Justin Smith

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....

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 !

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 !

Sunquest (= Elysian 35) Dimensions: 10.67m x 3.20m (35ft x 10ft 6in)

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....

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)

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 ?

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....

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. I have heard them discussing the Rother link, but fear it might be a bit of a pipe dream.....

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 ?