Yet another London boating newspaper article.

[Ray T]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-23/london-property-prices-are-driving-people-to-live-on-canal-boats?fbclid=IwAR3DzUxYaQBx-BiRoaQn-eC-WLiM6xJr7MnsVeYDZXennrQki-G3CAVNhfI

[matty40s]

"Navigating the canals means passing through locks, which are manually operated and generally require at least two people to open."

 

 

oh bugger....

[Markinaboat]

41 minutes ago, matty40s said:

"Navigating the canals means passing through locks, which are manually operated and generally require at least two people to open."

 

 

oh bugger....

oh no, we've been doing it wrong for all of these years!

[zenataomm]

Well I never realised it was all so non challenging!

I always fancied living somewhere like St. John's Wood or Camden in a King Size bed.

 

I can't wait to give it a go, perhaps I can hire one on Airbnb.

 

?

[Athy]

Though we may pick a few holes in the text, full marks to the photographer for that striking opening shot.

[Murflynn]

I hope all you CMers can plug a leaky hull.    Do you have your hull plugs to hand?

[Guest]

Quote

A trip that far would take about four weeks, given that the boats don’t move much faster than someone walking along the waterway.

Four weeks? I did it in under two. Although to be fair, I was gunning it.

 

And Mike Leitch is clearly not short of a bob or two.

 

Quote

Upon his permanent return to London in 2016, he wanted to be back on the water but he had something a bit grander in mind. He bought a 120-foot, 100-ton barge in the Netherlands and sailed it across the English Channel and up the Thames. He now moors in Battersea, where the berth alone cost as much as a small apartment -- about 500,000 pounds. The vessel has an eat-in kitchen, two bedrooms, a spacious living room and a retractable sunroof. There’s even a motorcycle workshop where Leitch has enough space to tinker on several bikes at a time.

 

[matty40s]

5 hours ago, Athy said:

Though we may pick a few holes in the text, full marks to the photographer for that striking opening shot.

That basin is a bugger to get a 70 footer into, it has it's own micro-wind climate and the basin is approximately 140 foot across, so when there are other 70 footers moored...its interesting.

Especially as the opposite side is sheet glass panels to protect the outside diners in the cafe.

[Tim Lewis]

6 hours ago, Athy said:

Though we may pick a few holes in the text, full marks to the photographer for that striking opening shot.

Shouldn't have been too difficult a shot for a journalist as it looks like it was taken out of the window of the Guardian Newspaper editorial office!

 

It also shows what are almost certainly the most expensive narrowboat moorings in the UK, last I heard they were £12,500 a year!

Edited November 26, 2019 by Tim Lewis

[Peter X]

So does it "generally require at least two people" to open a lock? The answer has to be "it depends".

At most locks two is plenty; one to get off the boat, raise/lower paddles as necessary and open the gates, while the other stays on the boat and steers it into the lock. But lots of boaters move around the system single handed doing everything themselves, or if there are two crew ashore doing the locks it's often a bonus in terms of getting ahead. Do journalists generally use generalisations? Yes!

Where it's really important to have two people ashore is when you're going through bridge 44 on the K&A, the very stiff swing bridge just west of Monkey Marsh lock, a few miles east of Newbury. Come on Bloomberg, start a campaign to get CRT to fix that! There could be a Pulitzer prize in it...

 

 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Peter X
(Edited to correct a minor typing error!)

[Tom Morgan]

14 hours ago, Athy said:

Though we may pick a few holes in the text, full marks to the photographer for that striking opening shot.

Talking of which - those boats seem to have hardly anything to tie up to, just a little bit of jetty at the back end. So what's keeping them more or less perpendicular to the towpath? 

Edited November 26, 2019 by Tom Morgan
Corrected a typo.

[Peter X]

In Battlebridge Basin there will be little or no flow of water to push those boats sideways,  so I guess they'll hardly move, particularly if many of them are moored with those pipe fenders down at the sides. Even if people aboard move about from side to side of their boat a bit, or some wash from a passing boat comes into the basin, I think it would just produce very gentle bumping.

[matty40s]

13 minutes ago, Tom Morgan said:

Talking of which - those boats seem to have hardly anything to tie up to, just a little bit of jetty at the back end. So what's keeping them more or less perpendicular to the towpath? 

