Jimbobs

Thanks for the replies everyone and many thanks Jen-in-Wellies - the British Canoeing website has a mine of information, such as: “In nearly all cases there is a Public Right of Navigation (PRN) on tidal waters. This includes the seas, estuaries and tidal rivers – up to their historic Normal Tidal Limit (NTL).” And, as it happens, there’s an ordnance survey map in the house we’re staying at which has the NTL marked. Every day’s a school day and I certainly know more this afternoon than I did this morning. PeterScott - we walked down the river in Berwick this morning at low tide and there certainly wouldn’t be any boating at that time!

I’ve been thinking for a while about getting a small motor boat, something like a small dory with an outboard, that I can trailer around and pop in the odd river or take to the coast. I’m on hols in Northumberland at the moment and was walking along the Tweed, a bit upstream from Berwick, and thought that it would be lovely to have a potter up the river. According to the Boatlaunch website, there’s a public slipway in Berwick so it would be possible to get a boat in, but the river isn’t listed as navigable on either the CRT or IWA websites. There’s a trip boat that runs from Berwick and goes up the river, and it’s a pretty big boat, so the river is obviously deep enough. I’ve searched online and I can’t find anything about a navigation authority that covers the Tweed. I’m not sure you can get ever so far upstream, probably 10 miles-ish, and it would almost definitely depend on tides. Assuming that the boat was CRT licensed, insured etc, is there any reason why I couldn’t just drop a boat in at Berwick and potter as far upstream as the depth would allow?

I think you might be reading that wrong - I’m reading it as a licence for EITHER trailable boats OR for boats with a non-CRT mooring. My understanding is that this is exactly the licence you need if you keep a boat at home.

OP, have you seen these folding boats? https://nestawayboats.com/shop/portabote-fold-flat-boats/ They seem to get reasonable reviews…

Good effort! While we’re on the subject of Nottingham though - Castle Marina needs adding.

Well, I for one am massively impressed by your skills and can’t wait to see how this turns out so please keep posting updates!

I would add that, if you have time to watch many YouTube videos, then this might be a good place to start: It’s quite a good insight into just how much bloody hard work is involved in a ‘project boat’. It certainly put me off the thought of attempting a restoration project!

What are the issues with parallel hybrids that makes them inferior? There are a lot of builders offering them at the moment, but are they all doomed to be the Betamax of the boating world??

It was still there on Saturday. I stopped at the water point between it and the bridge and a local wandered past and got chatting. According to him, the boat is now stuck as it’s too fat to get through a couple of bridges further on and some repairs to a towpath under a bridge behind it now mean it can’t get back either. He reckons it’s been there for about a year….

Looking good! This is my favourite thread on this forum - please keep the updates coming…

I thought Progress looked familiar. She was featured in July’s Waterways World - being used as a travelling stage for music performances on the Oxford Canal. I think that’s why she’s got the rope around the deck - to stop over enthusiastic musicians from falling in. Maybe the venture didn’t make as much money as the owner thought it would…

According to one of the Facebook groups our little gang of Einsteins decided to moor overnight in the lock. The lower gates leaked during the night and hey presto! I wonder what the angle got to before the first one woke up??

Well, in the last YouTube vlog that I watched the couple got stuck in ice with 2 full cassettes, and hardly any water or food then got Covid and ended up on the wrong side of a stoppage leaving them stuck on the Erewash for 3 months so not all vlogs are roses and castles… What I have found interesting is that quite a few of the vloggers seem to have moved aboard thinking that the lifestyle will help them with various mental health maladies only to discover that incidents like the above, plus dodgy batteries, breakdowns, mysterious engine problems etc. mean that the idyllic lifestyle is actually just as stressful as the rat-race plus mortgage they think they’ve left behind.

I assume there’s also a ‘deterrent’ aspect to the cancellation fee. Otherwise there would be nothing to discourage someone who needed a 6 month licence from buying the cheaper-per-month annual licence and then cancelling after 6 months. You may consider it unfair, but it’s certainly not fraud if it’s stated up-front in the Ts & Cs…

No VAT as such, but there is stamp duty which scales with the value of the house being purchased: https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax

I’m in a similar, er, boat to the OP so have been reading with interest, although I’m just down the road in Nottingham rather than Sheffield… Given work, family etc. I’m only ever going to have time for relatively short trips away so I’ve pretty much made up my mind that a GRP cruiser will suit me fine. Also, given the range that I can travel in a fatter boat from Nottingham, I’m not that fussed about it being a narrowbeam. There are some lovely looking boats for £25k ish although, from talking to a few brokers, it seems like GRP boats are also selling like hot cakes right now.

Evening’ all. I’ve realised that, sadly, for now I don’t have a narrowboat shaped hole in my life. However I have convinced 2 good chums that, jointly, we do have a GRP cruiser shaped hole that needs filling. We all live near the Trent so there’s plenty of scope for leisure boating, particularly if we get a narrow beam cruiser that can use canals too. I’ve got a good feel for licence, insurance and mooring costs, but I’m ignorant of what the annual maintenance costs are likely to be. Is there a GRP equivalent of hull blacking for instance? We’re looking at boats that are 10-15 years old - what kind of maintenance regime do these things need? many thanks for your help!

That should do the trick - thanks!

Just doing some route planning for a hire boat trip out of Market Harborough in a couple of weeks. Will be heading North on GUC from Foxton. CanalPlanAC says there’s a winding hole at lock 33 (Bush Lock) at South Wigston. Pearson’s guide doesn’t mention this and neither does the OpenCanalMap app. Can anyone confirm whether this winding hole exists? If it doesn’t, it will be a bleedin’ long reverse to the nearest one, and it’s a long way to the next one so I’m keen to get it right! Many thanks.

Wow - I’d assumed that they were some sort of historic throwback that was there to hang a lamp from or something. Not sure I’d want to support a whole human with it!

Morning everyone and please excuse the ignoramus level query! I’ve seen these chrome clip things on a number of narrowboats and I’ve always wondered what they’re for. So, please enlighten me - what are they? Many thanks. Jim

I probably need to get on the waiting list before your article hits the news stands! Many thanks for the info - that’s really useful.

I am SO interested in this thread and your blog and I have about a million questions! I’ve been keeping a weather eye on 2nd hand boats for a while and it’s so rare to find them with 2nd bedrooms. We’ve got a young son so really could do with a secluded space for him to sleep while we enjoy the evening. I’ve often thought that a 62 ft boat with two bedrooms is exactly what we’re after so one of these could be the perfect solution. So - was it Black Prince themselves that did the work to the kitchen? I presume that was an extra charge on top of the purchase price? If so, would you mind letting me know a rough idea of the cost? From your blog it seems like you’ve been very happy with the service from Black Prince. I’d love to see some pictures of the interior as you’ve got it now. I’ll definitely be following your blog with interest.