l still have plenty left. Then you can scrape it back and vactan it with confidence. All narrowboats should be built with large inspection hatches at the back of the cabin so you can easily look down into the bilge. Most don't though.

No need to hope. It says it is.

Sold!

Like the locally produced Yorkies. "They're not for girls"

any quoted depth is possibly innaccurate. What you need to do is go to each lock and measure the depth from the bank when full, then again when empty. Then calculate the drop. Then post your findings here so we can all know too. Also, tell us more about this tv series. Are you saying the canal level was raised in the pound above? Otherwise the rebuilding wouldn't affect the drop.

Personal experience can play a big part. I've only been down the south oxford once and the wind howled and the rain poured the whole way. It's made me not want to return. All my memories of the Llangollen are of glorious sunshine, gorgeous landscapes, amazing historic structures, loads of wildlife. Lazy, balmy evenings barbecuing on the towpath or relaxing in a drunken haze in beer gardens. Then Llangollen itself is a real prize at the end, whereas Oxford the town is nice but the moorings are far less so. What could anyone have against the Llangollen? I know it gets a bit busy, but there's a good reason for that!

I think I prefer rivers too. But I was interested in canals this time. If we all liked the same canal best, just imagine how busy it would get!

Funny how we're all different. If I could make a recommendation to a visitor on a ring to avoid, it would be the Warwickshire Ring.

Despite the business I love the Llangollen. One day I shall spend the winter cruising up and down that canal.

wow, someone actually read it properly! Read it again. It makes it clear that for a number of reasons 'Donkey's Years isn't Cockney rhyming slang'. I'd agree with that and for all the reasons given.

No. You read it again.

When I read the first post of this thread my immeadiate thought was also Nantwich. I suppose the Shroppie is a popular canal and Nantwich is a nice town but so is Chester (which is bigger so more to do) but Chester doesn't have this problem. It does seem odd to me that Nantwich seems to be permanently full with boats and around 75% are overstaying. I presume the checkers come by once a week and people know that? If they find someone overstaying, what do they actually do? Genuine question. Do they have power to fine boaters or something?

The bit east of Cheddleton is nice but not enough to make up for the bad bits.

On the connected England and Wales system. No rivers.

And if you stayed there too long you might start talking funny, wouldn't you precious?