Most of the boats are moored end on, there are a few finger pontoons, but no full length pontoons. The boats are generally kept apart by their fenders, some bigger than others. At least a couple I know have dropped anchors to the front end to help the flotilla when the winds are vicious (which can happen regularly due to local architectural vagaries). 

 

I have delivered 2 there, both of which are in view on the photo.

The customers give lie to the desperate people trying to live in London, one was a Surgeon at a local hospital (4 day week, the other day private, lived up North and buying a £80k narrowboat and sticking it on a mooring was far cheaper than renting a flat.

The other one was just a party animal, had lost her licence due to trying to drive home on more than many an occasion apparently, bought the mooring before buying the boat unseen.

There is a 3rd £130k boat there, just off picture, which I moved , new, to brokerage 2 years ago , eventually sold for £80k(read in to that what you love to), was recently resold off the moorings at ice house basin for £200k plus.

[WotEver]

I was impressed with the boat that had 26 solar panels until I realised it was just the pattern of the non-slip on the roof

[Tim Lewis]

9 hours ago, Tom Morgan said:

Talking of which - those boats seem to have hardly anything to tie up to, just a little bit of jetty at the back end. So what's keeping them more or less perpendicular to the towpath? 

They use mudweights, the orange floating balls in the photo indicate their position

[Tom Morgan]

14 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

They use mudweights, the orange floating balls in the photo indicate their position

Very interesting.  Never heard of mudweights but I'll have a think about them.  My 23 ft GRP is moored on a finger jetty about 8 ft shorter than the boat so the bow rope is not at the best angle and the front end moves about quite a bit.  It's not a heavy boat, so one of those at the front might help it keep still.

[Alan de Enfield]

13 minutes ago, Tom Morgan said:

Very interesting.  Never heard of mudweights but I'll have a think about them.  My 23 ft GRP is moored on a finger jetty about 8 ft shorter than the boat so the bow rope is not at the best angle and the front end moves about quite a bit.  It's not a heavy boat, so one of those at the front might help it keep still.

Get a plastic bucket coat the inside with grease.

Fill bucket with concrete 

Make an 'omega' shape piece of steel bar and push it down into the wet concrete leaving the loop partly sticking out at the top

When concrete is dry tip it out of the bucket.

 

Attach mooring line, slowly drop concrete weight down, attach line to your T-Stud

 

You are now fixed and shouldn't drift about.

 

 

 

Omega shape :

 

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Alan de Enfield

[matty40s]

10 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Get a plastic bucket coat the inside with grease.

Fill bucket with concrete 

Make an 'omega' shape piece of steel bar and push it down into the wet concrete leaving the loop partly sticking out at the top

When concrete is dry tip it out of the bucket.

 

Attach mooring line, slowly drop concrete weight down, attach line to your T-Stud

 

You are now fixed and shouldn't drift about.

 

 

 

Omega shape :

 

 

You forgot....add a bouy at the surface level so you know where it is when you come back from a cruise.

[ditchcrawler]

44 minutes ago, matty40s said:

You forgot....add a bouy at the surface level so you know where it is when you come back from a cruise.

And try not to run over it with your prop in gear

[DHutch]

On 26/11/2019 at 07:24, Athy said:

Though we may pick a few holes in the text, full marks to the photographer for that striking opening shot.

Great isn't it. Presumably taken using a drone.

 

Daniel

[Athy]

31 minutes ago, DHutch said:

Great isn't it. Presumably taken using a drone.

 

Daniel

...or from the wndow of a tall office building?

[frahkn]

1 minute ago, Athy said:

...or from the wndow of a tall office building?

Possibly the Guardian Newspaper editorial office - post 9.

[Athy]

32 minutes ago, frahkn said:

Possibly the Guardian Newspaper editorial office - post 9.

Yes indeed. I did see notice that post but I don't know the area well.

[Stilllearning]

7 minutes ago, Athy said:

Yes indeed. I did see notice that post but I don't know the area well.

The London Canal Museum has moorings on the Basin, and is well worth a visit.

[Athy]

1 minute ago, Stilllearning said:

The London Canal Museum has moorings on the Basin, and is well worth a visit.

Thanks. It's unlikely that we'll be taking the boat down (up?) to London, but trains from our area go to King's Cross. I presume that the museum is adjacent to the station.