john6767

What's the pay rate

Yep that is fun but can be a bit mad. We we arrived up the river to Stratford on a sunny Sunday afternoon of early May bank holiday weekend. You have never seen so many rowing boats in your life. The steerer of one of the trip boat shouted out to me "welcome to the mad house" as we dodged our way through them. I made me think "firewood anyone..." but amazingly we managed to avoid them all. You probably already know, but If you do want to moor in the basin get someone to check for space first before you go up the lock, as it can be full, and there is plenty of mooring on the river if you need it. We did not enjoy going up the Wilmcote flight, is seemed really hard work some some reason.

I would also say 4 days is the cut off point where you may as well get a 15 day licence, with perhaps a slight variation for different area bands. For a 3 day licence (ie 4 days/3nights if I understand correctly) you will save a few quid over a 15 but not much really. Oxford to Lechlade and back looks like a nice easy 4 day trip to me, so the licencing works really badly for that trip.

Agreed, it you want to spend a month on the Thames then the cost seem reasonable, and as you say you may as well go the Gold route then you have flexibility too. The area where is comes out steep is the 1 week or less case, which is the one that I am considering at the moment. I have 12 days available so allowing 4 days each way on the South Oxford from Calcutt, that leaves 4 days on the Thames. This is the worst possible case for value for money of a Thames licence

I had not looked at the cost of a 1 month licence, and I agree that is good value, and I would not be moaning about that at all. It is the genuine short term, ie a few days that works out very steep. It seems a shame to me that there is not a better value 1 week licence to encourage more forays from the canal system.

Interesting that they round down on size. Our boat is 50ft as well, and using the real sizes that puts it in the 31 to 35 sq m category, so I had assumed £33 per day/£109.50 for 15 days. If they round the width down, and then round down the resultant area then it does fall into 26 to 30 sq m at £27 per day/£93.50 for 15 days. Was that what you were charged? As I only want to do 4 days it does work out expensive as I would either buy 3 days, and take advantage of the fact that is really 4 days/3 nights, but I may just buy a 15 day license anyway as its not much more. If you can use the full 15 days then I think it is not too bad. Have I got this right?

Not a lot a add over what Tony has said in his very comprehensive post. Unless you want to actually avoid the centre of Birmingham do go the North Stratford route. If you want to be cautious then plan to get to the top of the Lapworth flight at the end of a day, then you have a straight run into the centre of Birmingham the next day. If you want to get as close a possible to Birmingham before stopping, then just before Dickens Heath (where I live!) is a good spot, and consider the area by Shirley Lift Bridge to be the last overnight stopping point. On the approach to Birmingham ignore the moorings around Salvage Turn, not that there is anything wrong with mooring there just that it is very busy and on Fir/Sat night in particular will be noisy most of the night. Go under Broad Street Tunnel and past Brindley Place/ICC to Old Turn Junction. From here on the Main Line there are good moorings both sides (in a combination of 24hr/48hr/14day), although my choice is to the left on the Oozells Street Loop, try to get in the centre section, the vertical slats in the wall at each end are aircon outlets so a little noisy. The towpath on the Oozells Street loop does not go anywhere really so the only people going past will be the half hourly patrol from Brindley Place security. Try and take a couple of hours for a trip down the New Main Line and back, with 9 days you do have time to explore a bit. On the way out aim for the Dog & Doublet pub or perhaps a few locks above it for the night and walk down to this great pub.

From the RCR web site

I would say focus more on the features that you want on the boat rather than length. The design of the boat and the layout can make a great deal of difference to the amount of usable space, so longer is not always better in my view.

We use Craftinsure, they seemed to come out about the cheapest, and the renewal came out ok too. As has been said it a very simple on line thing if you are ok with that. They also seem to have relatively fuss free cover, in that my standard questions about cover for tidal, night travelling and towing were all answered straight forwardly and covered. Saga on the other hand seemed very different in that respect, so make certain you have cover that you want. That put me totally off Saga, and now I have to put up with the endless junk mail from them, so be certain you want that before giving them your address. I don't think the Craftinsure content cover is great though, but its the boat to me that's important.

I would not personally want to trust Nicholsons on mooring spots on a river, there are going to be too many inaccuracies. All this this about having to find a mooring by early afternoon puts me off, as I would not be doing that, so good information seems the counter to that to have the best chance. I looked back at old threads and there are some lists but they are 3 years old. Unfortunately it looks like you buy 1 day licences or a 15 day licence. For a 50ft NB I make it £33 per day and £109 for 15 days. So the 15 days is not bad on a per day basis if you use the days, but for a shorter period without spending so much I was thinking of 2 days. I was not sure what "When buying consecutive one day registrations, one of those days can be issued free of charge." on the EA website meant though, when you combine with statement "The term ‘day’ is the 24 hours commencing after midnight and finishing at midnight." The second statement was what I assumed in that 2 days starts a midnight after the time of purchase, hence 3days/2nights it you time it right. But does the second statement imply you get an additional do to this, or are they referring to the same thing, ie first day is "free".

Was thinking about a short jaunt on the Thames in August. It would be upstream from Oxford, and would only be a couple days as the short term licences seem to be rather expensive, so its either that or a couple of weeks, and I don't have a couple of weeks. So where would be the best place/guide book to look for up-to-date mooring information?

I don't think it is confusing, just that different set-ups work differently. It sounds to me like the OP has the same Beta set-up as me, where turning off the key will stop the engine.

I don't think it is not really about luck, there is no "ignition" on a diesel. It is more that on the Beta control panel there is at least the option to have the stop solenoid operated by the turning off of the key, or at least that is what I am assuming happens. I don't believe all Beta's do this, and was wondering if there is a jumper on the control panel that controls this behaviour? In reality I would prefer that it did work like thist, as I have inadvertently a couple of times knocked the key off, which kills the engine and I would rather it did not do that! So if anyone knows what controls this behaviour I would be interested to know.

Ours is a Beta 35 with the "basic" control panel, ie. warning lights not gauges for oil/temp/charge. You can stop the engine either by turning the key to the off position, ie like you would do in a car, or by holding in the stop button. I have no idea if it really does make any difference which way you do it, so would also be interested in the response too. Personally I always stop it with the stop button and then turn off the key, force of habit from other set-ups I guess. It does mean with his set-up you can not get the situation where the key is turned off and the engine is still running.

I have to say I am struggling to see how I could have gone much faster, and I think we hit a good number of the high multiplier sections. Not really sure what to do differently, other than a bigger crew and more locks.

Halfords was one of the few places that I know does have it, this one I assume is the one that you mean. Never thought of Tesco's. I was just surprised when you start looking it is not that common, I guess its low tech stuff in comparison to what cars are using.

Yes close, we were 6th with 436 points.

Ours is a Beta 35, 6 years old, and the manual says exactly the same thing, so it not just latest Beta's. Looking around for oil to that spec, its not easy to find though, most seems to be either synthetic or for turbo.

I anyone wants practice going DOWN Hatton we will be going that way sometime on Saturday morning

Very nice, makes me want to turn the boat round and go back.

So who is the top 3 then I wonder. What was your points total?

Nice video, gives a good feel for the event. Not sure about the music though