Justin Smith
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Posts posted by Justin Smith
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Thanks for your input but I have considered the problems of living in a full size house with possibly no use of my right hand, e.g. just having a shower is a major undertaking as one cannot get the pot / dressing wet....
The thought of doing all that on a boat just fills me with dread.
So, sadly, having looked forward to this trip for 6 months, I feel it is not a goer....
If we can get a full refund we will, next best a credit against a future hire would do as we do want to make it to the end of navigation on the Ouse. We only got as far as St Neots last time !
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8 hours ago, Tacet said:
We couldn't quite reach Kempston Mill as the river shallows quite sharply; the water is clear so the helplessness of the situation is apparent.
No chance of turning so the half mile reverse out with the flow is quite exciting as the banks are covered with large trees bearing substantial, overhanging branches at window height.
Sounds stressful to me !
We have an interesting decision to make as regards the boating holiday on the Ouse.....
I bust a bone in the knuckle of a finger on my right hand yesterday, it will be operated on on Monday (hopefully the bones won't have started healing in the wrong place by then......) and I was told I'd have a pot on for 4 weeks after that. The hol would be about two weeks after the op.
So the crew on the Elysian 35 "Sunquest" would be :
1 - me (with only one good hand, and that my left....)
2 - my wife (who isn't the strongest woman in the world)
3 - my 10 year old lad...... (he has actually been on about 10 boating hols before but he is only 10 !)
Do the esteemed members of this forum think we should cancel or not ? ! ?
I am apprehensive, my wife isn't that enthusiastic, but my boy is very keen !
And we have to decide quickly !
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On 17/07/2023 at 15:21, oboat said:
Thats a great shame. How wide is an Elysian 35?
Sunquest (= Elysian 35) Dimensions: 10.67m x 3.20m (35ft x 10ft 6in)
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2 hours ago, noddyboater said:
It's not Tinsley basin either, it's Sheffield basin or Victoria Quays as it's called now for some unknown reason.
I meant Tinsley Canal basin !
We are hiring a cruiser on the Great Ouse this year* and I have just spotted that Kempston Mill is a Silver Propellor Challenge location, assuming the boat yard does not have some navigation restriction on that.
* an Elysian 35 from Bridge Boats. In fact it might end up being the same one we hired back in 2019 !
Addition.... The boatyard has just said an Elysian 35 won't get through Cardington lock anyway, so Kempston Mill is out....
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On 15/07/2023 at 12:02, oboat said:
>>"Train spotting instinct" <<
Afraid I have also suffer from both afflictions. My last Silver Propeller Challenge Point last week.
Where is that ?
These are ours, all done in hire boats (apart from 1, on a dining boat ! :
Tinsley Canal Basin,
Coventry Basin,
Five Locks Basin (Cwmbran - Brecon canal)
Brograve Mill (The Broads).
Snareston,Preston Basin and Tewitfield (Lancaster canal)
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6 hours ago, oboat said:
Both to progress general restoration [of the Pocklington canal] and to encourage more access to the existing top pound which at present is under utilised as it is seen by many as having no significant Destination.
Maybe it's my train spotting instinct from being a boy (wanting to cross off another item on a list), but just to get to the end of a section of canal I have not done before is enough of a motivation for me!
I suspect many other boaters feel the same ?
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19 hours ago, magpie patrick said:
It also helps that the Chesterfield bods haven't been actively discouraged from using the canal whereas I think on the Pocklington there has been a fair amount of pressure from environmentalists.
What exactly do you mean by this ?
Are you saying "environmentalists" do not want boats on canals ? Or the Pocklington canal reopened ?
"Environmentalists" can be a bit of a strange breed though. Some of them area bit extreme / blinkered, and I speak as someone who has been paying a DD to Rainforest Concern (who basically buy up tracts of the Amazon jungle) for about 25 years....
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2 hours ago, noddyboater said:
Would it really though?
For boaters already based in the area I'm sure it would, but the idea of cruising to Rotherham for your holiday is as alien as the tidal Trent to a lot of other people.
There are a lot of boaters who want to "do the system", or as much of it as is relatively practical.
We only hire (once a year usually) but want to do as much of the system as we can, thus we hire in different areas each time.
As Jen said there are some lovely parts of the Chesterfield canal and even the Sheffield & South Yorkshire Navigations.
