Advice need re Brecon Monmouthshire Canal

[LeighLeigh 3]

Hi all

 

We have just purchased our first boat. It is on Brecon Monmouthshire Canal and we’re struggling to get quotes to have it lifted out and transported to our mooring in Northamptonshire.

 

It’s a 58ft Narrowboat, please, can anyone advise or help me out with recommendations as to who to use?

 

Thank you

 

Leigh 😃

[Tracy D'arth 555]

Tuckeys?

 

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tVP1zc0TM5LNjRKTioxYLRSNagwsTA3N7ZMNTFNtTAxTUxJsTKoSEyySDIzNzY2NjdNTDNOMfQSLClNzk6tLFYoKUrMKy7ILyoBAPV-Fjo&q=tuckeys+transport&rlz=1C1CHBF_en-GBGB920GB920&oq=Tuckeys&aqs=chrome.3.0l2j46l6.8584j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

[Movin' on 300]

12 minutes ago, LeighLeigh said:

Hi all

 

We have just purchased our first boat. It is on Brecon Monmouthshire Canal and we’re struggling to get quotes to have it lifted out and transported to our mooring in Northamptonshire.

 

It’s a 58ft Narrowboat, please, can anyone advise or help me out with recommendations as to who to use?

 

Thank you

 

Leigh 😃

 

Ask local boatyards to your new boat - I have just saved over £1k by shopping around - £3k down to £1.8k (fro NI to England) - this wasn't a return load just a local haulier to the boat.

[Alan de Enfield 6971]

35 minutes ago, LeighLeigh said:

It’s a 58ft Narrowboat, please, can anyone advise or help me out with recommendations as to who to use?

That's interesting - many (most) of the boats on the Mon & Brec have been built to suit the local conditions (seeing as it is a non-connected waterway) and they are built to ~9 foot beam.

You have been lucky to find one at 6'10".

 

Enjoy your boating life.

 

[noone 116]

Tuckeys have been craning and moving boats for YEARS and I know a few boatyards that swear by them.May not be the cheapest,but you get what you pay for!.

[LeighLeigh 3]

Thanks for your suggestions, all sorted now, being transported to us next week 😃😃

[Murflynn 1834]

On 02/10/2020 at 13:44, Alan de Enfield said:

That's interesting - many (most) of the boats on the Mon & Brec have been built to suit the local conditions (seeing as it is a non-connected waterway) and they are built to ~9 foot beam.

You have been lucky to find one at 6'10".

 

Enjoy your boating life.

 

lucky?

 

the majority of narrowboats on the Mon and Brec are standard beam - 6'-10".

 

my observation was that most of the 9'-0" boats are in, or were built for, the hire fleets.

[RS2021 4]

Also a trend on some hire fleets to build 7'6" 'narrow' boats. Just wide enough to make the double beds more comfortable.

[The Happy Nomad 925]

4 hours ago, Murflynn said:

lucky?

 

the majority of narrowboats on the Mon and Brec are standard beam - 6'-10".

 

my observation was that most of the 9'-0" boats are in, or were built for, the hire fleets.

Now I'm confused as CRT give the width of the Mon and Brec as 6' 10 so how do they fit 9 foot boats in?

 

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/canal-and-river-network/monmouthshire-and-brecon-canal?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8fr7BRDSARIsAK0Qqr5O5wX81nzvIs2v77PlyOjj5E0WNCuaB5VjFI_BSW57j2iOIAWwmPgaArEtEALw_wcB

 

I have never boated it but walked it a couple of times and from memory the locks were 'narrow' locks. I couldn't recall seeing any boat wider than 6' 10" but then I found this picture I took one time I was there and the boat on the right looks wider than the narrow boat on the left. (optical illusion perhaps??) This lock I pictured looks 'narrow' to me too. ?? another optical illusion??

 

BUT - the last picture (which isn't mine) shows a boat which looks clearly wider than 6' 10"

 

A case of the CRT not knowing about their own waterways perhaps??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[magpie patrick 273]

The locks on the B&A are "about" 9 feet wide, it was built for boats 64 feet long by 9 foot 2 inches beam (Bradshaw 1904) - there is an obvious trend to narrow boats as they are readily available. Also, for many years the bridge carrying the Heads of the Valley Road created a sharp bend that restricted the length and beam of vessels, this has now been resolved. 

That said, it isn't a waterway suitable for big boats - last year I took a "BreconMax" trip boat from Goytre to Llanfoist, blowing my own trumpet a bit it took a very experienced boat handler to get it moving at more than about 1 mph and I was very relieved that there was no prospect of meeting a boat the same size coming the other way!

[The Happy Nomad 925]

5 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

The locks on the B&A are "about" 9 feet wide, it was built for boats 64 feet long by 9 foot 2 inches beam (Bradshaw 1904) - there is an obvious trend to narrow boats as they are readily available. Also, for many years the bridge carrying the Heads of the Valley Road created a sharp bend that restricted the length and beam of vessels, this has now been resolved. 

That said, it isn't a waterway suitable for big boats - last year I took a "BreconMax" trip boat from Goytre to Llanfoist, blowing my own trumpet a bit it took a very experienced boat handler to get it moving at more than about 1 mph and I was very relieved that there was no prospect of meeting a boat the same size coming the other way!

So, looking at the proposal by CRT to restrict boats unless they fit their 'official' dimension parameters all the boaters on the Mon & Brec with boats wider then 6' 10" are going to potentially find themselves in some difficulty, especially as they cannot easily be moved elsewhere on the system?

 

 

[magpie patrick 273]

1 minute ago, The Happy Nomad said:

So, looking at the proposal by CRT to restrict boats unless they fit their 'official' dimension parameters all the boaters on the Mon & Brec with boats wider then 6' 10" are going to potentially find themselves in some difficulty, especially as they cannot easily be moved elsewhere on the system?

