Jump to content

Avon Ring


Featured Posts

Hi All

 

Tomorrow we start our Avon ring tour - from Ventnor Marina, so a few locks before we even get there!  Can't see any stoppages or River level warnings and weather for next fortnight looks ok at the moment. We have a 3 and sometimes 4 person crew, which is useful as the stats are (gulp!):

 

50 miles of narrow canals
41 miles of broad canals
42 miles of small rivers
16 miles of large rivers
110 narrow locks
105 broad locks
1 large lock.

 

If anyone sees us/passes us say hello (and I promise to say Hello back!!). Wish us luck!!!   if i don't post for a month after the fortnight can someone send out a search party?

 

rob

Edited by robtheplod
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Hi All

 

Tomorrow we start our Avon ring tour - from Ventnor Marina, so a few locks before we even get there!  Can't see any stoppages or River level warnings and weather for next fortnight looks ok at the moment. We have a 3 and sometimes 4 person crew, which is useful as the stats are (gulp!):

 

50 miles of narrow canals
41 miles of broad canals
42 miles of small rivers
16 miles of large rivers
110 narrow locks
105 broad locks
1 large lock.

 

If anyone sees us/passes us say hello (and I promise to say Hello back!!). Wish us luck!!!   if i don't post for a month after the fortnight can someone send out a search party?

 

rob

 

Shouldn't be a problem with a 3/4 person crew, so long as (like us) you like long days and doing locks and don't want to spend significant time looking round places. We (4 people) did the South Pennine Ring (Rochdale/C&H/HNC) in 10 days which is shorter than your trip but with almost as many locks, and loved it. Have fun 🙂

Edited by IanD
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was on the Avon over Easter.  Never seen it so quiet.  I spent a whole day on the visitor mooring at Nafford Lock and 2 boats went through all day.  Absolutely no problems mooring anywhere.  Got down to Gloucester Docks and again, unbelievably quiet.  Only 2 visiting boats in the docks moored up overnight, and that was a friday.  I went to the waterways museum to pick up a card for the electric hook up and received the standard dose of CRT incompentance.  They could only offer me a £16.50 pump out card (for one night's mooring).  I tried to explain about the £5 electric cards and the person on the till seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.  The manager came out and she seemed to know a bit more but first said that they don't get them from head office any more, and then said that nobody had asked for one in 2 years anyway.  This might be true since you have to be a detective to even realise there are hook ups in the docks anyway (no signage or anything).  The hook up points were all working with nice little LCD displays, but there's no way to actually use them.

 

Sorry for the digression, I started typing and couldn't stop!!!

 

Enjoy your trip Rod, the Avon is as lovely as ever.  Some lock gates a touch stiff...

 

To add:  I'd recommend the detour to Gloucester.  The Tall Ships festival is 3-5 June if that works into your schedule.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

I was on the Avon over Easter.  Never seen it so quiet.  I spent a whole day on the visitor mooring at Nafford Lock and 2 boats went through all day.  Absolutely no problems mooring anywhere.  Got down to Gloucester Docks and again, unbelievably quiet.  Only 2 visiting boats in the docks moored up overnight, and that was a friday.  I went to the waterways museum to pick up a card for the electric hook up and received the standard dose of CRT incompentance.  They could only offer me a £16.50 pump out card (for one night's mooring).  I tried to explain about the £5 electric cards and the person on the till seemed to have no idea what I was talking about.  The manager came out and she seemed to know a bit more but first said that they don't get them from head office any more, and then said that nobody had asked for one in 2 years anyway.  This might be true since you have to be a detective to even realise there are hook ups in the docks anyway (no signage or anything).  The hook up points were all working with nice little LCD displays, but there's no way to actually use them.

 

Sorry for the digression, I started typing and couldn't stop!!!

 

Enjoy your trip Rod, the Avon is as lovely as ever.  Some lock gates a touch stiff...

 

To add:  I'd recommend the detour to Gloucester.  The Tall Ships festival is 3-5 June if that works into your schedule.

