Search the Community

Little Ships - Vintage wooden boat holidays on the beautiful Norfolk Broads. www.littleships.co.uk enquiries@littleships.co.uk 01603 781466 Little Ships offers unique classic and vintage wooden boat hire on the Norfolk broads. Our boats have the perfect blend of traditional, luxury and vintage class that is second to none. We are family run business that has huge passion for saving the heritage of the British waterways and bringing back the boats that started the boating holidays here in Norfolk. We look forward to welcoming you onboard one of our "Little Ships".

My parents are coming up to retirement, and are considering investing in a barge, because of the cost-effectiveness. What size would be best for two 60-somethings to buy in terms of feet?

Will be doing a post soon about the best places in Britain to moor, whether it be Permanent or Temporary, so was just wondering where the best place you've ever moored was, and why it was so good?

Hi. I've just started a new blog about the Canals and the Nature that goes with them, but i'm struggling for avid readers, and thought that I should try to tailor the content more to what people want to see. So, if anyone could suggest good blogs about canals or anything that they think could help me out I would be ever so greatful. Cheers.

Council Report March 2019 I have spoken about not being well; one of the joys of renal failure is your ability to pick up whatever viruses are going round and hold them in your body for months; resulting in exhaustion an no ability to do anything other than what is essential. Hence, no Council report has been written until now and for this I apologise. As usual, please be advised these are my recollections from notes made; therefore, they should not be regarded as minutes and anything missed is entirely down to the fact I haven’t noted it or I just didn’t remember. We met in Manchester on 20 March - a Wednesday, so no dialysis and as I could get a local train into the city, I didn’t need to get up at the crack of dawn. We met just after 9am and on this day, the local team take the Council on a show and tell - in our case round the side of the Bridgewater to Lock 89 and a walk to Lock 87 (I had no idea this short cut was there). Lock 89 is where there have been two fatalities as people use the header gates to cross the canal rather than the nice bridge provided above the tail gates, so a temporary fence has been erected but allowing boaters to access the lock and preventing the use of the header gates as a walkway. The Trust has joined in with Peel Holdings, the Fire Service, Police, Manchester City Council in the Water Safety Initiative. (This is a wonderful opportunity to engage Peel and hopefully resolve the issue of the Bridgewater Canal). we walked up to Lock 87; there are plans to redevelop all this and the area around Piccadilly Basin as a destination zone - something Manchester is lacking and therefore misses out on tourism pounds. As an aside next to Chrchgate House on Oxford Road ithere is a statue of a horse next to it on the offside as a nod to the horses used in the past. We then returned to the Bridgewater Hall for the Council Meeting, The Governance Report was issued and there are to be additional members elected and appointed and the that these to take effect from March 2020 after the next elections are in December 2019. They propose some additional elected and nominated reps to Council including a fifth Private Boaters Rep - (we said this should be a liveaboard bearing in mind the significant increase in these.) For those now wondering, I shall be seeking re-election to Council as I feel after four years we are finally getting somewhere and changes will happen, although probably slowly. We had a full report from Julie Sharman, the Chief Operating Officer, who gave a full report on Winter Improvement Works, the uptake on Winter moorings with 703 permits sold for a total 2294 months. There is ongoing work for Green Flag Awards; there are various initiatives going on to promote Don’t Drink and Drown, particularly in City Centres. She also updated us on Marple Flight due to open at the end of May 2019. We then broke for lunch and resumed at 1.30 where a presentation was made by Kevin Fitzgerald, the Chair of the Waterways Ombudsman Committee with an introduction to the new Waterways Ombudsman designate, Sarah Daniel who officially starts in June 2019. Council had requested some items for debate and the first was on Sharing the Towpath. I was asked to speak on behalf of boaters, with angling, walking members also speaking. The Cycling UK member sent apologies which was a shame as we need responsible cyclists to set examples to the few who insist on speeding and that was the crux of the issue. It is a small strip of land adjacent to the canal, usually no more than six feet wide and often narrower than that and everyone is responsible for their own behaviour. Regarding anglers, if you see bad behaviour , please report it as Angling clubs sign a code of conduct with Canal and River Trust and can be fined if their members are not adhering. I tried not to just be critical of cyclists as I know commuting is limited to certain areas and particularly bad behaviour to a minority; so reporting all incidents, no matter how minor, is important. After the various presentations, we split into groups to discuss and see if we could find any ideas - in brief, better directional signage where there is a dedicated cycle path nearby; more communication with Councils and other stakeholders about access and egress and making reporting incidents on the website easier as there is loads on anecdotal evidence and little reporting. The meeting closed at 4.30pm, the next one is after the AGM on Thursday 20 September in Birmingham. .

