adam1uk
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Posts posted by adam1uk
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3 hours ago, Athy said:
Wow, those are dramatic! I assume CART did the illumination.
You don’t need to assume anything if you read the link. Then you’d discover that:
Each site is unique and is either graded, a scheduled monument or both and will be lit up by expert lighting company Enlightened of Bristol for two hours each evening from 7.30pm - 9.30pm.
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2 hours ago, Slim said:
I'd have said that the one behind is a totally different design.
A couple of things crossed my mind (not location) whilst reading this topic. Did the children ever think that 55 years later people would be looking at the photos on something called 'an internet forum'. Also if those scenes were 'captured' today the children would be plugged into their 'phones and the mother would be talking on hers
Happy days
What occurred to me is that they didn't bother cutting the grass on the offside in those days.
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Aesthetic is worth paying for sometimes!
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Compton. There are moorings above and below Compton Lock. I’m not sure there’s really anywhere else practical to moor between there and Aldersley Junction.
We did this the other day, wanting to get up the flight early, but we couldn’t get one of the bottom gates at Compton Lock to close and eventually called out CRT. It was 10.15 when we left Compton Lock, on a Saturday, so it was 11 when we started the locks. With no other boats around we had a very quick passage up the locks, with very friendly locals, and no problems apart from one pound needing some water run down as it was almost empty.
We stopped that night at Tipton, outside the Health Centre — somewhere I would never have considered a few years ago but is now fine. The Health Centre even has regular visits from a security guard who walks around.
Old Main Line is more interesting than the New, but we did Brades Locks between the two this time as we haven’t done them in a while, and wanted to add a sixth staircase pair to our tally for the trip.
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That photo is not a boat on the Trent. It was taken by my friend Neil from nb Herbie, of no Leo on the Thames near Tower Bridge in 2012. Proof here.
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10 hours ago, dmr said:
My favorite, reported here previously but worth a repeat.
I had filled a lock and left one top paddle up. Went round the bend to collect my boat from its overnight mooring to drive into the lock.
Got back to lock to find a hire crew had both bottom paddles up, plus my single top paddle still up. Gently pointed out that it was my lock as I had it full with a paddle up.
They said, .... You've only got one paddle up, we've got two paddles up, so its our lock
............Dave
The other day on the Stratford I had walked ahead to the next lock and found a boat having just left, including closing the gate. I immediately pulled the gate open again, but while I was doing it I heard the clicking of a paddle at the other end of the lock. I called out to the boater, who said, I’m sorry I thought you were fishing.
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My notes from the Crick Show say that the Shearwater (built by Collingwood but ‘presented’ by New and Used Boat Co) start at £89,950 — but that the one on show had extras taking the price to £99,970. So that price must have been on display at the show. I also noted that it had a 95kgf bow thruster.
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1 hour ago, Athy said:
According to the internet, they re a division of a company called Narrowboats Ltd. operating from Wincham Wharf. Their web site suggests a thriving company, and displays a range of narrowboats and widebeams. Does this not give an accurate impression?
This is not quite right. The Shearwater is a class of narrowboat built by Collingwood and retailed by a couple of companies — Narrowboats Ltd is one, and New and Used Boat Co is another. The OP hasn’t told us whether he’s dealing direct with the manufacturer or one of the reatailers.
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As an update to our incident several pages back, this week we chased up the complaint as nothing had been heard. It has not been dealt with, having apparently not even been looked at until we followed it up. There has been a verbal apology for the incident itself, and an email apology for the way the complaint was handled. Volokies are to be reminded that they are not in charge, should only help when asked, and should not swear at boaters. This will all apparently go out in the end of season briefing. We now regard the matter as closed.
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26 minutes ago, NervousPervous said:
I've read that Tyler/Wilson boats have a different design to usual whereby it is not possible to sink the boat via the weed hatch. I can't find anything online that gives any details of how this works. Is it true? Do any other boat builders use this method and if not, why not as if this is a problem and someone has solved it, I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it?
