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How rivery are these rivers?


Marbling

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Hi - we've recently bought a 23' Springer based in Thorne and we're ready to go off on our first proper cruise. I was thinking of heading for the Aire & Calder and maybe making it as far as the Calder & Hebble. Although some waterways maps regard these as canals, looking at Google Earth they incorporate quite a lot of river. We're not quite sure of the boat's capabilities yet so I'm slightly nervous. Firstly, is there likely to be much flow? And secondly, how well signed are the many canalised sections with locks? Are we likely to end up faced with a weir by mistake? 
 

In our favour is that we lived aboard a 57 footer on the Avon downstream of Bath 20 years ago. We didn’t consider the river a problem, but perhaps because we were living on it and were very aware when a load of fresh was coming down, and the locks were inline with the river with the weirs on the bypasses. And also perhaps because we were younger and more foolhardy then!

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With the boat being unknown to you, why not head for Sprotbrough first? You can get there in a day, but it's also a nice leisurely 2 day trip. Then turn and head back along New Junction canal and turn left onto the Aire and Calder - if you aren't aware Sykehouse to Pollington is only open for an hour each day and needs to be booked. After Pollington you've got plenty of River and Canal sections. The river sections are generally easy, just keep an eye open for the locks and remember, you will be going against the flow heading out, engine will need to work harder. A good place to head for is Stanley Ferry.

 

Have fun.

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The river sections on the Aire and Calder and the Calder and Hebble are almost canal like in normal conditions. Hardly rivery at all. In flood they transform dramatically and become very rivery and at those times you want to be somewhere else. Locks in and out of river sections will have a traffic light board dipping in to the water. Low water is in, or below the green. Proceed with caution it will be level with the amber. In to the red, or you can't even see the red, stay put! Most weirs are protected by booms. Lock cuts are well signposted, but can sometimes be obscured by vegetation, so it is well to keep a good look out. If you see a line of orange bouys ahead, or the water has a suspicious cut off look ahead then start scanning for a cut heading off. A good idea is to have an anchor, chain and rope so that if you get engine problems on a river section you can hopefully stop so you can sort things out, rather than be swept away.

From Thorne, you can also reach the Trent and the Ouse. These are not only very rivery, but tidal too. You want to be sure of your boat before trying them.

Jen

I agree with @Sir Nibble. Rivery is now an accepted word on CWDF.

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DSCN1733.JPG.ba25e673356ea9f4bdd1a070c99f736f.JPG

An example of a river section in flood. This is the bottom of the Tinsley flight in Sheffield where it meets the river Don. The water has actually gone down since its peak where it was over the lock by a foot. You can see only the red section of the traffic light flow warning board. The amber and green are deep down.

Jen

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1 hour ago, Marbling said:

Hi - we've recently bought a 23' Springer based in Thorne and we're ready to go off on our first proper cruise. I was thinking of heading for the Aire & Calder and maybe making it as far as the Calder & Hebble. Although some waterways maps regard these as canals, looking at Google Earth they incorporate quite a lot of river. We're not quite sure of the boat's capabilities yet so I'm slightly nervous. Firstly, is there likely to be much flow? And secondly, how well signed are the many canalised sections with locks? Are we likely to end up faced with a weir by mistake? 
 

In our favour is that we lived aboard a 57 footer on the Avon downstream of Bath 20 years ago. We didn’t consider the river a problem, but perhaps because we were living on it and were very aware when a load of fresh was coming down, and the locks were inline with the river with the weirs on the bypasses. And also perhaps because we were younger and more foolhardy then!

What engine is in the boat and how is it cooled? Maybe the best idea is to do some local trips to test out the engine before attempting to go too far. We had a 30ft Mick Sivewright  boat with a two cylinder 11hp engine that we moored at Dewsbury on the Calder and Hebble Navigation. We went to Leeds and up to Hebden Bridge quite regularly and it was no problem when the rivers were not in flood. When they were in flood we stayed put. It was noticeable that longer boats with more powerful engines could go faster than us.

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2 hours ago, Kendorr said:

With the boat being unknown to you, why not head for Sprotbrough first? You can get there in a day, but it's also a nice leisurely 2 day trip. Then turn and head back along New Junction canal and turn left onto the Aire and Calder 

I would just go to Barmby Dunn first, plenty of moorings, sanitary station/shower and 5 minute walk into town for fish & chips/Chinese/pizza/Kebab, stay overnight, then you can see how the boat performs and your not too far from Thorne to get back if anything is amiss, if all ok then I would head up the New Junction. Unless you want to go to Sprotborough, then maybe on to the Pastures through Mexborough bottom lock, that way you could do two river sections similar to the Aire & Calder then come back on yourself and carry on up the New Junction. 

Edited by PD1964
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Thanks everyone - very helpful. The motor is a 10hp Honda outboard and we will be pootling up and down some canals before we try going anywhere more challenging, in order to get the measure of both boat and motor. I'm just thinking about our first week away - it seems anywhere you go more than 2 days from here you hit a river, although I won't be getting myself on the Trent, Ouse or Humber anytime soon (or ever, in this boat).

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1 hour ago, Marbling said:

Thanks everyone - very helpful. The motor is a 10hp Honda outboard and we will be pootling up and down some canals before we try going anywhere more challenging, in order to get the measure of both boat and motor. 

Make sure you know where you can get fuel with an outboard as there’s not many places on the canal once you leave Stannilands, nowhere on the canal to Sheffield, Castleford is hit or miss, Goole yes when canal reopen’s, so you will have to know where the service stations are close to the canal and can it in.