It didn’t know there were hookups in the dock on any visitor mooring, they are all 48hr so is it worth it anyway?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, john6767 said:

It didn’t know there were hookups in the dock on any visitor mooring, they are all 48hr so is it worth it anyway?

As you come out of the lock, the hook up points are all along the dock wall on your right.  In 48 hours I can do A LOT of washing, so yes, it's very much worth it.

 

The hook up points are in black boxes which can be opened with a BWB key, inside each boxes has prepay card meters for two boats, all probably serviced annually despite virtually nobody ever using them.

 

A similar but different problem exists on the visitor mooring at Boston where there are hook up points but you need a CRT MeterMacs account to use them, which is only available to boaters who have a CRT long term mooring.

 

Yet another similar problem exists in Stourport where there's a hook up point but the card you need for it used to be stocked by Limekiln Chandlers next to it.  Now you can't get the cards from them.

 

There's been plenty of talk on this forum about the phasing out of ICE engines on the canal in favour of electric drive and the need for a network of charging points along the canals.  What chance do we have when CRT cannot even deal with the tiny number of VMs with electric now?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that.  I agree CRT do need to get their act together on the charging for all electric points on VM’s and have them all use the same system that allows you just pay for what electricity you use, ie not pre paid card basis like marina ones.  Also that  the the system is available to all boat licence holders, which I am guessing technically is what the MeterMacs system does if they allowed anyone to sign up.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Thanks for that.  I agree CRT do need to get their act together on the charging for all electric points on VM’s and have them all use the same system that allows you just pay for what electricity you use, ie not pre paid card basis like marina ones.  Also that  the the system is available to all boat licence holders, which I am guessing technically is what the MeterMacs system does if they allowed anyone to sign up.

The MeterMacs system is pretty good and I can't see a reason why CRT don't allow all boaters to have an account.  Then they could roll out hook up bollards all over the place without worrying about cards.  It's still pre-payment, you just go on their website or app and add credit to you account.  They could even add their own charge onto the basic electricity charge and earn a little money out of it. I'll bet it would still work out cheaper for boaters than running engines to charge batteries, and nearby residents would get more peace and quiet, so everybody wins.

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Very quickly, just sorting licenses and have got my Avon Navigation licence (got a 2 week one as only £10 more plus if we have to turn back!).... do i need one for my brief stint on the Severn round to Worcester?

 

No, your standard CRT one covers that bit.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, doratheexplorer said:

The MeterMacs system is pretty good and I can't see a reason why CRT don't allow all boaters to have an account.  Then they could roll out hook up bollards all over the place without worrying about cards.  It's still pre-payment, you just go on their website or app and add credit to you account.  They could even add their own charge onto the basic electricity charge and earn a little money out of it. I'll bet it would still work out cheaper for boaters than running engines to charge batteries, and nearby residents would get more peace and quiet, so everybody wins.

Sorry this is going off topic.  
 

So the MeterMac system it’s self is prepay, but are you just putting the credit on your account, or on to a specific meter?  


What I would have said you need to be able to do is put say £20 on you account and have that just sit there.  When you want to use a meter to go on their app/web site on your account and enter the serial number of the bollard, and that activates the bollard and links it to your account.  Then as you use electricity it deducts only what you use from your account.  When you are done you go in your account and disconnect that bollard from you account and what it has cost you is what you have used, say 50p which comes off your £20 leaving you £19.50 credit.  I guess there is then the service charge, which would be based on the number of days you where connected, which would probably be of the order of 30p a day, so a kicker for small scale usage I guess but that is the reality.

 

Is that remotely close to how it works?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Very quickly, just sorting licenses and have got my Avon Navigation licence (got a 2 week one as only £10 more plus if we have to turn back!).... do i need one for my brief stint on the Severn round to Worcester?

The Severn is CRT so you will be covered on that with your normal licence.  It is worth getting the 2 weeks on the Avon, you can easily do the Avon in a week, but it does give you the flexibility to spend 8 or 9 days on the Avon if you want.  For example if you spend your 48 hours in Bancroft basin at Stratford (CRT), you can then move onto the river and spend 48 hours there (ANT), and not then have to rush more down the river.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Sorry this is going off topic.  
 

