doratheexplorer

Do you specifically want a marina, or just a permanent mooring? There's are lots of linear moorings on the Southern part of the Shroppie, and you'd have 25 miles of cruising with just one easy lock in the middle. Or from the top of Grindley Brook to Llangollen is 32 miles and just 2 locks, and it's a very pretty canal (although popular).

If being near Brighouse and having hook-up is needed, Aspley Marina in Huddersfield would be a good option. The linear moorings are charged by the foot so may well be cheaper than CRT moorings for the OP. Huddersfield to Brighouse is about a 10 minute drive. The linear moorings are also close to the shower block, making living on a small GRP boat a much more pleasant experience.

Needs merging with:

BCN does not stand for Birmingham Canal Network. Nice video though.

I've never stayed at the marina, but I've gone in the shop/office to get some advice with a view to spending a fair bit of money on works to my boat (which had been originally built at Calcutt). They were disinterested almost to the point of rudeness. I took my business elsewhere.

And of course places where there's a sign at one end of the visitor mooring with a time limit, but no sign at the other end to indicate where the visitor mooring stops.

But unclear signs give a ready-made excuse for those who want to ignore the rules.

This was pretty much my response to the consultation. The time restrictions wouldn't be much of a bother if the signage wasn't so confusing. Confusing signage obviously isn't confined to Birmingham, and seems to be a universal CRT thing.

In their defence there will still be 14 day moorings, which have been created in recent years in response to demand.

It seems odd that there's to be a service mooring next to the Canal House in Gas Street Basin. The elsan for the long term moorers is on the other side, between Canalside Cafe and Bistrot Pierre

The types of mapping I've referred to will work perfectly well on a £30 tablet and can be made avaialble offline. That's cheaper than paper maps and with far more functionality.

IMO paper are virtually obsolete. OS maps are available free online. The mapping you can have on your phone can contain far more details than any paper map and it even tells you where you are on the map. I'm interested to know what you'd be looking at on an OS paper map while cruising anyway, seems like a lot of faff. https://www.bing.com/maps/?cp=52.725642~-2.221406&lvl=13.4&style=s

It's really worth supporting the coal boats. They are an invaluable resource to many boaters, often cheaper than marinas, and they come to you and do all the lifting and carrying.

I generally use coal boats where I can, but randomly hailing them isn't a great solution. What I do is go to: http://www.lock13.co.uk/ Find the boat which is covering the area I want, then have a look at their facebook page where they'll generally post their movement over the next week or so. Then text them with my boat name, where I am, and what I'm wanting. I've often had coal dropped off for me while I'm away from the boat. If they don't do social media, just text them to find out where they'll be. I generally use coal boats where I can, but randomly hailing them isn't a great solution. What I do is go to: http://www.lock13.co.uk/ Find the boat which is covering the area I want, then have a look at their facebook page where they'll generally post their movement over the next week or so. Then text them with my boat name, where I am, and what I'm wanting. I've often had coal dropped off for me while I'm away from the boat. If they don't do social media, just text them to find out where they'll be.

My advice to the OP is that if you're renting a house for close to £400pm then you've really got to love living on a boat if you're gonna make the change. That is an exceptionally low rent. The only way boat life could be cheaper for you would be to continuously cruise but only do the bare minimum of miles and be able to do most/all of the running repairs yourself. Usually I tell newbies on here that boating will probably save them money. That's not really the case with you.

Same. I've done Astwood Bottom to Tardebigge Top in a day a couple of times and I don't think I used any landing stages. So maybe the HNC on the east side isn't so bad after all? Especially if you stop overnight at one or two places.