Crick show reports?

[Napton]

The show was disappointing in that there seemed to be fewer small traders selling this year? Midland Chandlers marquee also looked very sparse. 
There were loads of vloggers wandering around, usually in packs. One boat fitter appeared to be encouraging them with his bales of straw seating area. The after show party there didn’t look too much fun!

[Lady M]

In the early years of the Crick show, there were lots of interesting smaller traders and only part of the canal bank was reserved for paid moorings.  We used to go early, get a free mooring and spend all weekend at the show.

[pearley]

12 hours ago, IanD said:

Yes there are, where you need *much* more power going upstream....

We seriously considered hybrid for our current widebeam but the extra cost was just too much. There have been times when I thought how nice it would have been to unplug, cruise upstream to Huntingdon for the night and back to the marina the next day without starting the engine or generator. Then the first time I went out just after the river came out of Strong Stream I was glad we didn't.

Edited June 1, 2023 by pearley

[Napton]

At least with a parallel hybrid set up such as I have in my narrowboat gives you the best of both worlds. In the situation you describe you’d just switch to diesel engine. With the serial hybrid such as a Vetus set up, you haven’t got that flexibility. I suspect many of these so called all electric boats are being built as a result of base engines such as Beta being hard to get hold of recently. 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Napton
Additional info

[matty40s]

5 minutes ago, Napton said:

At least with a parallel hybrid set up such as I have in my narrowboat gives you the best of both worlds. In the situation you describe you’d just switch to diesel engine. With the serial hybrid such as a Vetus set up, you haven’t got that flexibility. I suspect many of these so called all electric boats are being built as a result of base engines such as Beta being hard to get hold of recently. 

Beta are back to normal delivery now. The electric boats are being brought in as the government is stopping direct diesel drive engine boats in the near future.....or Hope's to.

[IanD]

1 hour ago, matty40s said:

Beta are back to normal delivery now. The electric boats are being brought in as the government is stopping direct diesel drive engine boats in the near future.....or Hope's to.

 

The other reason is that series hybrids are overall more efficient (less diesel/HVO used) if you have to use the engine/generator for charging, and are usually even quieter than a parallel hybrid in electric mode -- assuming a low-speed direct-drive electric motor as opposed to a high-speed belt-drive one which the Beta hybrids use, though at least they've now switched from the air-cooled brushed Lynch motors to water-cooled brushless PMAC ones.

 

All hybrids are still too expensive for most people though, largely because without a charging network you need an onboard diesel generator, and a decent new one is now over £15k installed. DAMHIK... 😞

Edited June 1, 2023 by IanD

[Hudds Lad]

We went on the Saturday first thing, chose to drive from the marina in the end which took about 30mins with half of that spent on the bypass queuing in traffic. Was our first time going, J has always wanted to go, expectations were along the lines of a modern agricultural show so we were not really disappointed. Lots of vloggers about, a couple seemed to be in the employ of an insurance co. for some reason. Had a good walk round the site, didn't look at any new boats as they were rammed and we're not in the market anyway, looked at some nice old boats at the other side. Shrugged off an attempted chugging by a new CRT chap, said hello to our marina staff, said hello to our old marina staff, chatted to the Tek-Dek lads, chatted to the Sofabed Barn lads as we wanted an extra cushion at some point. Had a beer in the beer tent (prices attached). Got some food, which was an £8 burger for those interested, sat with a lovely lady who'd just bought a boat at Whilton and was in the process of selling up on land and was moving it up to Lemonroyd with her daughter in the next few weeks. Had another mooch round, bumped into our old marina neighbours who moved to Barby and had a good chat with them. Lowered the tone in the VIP tent and had some cake (didn't look at the prices for fear of wallet revolt) and then left. Got back to the marina early afternoon and set off cruising towards Coventry.

So, would we go again. Possibly yes, if we knew more people who were attending, as the chats we had made it worthwhile. There's no way we saw to keep your interest for a full weekend.

I did feel sorry for the lads running a stall selling mobile phone accessories and the like, they looked totally out of place and severely bored, i doubt they'll be back.

 

 

Edited June 1, 2023 by Hudds Lad
add pic from phone

[ditchcrawler]

10 hours ago, Lady C said:

In the early years of the Crick show, there were lots of interesting smaller traders and only part of the canal bank was reserved for paid moorings.  We used to go early, get a free mooring and spend all weekend at the show.

I have moored for free between the tunnel and the marina, also up passed the winding hole

[Annie cariad]

Use your boat all year round winter  cruising is the best very little in the way of hire boats and better still no share boats !!

[frangar]

Pretty much as I expected then!!! Thanks for everyone’s reports and feedback.