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1 minute ago, PD1964 said:

Make sure you know where you can get fuel with an outboard as there’s not many places on the canal once you leave Stannilands, nowhere on the canal to Sheffield, Castleford is hit or miss, Goole yes when canal reopen’s, so you will have to know where the service stations are close to the canal and can it in.

 

There is a roadside fuel station within walking distance of Castleford cut.

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1 minute ago, The Happy Nomad said:

 

There is a roadside fuel station within walking distance of Castleford cut.

 Yes there’s a few close within walking distance and often can be seen from the canal, but it would be handy to identify them before setting off, even if he just use’s Google maps to plan, as you don’t want to run out and on the other hand I wouldn’t want to be carrying a lot of petrol onboard if it’s a petrol outboard, hopefully not.

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It will certainly be more of a military-style operation than with a diesel and a big tank. We've also got the batteries to think of as there's no alternator charging. Might have to calculate how long they last and book in an overnight with a hook-up if going for more than a few days.

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On 01/07/2021 at 20:00, Sir Nibble said:

"Rivery". I love it! So much, I'm going to steal it. 


There was me thinking "rivalry" until I saw your post. I was wondering why the OP wasn't making much sense to me!

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3 minutes ago, Marbling said:

Google maps is a wonderful invention! Pubs, petrol stations and supermarkets, frequently co-located…

 

It is, we used to use it lot when on unfamiliar waterways.

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29 minutes ago, Marbling said:

Might have to calculate how long they last and book in an overnight with a hook-up if going for more than a few days.

You may need to get some solar panels as not many visitor moorings around your area with electrical hook up or Marina’s for that matter. I take it your going to be based at Thorne?

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Yes, we've got a marina mooring in Thorne with hook-up (and a tiny solar panel) so can head-off fully-charged. We're just getting a battery management system sorted out as it's currently pretty rudimentary. 

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It sounds like you would be better off being based in the Midlands where there are fewer rivers to worry about, more boatyards and marinas, more pubs, more petrol stations and more cruising opportunities. We moved from Dewsbury to Kings Bromley to get just that and it was well worth it. At 23ft it would be cheaper and easier and safer to move the boat by road.

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43 minutes ago, Skeg said:

It sounds like you would be better off being based in the Midlands where there are fewer rivers to worry about, more boatyards and marinas, more pubs, more petrol stations and more cruising opportunities. We moved from Dewsbury to Kings Bromley to get just that and it was well worth it. At 23ft it would be cheaper and easier and safer to move the boat by road.

Really? It wouldn't be worth it for me to be paying higher marina fees for a boat I never saw. My life is here, my job is here, my boat is here; the only question I asked was concerning local knowledge about some local waterways. If we're going to leave the real world then I'll have an island off the coast of Stockholm, please.

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1 hour ago, Marbling said:

Really? It wouldn't be worth it for me to be paying higher marina fees for a boat I never saw. My life is here, my job is here, my boat is here; the only question I asked was concerning local knowledge about some local waterways. If we're going to leave the real world then I'll have an island off the coast of Stockholm, please.

 

 

I think that the suggestion was more based around a narrowboat with a 10hp outboard and an egg-whisk for a propellor is not best suited to 'big river' useage. Particularly if they happen to be tidal rivers, or rivers that go into flood 5 minutes after it starts raining.

 

It is not a bad thing to have the boat an hour two away from home as it makes your holiday start as soon as you leave home, and may open up many more opportunities for safe cruising. 

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2 hours ago, Marbling said:

Really? It wouldn't be worth it for me to be paying higher marina fees for a boat I never saw. My life is here, my job is here, my boat is here; the only question I asked was concerning local knowledge about some local waterways. If we're going to leave the real world then I'll have an island off the coast of Stockholm, please.

 

You will be fine on the Northern Waterways. The river sections of the A&C do of course go into flood conditions but in the main they are very benign. We soon found travelling from our home in the North East to our marina mooring in the Midlands started to take some edge off the enjoyment of boating and visiting to maintain the boat became a chore. So we moved the boat closer to home firstly to just outside Leeds and then Pollington.

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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I think that the suggestion was more based around a narrowboat with a 10hp outboard and an egg-whisk for a propellor is not best suited to 'big river' useage. Particularly if they happen to be tidal rivers, or rivers that go into flood 5 minutes after it starts raining.

 

It is not a bad thing to have the boat an hour two away from home as it makes your holiday start as soon as you leave home, and may open up many more opportunities for safe cruising. 

It would be a very bad idea for us to have the boat an hour or more from home as we'd never get there! I have a demanding job in the NHS in Hull and the boat's main purpose is to be Somewhere Green, only occasionally will it get out for more than a weekend. Don't worry, I have a lot of respect for big rivers - we can see the Humber Bridge from our bedroom window, have sailed on the Severn estuary and lived just inland of the Firth of Forth. I should tell you sometime about the episode when we unwisely spent low tide on Weston Super Mare beach on an 18' 'pocket cruiser' with a 4hp egg-whisk…

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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

I think that the suggestion was more based around a narrowboat with a 10hp outboard and an egg-whisk for a propellor is not best suited to 'big river' useage. Particularly if they happen to be tidal rivers, or rivers that go into flood 5 minutes after it starts raining.

 

It is not a bad thing to have the boat an hour two away from home as it makes your holiday start as soon as you leave home, and may open up many more opportunities for safe cruising. 

Thanks Alan, that’s what I was trying to get across, I should have been more direct. It’s going to be difficult to do a lot of cruising in the boat, but it should be fine for weekends. I would buy a portable starter machine a charge it at home to take to the boat when it’s being used so it can be started when the main battery is dead.

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