cheshire~rose

Make that 2 hours 10, I miscounted 27 locks

But we don't want you to be good! That's why you have an entire cabin to yourself!

We will be full once in position at the starting point. We just have 24 locks to do today without a team to help..... You could join us but sharing a cross-bed with Tree Monkey is not what anyone would inflict upon friends!

ZF in Nottingham reconditioned the Hurth box on Python for us and did aa fantastic job

A photo from 3 years ago that we know won't be repeated this year:

Well if there is then I think Team Delhi already has it in the bag

Oh - I presume all the competitors will have a timer set to take part in this at noon on Saturday? https://www.rya.org.uk/news/2022/05/20/join-hm-the-queens-platinum-jubilee-ships-salute I mean does anyone really need an excuse to sound their horn?

Delhi - with just a 1/3rd size team are on the BCN and heading for the giraffe for a short stay before heading to our top secret start location You do know where to find us don't you @tree monkey?

Thanks for sorting this out for everyone Sue @Mrs Tawny Owl You really didn't need this last minute hassle. While I concur, a simple miscommunication is an easy thing to happen It is sadly true that far too many of the problems with CRT these days are due to lack of effective communication. Some of these end up costing them a lot of money! Others mean individuals or groups feel like they are being kept in the dark and start to wonder if there is some conspiracy behind the lack of communication. Some departments and areas are far better at communication than others in my experience I will cancel the order for the long oars now then

Nobody has mentioned Microbial Corrosion It does not require oxygen to eat through steel It eats steel 3 times faster than rust It is thought to be on the increase in canals because the water is so much cleaner these days. I know of a 6 year old boat that required extensive welding to deep pitting on the base plate because it had microbial corrosion I would never leave a baseplate without blacking on a boat - it might have been fine 40 years ago when the canals were more polluted but having seen what it can do I would not risk it now

The really ridiculous/ annoying/ frustrating thing is that this stoppage has only just been announced which indicates it has only just been arranged (or that someone at CRT forgot they needed to put a stoppage notice up for it) The BCN Challenge has been running how many years? It is an event to promote use of the canals that form part of the Birmingham network , CRT know it is happening and have done for ages. Obviously the use of this stretch of canal by paddleboarders is a higher priority to them than the huge number of people who benefit from the efforts of all of the teams who have spent months preparing for the event, in many cases investing quite a lot of time, money and effort just to be there. I suspect the folks at Withymoor Island won't be best pleased either. I sincerely hope there is some proper explanation and solution when Sue gets on the case today but really, she needs this like she needs a hole in the head. Why should she have to deal with this? CRT communication is so poor and they seem to be set on making enemies of the very people who are trying their hardest to do things to help them.

That isn't a paddleboard deck. It is a campsite! We don't need to be a paddle board in Gosty Hill because that isn't closed to boats (yet) but perhaps don't tell CRT there is another way they can put a spanner in the works eh?

We are planning to get some really long oars and stand the team on the cabin top to paddle through It will just be a big paddle board

Here are what CRT have to say about what they deem to be acceptable https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/original/732-application-form-historic-boat-discount.pdf I honestly did not think our boat qualified by applied on the basis of "nothing ventured - nothing gained" and sent a lot of additional material explaining why this boat is an important part of CRT's heritage. The reply we got was that it was really interesting to read about a boat with such a fascinating history - I got the impression that many applications give scant detail and so what I wrote captured the attention of the individual/panel that makes the decision. I may be surmising that wrongly but if it helps someone else to get a discount when it is appropriate for them to do so then that's all good

Well they would have struggled to get the current cabin on a 48 foot boat which is what she was cut down to. We are very aware the boat bears little resemblance to either the boat that Yarwood's designed in 1930 or the boat that BW converted it to in 1959 and we make a point of mentioning that to anyone who shows and interest in it. The bow is the only thing that is very recognisable and as such that is kept white as it would have been in 1930 My point was that as far as CRT are concerned they accept it as being a historic boat and so do National Historic Ships Likewise Python bears little resemblance to what she was originally but she is still working and is currently licenced as a "Workboat" I think people can punt around trying to place their own definition of what is and what is not a historic boat but, like everything, the definition will differ according to who or what organisation is setting down the rules and what is more it will evolve with the passage of time. I remember in the late 1980's our classic car restoration business was asked to do some restoration work on a Morris Marina. I could not get my head around the fact that such a car could ever be considered a classic but then I remembered my Dad being bemused that we might consider a Ford Anglia a classic! How many Marinas do you see now, except at classic car events. Today's tatty old doer- upper that needs a shed load of money throwing at it to save it is tomorrows desirable boat.