Yes, this is true. The weedhatch is a chute through the back deck and is not open to the engine hole. Even if you left the plate off completely, water still wouldn’t get into the boat. Another advantage is that access if fairly easy — but on the other hand you do need quite long arms to reach down there.
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39 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:
Two points.
1) CRT leave stealth boats well alone. With no name or number, what possible action do you expect them to take?
2) Matty's photo in 1240 illustrates my other beef about them, i.e. how much HIGHER they are above the water line when they moor opposite you. A widebeam opposite is SO much more intrusive than a NB. And look at the steerer. How can he POSSIBLY see where he is going?
The steerer in the photo is on a narrowboat passing between Matty’s boat and the widebeam. I imagine that when he’s not passing a wide boat moored on a bend, he can see perfectly well where he’s going.
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7 hours ago, nicknorman said:
One of the problems is that some locks are unmanned, some locks are partially assisted by volunteers, some locks are manned by volunteers at certain times and not at other times. It is not necessarily clear to the arriving boater which is which.
Also, it’s not clear whether you’re dealing with a staff member or a volunteer. I understand that on the Thames, the employed lock keepers have a white shirt, and the volunteers have a pale blue polo shirt. It’s a shame that both staff and volunteers for CRT wear the same blue — with just a sometimes-hard-to-see Volunteer designation on the sleeve.
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27 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:
Which leads on to another point about rogue vollies.
How did you identify him in your email? Do vollies wear ID? What was written on his ID badge? How on earth will CRT positively identify this volunteer given there was more than one on duty? Will they even bother?
I suspect you will get nice email back written by someone whose job is 'customer relations', but nothing will happen behind the scenes as you were unable to identify this vollie. And him knowing you could not definitively identify him is the reason he felt free to behave like this.
In your place I'd have got my phone out and warned him I was recording his interaction with me, and taken a few photos of him 'for my records'.
He had a name badge on — only a first name, but a name all the same. They should be able to identify him from that and the fact that there appears to be a rota.
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Arrived at Stoke Bruerne top lock this afternoon, going up. These are our local locks, and we do them many times a year. We know that with a single boat going up, the calmest way is to open the ground paddle on the same side as the boat, and the gate paddle on the opposite side. That keeps the boat into the side of the lock.
There was a volunteer lock keeper at the lock. As soon as the gate was shut, he lifted the paddle. He didn’t ask if we wanted help, and he didn’t check with me at the helm if I was ready. My crew went to the other side of the lock and lifted the gate paddle. He ordered him to close the paddle, pointing at the little sign which warns of turbulence. My crew said we knew what we were doing, and this would be fine. The volunteer became somewhat apoplectic, and eventually called my crew a stupid a***hole.
My crew asked him to step away from the lock and leave us to it. He said he was in charge and it was his responsibility to make sure we used the locks properly, as he worked there. My crew pointed out that as it was our boat, it was our responsibility to work the lock, and he didn’t work there, he volunteered there. Eventually he did step away, but only to tell gongoozlers everything we were doing wrong. And he couldn’t resist repeatedly coming back to pick holes in each action. Apparently the paddles were even wound down incorrectly. He’s going to report us to CRT for using the lock incorrectly.
An email of complaint has been sent to CRT, pointing out that he didn’t follow volunteer procedure, and that he was a really bad representative of the Trust. This was by far the worst example of a volunteer lock keeper we’ve ever encountered. He was in great contrast to the very nice volunteer who was helping a novice down the locks, that we’d met just an hour earlier.
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3 hours ago, dor said:
My previous boat was called Isis. I do wonder how often my name would pop up in GCHQ if we still had it. We sold it in 2007, when the name related to an Egyptian deity and not much else.
The Isis in the photo is a share boat. One of the former owners told me they paid for a mooring on the Thames using a credit card, and following the instructions on the sign put Isis as their reference. A couple of days later they were contacted by the credit card company because the US authorities had been on, asking why they were funding terrorists. They pointed out that Isis was a boat, the money wasn’t going to Isis it was going to the local council in Marlow, and you can’t buy many weapons for £6.