2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:The Pocklington is accessed via the River Derwent, theoretically navigable for 22 miles to Stamford Bridge, plus a short section of the Wharf can supposedly be navigated. That gives enough for a long weekend to see all of it, without going on to the tidal stuff. I don't know what getting to Stamford Bridge is actually like, or even practical at the moment. Still shorter than the connected Chesterfield, but something people might want to do as a hire.
For the Chesterfield the big thing would be if/when the River Rother link is ever made. This would allow narrowboats to connect to Yorkshire waterways directly with no tidal river and with the whole canal open again a (partly tidal) cruising ring too.
I have heard them discussing the Rother link, but fear it might be a bit of a pipe dream.....
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I am a member of the Chesterfield Canal Trust and am obviously very keen to see it reopened.
Just yesterday I went for a walk from Canal Head on the Pocklington canal and would also very much like to see that reopened all the way to the end as well, it was quite depressing seeing all those miles of unnavigable canal.....
However, it did occur to me they are quite similar in many ways, one of the most significant is that both can only be accessed from the main system via tidal waterways. Straight away that would put quite a lot of boaters off, but, more importantly it would preclude their use by hire craft. The latter are vital for the canals, not least because, in terms of boats actually moving, they probably constitute the majority. And what canals need is boats using them, not least to keep the weeds down !
I know the Chesterfield canal does have a couple of boats for hire on it, and if they are long enough self contained waterways (like the Brecon) can support hire fleets, but how would that work with the Pocklington canal ?
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On 20/03/2022 at 15:09, Tony1 said:
I was in the basin last week and for most of the time I was the only visitor boat there.
Odds are you'll find a spot no problem.
At the moment they don't come down and actively check on who's there, but they are preparing to introduce a booking system for the summer, so it might be worth calling them at the boat museum to ask if you are clear to come in.
Bear in mind when you ask about space, they will only check their records of people who have formally signed and paid for mooring.
So if there are any rogue boaters who didnt check in, reception wont know about them when you ask if there's space.
That's a good idea.
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On 20/03/2022 at 09:22, Mac of Cygnet said:
Stoak is a good quiet mooring (past the bridges) with a rural feel and a farm track leading to the good village pub (or was when I was last there several years ago!).
Isn't that right next to the M53 and M56 ? ! ?
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Thanks for your advice.
So would you say that if we cruise down to Ellesmere Port can we be reasonably sure of finding a mooring ? It is probably more important to be confident about this as it's a dead end !
Interesting sidelight on hire boating, we would like to go to the waterways museum though we have been before. But when one is hiring a boat at great expense (because it's the school holidays it'll be over £1300 for the week ! ) it could be considered a poor use of the boat to do so, i.e. have it just moored up for half a day. Similarly as regards looking round Chester. This is the downside of boat hiring......
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We are hiring a boat from Beeston and hoping to cruise down to Chester then to Ellesmere Port. What is mooring like on that stretch ? Partly can you find them at all (around Chester and at the Boating Museum), but also mooring near Ellesmere Port, re. motorway noise and potential problems from locals ?
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On 16/11/2021 at 01:24, TheBiscuits said:
They [center lines] are in the wrong place, they are dangerous on flowing water and they make it awkward to control a boat on still waters like the canals. I'm not sure why they aren't banned under RCR regulations!
I have never found that. I find they work brilliantly !
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We usually holiday on canal boats but have hired about 5 GRP cruisers (on the Broads and the Ouse) plus another 4 or 5 day boats. What I cannot work out is why the latter two types do not have centre lines ! ? !
On a canal boat you just step off onto the tow path with the centre line in your hand and (to use the famous words of the guy giving us our instruction on our first canal hire) "you have control of the boat".
I can never work out how to moor up on a cruiser, how can "you have control of the boat" with only a front or rear line ?
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6 hours ago, pete23 said:
Is the pub open now?? As I understand it it has a bit of a cult following and was recently shut/sold??
the previous company had ploughed a few pounds into it?We didn't go into the pub, but, from the outside it looked like it was having building work done on it. So whether it was open or not it is being invested in !
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Our pics of Geldeston lock :
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On 01/11/2021 at 16:59, ditchcrawler said:
I don't think the River Waveney Trust would support the Chesterfield. Restoration doesn't come from a central pot.
The IWA / Waterways Recovery Group is surely ?
On 01/11/2021 at 15:50, Justin Smith said:Have I missed something here !
