Audlem Flight

[agg221]

33 minutes ago, StephenA said:

15.75 miles and 10 locks in 6 hours ... that's quite a run.

It wasn't bad. We have had a few memorably good runs over the years - Teddesley Road Basin in Penkridge to Gas Street in 11hrs and picking up a hire boat from the S&W at Aldersley on a Saturday morning, going up the 21 and on to the Wyrley & Essington, then the gearbox packing up (hire base had just bought the boat secondhand and not got round to checking it), somehow locking it into forwards, winding it, taking it back down the 21, picking up their other boat, up the 21, back round the Wyrley and Essington, down the Walsall to the main line and back down the 21 to return the boat by 5pm on the Sunday are two of the more memorable ones! It helps a lot that the SU was built by Telford rather than Brindley but really it is down to the fact that Phoenix (Norbury hire boat) was built to cruise rather than be a static caravan. It swims beautifully so it cruises along comfortably on that stretch at 3.5mph with minimal water disturbance. The locks took about 5mins each on average and the rest was down to passing moored boats and going through Woodseaves cutting.

 

Alec

[Maffi]

On 26/09/2021 at 22:11, ditchcrawler said:

Lots of boats have the base plate sticking out at the bows, ask @maffi mushkila

Not now Brian, its almost flush!  Had it trimmed when I had the thruster tube welded up!

[Ray T]

On 26/09/2021 at 22:11, ditchcrawler said:

Lots of boats have the base plate sticking out at the bows, 

 

Common on Reeves Hulls.

 

Ours still has this feature. Never caused us any problems.

[dave moore]

I wouldn’t have thought that the protusion would be a problem. Where long days - and nights- are concerned, I think my best was Anderton Lift , leaving at midday, tying at Cut End, Wolverhampton, around 7:00 the following day. I’d spent 3 weeks in September 67 ferrying a film crew from Stoke Bruerne to Anderton and enthusiast Gil James, who had previously boated with Roger Hatchard for Willow Wren, joined me for the trip. I don’t recall stopping for anything, but we were young and foolish in those days. To us young ones, boating was an endurance sport.....

[Iain_S]

23 hours ago, Ray T said:

 

Common on Reeves Hulls.

 

Ours still has this feature. Never caused us any problems.

On our Reeves hull, the vertical bit wasn't present, so may have been an addition to stop stuff accumulating around the bows. Our cure was chop the eye plate off.

[matty40s]

47 minutes ago, Iain_S said:

On our Reeves hull, the vertical bit wasn't present, so may have been an addition to stop stuff accumulating around the bows. Our cure was chop the eye plate off.

Depending on where Reeves were building at the time is the crucial bit, if the hull needed to be dragged out forwards after build, the vertical bit is there. Reeves having built in several locations gives the difference.

[Maffi]

On 05/10/2021 at 17:39, Ray T said:

 

Common on Reeves Hulls.

 

Ours still has this feature. Never caused us any problems.

by design it wouldn't have given any issues, but remove the vertical and see what happens!.

[Ray T]

14 hours ago, Maffi said:

by design it wouldn't have given any issues, but remove the vertical and see what happens!.

We had cause to do some ice breaking one year and the fitting got a little bent.

Photo from when the boat was being docked for a repaint.

[Simon Pooley]

We're back from our 10 days on the Shropshire Union. Here's us going up Tyrley in 4mins:

 

 

[agg221]

9 hours ago, Simon Pooley said:

We're back from our 10 days on the Shropshire Union. Here's us going up Tyrley in 4mins:

 

 

I wish I could get my crew to move that quickly!

 

Alec