This is my YouTube channel. It currently has 86 videos on narrowboat life. I only have 672 subscribers. Please consider helping to grow it by subscribing and sharing. Thank you! ❤❤❤ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZrZtoKAtW-kt7xMqraGVWw

so, whats the max capacity in metric tonnes of cargo a widbeam cargo boat can carry? asking for a friend.... or something like that

Some of you might already know that the annual Folk on the Water Music festival will be touring the canals of South Warwickshire between 25th June and 10th July 2016. all the gigs are free entry (you have to buy your own beer)and all are at canalside pubs. Just turn up, moor and pile into the pub. A full list of gigs and locations are given below. The whole festival is to support "Zoe's Place" The only baby-specific hospice facility of its kind in the Midlands, a very worthwhile cause. the gigs are as follows: 25th - 26th June, The Cuttle Inn, Long Itchington, (GU) 30th June - 1st July, The Fusilier, Leamington Spa (GU) 2nd - 3rd July, The Cape of Good Hope, Warwick (GU) 9th - 10th July, The Folly Inn, Napton, (South Oxford) Artists are coming from all over the country to take part and provide high quality entertainment for discerning music enthusiasts. Details of which artists will be at which venue will follow in a couple of days. Regards to all Tony Collins.

I've been absent for a while due to circumstances changing in my personal life, this meant that getting to work on the boat was mainly done by my father with me joining him when I can. For those that remember us, Hello, love the new site look, to those who are new, we are based up in Norfolk by the Denver Sluice and are by our own admission, complete novices! We own a blue and white 23ft Cabin Cruiser called Shenni-Lee, she's tatty and basically made up of leftover parts (old BMC 1.5 Petrol engine, hydraulic MGA slave cylinder gear system etc). Background story: We took our boat on a maiden voyage down the river (Great Ouse) and stopped for lunch at The Ship, a few miles away the boat appeared to perform well albeit with some steam from the rear exhaust, this had been how she had run for months so we thought nothing of it. After lunch we turned her around and headed home unfortunately this is where our fortunes changed and Shenny-Lee began billowing white smoke from the engine bay, we managed to navigate her into a private mooring before losing all power/steering, other boaters were around and gave us the number of the mooring owner, who after hearing our predicament not only allowed us to moor our boat up there until we could fix/remove it, but also called us a taxi back to our home mooring to fetch our car. We decided to try to move the boat and so purchased a small outboard we would use to power slowly back to our home mooring, sadly we managed to get 500 yards up river before this too died and left us drifting, we were pulled into moor next to a boat club who a few weeks later and for some beer vouchers, towed us back to our home mooring. After listing our issues to these guys we were told it could be the weed trap blocking water intake, we eventually found this but found it clear, so next step the dreaded impeller. Thankfully someone sent us a manual for our engine so we were able to distinguish exactly where this part was located, after eventually getting it out we found that it had disintegrated into a giant O-ring! We took the broken impeller to a chandlery and were supplied with another, we headed up there the following weekend but the part would not fit, we took the shaft out and went back to the chandlery to get a replacement, it was the wrong impeller. I fitted the new impeller this weekend just gone, not knowing if what I was doing was correct or not, we turned her over but she wasn't going.. we decided to swap out all the spark plugs and take the battery home to charge it. Another fortnight passed and I was back at the boat, and after correcting a loose battery terminal and connecting some jump leads for some extra power, we turnt her over again, this time she fired after a few splutters... and she runs, some smoke at startup (burning off old disturbed oil I suspect) but after a few minutes no smoke, no steam, she sounds beautiful, the best she ever has. We decided to cast off and head down the river to see how she was under load, she performed impeccably, going into gear without issue. It appears the Shenni-Lee lives again!!!

I went to Anderton services today, on the Trent and Mersey. They were closed, with a sign saying 'more info on the web site' I looked but can't find any. It looks like one of the toilets might be out of order but is that any reason to close the showers and Elsan? I was at Red Bull a few weeks ago and the services there were closed while work was being done to the car park. The offices were open and the flat at the side of the services was open. However there was a barrier preventing access to the services. I was at Wheelock on the same stretch and the showers there were closed. Has anyone else noticed services not being available more often recently, or have I just been unlucky?

It was common once to see (and hear) pairs of boats coming up and down the Marsworth Flight. The Bollinder's single hot bulb engines in the early motor boats needed to be reversed to give any braking effort. Since sometimes the engine would go out on the change, especially when running cold in locks, it was a wiser choice to strap the boats in. Often even boats with gearboxes would use this method as it's quicker, and gets the steerer on the side of the lock where they need to be.