So the MeterMac system it’s self is prepay, but are you just putting the credit on your account, or on to a specific meter?  


What I would have said you need to be able to do is put say £20 on you account and have that just sit there.  When you want to use a meter to go on their app/web site on your account and enter the serial number of the bollard, and that activates the bollard and links it to your account.  Then as you use electricity it deducts only what you use from your account.  When you are done you go in your account and disconnect that bollard from you account and what it has cost you is what you have used, say 50p which comes off your £20 leaving you £19.50 credit.  I guess there is then the service charge, which would be based on the number of days you where connected, which would probably be of the order of 30p a day, so a kicker for small scale usage I guess but that is the reality.

 

Is that remotely close to how it works?

Pretty much that's how it works.  The minimum credit is I think £5.  I don't think there is any daily standing charge.  You plug in, then go to the keypad, put in your personal code and the code for the bollard you want to activate, and hey presto!  It auto-senses when you unplug so you can't accidentally leave your credit for the next boater.  You can check your credit any time and I don't think it ever times-out.

15 minutes ago, john6767 said:

The Severn is CRT so you will be covered on that with your normal licence.  It is worth getting the 2 weeks on the Avon, you can easily do the Avon in a week, but it does give you the flexibility to spend 8 or 9 days on the Avon if you want.  For example if you spend your 48 hours in Bancroft basin at Stratford (CRT), you can then move onto the river and spend 48 hours there (ANT), and not then have to rush more down the river.

You can do the Avon in 2 days without much difficulty.  A week is nice, a fortnight is better.  I once took a 1 month visitor licence and that was kinda too long.  I ended up doubling back because you can't really stay anywhere more than 48 hours.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, doratheexplorer said:

Pretty much that's how it works.  The minimum credit is I think £5.  I don't think there is any daily standing charge.  You plug in, then go to the keypad, put in your personal code and the code for the bollard you want to activate, and hey presto!  It auto-senses when you unplug so you can't accidentally leave your credit for the next boater.  You can check your credit any time and I don't think it ever times-out.

You can do the Avon in 2 days without much difficulty.  A week is nice, a fortnight is better.  I once took a 1 month visitor licence and that was kinda too long.  I ended up doubling back because you can't really stay anywhere more than 48 hours.

Don't just limit yourself to Stratford to Tewksbury though. The river is navigable for some distance above Stratford. Navigation is easy up to The Red House, where there is a wide bend with plenty of room for full length boats to wind, but the intrepid (and not too deep drafted) can ignore the notice about this being the limit of navigation (it's not), and carry on upriver to Alveston weir.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Going really well so far.... bust morse cable, torrential rain, condescending vlokkies on the Stratford explaining to my young sons how to do locks when they know and have done hundreds each.... then the vlokkies doing exactly what they told them not to!  i don't like when the vlokkies talk down to my sons though - they are now responsible for putting off one of them, so not really in the spirit!

 

actually its been amazing apart from the above... now just outside Pershore. Weather is picking up and the Avon is lovely. It is so quiet though, only past a few boats since on the Avon - where is everyone??!!  :)

 

 

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We found the Avon very quiet too in August 2020 but perhaps lockdown related. But regularly  driving over the De Montford bridge on the Evesham bypass I seldom see a boat. It’s such a shame as it’s one of the best navigations. Perhaps too many locks or maybe few want to shell out the  licence. 

C18B40FF-4340-424C-B123-077AB22DCF20.jpeg
 

Part of a combine harvester traversing Eckington Bridge. We held back a little as the lights probably changed as the combine trundled over 🤣

Edited by Stroudwater1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 hours ago, robtheplod said:

Going really well so far.... bust morse cable, torrential rain, condescending vlokkies on the Stratford explaining to my young sons how to do locks when they know and have done hundreds each.... then the vlokkies doing exactly what they told them not to!  i don't like when the vlokkies talk down to my sons though - they are now responsible for putting off one of them, so not really in the spirit!

