Divert towpath for slipway

[magpie patrick]

I'm looking at providing a slipway on a short, isolated and landlocked canal, the idea being that a trailboat festival could be held and visiting boats could come at other times. However there is an objection: the slipway, being on the towpath side, will mean the towpath needs to divert to the uphill end of the slipway otherwise walkers will get their feet wet, and there is unease about diverting the towpath such that it is not next to the water. 

I can think of a lot of technical reasons why this isn't really a problem even if a horse drawn boat is ever used, but are there similar examples of the towpath being bent around a slipway or similar structure anywhere else? I seem to recall the towpath goes round the back of a small marina on the Welford Arm but I may have dreamt that...

 

Thanks all, as ever

[haggis]

The slipway near Broxburn on the Union canal in Scotland is at right angles to the towpath and a fairly large area has been tarmacked to take the launch vehicles. Pedestrians using the towpath have to walk round the start of the slipway slope. The slipway was built, I understand, by the local authority and not by Scottish Canals. 

There is another smaller slipway in Edinburgh opposite the premises of the Edinburgh Canal Society which is also across the towpath. No idea who built that one .

 

Haggis

[TheBiscuits]

 

Cowling Slipway, Chorley, L&L

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/iXgvA1FKhjzEc5BX9

 

 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Would a removable pontoon bridge across the slipway do the trick? Similar to the one on the Rochdale that is removed to allow widebeams through a bridge that was once a farm access culvert.

Jen

[Alan de Enfield]

If it was simply for a single (or annual) trailer boat festival you could consider getting a Telehandler or a truck with a Hi-Ab and do launches by lifting from the trailer and lowering into the water - maybe £5 a time would pay for a few hours 'work'.

 

Trailer boats are not going to weigh more that a couple of tons so could be easily lifted.

[haggis]

11 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If it was simply for a single (or annual) trailer boat festival you could consider getting a Telehandler or a truck with a Hi-Ab and do launches by lifting from the trailer and lowering into the water - maybe £5 a time would pay for a few hours 'work'.

 

Trailer boats are not going to weigh more that a couple of tons so could be easily lifted.

A lot depends on what type of boats would be expected to get access to the water. If Sea Otters are expected, they probably weigh more than a couple of tons and they need a long not too steep slipway. Wilderness and GRP boats are much less fussy and it might be easier to restrict access to boats which can use the slip or be lifted in. 

The slip on the Lancaster near Crooklands is not Sea Otter friendly  which has prevented us taking Gamebird onto the upper reaches - she has cruised the rest of the Lancaster several times using the slip at Carnforth which I believe is no longer exists.

 

Haggis 

[Jerra]

There is what looks like a small slipway (I have never examined it) at what used to be Stone Chandlery:

 

 

and just north of Great Haywood Marina a footbridge over a entrance to a building (again I have never examined it)

 

 

Both on the towpath side.

 

 

 

 

 

[Graham Davis]

It will also depend on whether the tow path is a Public Right of Way or not, Patrick. 

[TheBiscuits]

19 minutes ago, haggis said:

she has cruised the rest of the Lancaster several times using the slip at Carnforth which I believe is no longer exists.

 

They are both still there, but I assume you used the big slipway at the now closed boatyard, not the little one on the pub carpark.

 

Moon's Bridge or Bridge House marinas have slipways if you want to come back at some point.  There's a little one at Glasson Basin, but it might not take an Otter.

[MoominPapa]

There's a slipway across the towpath at the top of Bunbury locks. It's angled, so that the towpath is never far from the water.

 

MP.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Bunbury,+Tarporley/@53.1264395,-2.6315945,57m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487af1e14daf6ccf:0x38c6716eedd9f3a6!8m2!3d53.115486!4d-2.650361

[haggis]

8 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

They are both still there, but I assume you used the big slipway at the now closed boatyard, not the little one on the pub carpark.

 

Moon's Bridge or Bridge House marinas have slipways if you want to come back at some point.  There's a little one at Glasson Basin, but it might not take an Otter.

yes,it was the slipway at the boatyard we used. It's a long time now since gamebird was put on her trailer and towed ?.

We must get kelpie across the Ribble link at some point. We did it on Copperkins several years ago.  

 

haggis

[Sea Dog]

I would have thought @bizzard would be able to come up with a contraption to overcome the issue. Have you asked him?

[Alan de Enfield]

50 minutes ago, haggis said:

If Sea Otters are expected, they probably weigh more than a couple of tons

Manufacturer states the 30' Sea Otter weighs 2200Kgs (they couldn't be much heavier as the maximum towing weight is 3.5 tonnes including the trailer)

 

A reasonable sized Hiab wouldnt have any problem lifting 2.2 tonnes.

 

This boat is probably around 8 tonnes +

 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[David Mack]

There's a lift bridge carrying the towpath across the slipway at Napton Narrowboats wharf at Autherley Junction.