Our ex-hire boat is registered on the National Register or Historic Ships and acknowledged as a historic boat by CRT. The hire boat was created by BW out of a 1930 working boat hull but because the current boat bears little resemblance to what it was originally (it had no engine or cabin originally) the acknowledgement by CRT is based on the fact that it was them who modified the original boat to have an engine and cabin in 1959 to be one of their hire fleet and as that part of it's history is now more than 50 years old the current boat with it's cabin and engine still qualify

Welcome back Alan, it is indeed very good to see you posting again

With regard trying to restore the damaged paint, please get hold of some Farecla G3 and, if at all possible an electric orbital mop (because I know how much elbow grease it can take) The G3 is a very fine abrasive that will not leave scratches and will not take too much paint off but will take off the oxidised layer so you can see how deep the staining goes. On glass and frames very fine grade wire wool is a good thing to have in store to clean them up. I am so sorry this has happened. It must be gutting for you

You missed Staveley Town Lock on The Chesterfield and I think Boundary Lock was a new one? when that section was restored but I might be wrong?

Thank you If there are no more entries forthcoming then there is a significant risk we might be higher placed in the end results than we were last time!

Can I just check, one of our team asked me if there was any news on the updated route planner that was suggested after the closure of Black Cock Bridge I have not seen anything arrive yet and as we are now officially enroute for Birmingham (via the scenic route) it would be good to start getting our ducks in a row

I should hope you did! Get the shovels out!

Link to the press release: https://chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk/5m-canal-restoration-award/ PRESS RELEASE 24th March 2022 The Chesterfield Canal Trust is delighted to have been awarded £5.3m from the Staveley Town Deal. This means that over the next three years the canal will be extended by half a mile from Hartington Harbour onto the Staveley Puddlebank which runs across the Doe Lea valley. There will also be two miles of multi-use towpath all the way to Renishaw. There will be a new lock and two new bridges. There will be a siphon pipe to take the water from Staveley Waterside (the new name for Staveley Town Basin) to the new canal section. In addition, full designs will be prepared for further work. Peter Hardy, Chair of the Trust said: “Our scheme will bring enormous benefits to the residents of Staveley and surrounding areas with the extension of the canal from Staveley Waterside almost to the river Doe Lea. Together with the other projects awarded money from the Towns Fund, it will enhance the environment, health and wellbeing of all who live in the area. “It will be the catalyst for the Chesterfield Canal Trust to complete the restoration of the canal. “We are indebted to the local company Suon Ltd. which has donated the clay to be used in this project; without this generosity the scheme would not have been possible.” Ivan Fomin, Chair of the Staveley Town Deal Board and Managing Director of Staveley based MSE Hiller, said: “I want to congratulate the Chesterfield Canal Trust on their excellent business case that will lead to the creation of and enhancement of a key health and wellbeing, leisure and tourism destination. This project complements the other ten projects and has been developed in response to the challenges and opportunities in Staveley. All the project sponsors have worked hard on their business cases, and we are now moving into delivering these projects and ensuring that they can benefit everyone in Staveley.” The Trust further hopes to complete the canal restoration through to Renishaw. This will include the spectacular Doe Lea aqueduct, planned to be 37 metres long and 10 metres above river level. The Trust’s volunteer Work Party has already started its Rewatering Renishaw project which will bring another half mile of canal back to life. The aim is to join the two projects together finishing up with an extra 2½ miles of canal in the next few years. For the next few months, the Trust’s Project Team, led by Mark Potter, will be making detailed preparations, preparing tender documents, appointing staff, awarding contracts etc. The first actual construction work will be the new Trans-Pennine Trail bridge, just east of the existing Eckington Road Bridge. This is scheduled to start early next year. The main earth moving to rebuild the Puddlebank will not start until 2024. The Trust appointed George Rogers as its Development Manager just under three years ago. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to get the restoration to this point. Upon hearing the news of the award his reaction was: “Now the hard work starts!” The Trust is very grateful for all the support that it has received from Chesterfield Borough Council, the Staveley Town Deal Board, Derbyshire County Council, Lee Rowley MP, Toby Perkins MP, countless councillors and, perhaps most importantly, its membership and the local people in whose hearts the canal holds a very special place.

