GRPCruiserman

I don't know: Before The Ribble Link was built we had campaign cruises every year which have now become more of a Boat Club Rally as the Link got built! but it meant all sorts of ways of getting to and from The Lancaster Canal to view it's beaty. This usually involved cranes, lorries, and use of wharves etc and all the insurance issues these entailed, usually at some costs. One guy after one of the campaign cruises decided on his road map (this was the only chart he had) he would make the sea journey round to Glasson Dock past Blackpool and Fleetwood, which involves two tides as you can't do it in one and also much navigation. The guy was in a standard Narrow Boat with no VHF, GPS, or even a chart other than his road map, and didn't even tell the Ribble Link organisers who had 'Safety Boats' laid on for the tidal stretches and were counting boats in and out at Preston Dock andTarleton. He just carried straight on out to sea when everyone else turned left at the 5 mile perch on The Ribble. When he got near to Glasson Dock across Morcambe Bay (not the safest place at the best of times) he couldn't find the entrance to The River Lune despite it being marked with a nice bright white lighthouse. He pulled in to an inlet and asked a local farmer the way on his tractor. He did actually make it in to Glasson Dock, but I've been on The Ribble when the weather has changed suddenly and without warning, and who knows what may have happened if his engine had failed or fog had decended, or the farmer hadn't been there. On another occasion, a guy set off in a small canal boat (sorry don't have any other details) for the Isle of Man from Knott end near Fleetwood and despite many many warnings from local boaters, fisherman, etc that his boat was not up to the job, he insisted on setting off. He simply never got there and he nor his boat were never seen again, presumabley sunk, drowned, or what ever. I think the moral is that you only set off if you have the knowledge, ability, equipment, and suitable boat and engine(s) for any journey. Take advice when given by those in the know and do your homework in advance. You wouldn't lauch a boat on to the canal with a gas leak and a carbon monoxide detector that kept going off so often that you took the batteries out and then go to sleep with the gas central heating on would you? It could be just as lethal. There are dangers in locks if not used correctly, or even meeting someone unexpextedly in a bridge hole and coming to a sudden stop whilst pouring a cup of tea inside with boiling water. However, the local 2 foot deep boating lake in your local park does not require GPS, marine VHF, and detailed charts. Whenever I have navigated any tidal waters I've always had my handheld GPS, VHF, CB Radio (yes it's still used up here), and at least two mobile phones (charged) plus lifejackets, compass (fog on rivers can happen), and the advice to locals about where I was going. I had to use my second engine two years ago when my main engine went bang after 10 years of totally reliable service and yearly servicing, but it worked and got me back. On the one occasion I set off with only one engine, there were many other boats going too and I'd even arranged for a friend to bring his very powerful boat out to meet me and we were in contact on marine VHF, which incidentally can give your position by triangulation by the coastguard. Caution where necessary I would say, wherever you boat, two forms of propultion when on tidal waters (two engines, engine and sails, oars, or going with someone else and having a strong tow rope), plus GPS and VHF. I also have Amateur Radio for which I'm fully licenced but I wouldn't rely on this, it's an extra. Be prepared and happy boating, wherever you are. The risks may change, but boats need respect, wherever you are. I still love boating, and I am sure rock climbers enjoy what they do, but I bet they'd always take some rope.

I actually meant to crane in from, as I think at least one of them is adjacent to the canal on the offside, but I wouldn't want to leave a car in the supermarket car park for extended lengths of time either, and I echo your comments about the wharf area re parking.

I know a guy used to work in a theatre (he is a boater too) and he once had the bright idea of cooking a tin of beans in the theatre light which was very hot. He did not pierce the tin however, and when he checked it some time later it was the size of a balloon !! Cooking on the exhaust might give an interesting flavour, I remember many a time my wife going in the cabin to cook tea ready for when we moored up, on the normal gas stove, though, outboards can't keep up with continuous inverter use.

As long as you are appropriately licenced you do not need BW permission to be dropped in anywhere. However, you DO need the permission of the land owner who's land your (rented/hired) crane is standing on, which may of course be BW. You will also need a permenant mooring of course. I would check on transport (lorry) costs for various craneage points first then check with the cranage point land owners to check out their charges. I've not used Stanley ferry for a few years but he may even have a crane there, not sure, and you could check Naburn Marine, or even some of the wharves on the tidal Ouse below Naburn. There is a wharf at Sowerby Bridge which in itself should take a crane but the access is a bit slopey, and I'm not sure who owns it now, may be worth checking with the hire base that operates from there. Check the length of the locks above the wharf as well as they are actually on the Calder and Hebble I think, The Rochdale starting at the new deep lock above, but I could be wrong. You could also ask the supermarkets in Sowerby Bridge if you can use their car parks perhaps when they are closed, I'd ask the local manager as he/she may be more flexible than the corporate head offices of these places. I think there is still a wharf in Hebden Bridge but I can't remember what the access is like. Not sure on cranage costs, never had a boat big enough to need a crane!! I remember Chris Miller of Preston doing much reduced rates to transport narrow boats on and off The Lancaster to Preston Dock before they built The Ribble Link which included cranage at both ends for a couple of hundred pounds, but he owns the lorries and the crane, so if you can find a firm that owns all the gear you may get a reduced rate. Perhaps others can advise better than me. I must say again, I love that valley and have visited many times by car, but never been by boat, probably wont now as doesn't really lend itself to day boating!! Good luck anyway.

