Stupid places to take your boat ...

[TheBiscuits]

On the Froghall thread, I posted some of our pictures of us being stuck in places nobody should or does take their boats.

 

This ties in quite nicely with the IWA Silver Propeller challenge, which we are not doing! We would not mind doing it, but we have done quite a few of them before 2018 so they are too early to count, and would have to backtrack too far to do them again.

 

The IWA challenge is here : https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/activities/silver_propeller/silver_propeller_challenge

and the list of locations is at : https://www.waterways.org.uk/waterways/activities/silver_propeller/silver_propeller_award_locations

 

but they have missed some good ones.

 

I'm just interested to see if anyone other than me and @Jen-in-Wellies are daft enough to do this sort of thing.

 

Photos and locations please.

[TheBiscuits]

We have photos of us grounded in the shallows in the basin at Froghall, touching the stop planks on the next (disused) lock on the Uttoxeter canal,

 

 

and also going up past the cafe until we grounded at the end of the arm.  Someone came out of the cafe to tell us we were going the wrong way ...

 

 

 

Going the other way up the Caldon we went right up to the feeder at Leek, well past the sign saying "Not navigable to boats over 45 feet."

 

 

We were quite amused by this.  It was blindingly obvious that nothing longer than a canoe has winded in the feeder pool for years!  It took us about two hours to wind, because I didn't fancy reversing half a mile down a 5' wide channel with reeds both sides ...

 

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by TheBiscuits

[matty40s]

Ive been as far up the Slough Arm as the weed and shopping bags would let me in 2010, I did not reach the basin having spent several hours doing 200 yards just getting past and then trying to reverse to a winding hole.

Ive been up to the very end at Hartford- well past the turning point for 70 footers! and stuck the nose under the bridge at Bishops Stortford, Bumblehole Arm on the BCN(and most of the normal bits). 

I will try and find some photographs on my old computah.

[TheBiscuits]

The rockfall that has had the Springs Branch on the L&L shut for 3 years and counting ...

 

 

Reversing out of there was fun ...

 

[ditchcrawler]

8 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

The rockfall that has had the Springs Branch on the L&L shut for 3 years and counting ...

 

 

Reversing out of there was fun ...

 

I walked up there and didnt think it worth the effort

[TheBiscuits]

25 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I walked up there and didnt think it worth the effort

Climbing Everest isn't worth the effort, but it is there so it seems a shame to waste it ...

[Murflynn]

my favourite is to push through the weeds beyond Lechlade on the Thames to see how far I can get.  Last year I managed to get as far as a bend in the river where there was a small side pond where a few small cruisers were moored up.  Just beyond that the fast flowing stream was blocked by what appeared to be a fallen wooden bridge deck.  I tried to push against it to see if I could open a pathway, but discretion took over when I realised that if I did mange to open it, it would slam shut again as soon as I had passed (never to return!!). 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

The Sleaford Navigation AKA the Kyme Eau, off the River Witham. Went there in 2013 with no research. If I had asked anyone I'd have known that it was so silted up below the first lock that the Navigation Trust had cancelled their boat festival at South Kyme as no boats could get there. Somehow I managed to get over the mud bank without problems. Past South Kyme it shallowed till the engine was on tickover and scraping along the bottom. I found the winding hole at the current head of navigation too silted up to wind and ended up spending the next day reversing the six miles back to the lock. Coming down the lock I then ran hard aground. Managed to get off the next day with some assistance from a couple of workmen in weed cutting boats who flushed down some water through the lock. That was it for adventure boating that trip. I wimped out of the Navigable Drains around Boston. My Sleaford Head of Navigation brass plaque takes pride of place screwed to the rear hatch steps. It was well earned.

It is well worth a visit. The mud bank I ran aground on has been dredged and being higher up you can actually see across the (flat) countryside, compared with the Witham. Just check on the current conditions.

 

Jen

Pictures:

Aground in the winding hole at the current head of "navigation". Tried for ages to get round, including wading to the bank with ropes to pull the boat. No go, so a six mile reverse.

Aground below the first lock. Removed the heavy stuff and pumped out the water tank in the hope of getting off, but no luck.

 

 

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by Jen-in-Wellies

[Naughty Cal]

We took Naughty-Cal up the Wensum and through Bishop's Bridge last summer. Very pretty stretch of river.

 

 

 

 

 

We could have done with timing it a bit better though and having a bit more water underneath us at a higher state of the tide. It was a bit shallow in places.

[Captain Pegg]

Not particularly stupid places but on my trip around the Stourport Ring last week I included Smethwick Engine Arm, Hawne Basin, Bumblehole, Fens Branch to Brockmoor Jn and Stourbridge Basin to add to my list of backwaters of the BCN and surrounding areas, although I’m a regular on the Dudley No 2. Bumblehole is interesting but very shallow around the debris barrier which seems to encourage a build up of silt. No problems with depth on the main body of the Fens Branch and vegetation isn’t too bad at this time of year but I chose to wind in Brockmoor Junction because Vulpes doesn’t like going backwards. There was a bloke wearing waders on the bank where the mooring rings are on the Stourbridge Extension who was most keen to tell me I couldn’t go down there. He almost made me change my mind and try it. The straight on route toward the feeder has quite a bit of debris sticking up out of the water under the old railway bridge north of Brockmoor. It could probably do with someone more intrepid than me to push their way up there.