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14 minutes ago, Mandy Mc said:
Leaving on Saturday how long does it take to get to the Stratford-upon-Avon turn off?
Have a look at canalplan.eu which will give you an idea of how long each stretch takes.
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3 minutes ago, Mandy Mc said:
I’ve read a few posts that warns about Birmingham - is there any particular area NOT to stop at?
I’d be cautious of stopping around King’s Norton. People seem to moor quite happily in the university area these days. Anywhere in the centre is fine (my preference is the NIA side of Broad Street rather than the Gas Street Basin side). When you go down Farmer’s Bridge Locks and the Aston Locks, keep going until beyond Minworth before stopping for the night. Although this sounds like a lot for a day, the Farmer’s Bridge and Aston Locks are really quick, and if you have crew to set ahead you can get through the, really quickly — in fact Farmer’s Bridge is probably my favourite set of urban locks. Birmingham is actually a really nice city, and well worth an explore, even if you only go up to the garden and viewing area at the top of the new library.
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22 minutes ago, Rob-M said:
They have a trip boat that enters the tunnel and then causes chaos but reversing out and winding. I would be very disappointed if I paid for a trip on it thinking I was going through the tunnel and then find out if only goes in for about 30'.
The sign calls them tunnel mouth trips, so I don't believe anyone thinks they're actually going all the way through and back.
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22 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:
I gathered from Parrys waffle that the dams are inspected at ten year intervals (can that be really what he said?), not by CRT but by an associated company, presumably to save costs. And obviously shift any responsibility away from crt itself. And then every couple of days a bloke looks at it to see if it's still there, nods and goes away again. And he said this was rigorous? I suppose it worked OK until yesterday. Parry did rather come over as someone who knew absolutely nothing about what he did for a living, which was a little disappointing. I do wonder what they asked him at his job interview.
What he said was that there were checks every two days, which is what spotted this problem; a big inspection every year; and a really big inspection every ten years. These are carried out by independent engineers, not to save money, but because it's a statutory requirement to use someone from a panel.
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I believe that’s one of the Soulbury Three Locks, not Stoke Hammond lock.
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17 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:
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.
Philip Roth was famously considered not a good enough source to correct an entry about one of his own books.
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46 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:
I've just joined the CoOp last month cos I use them a lot as we travel about, thinking I might get a few coppers back. Went shopping in the CoOp by Glascote locks, presented them with my new card, only to be told they are the 'wrong sort' of CoOp.
Apparently some shops are independent CoOp shops, some are not..... Grrrr ?
There's another Co-op not far from the Caldon at Endon. Just after the obstacle course of the 'roundabout', bridge, and sharp right hand turn (where there's an old arm with moorings in it), there are some good moorings. Walk back to the bridge, take the path across the fields to the main road, and the Co-op is down the road to the left.
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4 minutes ago, Neil2 said:
I may have missed something here but the Warwickshire ring, as I understand it, using the North Stratford canal is more than a week's cruise on a hire boat and certainly can't be done based on eight hours a day.
Having done it in a week on a hire boat (albeit many years ago) I can assure you it is doable. It's such a popular ring I'd have thought a few dozen hire boats do it every week.
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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
By-Law No3
As to Vessels to be used on Canals
Fitness of Vessels
3. No person shall bring use or leave in any canal any vessel which
is not in every respect fit for navigation on the canal or part
thereof where it is intended to be used.I think forcing C&RT to implement the by-laws may have unthought of consequences.
(Stone and glass houses come to mind)
I wonder how many boats & boaters actually comply with the requirements ?
As it's only going round the loop and back to its mooring -- and appears to do so without an issue -- they'd probably argue that it is fit for navigation on the part of canal it's intended for.
Ponty Still Lit.
in General Boating
Posted
If you clicked on the link, you’d read:
This project would not have been possible without funding from Visit Wales and the National Lottery Heritage Fund