 

 

In a nutshell yes

[Alan de Enfield 6971]

Some years ago we looked at buying one of the hire businesses on the Mon & Brec, all of its boats (and the other hire companies) were 9' beam and there were virtually no 'private' narrow boats on the canal.

 

Undertaking the due-diligence we identified that the risk of breach on the Mon & Brec was unacceptably high as it was in a perilous condition. This was subsequently proven when they had a big breach and it was closed for about a year.

 

However - BW / C&RT did compensate the hire companies with the equivalent to the previous years company profits, buy I still consider it to be a canal with a very limited future as a navigation.

[LeighLeigh 3]

Hi. We have been looking to buy a project boat and found the Narrowboat we wanted at Goytre Marina. The condition of purchase was that we moved it off the canal, as it wasn’t suitable for this waterway. The owner apparently moved to Wales, bringing his boat with him, not realising he would be unable to use it until he’d had it put into the water!!

The problem seemed to be the depth of the Brecon and Monmouth canal as the narrowboat kept bottoming out and getting stuck 😮.

[Nut 87]

enjoy your boat and well done

 

[magpie patrick 273]

58 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Some years ago we looked at buying one of the hire businesses on the Mon & Brec, all of its boats (and the other hire companies) were 9' beam and there were virtually no 'private' narrow boats on the canal.

Alan, I have a huge amount of respect for you, and a touch of admiration for your knowledge and opinion, but I'd question that - I know the canal VERY well, far better than I should for a canal not especially near my home. 

In the 1960's the few hire boats were "fat" wooden cruisers built on and for the canal, about 35 foot by 8 foot, and in keeping with many other waterways then the few private boats were fibreglass cruisers and a mish-mash of wooden river cruisers, converted lifeboats etc. 

Most of the boats moored at Goytre are narrow, most of the boats moored at Pencelli are narrow, and everyone I know who owns a boat on the canal has a narrow beam boat (about once a year one of them tries to sell me a boat! It has a higher proportion of shorter boats and a higher proportion of fibreglass boats still, a consequence of it being isolated and offering a limited cruising range. Red Line are Narrow, Beacon (20 boats) have about half narrow, the rest 7 foot 6 or 8 foot 6, Road House are narrow, Castle Boats are narrow, Cambrian Cruisers are not saying... 

Some wider beam on the canal but certainly not most or all

[Alan de Enfield 6971]

5 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Alan, I have a huge amount of respect for you, and a touch of admiration for your knowledge and opinion, but I'd question that - I know the canal VERY well, far better than I should for a canal not especially near my home. 

In the 1960's the few hire boats were "fat" wooden cruisers built on and for the canal, about 35 foot by 8 foot, and in keeping with many other waterways then the few private boats were fibreglass cruisers and a mish-mash of wooden river cruisers, converted lifeboats etc. 

Most of the boats moored at Goytre are narrow, most of the boats moored at Pencelli are narrow, and everyone I know who owns a boat on the canal has a narrow beam boat (about once a year one of them tries to sell me a boat! It has a higher proportion of shorter boats and a higher proportion of fibreglass boats still, a consequence of it being isolated and offering a limited cruising range. Red Line are Narrow, Beacon (20 boats) have about half narrow, the rest 7 foot 6 or 8 foot 6, Road House are narrow, Castle Boats are narrow, Cambrian Cruisers are not saying... 

Some wider beam on the canal but certainly not most or all

Your knowledge of the canal is way better than mine, I had no experience of the canal until we looked at the 'company for sale' (in the early 2000's) when research showed few narrowboats and a preponderance of 'wider' boats that were primarily in the hire fleets.

Maybe my views of the boats on the Mon & Brec were incorrect.

 

The company was still for sale after the big-breach and they sent me their accounts to show that  they had been given compensation to the previous years profit level. we decided  not to go ahead as structural reports made very gloomy reading as to the future for the canal.

We then looked at Whixhall marina, (where our boat was kept and started negotiation with the owners, but then BWML over-bid on our price, - we then were going to look at a marina for sale at Earith but it sold before we could get there.

 

Gave up on trying to buy a 'waterways business' and did something else instead.

[magpie patrick 273]

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Gave up on trying to buy a 'waterways business' and did something else instead.

I'm sure you've done many wise things, this may be one of the wisest!

[Murflynn 1834]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

.............................    I still consider it to be a canal with a very limited future as a navigation.

..............  even as they extend navigation from Cwmbran to Newport and the branch to Cwmcarm?

 

it is the loveliest canal I have ever come across and it has a great future -  a lot of investment proves the commitment to make it happen.

[RS2021 4]

3 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

Cambrian Cruisers are not saying... 

Cambrian used to be all narrow, but their latest boats are 7'4"

[Scholar Gypsy 336]

On 08/10/2020 at 17:04, Murflynn said:

..............  even as they extend navigation from Cwmbran to Newport and the branch to Cwmcarm?

 

it is the loveliest canal I have ever come across and it has a great future -  a lot of investment proves the commitment to make it happen.

When we take the M4 to South Wales we always stop for a break at 14 locks, just outside Newport. So much nicer than any motorway service station ...

[ditchcrawler 2044]

On 08/10/2020 at 13:17, The Happy Nomad said:

So, looking at the proposal by CRT to restrict boats unless they fit their 'official' dimension parameters all the boaters on the Mon & Brec with boats wider then 6' 10" are going to potentially find themselves in some difficulty, especially as they cannot easily be moved elsewhere on the system?

 

 

That's the Llangollen buggered for me then, max 2ft draft