From https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/427146

Edited January 4, 2021 by David Mack

[magpie patrick]

Thanks all - useful stuff

 

1 hour ago, haggis said:

A lot depends on what type of boats would be expected to get access to the water. If Sea Otters are expected, they probably weigh more than a couple of tons and they need a long not too steep slipway.

The slipway design I've got is suitable for Sea Otters

 

1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If it was simply for a single (or annual) trailer boat festival you could consider getting a Telehandler or a truck with a Hi-Ab and do launches by lifting from the trailer and lowering into the water - maybe £5 a time would pay for a few hours 'work'..

It might come to that but the chosen location is intended to be permanent - we had a location for a temporary slipway lined up for a festival and decided on a permanent one instead

 

47 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

It will also depend on whether the tow path is a Public Right of Way or not, Patrick. 

I hadn't thought of that, but diverting public rights of way is soimething we do and in this instance, with the diversion being on the same land ownership, it's unlikely to be a problem if the towpath is a PROW. 

4 minutes ago, David Mack said:

There's a lift bridge carrying the towpath across the slipway at Napton Narrowboats wharf at Autherley Junction.

From https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/427146

ooooooo now there's an idea

[David Mack]

On the Rochdale Canal the towpath goes up one side and back down the other of what remains of the Drummer Hill Branch.

https://canalplan.org.uk/place/6t5i

 

Dropped pin Near England https://maps.app.goo.gl/hHk8Bt32M9PZQzHG6

Edited January 4, 2021 by David Mack

[haggis]

24 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Manufacturer states the 30' Sea Otter weighs 2200Kgs (they couldn't be much heavier as the maximum towing weight is 3.5 tonnes including the trailer)

 

A reasonable sized Hiab wouldnt have any problem lifting 2.2 tonnes.

 

 

 I am not sure how much reliance I would place on a 30 foot Sea Otter weighing 2200kg ? . Gamebird is 26 feet  and iain has always avoided a weigh bridge with her, as he had his suspicions about her weight.  We travel with her as light as possible  but the boat is not, like a caravan built with weight in mind.  The wood is pretty solid, none of your MDF.  When we took her to the Festival of the Sea in leith Docks we asked Ray Shepherd (the then owner of the Sea Otter company), about having her lifted on and off the trailer and his advice was "don't"! 

 

haggis

[dmr]

And much closer to home for you, Pewsey Wharf. ?

 

.................Dave

[Alan de Enfield]

3 minutes ago, haggis said:

 I am not sure how much reliance I would place on a 30 foot Sea Otter weighing 2200kg ? . Gamebird is 26 feet  and iain has always avoided a weigh bridge with her, as he had his suspicions about her weight.  We travel with her as light as possible  but the boat is not, like a caravan built with weight in mind.  The wood is pretty solid, none of your MDF.  When we took her to the Festival of the Sea in leith Docks we asked Ray Shepherd (the then owner of the Sea Otter company), about having her lifted on and off the trailer and his advice was "don't"! 

 

haggis

I know that 'personal stuff' can add a fair bit of weight, add in 100kg of fuel, 50kg of water etc etc and it does all add up.

 

I know when trailering I used to pack as much as possible into the car to minimise to 'trailer laden weight'.

[haggis]

2 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I know that 'personal stuff' can add a fair bit of weight, add in 100kg of fuel, 50kg of water etc etc and it does all add up.

 

I know when trailering I used to pack as much as possible into the car to minimise to 'trailer laden weight'.

We always towed with empty fuel and water and calorifier tanks  and as much as possible personal stuff in the landy.  We did our food and booze shopping after we launched but it was a fair old weight to tow  just the same.

 

haggis 

[matty40s]

Stoke Bruerne, you have to walk miles to get round it...

[Tim Lewis]

29 minutes ago, matty40s said:

Stoke Bruerne, you have to walk miles to get round it...

 

That is not the towpath side though?

 

 

[Onewheeler]

Glos Rowing Club diverted the towpath (not far) around their new slipway on the G&S (well, new ten years ago).

 

A lot of trail boaters objected to the concept of cranes when we ran their festival on the Stroudwater, but we had to lift a few when the temporary slipway fell apart.

[magpie patrick]

Thanks for all these - very useful.

 

Is anyone familiar with the towpath at Welford on the Welford Arm, my recollection is I had to walk round the outside of a small marina, someone has advised that there is a wooden footbridge with steps over the entrance. So, did I HAVE to walk round or did I CHOOSE to walk round? It is possible the bridge is there but not open to the public?

[Tacet]

There is no bridge across the entrance to the Welford moorings. 

 

Whether the footpath around  the basin is a towpath is a matter for debate and discussion.   I suppose it also depends on whether the basin forms part of the canal