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No moorings in London.


MrBoater2021

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Moved from Haggerston to Paddington yesterday. I couldn’t find a mooring spot anywhere from Angel to Paddington as the CRT have concreted most of the towpaths.  I’m a 40 footer and wondering whether I could use two anchors to moor up in these spots?  If so which anchors? 

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2 minutes ago, MrBoater2021 said:

Moved from Haggerston to Paddington yesterday. I couldn’t find a mooring spot anywhere from Angel to Paddington as the CRT have concreted most of the towpaths.  I’m a 40 footer and wondering whether I could use two anchors to moor up in these spots?  If so which anchors? 

 

Have you considered breasting up ?

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10 minutes ago, MrBoater2021 said:

Moved from Haggerston to Paddington yesterday. I couldn’t find a mooring spot anywhere from Angel to Paddington as the CRT have concreted most of the towpaths.  I’m a 40 footer and wondering whether I could use two anchors to moor up in these spots?  If so which anchors? 

You could try mud weights fore and aft.  The trouble is the the profile of the canal bed sloped downwards away from the bank.  When a boat passes, I expect, it will tend to drag the mud weight out towards the centre and your boat with it.

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18 minutes ago, MrBoater2021 said:

Moved from Haggerston to Paddington yesterday. I couldn’t find a mooring spot anywhere from Angel to Paddington as the CRT have concreted most of the towpaths.  I’m a 40 footer and wondering whether I could use two anchors to moor up in these spots?  If so which anchors? 

 

I am not aware of CRT concreting any towpaths on this stretch. The concrete covers were installed by the CEGB in the 1970's/80's to protect the 400kv electricity cables below them.

 

If anchors worked everybody would be using them making the canal unnavigable

 

Would love to know where the five mile boat free stretch is!

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16 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

You could try mud weights fore and aft.  The trouble is the the profile of the canal bed sloped downwards away from the bank.  When a boat passes, I expect, it will tend to drag the mud weight out towards the centre and your boat with it.

 I think it might be a case of creating my own. I’m thinking a long bar about 6 foot long with concrete buckets either side. X2 back and front.  

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It always strikes me that a high tech solution to this problem could be developed, using the same technology that drones use to stay stationary in the sky despite the wind. A couple of electric outboard legs, one each end of the boat, some servo motors to rotate them and some really clever programming could result in the boat remaining geo-stationary for as long as it takes for its batteries to go flat, without a mooring line or mudweight anywhere.

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10 minutes ago, MtB said:

It always strikes me that a high tech solution to this problem could be developed, using the same technology that drones use to stay stationary in the sky despite the wind. A couple of electric outboard legs, one each end of the boat, some servo motors to rotate them and some really clever programming could result in the boat remaining geo-stationary for as long as it takes for its batteries to go flat, without a mooring line or mudweight anywhere.

Developed long ago in the yachting/motor boat world.  Allows one to ‘step off’ when mooring etc and the boat remains in situ😁

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4 minutes ago, Dartagnan said:

Developed long ago in the yachting/motor boat world.  Allows one to ‘step off’ when mooring etc and the boat remains in situ😁

 

Lol, I should have realised!

 

Wouldn't work well on canals I don't suppose. As soon as you get your fist prop foul, the boat will be gone! 

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16 minutes ago, MtB said:

It always strikes me that a high tech solution to this problem could be developed, using the same technology that drones use to stay stationary in the sky despite the wind. A couple of electric outboard legs, one each end of the boat, some servo motors to rotate them and some really clever programming could result in the boat remaining geo-stationary for as long as it takes for its batteries to go flat, without a mooring line or mudweight anywhere.

 

Or, even simpler 4-hydraulic legs (one on each 'corner') the same as many larger camper-vans have for levelling up.

 

They'd only need to 2 or 3 feet long, built into the hull, arrive, press a button, jack-legs go down, job done and no further demand on the electrics.

If long enough could also be used to lift the boat out of the water for blacking - win win !

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I’m mainly just in London for the summer ( July and August) as a tourist. London is not actually that full ( Apart from around Maida Hill). Most places in Central London are just concreted towpaths. It’s actually pretty despicable. God knows what it’s going to look like with the ‘Safety Zones’.


Gentrification….

Edited by MrBoater2021
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41 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Or, even simpler 4-hydraulic legs (one on each 'corner') the same as many larger camper-vans have for levelling up.

 

They'd only need to 2 or 3 feet long, built into the hull, arrive, press a button, jack-legs go down, job done and no further demand on the electrics.

If long enough could also be used to lift the boat out of the water for blacking - win win !

Known as spud legs not unknown on barges though really meant for river mooring, not canal where they damage the bed of the canal, though given the amount of rubbish on the bottom of  the canal in London I doubt that would be an issue. We watched a barge moor up with them in a side arm in  Lille about a metre away from the towpath as he was worried about the local thieves, did'nt seem to have any problems even with the wash of passing commerials in the main channel, here is a description of  fitting them to a barge (note 2 only required)

 

image.png.4d52d0812ae823c935cfafe73663b995.png

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2 hours ago, Phoenix_V said:

Known as spud legs not unknown on barges though really meant for river mooring, not canal where they damage the bed of the canal, though given the amount of rubbish on the bottom of  the canal in London I doubt that would be an issue. We watched a barge moor up with them in a side arm in  Lille about a metre away from the towpath as he was worried about the local thieves, did'nt seem to have any problems even with the wash of passing commerials in the main channel, here is a description of  fitting them to a barge (note 2 only required)

 

image.png.4d52d0812ae823c935cfafe73663b995.png

 

I wonder what would happen if they deployed accidentally while crossing Pontcysyllte? 😉

Edited by IanD
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4 hours ago, MtB said:

It always strikes me that a high tech solution to this problem could be developed, using the same technology that drones use to stay stationary in the sky despite the wind. A couple of electric outboard legs, one each end of the boat, some servo motors to rotate them and some really clever programming could result in the boat remaining geo-stationary for as long as it takes for its batteries to go flat, without a mooring line or mudweight anywhere.

Try dynamic positioning - a well tried and tested solution used extensively in the offshore oil industry.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_positioning

 

Howard
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7 hours ago, MtB said:

It always strikes me that a high tech solution to this problem could be developed, using the same technology that drones use to stay stationary in the sky despite the wind. A couple of electric outboard legs, one each end of the boat, some servo motors to rotate them and some really clever programming could result in the boat remaining geo-stationary for as long as it takes for its batteries to go flat, without a mooring line or mudweight anywhere.

What's wrong with hydraulic jacking legs like CRT use on boats housing dredgers etc? It would only need one bop and stern image.png.94e78a3be77896d148534039e08621b5.png

Edited by ditchcrawler
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