john6767

I made a post about that a couple of weeks ago, as I would like to book it. I believe it is just the summer that it is open, but as you say it is missing totally from the bookings site, not even that the bookings are not open yet like some other bookable facilities. So I don’t know it take means it is permanently shut or that you no longer need to book it. Given the limited availability of moorings I can’t see the latter being the case, so I just don’t know what it means.

Sorry, typo was meant to say "easily". Taking our time we have been Oxford up to Lechlade, down to Shepperton, River Wey to Godlming and back to Shepperton, down to Teddington, then back up to Oxford. All on a month licence.

The two choices are to get a gold licence or get vusitir licences on the Thames. The gold licence from CRT which covers all the EA navigations as well as the CRT ones. It’s a 5 min job on the CRT licencing site to switch, and whilst the gold licence runs from Jan it doesn’t matter financially when you switch and when your current CRT licence runs from, when you change you will pay a full year from Jan and get a refund on your CRT licence for the unused part. For the visitor licence route you just buy at the first manned Thames lock you come to, they take credit cards. You can buy up to a month at once, which is much cheaper than doing it say a week at a time. A month won’t easily let you go up to Lechlade and then down to Teddington. The cost will depend on the boat length, well area really, the info can be found on gov.uk just search for it and compare with the gold licence cost. You probably need to spend something over 2 months on the Thames to make the gold licence cheaper, but work it out for your boat length.

Does anyone know what is happening with the Liverpool Link, it no longer appears on the CRT passage booking site. I understand it is closed in the winter, but I want to book it for May.

I thought Phase 1 (the only phase) goes to Handsacre , where it joins the west coast main line. It should benefit others point further north as well, as the hs2 trains will I think carry on just on the existing west cost main line tracks at existing max speeds until Handsacre when they switch I the high speed tracks. Perhaps I am reading too much into what are probably not fully formed plans at this point.

The other one?

That is a lot of water, not like that when we moored there either. View up from the pontoon at summer level

Presumably you would come south on the T&M, so there are two obvious was to get to the Birmingham/Wolverhampton level. Go down the S&W and then up the Wolverhampton 21 to the Wolverhampton level. Wolverhampton rail station is at the top of the flight. The other way is to continue down the T&M and then right at Fradley junction onto the Coventry, then right at Fazeley junction onto the B&F, the second right at Salford junction and up Aston and Farmers Bridge locks to the Birmingham level in the centre of Birmingham. New Street station is a 15 min walk from there. It would make for more interest to go one way on the way out and the other on the way back. To get to those points you will in the main use the Main Lines (Old & New). There are three locks (20ft) between the Birmingham and Wolverhampton levels and you 4 choices of which locks to used. My preference is to go the Gower Branch and Brades locks which is the only staircase on the BCN (I call it 2 1/2 locks) and that route will give a good mix of the Old and New Main Lines. The New Main Line takes the same route as the Wolverhampton to Birmingham railway and there are stations and also tram stops all along it. My favourite is Smethwick Galton Bridge station which is very well connected as two line cross there and the platforms of one of the lines are on the bridge over the New Main Line. There are obviously lots of deviations and variations that you can make from this depending on time, the number of locks you want to do and how much iff the beaten track you want to go.

It is a bit of a weird one, you trade 4 less miles for 21 more locks, and get the same time. River locks will be a longer time and the additional canal lock will be in a flight so lowest time, but even then the speed on the river would be greater than narrow canal, which goes against the locks taking longer on the river. Just in the lock count the river route is going to be easier, and then with the canal route you have the non tangible fact that Tardebigge is just too many locks with no opportunity to take a break!

We did the Lancaster in 2019, Beta 35 and 50 ft boat, about 25” draft. I am sure you will have no issue with overheating, our skin tank is undersize and in general I kept the rpm to 2000 which I know it can do all day on rivers with no issue. On the way up we were lead boat as no one wanted to go first, no one overtook us and we were first to the holding pontoon in Savick Brook and waited there about 90 mins for the tide to drop to get under the bridge. On the way back we were first down Savick Brook and there was little water in there, we were scraping the bottom, and hit the concrete outflow part way down, which I think is the shallowest point. As we were first to the holding pontoon on the way down we were second off there going out to the Ribble. Getting onto the Ribble against a very fast running tide was the hardest part of the trip and we had to gun the engine to make the turn and to start to make very slow progress against the tide for the first half mile or so until the tide slackened off. On the way back all 7 boats had to hover on the Douglas while the tide dropped to make a level with the Rufford branch at which point they opened both ends of the lock and we all went straight through.