Ah look! The old age pensioners must have managed to summon up some stamina to make something happen 😉: https://chesterfield-canal-trust.org.uk/5m-canal-restoration-award/

I wanted to share a few facts here. This is intended to inform those who may be reading this thread and may not be too familiar with the canal or the role that the volunteers on Python perform. They are not aimed at any individual. Firstly The Chesterfield Canal does have a reputation for being shallow. It certainly can be shallow if boaters do not stick to the channel. Python is a 3' draught and, although she is only 50' long she has no problem navigating the entire length of the canal. Our own boat is 2'10" draught and has no problems at all, another regular visitor to the summit pound is the historic boat Petrel which is full length. I am unsure what the draught of this boat is but it isn't likely to be shallow. There are, I believe, two reasons why people always mention how shallow the canal is. Firstly, when arriving on the canal, any boater will have spent several days on a deep and wide river or river navigation, usually travelling at speeds much faster than those generally travelled on canals. An early section of the canal boaters will encounter is a little on the shallow side (Upstream of Misterton through to Drakeholes). It takes a while for an experienced steerer to mentally revert back to canal speeds after their days on rivers and so it is very easy to forget that your engine is revving a little faster than it did 3-4 days ago on The Trent & Mersey Canal and by keeping a few too many revs on their boats are getting glued to the bottom and often, in frustration, a less experienced boater will often add a few more revs to counteract that effect which simply adds to the problem. I usually suggest boaters arriving on the canal prepare themselves to slow right down and enjoy this beautiful rural stretch of the canal where the views are extensive and the wildlife diverse. Once past Drakeholes things seem to get much easier. I personally am of the opionion that it only feels easier because steerers have now mentally slowed back down to canal speed but far too many boats turn around at that point citing the canal to be too shallow. Of course the other thing about glueing yourself to the bottom is that this is often where the weed is! The weed is usually only a problem during the late spring and early summer. It becomes a problem because there are so few boats on the canal. Boats stir up the silt meaning that the sunliht can't reach the weed and so it does not grow, Boats als chop up the weed with their props so, if you want to save CRT money on paing contractors to cut the weed, come and visit the canal We do not have a weedhatch and have no significant problem with weed on the canal but we do have a cutter on the prop. Boaters who visit the canal are advised to report the worst areas of weed to CRT by dropping them an email: enquiries.yorkshirenortheast@canalrivertrust.org.uk They find the detailed reports of where the weed is worst useful in directing where the weedboat works. Without lengthsmen it is us boaters who are most use to CRT by reporting things so they can target them. The other thng boaters should do on The Chesterfield Canal is to stick to the channel. Unlike the majority of canals that are linked up around the midlands and the south there is very little likelihood of you meeting another boat coming the other way, hold your course in the channel and you will be in the deepest water. Secondly, although what we do with Python has nothing to do with this thread, yes I apologise it was me who took it off topic) I am posting this here to give a better picture to those who may not know the extent of what the volunteers on Python do. The aim of The Python team is to use volunteers to carry out any tasks that they are able to do that assist CRT in maintaining the canal. We carry out planned preventative maintenance of the locks. This includes clearing bywashes (which assists water management and in turn helps to ensure there is enough water for boats to navigate) We scrape the weeds and algal deposits from lock chambers and lock gates. we clear moss and weeds from coping stones and lock quadrants to ensure these surfaces are not slippery for boaters operating the locks. We also grease paddle gear and report any problems we encounter that we are unable to deal with ourselves to CRT. We remove dead wood and branches from the water. Last week two days were spent doing this on the top pound of the canal. Those who know the canal will be aware it passes through a wooded area and, not having been able to get up there for too long, fistly due to covid then due to the premature failure of Turnerwood Bottom Lock at the end of the summer this was long overdue. We were able to remove four sizable tree branches from the water and hundreds of large sticks of the type that can foul a lock gate or paddle gear or be problematic passing through a boaters propeller. We encountered a problem on one of the treble locks on our way up to the summit pound when we came across a completely drained lock chamber. The paddle was jammed open with sticks and logs. We were able to get it the paddle operating again ourselves (and the volunteer who went into thechamber to remove the blockage also removed some rocks that may have, at a later date, created a problem by fouling a gate). This was purely about being in the right place at the right time but the majority of leisure boaters would have called CRT out to fix this problem and so by doing it ourselves it frees up CRT staff to do other things. We received an email thnaking us for the work removing branches and wood last week from John Lower. Many people will know John as the author of many respected guides to navigating the waterways of the east midlands. They had been to the head of navigation earlier in the year and had really struggled to get through, there have been 3 storms since their visit. Messages such as his really do make a difference to the teams who are carrying out these works. We remove litter. Especially waterborne litter. Cans, bottles, take away wrappers and crisp