Unless you are seaworthy, ie Dutch Barge etc, then you could (if you have the time) go up the coast out of the Humber estuary stopping along the way of course, to The Great Glen in Scotland (ie Loch Ness, etc) then through The Caledonian Canal, and down the West coast of Scotland and North West England to Liverpool, entering the Leeds Liverpool Canal at The Port of Liverpool whose locks are 72 foot x 14 foot to Wigan. Turn Right at Wigan down the Leigh Branch which becomes the Bridgewater Canal at Leigh, then turn left at Waters' Meet towards Manchester City Centre and on to the Rochdale Canal (if it's open again) and then over the pennines to Hebden Bridge. You can get by water to just past Stanley ferry so if you really wanted to, you could arrange to be craned out at Stanley Ferry then dropped in at Sowerby Bridge, which would save on Road Transport costs, but you'd still have craneage at each end. You would then have the waterways of The North West at your disposal, you could do The Rochdale, Bridgewater, Upper Trent and Mersey to just this side of Middlewich (tunnel height permitting I think the Dutton Stop lock is 12 foot wide) and Leeds Liverpool to Liverpool via Wigan, and if you were feeling brave, you could cross the Mersey on to The Manchester Ship Canal and the upper Shropshire Union as far as Nantwich which is very beautiful and I think allows up to 12 foot, and the River Weaver (you'd need a certificate of seaworthyness for The Ship Canal). If you pick the right day, you could go out of Liverpool and up to The Ribble via sea and enter The Ribble Link to explore The Lancaster Canal including the locks to Glasson Dock which are 72 foot x 14 foot. As it is you can travel to Leeds, Stanley Ferry, Sawley Cut, Lincoln and beyond, Ripon, you have a large cruising area now, is it that you are moving over here or do you just fancy something new? I know the Hebden Bridge valley is very pretty.

Dont discount the voltmeter not reading right, ie bad connection etc. Are your lights very dim? TV not working etc, if everything else is working this could be the case.

Yep, you are right, what a nightmare, was going for an 'Explorer' licence next year but probably wont bother now, I'll just go elsewhere.

Dont forget licences are going up 40% in the next three years (9% per year plus inflation). Good time to buy a boat, you'll get one REAL cheap if you point out that you are aware of this.

There are plenty of lay byes up here near the canal, if they bring it in here I simply wont visit the pay and display places, I avoid towns that charge to park, ie Preston, but will visit Lancaster, Chorley, and Leyland where there is free parking to be had, in Lancaster all day if you know where to look.

That summed it up with my old 'haunted' Dawncraft!! Cracker that one. Now why, exactly DID I sell my old Norman 20?? Also, good luck to the OP with your new boat. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

What if you want to buy something from the chandlery, do you just moor where you can on that side? Seems a bit silly, but then that's BWML for you.

Herw Here!! It's part OF the waterways, I can't beleive that BW want to get rid of on line moorings, they'll be increasing the speed limit next as there won't be any on line moorers to upset. I love coming across a line of moored boats, it's part of the enjoyment.

It is true that smaller boats do cost less to licence, but not as much less as you'd think. Have a look on the BW site, and it's still afair chunk. My opinion is it should be £XX per foot starting at 1 foot long, and going up proportionately. Also a day licence should cost 1/365 of a year licence and so on to encourage day use of the canals, it used to cost £2 a day for a day licence, now it's £9.66, that's nearly 500% increase in a few years. I always had smaller boats as it was all I could afford to buy and licence, but as these now climb above the reach of myself and others on lower incomes, those who can afford the licence anyway can also afford to buy larger boats, and so deand for smaller boats falls as does their value. About 12 months ago I was looking for a boat around £1000 and couldn't find one anywhere, now I have quite a large choice at that price, but I'm glad I didn't find a boat then as I'd now be in a difficult selling position and no hope of affording the new licence increases.

