john6767

Calcutt don’t have their own lift at the moment, did that actually take a wide beam anyway? They hire a crane in to lift off a truck.

This year we are not able to take part in the Challenge for personal reasons, but reading this is very depressing, I can’t understand why CRT have chosen to do this. Hopefull Sue can make some progress with CRT, and this new event timing can be changed such that it does not conflict with the Challenge. I know if we were taking part this would have a major impact on us. One thing that does make the impact bigger is the new this year Challenge rule that the 6 hours of break time has to be taken as a single 6 hour long break. In previous years we have taken 4 hours overnight, and then 2 hours at then end, ie. Getting to the finish point by 12 noon. If this event timing can not be moved, then perhaps the Challenge 6 hour rule could be relaxed so you can choose to take less time overnight and finish earlier. As it stands I think all you can do is go straight through and finish at 8am taking all 6 hours at the end. Anyway good luck to all those taking part, hopefully a way to make this work can be found.

Yes you need a ANT licence even if you never leave the marina, from the marina web site “An Avon Navigation Trust license must be displayed when using any part of the waters of the River Avon, including marinas, such as Shakespeare Marina, basins and backwaters.”

I would be quite interested in mooring there for a year, but it is eye watering expensive, plus you have the additional costs of both ANT and CRT licences. I was very surprised to see that it is totally set out for narrowboats and not cruisers.

I would agree, past the chain ferry is quieter and you have grass between the river and the footpath so people are not walking right next to the boat. This time last year

I know that you are not keen on the river, but now you are there and can see it is not scary, you could stay Tuesday night by dropping down to the river and mooring on the Recreation Ground (far side from where you are) . All you need to do is go on the ANT web site and pay £5 for mooring in Stratford.

From Facebook, RCR are on site Based on what has been said on Facebook the sinking happened after dark last night, and one of the three boats has been abandoned, the whereabouts of the third unknown.

The services are on the opposite side to the museum. You do not need to pay to moor on either side. You can get out from the museum side with a BW key, and I believe there is a gate in the fence on the non towpath side, but not personally used it.

I thought this thread was saying it was the third lock up at Napton, ie the one above the lock that was widened, that was now causing an issue. So that third lock up is lock 10, it was lock 9 that was widened. However I am confused though, as the above photo looks to be of lock 9, due to the bridge in the background, so if that’s the case this is all talking about an issue that no longer exists.

Wilnecote station is closer to the canal, but not that many of the Birmingham to Tamworth trains stop there so you need to pick your train.

If you are running out of adjustment in the 1300 then the 1295 should be fine

By the wall at Sharpness is one of my favourite places to moor. Not one to stay in one place for a long time, but 5 days there is very pleasant in nice weather

Checked it doing what

Last year the only lock on the Severn that answered was Gloucester. I think they have volunteers on the others that are not trained, however I think it is still worth blind calling as at virtually every lock the lock was set and open for us when we got there, so I guess the set is on even though they can’t respond. On the G&S it’s worth calling Lanthony bridge and Junction bridge to let them know your intentions.

You can update the draft yourself online on the licensing site, it was missing on ours and it needs it to let you book the Ribble Link for example

That’s not bad, but bigger than we want, we have a 19” with a built in DVD

Just get unlimited data, it’s not expensive I gave up trying to find a decent small smart TV they did not seem to exist

We have both a Now TV (discontinued but cheap on eBay) and an Amazon Fire stick. What Sky have done is include the Now TV stuff as an app on the Amazon Fire stick (there are quite a number of apps that you can download onto the Amazon Stick), so the Amazon one can do everything you don’t actually need both. Of course you don’t actually need to pay for Now TV or Amazon Prime if you don’t want to, there is lots of free stuff. As to if it replaces a satellite dish, the really depends on what you want to watch and what platform that is available on.

Stoppage notice that came out today

There is this perpetually on BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01rwfkm

The Severn is CRT so you will be covered on that with your normal licence. It is worth getting the 2 weeks on the Avon, you can easily do the Avon in a week, but it does give you the flexibility to spend 8 or 9 days on the Avon if you want. For example if you spend your 48 hours in Bancroft basin at Stratford (CRT), you can then move onto the river and spend 48 hours there (ANT), and not then have to rush more down the river.

Sorry this is going off topic. So the MeterMac system it’s self is prepay, but are you just putting the credit on your account, or on to a specific meter? What I would have said you need to be able to do is put say £20 on you account and have that just sit there. When you want to use a meter to go on their app/web site on your account and enter the serial number of the bollard, and that activates the bollard and links it to your account. Then as you use electricity it deducts only what you use from your account. When you are done you go in your account and disconnect that bollard from you account and what it has cost you is what you have used, say 50p which comes off your £20 leaving you £19.50 credit. I guess there is then the service charge, which would be based on the number of days you where connected, which would probably be of the order of 30p a day, so a kicker for small scale usage I guess but that is the reality. Is that remotely close to how it works?

Thanks for that. I agree CRT do need to get their act together on the charging for all electric points on VM’s and have them all use the same system that allows you just pay for what electricity you use, ie not pre paid card basis like marina ones. Also that the the system is available to all boat licence holders, which I am guessing technically is what the MeterMacs system does if they allowed anyone to sign up.

It didn’t know there were hookups in the dock on any visitor mooring, they are all 48hr so is it worth it anyway?

It might actually have been a new piece when it came to it. The main point was it was not possible to knock the dent out in place.