How busy is the Llangollen?

[manxmike]

We're taking a hire boat on the Llangollen Canal in late April to mid May (2022) and I wondered if anyone had an idea just how busy that canal is at the moment. We deliberately chose that time as hopefully there will be less holiday traffic (schools still in session) and we can take our time at locks and lift bridges.

I will almost certainly be single handing as my wife's disability means she will no longer be able to assist with most locks etc, and her dyslexia means she has great difficulty steering with a tiller, if she wants to go right, she pushes the tiller to the right - whoops!

I have no qualms about single handing, having done it for years when we owned our own boat, however advancing years mean I am no longer as sprightly as once I was, hence the comment about taking time.

I am so looking forward to getting back on the canals after a five year gap.

 

As a small extra I have a folding tiller arm which I had on my boat. I came across it in my garage when looking for something else. I am looking for about £40 for it and would be happy to bring it across from the Isle of Man when we come to Chirk to be collected from the Black Prince Marina there, on Saturday 30th April. Let me know if interested - 07624 414747

[Arthur Marshall]

I'm in the process of single handing up and down the Llangollen. No problems so far, the odd bit of bad driving but nothing dreadful. It's got busier this week, but no problem finding places to moor.

The only worrying bits are the very narrow stretches just before the end - I did them at 6am to make sure I didn't meet anyone coming the other way. Evenings would work just as well.

Before the schools broke up I hardly saw another boat.

[booke23]

In peak season (say May-September) I'm not sure the school holidays make a much difference on the Llangollen. All the hire fleets in the area will be fully booked during that time in any case.

The busy-ness can actually be of benefit to you single handing, as there are usually lots of people at locks helping out, who are mostly on holiday on hire boats, so they are in good spirits and are nice to chat to (generally). As Arthur mentions, your only real problem is the narrows at the end of the canal. Other than doing it very early or late in the day, your other option is to hang around just before the narrows and wait for a boat with crew to go past and follow them. Although when I tried this once, there was an annoying lack of traffic! That last section up to Llangollen is very well worth the effort though. 

[Tracy D'arth]

Should be reasonable, the Ellesmere Port rally will be over by then, the historic boats will be back home. 

Time your arrival at Grindley Brook staircase if you are going that far to avoid the queue

Edited April 14, 2022 by Tracy D'arth

[Jerra]

45 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I'm in the process of single handing up and down the Llangollen. No problems so far, the odd bit of bad driving but nothing dreadful. It's got busier this week, but no problem finding places to moor.

The only worrying bits are the very narrow stretches just before the end - I did them at 6am to make sure I didn't meet anyone coming the other way. Evenings would work just as well.

Before the schools broke up I hardly saw another boat.

The worst culprit IMO is the trip boat, they make no attempt to check if anybody is coming.

[Tracy D'arth]

1 minute ago, Jerra said:

The worst culprit IMO is the trip boat, they make no attempt to check if anybody is coming.

Especially on the aqueducts. The steerer is a road hog.  Channel Hog?

[Pie Eater]

The trip boat is great if you get behind it. Especially if you are single handed.

[Tracy D'arth]

15 minutes ago, Pie Eater said:

The trip boat is great if you get behind it. Especially if you are single handed.

Only if you can keep up with it!

[IanD]

4 hours ago, manxmike said:

We're taking a hire boat on the Llangollen Canal in late April to mid May (2022) and I wondered if anyone had an idea just how busy that canal is at the moment. We deliberately chose that time as hopefully there will be less holiday traffic (schools still in session) and we can take our time at locks and lift bridges.

I will almost certainly be single handing as my wife's disability means she will no longer be able to assist with most locks etc, and her dyslexia means she has great difficulty steering with a tiller, if she wants to go right, she pushes the tiller to the right - whoops!

I have no qualms about single handing, having done it for years when we owned our own boat, however advancing years mean I am no longer as sprightly as once I was, hence the comment about taking time.

I am so looking forward to getting back on the canals after a five year gap.

 

As a small extra I have a folding tiller arm which I had on my boat. I came across it in my garage when looking for something else. I am looking for about £40 for it and would be happy to bring it across from the Isle of Man when we come to Chirk to be collected from the Black Prince Marina there, on Saturday 30th April. Let me know if interested - 07624 414747

If you can -- starting point and date permitting -- try and end up in Llangollen at the weekend, it's far less busy then.

[David Mack]

5 hours ago, manxmike said:

and her dyslexia means she has great difficulty steering with a tiller, if she wants to go right, she pushes the tiller to the right - whoops

Would it help to explain to her that the engine, propeller and rudder are at the back of the boat, and so is she when steering, so she should push the tiller the way she wants the back of the boat to go.

[manxmike]

31 minutes ago, David Mack said:

Would it help to explain to her that the engine, propeller and rudder are at the back of the boat, and so is she when steering, so she should push the tiller the way she wants the back of the boat to go.