You can get the BSS done up to two months early without changing the renewal day, so it sounds like you could just get it done now, or at least before you go away.

I would say the OP the think about what he really wants to do, going between Birmingham and London by boat is not a small undertaking, say 2 weeks each way, when it is basically 2 hours on the train. You could hire a boat close to Birmingham, say from ABC at Alvechurch https://www.abcboathire.com or from Anglo Welsh at Tardebigge https://www.anglowelsh.co.uk, and do a bit of the canals in that area. If you hired for a couple of weeks you could take in Birmingham, and also do one of the rings, there will be some details on the hire companies web sites of the various rings, and lots more for out there on the internet. Thousands of people hire who have no experience, as long as you are reasonably physically able, and of course there is at least two adults in your party, you will have no problems. As to London, if you don't fly into there anyway you can just get a train there and stay in a hotel, or Airbnb if that’s your bag, for a week so so and do the tourist thing there.

When do you think you will be able to send out the planning sheets to those who have entered?

Am I missing something, just had the licence renewal email and that states 4% now and then 9% from April. So isn’t that it for the time being, or is there more?

Not exactly going to dissuade anyone though, by the time you are there you have to use the winding hole to get back out. Best way to avoid being hit would to put the boat back on its assigned mooring.

I would say Tyrley images from canalplan

Don’t give people ideas. However at something like £100 an hour it would be a bit expensive. On the Engine Arm, I have never had anything other than cheery waves and chat when we have been down there both on the challenge, or just to use the services and mooring at the end. Passing another boat, when on the Challenge has a good chance, outside the challenge little chance, is really the only time you may touch one of the moored boats, but at the slow speed you would be doing no one should have any issue.

No, just a windlass and hydraulic mechanism, no key involved.

Anglo Welsh have (or at least had) some two birth semi-trad 57 ft boats that are set up more like a private boat, with a standalone table and chairs, 2 swivel chars and a multi fuel stove. We hired one from Bunbury and went to Llangollen and back in a week.

Route D; to have Stratford as a destination is great, it is fantastic to arrive in Bancroft basin, but the big but is that it is 80 locks (46 wide, 34 narrow) EACH WAY. People do this in a hire week, I have met them, but it is with large crews and it is hard work and some long days, so know what you are getting into! Route C, South Oxford is a good one (29 locks each way), and with no specific destination (sorry Lower Hayford), you can turn round when it makes sense at the time. Route B, nice easy route, but it is only 4 locks each way (one being a stop lock), so the exact opposite of Route D. You must have a feeling if you have had previous experience where you fall on the number of locks you want to do in a week, 160 or 8, they would be very different holidays. Route A, a middling route with not too many locks (17 each way), you could even you further, perhaps to Fradley Junction, or a diversion up the start of the Ashby, no additional locks in either case. If you have not done the South Oxford I would probably go for that, unless you want the challenge of Stratford.

We went down to Glasson Basin in the summer of 2019, the locks were a bit rubbish due to the odd paddle gear that is used (the same as some of the Rufford Branch), but they all worked. The Glasson Branch also seems to suffer a lot from vandalism, draining the pounds. CRT were there refilling when we came back up. The issue seems to be as you don’t need a windlass, and there are only locks on the top paddles, it needs the level in the lock to be dropped so the scrotes can not get the top gates open. When we were in the basin a hire boat did come down the locks, had a wiz round the basin and then went back up.

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You should get the Covid jab if you are 65 or almost 65. I had mine today at the doctors. I believe you have been given incorrect info. Had the flu one a month ago at Tesco’s mine was free on NHS as 65, wife had to pay for hers as she is not 65. It is the shingles jab that has the funny age thing that you miss out, as do I, if you are between 65 and 70. So supposedly I will not get offered that until I am 70 but my wife will get offered it before me when she turns 65. Seems a weird way of doing it to me.