packets may not impede navigation for most boaters but they look unsightly and are a hazard to wildlife. The plastic bags and items of clothing we remove are far more likely to become problematic if they find a boaters prop. The myriad of community groups who already litter pick the towpaths can't reach the stuff in the water but we can and so we do. Often these trips are very well attended because local people want to litter pick and so we often have a team working alongside the boat on the towpath. The benefit to them over and above a community group walking the towpath is that, when they find something heavy or their bags become full, they can drop them on board and continue with the task. We also remove shopping trolleys and other large items found in the canal, such as tyres,which are far more of a hazard for boaters lurking in the depths. Yesterday we hauled out a metal barrier still with its concrete "feet" attached at the edge of a winding hole. It was impossible to see but we "found it" with Python's hull and although it took three strong guys with a couple of grappling hooks to get it out it has now been picked up by CRT and taken to be disposed of so it can't end up back in the water. Last week we pulled plastic road works barriers out of the water and a traffic cone. These too were picked up and taken away the same day to ensure they did not end up back in the water. We also remove sharps. This can be syringes in urban areas but far more commonly discarded fishing lures and line which can often be at about face height for a boater. We met a visiting boater in Worksop yesterday who is just returning from their trip up to the summit. The gentleman had seen what we were doing with Python last week and decided to come along for a day and join us. Chatting to them yesterday they said they could realy appreciate what we had done because during their journey down the improvements the Python team had made to their navigating was very obvious. In autumn we clear overgrown vegetation, especially focusing on the offside. This is work that CRT would usually pay contractors to do, except that if we do it, they can save the money and spend it on other things, maybe dredging or lock repairs? We usually run an 8-10 week programme focussing on overgrown vegetation each autumn and we cover the entire eastern end of the canal during this period. All year round we trim weeping willows. Through Ranby one of the pretty things on that stretch is the beautiful weeping willows that line the canal. They look fabulous but as any boater knows they grow a mile a minute and steering through them can sweep navigational equipment (or your tea) off the cabin top and it can be a less than pleasant experience to do so, showering your boat with leaves and insects as you pass through. With Python's high bow we have a platform where volunteers can do this work, a two person job, one grabs an armfull of willow and gently pulls it downwards as far as they can while another reaches up as high as they can with extending sheers and cuts. This means the length of the willows is reduced and it will (hopefully) take a whle before it gets back to being long enough to sweep a cabin top. These are attended to each time we pass. In addition to the tasks already listed we will clean milestones and interpretation boards (walkers and cyclists don't tend to carry a bucket of water and a sponge with them to do that task) Yesterday CRT joined us to replace two very old, "no Fishing" signs on an offside wall. In the past they have joined us to prepace a missing bridge number. Both of these occasions occured when their own boat was in a completely different part of the canal and so jumping on board with us they could get the job done much quicker than bringing their own workboat to the area. They know where Python is operating and will liaise with us if there are any notifications we can handle for them while we are in the area. This is saving time and money for CRT so they can spend it doing stuff we can't do on Python. Painting canal hardware is not something Python has got involved in yet. It has sometimes been suggested that we do and we are not adverse to doing it but the structures that require a fresh coat of paint do not usually need a boat to get to and so the CRT rangers who are better places to be working static in an area are better placed to do those tasks. freeing Python up to do the stuff that needs a boat to achieve it. Sadly we are not able to clear weed. When CRT sold off their weedcutting boats CCT were hoping to buy one so we could carry out this task using volunteers but the deal was done to sell them to Fountains who now have the contract for this work (it is not carried out by CRT). We are also unable to dredge the canal but, when Python was laid up for two years awaiting being rebottomed there were many boaters along the canal looking forward to the day Python was regularly navigating the length of the canal as she was keeping the channel open for other boaters. There has been a lot of dredging done on the wors sections of the canal since then. The Python team were consulted by CRT to discuss with them which areas needed to be prioritised for dredging prior to them contracting the works. They know we have a team of experienced steerers who will provide detailed, factual information about the problems we encounter which can be helpful to CRT in planning their works. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the boaters who are part of this forum who have supported Python through the years so we are able to keep providing the volunteer led service we do to help CRT maintain the canal for the boaters who enjoy using it. Without that support and the volunteers from the local communities who rock up whatever the weather to make the canal a better place we could not achieve any of this. If any of you are interested in seeing any more photos of what Python is up to she does have a Facebook Page which can be found by searching for "Python The Workboat" Apolgies for the long post but I wanted to ensure that readers do not think that Python is just an expensive jolly for a few pensioners to get out on the canal.