No, BW are (or should be) answerable to us, they are a nationalised industry set up to maintain and look after our canals, not a private owner of a linear theme park. The problem is, they think they are a business for profit, and are behaving as such. This is totally wrong and unacceptable. The problem is, too many people have been persuaded, as you have, that they own the waterways. This was made worse when British Waterways Marinas were set up as a public company and millions of pounds worth of public assetts were immediately given away and no-one batted an eyelid. It is true there must be some rules, you couldn't have people not 'keeping right' for example, and overstaying on moorings etc, but major controversial issues that are detrimental to the majority, or a significant minority, must not be allowed to arise, and this is happening more and more. Removing low cost moorings is one way of forcing up the average income of boaters, which is something that BW is intent on doing. It forced me off the waterways about a year ago, and with the 9 percent hike I am unlikely to ever be able to afford to come back, now boating on cheaper waterways, but I miss it so much and it should really be waterways for all, not just the rich, it never used to be.

Well, there we have it, there is no way that BW can claim to be trying to attract any customers other than the Shiney Boat brigade now with 9 percent increase in charges every year for the next three years, that's about a third increase over the three years. It also means that the value of smaller, cheaper boats will plummet as there is less demand for them. There does already seem to be many more on the market. I'm glad I got out when I did, got a good price for the boat, I bet it'd be worth less after this announcement. I'll stick to sailing, I think, even the Waterways Explorer licence I was thinking of buying for next year it starting to get dear. When it was £50 that wasn't so bad, but it's already nudging £70 I think.

Just another way of forcing up the cost of canal boating to rise the average income of boaers and squeze those of us unfortunate enough to be on a low income out, as they did me. Waterways are now only for the rich.

I was going to say there were always online moorings at Stanley Ferry which isn't too far away, and you can get that far up before the locks shrink to 57 foot. Don't know whether they are all full now, not been for a few years anyone else? Not that it matters now he's sold it!! Does this now mean that boats are banned from locks diagonally? What about sharing locks, when I had a 15 footer, I regularly went across the back in a broad lock (almost) to squeeze in behind sometimes four other cruisers.

I thought they were already auctioning them? I hope you are right, this news will make a lot of people much happier.

A friend of mine lives on his boat and finds the marina great, he has water on tap, toilet emptying, and mains electric, plus WiFi at a reasonable rate, all essential in th darkest depths of winter. He cruises as much as anyone which gets him away and it suits him fine. I used to have a farm mooring which had little in the way of facilities, a tap in the farmyard 10 mins walk away, and a pretty secure car park. The view from the boat was quite stunning, however, across the canal across miles of open fields with dotted farms and woodlands all in a quiet spot away from the road. Friendly passers by on the other side of the canal walking etc, and various passing boats to say hello to. My neighbours were moored at the ends of the boat and were largely friendly and other neighbours were ducks and swans. All for £100 per year plus £200 BW mooring permit. I would never, even in the cheaper canal days, have been able to afford a marina, although I did stay in boatyards from time to time, proper boatyards, where everything is everywhere, and you pay by the week or month, and they don't have rules about how much noise you make drilling your hole, as they are generally pretty reasonable round here. Given the choice again, I think to live on a boat, I would want a serviced site, probably a marina, but for holiday/weekend use, you can't beat a rural farm mooring. We had a couple of people living on the farm moorings who never had any issues, they just weren't as service dependent as me!!

Does that mean it could be made in to a new Rover Car then? Also, I've had some lucky boats and some (particularly one) really bad luck boats, as have people I know, perhaps I'm just supersticious, but if that boat has suffered from the worst luck it could have, which it has, then would you want to buy it and use it? I know I wouldn't.

With the price of steel, I would say yes, but you'd have to watch the carcergens. The worry is that if this becomes a trend, that the boats are rebuilt and sold as previously undamaged, and the value must be lower given the potential corrosion risks. Also, it is an incentive towards organised Arson which needs monitoring. In my view, not a good thing really, but another part of me says that it may give people a cheap way in to boating which must be good. I have mixed views!!

Heads I win, tails you loose, you pay what we want or more. That is a VERY unscrupulous attitude. It is now one year since I left the 'clutches' of the BW monopolistic dictatorship, and nothing I have heard or read has encouraged me to return. The water is cleaner in the Lake District as well!! I never thought I'd see the day when Windermere becomes cheaper than the canal.

There are still private marinas here and there that require no licence to be held. If you hunt enough you'll find one. This way you could moor there for the winter without a licence, declare it as your mooring to obtain your years' licence, then move off and move each 14 days to a new location. Not that I'd promote unscrupulous activities, but if officialdom become unscrupulous, then so must everyone else. Vote with your wallett and your feet (or at least your chines!!)

Cracking looking boat (for a narrow boat!! lol) if your survey says OK, I'd go for it, looks very nice. Better than these 'Shiney Brigade' clones you get today.

There is a 'cute' tunnel on the horse path over the tunnel on The Northern Reaches of the Lancaster canal which is a canal tunnel but has never passed boats, it was built when the railway was built over the horsepath where the horses were walked over when their boats were legged through. It was just for horses (and people) and is still walkable today, although the canal navigation tunnel is disused.