 

actually its been amazing apart from the above... now just outside Pershore. Weather is picking up and the Avon is lovely. It is so quiet though, only past a few boats since on the Avon - where is everyone??!!  :)

 

 

I told you so.  From my earlier post:

 

"I was on the Avon over Easter.  Never seen it so quiet.  I spent a whole day on the visitor mooring at Nafford Lock and 2 boats went through all day.  Absolutely no problems mooring anywhere.  Got down to Gloucester Docks and again, unbelievably quiet.  Only 2 visiting boats in the docks moored up overnight, and that was a friday."

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the offending vlockies were on the Wilmcote flight, these may be the ones nicknorman had a confrontation with last Summer.

 

Severn is CRT - last year on Stourport ring was the only time I have EVER been required to show evidence of a licence before being allowed through a lock!

 

Are you doing Worcester or Droitwich?

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, zimzim said:

If the offending vlockies were on the Wilmcote flight, these may be the ones nicknorman had a confrontation with last Summer.

 

Severn is CRT - last year on Stourport ring was the only time I have EVER been required to show evidence of a licence before being allowed through a lock!

 

Are you doing Worcester or Droitwich?

If Worcester, the Cardinal's Hat is a fabulous pub for those who like their beer... 😉

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

40 minutes ago, zimzim said:

If the offending vlockies were on the Wilmcote flight, these may be the ones nicknorman had a confrontation with last Summer.

 

Severn is CRT - last year on Stourport ring was the only time I have EVER been required to show evidence of a licence before being allowed through a lock!

 

Are you doing Worcester or Droitwich?

I had help from a single volocky on the Wilmcote flight and he was brilliant.  A really helpful guy, and I've been really critical of some volockies before.

39 minutes ago, IanD said:

If Worcester, the Cardinal's Hat is a fabulous pub for those who like their beer... 😉

May I also recommend the Oil Basin Brewhouse (which isn't in the Oil Basin).  They brew their own excellent beers out the back.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, robtheplod said:

 i don't like when the vlokkies talk down to my sons though - they are now responsible for putting off one of them, so not really in the spirit!

Feel your pain, have a very self-conscious 16yr old daughter who struggles with locksmurfs as she just can't do small talk with strangers, a couple of times some have tried to force her into conversation when she's walked away and it really knocks her confidence. Usually she'll just hide in the boat now if she see's locks are manned.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 06/05/2022 at 11:52, zimzim said:

If the offending vlockies were on the Wilmcote flight, these may be the ones nicknorman had a confrontation with last Summer.

 

Severn is CRT - last year on Stourport ring was the only time I have EVER been required to show evidence of a licence before being allowed through a lock!

 

Are you doing Worcester or Droitwich?

We're doing Worcester, and here now - lovely weather. I was pleasantly surprised by the Severn - more scenic that i thought, with some stunning high treelines. Would highly recommend Tewksbury Marina for pumpout/fuel/showers/laundrette etc.. stayed overnight here on visitor mooring on river.

 

some random pics.... play guess the location!

 

 

20220503_164131.jpg

20220505_074421.jpg

20220507_133959.jpg

20220507_141550.jpg

20220507_141611.jpg

Forgot to mention i don't like Evesham locks!  I completely misjudged them by (naturally?) keeping away from the weir only to have real problems dropping off my crew....... not my best moment!

  • Greenie 1
  • Love 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, robtheplod said:

We're doing Worcester, and here now - lovely weather. I was pleasantly surprised by the Severn - more scenic that i thought, with some stunning high treelines. Would highly recommend Tewksbury Marina for pumpout/fuel/showers/laundrette etc.. stayed overnight here on visitor mooring on river.

 

some random pics.... play guess the location!

 

 

20220503_164131.jpg

20220505_074421.jpg

20220507_133959.jpg

20220507_141550.jpg

20220507_141611.jpg

Forgot to mention i don't like Evesham locks!  I completely misjudged them by (naturally?) keeping away from the weir only to have real problems dropping off my crew....... not my best moment!

When coming in above Evesham you have to go against what you would normally do and move across towards the Weir because of the hydro station.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.