Been there, done that. I even tried telling her that she was steering in a circle and she had to point at the edge of the circumference - that met with blank looks and some interesting words. Much safer to keep her away from the steering.

Interestingly in the supermarket today I came across a surprisingly large number of women suffering from the same syndrome - total inability to control their trollies and a total inability to observe other shoppers. Why would you suddenly swerve sideways across the aisle, leave your trolly blocking the entire passage and walk away?

[IanD]

1 hour ago, manxmike said:

Been there, done that. I even tried telling her that she was steering in a circle and she had to point at the edge of the circumference - that met with blank looks and some interesting words. Much safer to keep her away from the steering.

Interestingly in the supermarket today I came across a surprisingly large number of women suffering from the same syndrome - total inability to control their trollies and a total inability to observe other shoppers. Why would you suddenly swerve sideways across the aisle, leave your trolly blocking the entire passage and walk away?

I don't think it's anything to do with dyslexia or being female, some people just have difficulty -- especially if they drive -- breaking the habits of a lifetime where you turn "the thing" the way you want to go. I've seen this with family, friends, my children and their SOH -- some get it right away, some take some time, some give up and let anyone else steer. The difference is just how long it takes to "reprogram" yourself.

 

We had the opposite problem hiring a boat with wheel steering last year after many problem-free tiller-steered holidays -- go onto automatic and the boat goes the wrong way, and especially when things start to go wrong you revert to instinct, result boat wedged across the cut. I (mostly) got the hang of it after a couple of days, my wife took longer but still got it in the end. But we both said "never again"... 😞

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by IanD

[Sea Dog]

1 hour ago, manxmike said:

Why would you suddenly swerve sideways across the aisle, leave your trolly blocking the entire passage and walk away?

Beats the heck out of leaving it in a bridge 'ole...! 

[mrsmelly]

19 hours ago, manxmike said:

Been there, done that. I even tried telling her that she was steering in a circle and she had to point at the edge of the circumference - that met with blank looks and some interesting words. Much safer to keep her away from the steering.

Interestingly in the supermarket today I came across a surprisingly large number of women suffering from the same syndrome - total inability to control their trollies and a total inability to observe other shoppers. Why would you suddenly swerve sideways across the aisle, leave your trolly blocking the entire passage and walk away?

True story alert. When I was a driving instructor, I had a young girl who was virtualy untrainable, I did get there in the end. Once whilst going down a fairly narrow street, passing a line of parked cars I told her she was a little close to the parked cars and to steer away from them. She turned the wheel towards the line of cars and i had to take bloody swift action to avoid hitting any. Now Ive had plenty of people who initialy found such as reversing round a corner etc awkward, but she was the only person I ever had who turned the wheel the wrong way whilst going forward. She did it another time and nearly had us in a ditch whilst driving down an open road!!

[Hudds Lad]

12 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

True story alert. When I was a driving instructor, I had a young girl who was virtualy untrainable, I did get there in the end. Once whilst going down a fairly narrow street, passing a line of parked cars I told her she was a little close to the parked cars and to steer away from them. She turned the wheel towards the line of cars and i had to take bloody swift action to avoid hitting any. Now Ive had plenty of people who initialy found such as reversing round a corner etc awkward, but she was the only person I ever had who turned the wheel the wrong way whilst going forward. She did it another time and nearly had us in a ditch whilst driving down an open road!!

Good friend of mine was told by his driving instructor, after dragging a park bench down the road, that "he'd never drive a car as long as he had a hole in his @rse"

 

Must be true, we both hit 50 this year and he still can't drive a car  

[Puffling]

34 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

True story alert. When I was a driving instructor, I had a young girl who was virtualy untrainable, I did get there in the end. Once whilst going down a fairly narrow street, passing a line of parked cars I told her she was a little close to the parked cars and to steer away from them. She turned the wheel towards the line of cars and i had to take bloody swift action to avoid hitting any. Now Ive had plenty of people who initialy found such as reversing round a corner etc awkward, but she was the only person I ever had who turned the wheel the wrong way whilst going forward. She did it another time and nearly had us in a ditch whilst driving down an open road!!

You clearly hadn't drilled "en-ra-ha" into her enough times.

En-Ra-Ha

 

[mrsmelly]

12 minutes ago, Puffling said:

You clearly hadn't drilled "en-ra-ha" into her enough times.

En-Ra-Ha

 

Naaaah, my pupil was mooooooooooooocho worse than that 

[Sea Dog]

When I was a Star Rider motorcycle instructor I had a lady turn up to our training site with a shiny new bike in a dealer's van. A few minutes into her Bronze course, I discovered she hadn't imagined that her not being able to ride a bicycle would be an issue. Funnily enough, it was. 

[enigmatic]

Moored on one of the nicest spots just outside Llangollen with plenty of space around. Bollards free in town. Pontcysyllte Aqueduct was free for about two hours in a row in the early evening. But got help from other boaters at half the locks.

 

Not one of the quieter canals and you will queue at Grindley Brook, but it's fine for now.