 

JP

Edited April 30, 2019 by Captain Pegg

[Keeping Up]

A few spring to mind. We didn't consider we had finished after Froghall until you could step ashore from the bows, and went into the basin.

 

We've been down the Monty past Maesbury to bridge 84, along the Witham Navigable Drains to Bolingbroke (also under Bunkers Hill, and up the Black Sluice and the Kyme), and up the Great Ouse to Kempston Mill. The pictures are all on the pages that I've linked here.

[john6767]

Not stupid, but a bit off piste, Titford pools

 

 

 

 

[Captain Pegg]

Oh yeah, and I’ve done Dudley Tunnel too. Legged, not towed.

 

JP

Edited April 30, 2019 by Captain Pegg

[Boater Sam]

Do be adventurous, try the Winsford Flashes. Made it about 70 yards in once.

[NB Esk]

Serious amount of respect to all the intrepids in this thread....?

 

 

[Sea Dog]

These photos are all very well but, to get us back on topic, the most stupid place I took my boat was Chester Zoo.  In my defence, there was nothing in the handbook to suggest that it might be frightened of monkeys. ?

[carlt]

I did the Brownsover Arm before they blocked it up with those huge orange things. I had no cabin and no ballast at the time which was a great advantage.

 

I often did the River Idle in the 80s in a dinghy which was a bit like doing the Rapids ride at Alton Towers complete with encouragement from the local anglers firing maggots at me with their catapults.

 

It's not inland but I crossed Lyme Bay a few weeks ago in truly awful conditions and can honestly say that, despite having done some stupid, dangerous and dodgy stuff in my time, I have never been more scared in my life. 14 hours of relentless confused seas in a round bottomed boat is not fun boating.

 

It did prove the seaworthiness of my boat though as it handled the experience far better than I did.

 

 

[bizzard]

11 hours ago, matty40s said:

Ive been as far up the Slough Arm as the weed and shopping bags would let me in 2010, I did not reach the basin having spent several hours doing 200 yards just getting past and then trying to reverse to a winding hole.

Ive been up to the very end at Hartford- well past the turning point for 70 footers! and stuck the nose under the bridge at Bishops Stortford, Bumblehole Arm on the BCN(and most of the normal bits). 

I will try and find some photographs on my old computah.

End of navigation, the Causeway bridge at B.Stortford. Folk hve damaged their boats trying to cruise straight on there, the bridge to some folk looks like it might be high enough, it isn't.  I asked Cart to stick a warning sign on it knowing that they like sticking signs on things, they did, so bloomin small you can't read it until its too late!  We've been through it in a dinghy into the park litter picking.

[Hudds Lad]

surprised nobody has mentioned London yet ?

[Naughty Cal]

I don't know why Ripon is on the Silver Prop challenge!

 

It's a nice run up to the basin there.

 

 

 

The run up to York and Ripon was the first proper holiday we had onboard Naughty-Cal and we loved it.

3 hours ago, carlt said:

I did the Brownsover Arm before they blocked it up with those huge orange things. I had no cabin and no ballast at the time which was a great advantage.

 

I often did the River Idle in the 80s in a dinghy which was a bit like doing the Rapids ride at Alton Towers complete with encouragement from the local anglers firing maggots at me with their catapults.

 

It's not inland but I crossed Lyme Bay a few weeks ago in truly awful conditions and can honestly say that, despite having done some stupid, dangerous and dodgy stuff in my time, I have never been more scared in my life. 14 hours of relentless confused seas in a round bottomed boat is not fun boating.

 

It did prove the seaworthiness of my boat though as it handled the experience far better than I did.

 

 

Some friends of ours recently had their boat moored on the Idle at Haxey. They loved the mooring but found the river a bit boring.

 

They have since relocated the boat to West Stockwith.

[carlt]

8 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

They loved the mooring but found the river a bit boring.

 

They have since relocated the boat to West Stockwith.

 

Yes there isn't a lot to see from the river because of the flood protection dykes along much of it. 

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by carlt

[cuthound]

6 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

These photos are all very well but, to get us back on topic, the most stupid place I took my boat was Chester Zoo.  In my defence, there was nothing in the handbook to suggest that it might be frightened of monkeys. ?

 

Best avoid the Coventry between Atherstone and Polesworth then. ?

[Captain Pegg]

Unidentified forum member at the end of the Digbeth branch of the Birmingham & Fazeley (otherwise known as Typhoo basin).

 

 

[Johny London]

I did the Basingstoke - not stupid in itself but as my boat has a height greater than that of the lowest bridge... 

I did lose some paint off the forward roof rails though!

 

[Sea Dog]

2 minutes ago, Johny London said:

I did the Basingstoke - not stupid in itself but as my boat has a height greater than that of the lowest bridge... 

I did lose some paint off the forward roof rails though!

 

You might have got away with it if that car hadn't been parked there...