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john6767

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Everything posted by john6767

  1. If they want to stop people giving up a marina mooring to take one of these permits up, then I would agree that is to protect marina businesses, but why can someone with a home mooring not take out a winter mooring permit as well if they choose to do so.
  2. I would say not. Foxton and Watford work on a different principle to other staircases, the actual lock chambers are not directly connected to each other at all, they are only connected to the "side ponds"/"side pounds" whatever you call them, and all the water goes via them, hence the "red before white" approach with the paddles. I really like the design, and I think it avoids the issue with normal staircases wasting a lock full of water, but no doubt I will be corrected if that is not the case!
  3. Driotwich, although one of the 3 was out of action earlier in the year.
  4. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  5. This is another case of a badly written communication, similar to the one with the new mooring rules to Stoke Bruerne/Foxton etc. To me, the main message that it sends is the lack of importance that CRT attaches to public communication.
  6. Actually there is nothing to say that Braunston will not be one of the areas where visitor moorings will be available for winter mooring use, they only give Llangollen and Ellesmere as examples, and of course Ellesmere has a marina in the town too. So to the ones who are not happy with this scheme, could they collaborate on what the issues are.
  7. The exclusion zone adds an interesting twist, but I guess 1km is not really very far, and most places on the system don't have as many marinas as the Braunston area. The key really is that this is a permit to stay for the purchased period in one location (or multiple locations if you choose to) rather than for a single location dedicated to winter mooring. Edited to add, some of the stretch on the Oxford at Braunston that has previously been used for winter mooring is more than 1km from the marina anyway.
  8. But am I right that this is how it will work this year? I would assume its is not relevant if a given marina has space or not?
  9. I have just read the CRT page on this, and at first reading this all seems very reasonable, and provides a lot of flexibility. So I don't know if I really understand what the issues are, but perhaps the following is the main one? Using Braunston as an example, in previous years some/much of the visitor moorings have been used a winter mooring, and they are permanently signed as such on the towpath signs with date this dates. In addition part of the towpath on the Oxford (which I don't think is signed as visitor mooring) was set aside for winter mooring. With this year scheme this will no longer happen, as with a few exceptions there will not be dedicated sites, just a permit to stop in one place for the period purchased (this I guess is the main crux of this years scheme?). However you will not be allowed to stop under the permit with 1km of a marina, so in Braunston's case as there is a marina there, you have to go 1km on either the GU or Oxford out of Braunston. Is this the issue, meaning that if you want to say somewhere like Braunston you would have to take up a winter mooring in the marina, as there will be no online wither moorings available there. Is this what the issue is? So
  10. The winter stoppage map shows "Lock 3, Smethwick to Pope Bridge 10/02/2014 to 08/03/2014". Looking on canalplan Lock 3 is the bottom lock, and Pope bridge is the road bridge at the tail of that lock, was that what you saw.
  11. We came through Foxton on Saturday, but we did not stop there, we went straight up the locks and moored out of the "zone" beyond the bridge at the top. We could not have stopped at the bottom had we wanted to as the moorings were full, not least because there were 4 CRT work boats moored on the 2 day moorings taking up around half the available space. They really should be asking everyone who went through at least, then we could say why we did not stop there. I must say all the signs make it look very tacky.
  12. I would not have thought anyone got paid for lunch breaks, but probably someone will come and say that they do.
  13. The arrow points UP (ie. the top of the lock), picture it as a pair of lock gates!
  14. We did most of the Four Counties Ring last July and August and did not find any of the locks particularly busy, but I would agree that Tyrley and the Middlewich branch were probably the one were we had to wait at all. The Junction at Middlewich was a bit chaotic, we did not have to wait (clockwise) but there a lot of boats coming the other way from both directions and nowhere for them to wait so it was interesting. There are no opening hours on the locks, but Harecastle tunnel does have opening hours so you need to time arrival there correctly.
  15. Was bad 15 mins ago, ok now perhaps everyone has gone to watch Big Brother Spoke too soon got one when I posted!
  16. We have just 2 x 110 batteries and don't have a problem, but we don't often use the inverter, the fridge and TV are 12v and most phone/laptop charging is via 12v to USB. You don't say what type of lights you have, I recently changed ours to LED and that has made a big difference, and in October you are going to be having the lights on quite a bit.
  17. We went North to South last summer, 33 mins, but we had to slow for a boat ahead, so I think 30 mins would be about right as for us an am unimpeded run. The tunnel keeper told us not to hang about, I suspect too many go slowly and end up bouncing off the walls, we did not touch the sides once. A quick calculation says that at 4mph it would take 23 mins to get through.
  18. It really depends on what you mean by a "rush", I think getting where you need to be at a reasonable speed for the conditions is perfectly acceptable, and we do that. Behaving as you describe in the OP is not acceptable though. If you were doing 3/4 mph, then you were going fast in my mind for most canal conditions, and overtaking should only be done where there is plenty of space and good visibility, as even when one boat is very slow it take a surprising amount of time to pass someone, unless they actually stop to let you past of course. Agreed. Yesterday we caught up with a hire boat between Norton Junction and Braunston tunnel, he was American (we passed pleasantries when he has past us moored up 30 earlier) and he and his wife were enjoying the good views of the English countryside, and were pootling along on tickover, which is absolutely fine. What was concerning me was if I stayed behind would he go through Braunston Tunnel on tickover, as I didn't fancy that. So I closed up on him and he waved me past on what is a straight and exceptionally wide part of canal. To me that was a good reason to want to overtake someone, perhaps others would not agree though.
  19. I can confirm that, when we went through at the end of June the ducks were walking around in the other arches there is little water going through then at normal (well low really) levels. We also went through at Easter a couple of years ago, and down stream it was quite "exciting"!
  20. We came through Foxton yesterday and I must say the new signs make the place look really tacky, I hope that was the intention. Anyway what I found interesting was that on the 2 days free mooring below the locks there were 4 (yes four) CRT work boats moored, taking up something like half the 2 day space, which was full. So this was late Saturday afternoon, and of course I don't know when they were moored there, but at a guess you would say Friday afternoon, and that they will be there until Monday morning, so by my reckoning that is £100 of mooring charges that is owed. I do hope we can have the assurances of the CRT managers on here that the stuff responsible will be personally paying the charges, and that you will chase them through the courts if needed as you want to do with you customers.
  21. There are rules that anglers should be following anyway http://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/features/guidelines-for-fishing-along-canals-and-rivers so there is no excuse for some of the stuff you see. They are not all bad though, one happily move so we could moor at Kilby Bridge on Friday night.
  22. Just realised I forgot to say, I hope he is ok, if was a tongue in cheek comment which would have had a smiley had I not been posting in a phone. On topic, our boat is very not shiny. But we have just been talking about getting it painted after next years BCN Challenge, not sure how I will cope with a shiny boat though.
  23. Just realised we passed you a couple of hours ago, you were tinkering with something at the back of the boat! Sorry can't help with the wifi.
  24. Football's for sissy's get him playing a proper game like rugby, then you will get on first name terms with the staff at A&E.
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