I looked on Google sat view and could not find the expected weir that a lock is supposed to get round.
What was the point of the lock ? How can you have a lock (raising a the water level) but no accompanying weir on the river ?
In an ideal world yes, but if there is a shortage of funds surely we should be concentrating on navigations which can them be used, like the Chesterfield for instance !
On 01/11/2021 at 16:33, magpie patrick said:Yes you can but that didn't happen in this instance, if you look carefully on that map (which is from the NLS online mapping and dates from the early 20th century) you can see "SL & FB" near the footbridge, an abbreviation for "Sluice and Footbridge"
Thanks for pointing that out.
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7 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:
I presume Geldeston lock is actually this one.
Have I missed something here !
I looked on Google sat view and could not find the expected weir that a lock is supposed to get round.
What was the point of the lock ? How can you have a lock (raising a the water level) but no accompanying weir on the river ?
6 hours ago, magpie patrick said:"Restoration" isn't just about navigation, it's also about preserving the remains of the past - It will be a sad day when navigations that can't be restored are just left to run to ruin
In an ideal world yes, but if there is a shortage of funds surely we should be concentrating on navigations which can them be used, like the Chesterfield for instance !
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4 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:
You actually can get above Geldeston lock as its by passed by the channel to the left of the lock as you approach from Beccles
This is a good point. We were told by the boat yard that we were not to go under the bridge (on the River Waveney direction) even though we were in a small day boat and would have fitted under easily. We stopped off at Geldeston lock and went for a quick walk back over said bridge and the river seemed pretty navigable to me ! Why were the boat yard so insistent we should not go any further ? Particularly as the day boat wasn't drawing much water and could turn round pretty much in its own length, as it did when we went into Geldeston lock and when I pressed on up the cut to the sea scouts hut at Beccles ! In fact all the day boats we have hired (to get to the extreme ends of the Broads navigations), both diesel and electric, could turn on a sixpence going to the left, though not so much going to the right. I assume that's something to do with the direction the prop rotates ?
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We hired a day boat from Beccles this week and motored down to Geldeston lock. It was great to see its renovation, but upon talking to a guy at the boat yard he said there were no plans to extend the navigation, is that correct ? And if it is why has Geldeston lock been renovated when that effort could have been put into a lock somewhere else on the system where an extension of the navigation is planned ?
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17 hours ago, noddyboater said:
Don't get confused between how robust grp is and how overly precious a lot of their owners are. A grp powerboat punching through waves at sea is under far more stress than gently bouncing against a lock wall. But the look on cruiser owners faces when I pull in to share a lock with them on my narrowboat, is often like I've just offered them a shit sandwich.
But they scratch easily don't they ? And when they do you can't just put a bit of hull black over it can you ?
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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:
I suppose you are correct, if you ignore all of the benefits, just a 'couple' :
1) No need to spend £100's every couple of years on blacking
2) No need to spemd £1,000's every 'few' years on repainting
3) No need to worry about rust, MIC, corrosion, electrolisis, minimum hull thickness for insurance, sinking etc.
4) Easier to fit a TV aerial.
For a 'weekend' / 'Summer holiday' boat a GRP has a lot going for it, for a long term liveaboard, a long steel narrow boat can generally be insulated better, and a SF stove used for warmth and hot water more easily than a GRP.
We have hired 4 or 5 GRP cruisers on the Broads and The River Ouse, I like them, particularly the ones where you can open the roof over the dining table and eat "al fresco". They are also far more roomy than a narrow boat (being wider). Furthermore, if I were hiring a boat in the cooler wetter times of the year I'd rather get a GRP cruiser on the Broads than a narrow boat on the canals. So, for somewhere like The Broads, with no locks, I cannot understand anyone having a narrow boat.
However, on canals I would not want one. I remember going through a load of locks on the Great Ouse on the day the Ouse Boat club were out. It took an absolute age to get through the locks because all the GRP owners were taking forever, easing their boats into the locks, then tying their boats up and carefully letting out the rope as the level fell. That shows how much less robust GRP boats are and if you're going to be doing lots of locks I would not even consider one.
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Similarities between the Chesterfield canal and the Pocklington canal (and problems with)
in General Boating
Posted
Fortunately we can claim back all but £60 (if I get hold of a doctor's note).
But for the first time in 16 years we won't be doing a boating holiday this year....