Where are all the boaters?

[Ray T]

1 hour ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

did you go for a pint?

If you did how is the pub under new management?

 

I don't drink beer, had a glass of Merlot.

 

I went for a meal with a couple of friends.

Had a chat with the new landlord. He has no intention of altering the decor of the pub at all.

There is a new menu, and the food is of good quality.

I think it is indicative that all the staff bar one have stayed. He was due to retire anyway. 

Edited April 24 by Ray T

[ditchcrawler]

12 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

did you go for a pint?

If you did how is the pub under new management?

I ate there a few weeks back and the food was very good. I only had a pint of mild, but it was served to cold for my liking 

[IanD]

28 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I ate there a few weeks back and the food was very good. I only had a pint of mild, but it was served to cold for my liking 

Draft or craft?

 

Craft (i.e. keg) is almost always chilled, draft rarely is... 😉 

Edited April 24 by IanD

[MtB]

6 hours ago, IanD said:

Given that such motorhomes cost about a third of what a typical hired narrowboat does to buy

 

On that, I was idly looking around a car lot flogging VW campers. I looked at a particularly nice one with £7,995 on the screen and I thought blimey that looks good value. Then I looked again and it was actually £79,995, lol! 

 

 

[Midnight]

5 hours ago, Jon57 said:

I'm allowed to have an opinion just like you. 

Are you sure about that?🤣

 

As it's only April and there's already been 3 stoppages on the HNC I suggest the money would be better spent maintaining the paddles. No point in a super duper communications system if boats can't reach the tunnel. Only my opinion though and I don't give a fook if anyone asked me to back it up with facts and figures.

Edited April 24 by Midnight

[IanD]

16 minutes ago, Midnight said:

Are you sure about that?🤣

 

As it's only April and there's already been 3 stoppages on the HNC I suggest the money would be better spent maintaining the paddles. No point in a super duper communications system if boats can't reach the tunnel. Only my opinion though and I don't give a fook if anyone asked me to back it up with facts and figures.

 

Without knowing *why* the super duper comms system was installed you can't say the money would have been better spent on maintaining paddles -- what if they'd have had to close the tunnel part or all of the time if they hadn't upgraded it, for example because Network Rail refuse to allow them to keep driving quad bikes through the maintenance tunnel?

 

It's easy to blame an organisation -- especially CART, in some people's opinion -- for doing something when you don't know *why* they did it... 😉 

[Midnight]

1 minute ago, IanD said:

 

Without knowing *why* the super duper comms system was installed you can't say the money would have been better spent on maintaining paddles -- what if they'd have had to close the tunnel part or all of the time if they hadn't upgraded it, for example because Network Rail refuse to allow them to keep driving quad bikes through the maintenance tunnel?

 

It's easy to blame an organisation -- especially CART, in some people's opinion -- for doing something when you don't know *why* they did it... 😉 

What I do know is under this shower i.e. lightweights who created the current system and who don't maintain the paddles, very few boats can get to the tunnel to use any comms system. 

[Mike Todd]

7 hours ago, MtB said:

"Where are all the boaters?"

 

I'd say they are all moored up for free on the public towpath. 

 

Given that CRT appears to have ceased all enforcement activity.

I do not believe that to ge true. They do as much as their budget allows, which when it comes to the ultimate action, us not very much.

[IanD]

6 minutes ago, Midnight said:

What I do know is under this shower i.e. lightweights who created the current system and who don't maintain the paddles, very few boats can get to the tunnel to use any comms system. 

Given that the HNC was reopened on the cheap and it's now 25 years old and hasn't been properly maintained due to lack of money -- like the rest of the system -- how do you think any heavyweights could have done any better? Especially given the tiny number of boats who use it, so it's well down any "fix it first" priority list compared to canals with 20x more traffic?

 

The Rochdale has pretty much the same problem for the same reasons, which is why both canals keep having so many closures... 😞 

Edited April 24 by IanD

[Midnight]

14 minutes ago, IanD said:

Given that the HNC was reopened on the cheap and it's now 25 years old and hasn't been properly maintained due to lack of money -- like the rest of the system -- how do you think any heavyweights could have done any better? Especially given the tiny number of boats who use it, so it's well down any "fix it first" priority list compared to canals with 20x more traffic?

 

The Rochdale has pretty much the same problem for the same reasons, which is why both canals keep having so many closures... 😞 

 

I totally agree the super duper comms system should be bottom of the list.

[IanD]

44 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 

I totally agree the super duper comms system should be bottom of the list.

Not what I said, so I don't see how you can agree -- and I notice you carefully avoided my question... 😉

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

37 minutes ago, Midnight said:

 

I totally agree the super duper comms system should be bottom of the list.

Thing with super duper systems is they tend to fail on a regular basis,

look at the Anderton Lift as an example,

and when they fail the specialists have to be called in at great expense,

and the super duper system always needs an upgrade,

perhaps a bell on either end of a 3 mile piece of string would be fine, 

 

 

[Midnight]

2 hours ago, IanD said:

Not what I said, so I don't see how you can agree -- and I notice you carefully avoided my question... 😉

I didn't carefully avoid your question I meticulously ignored it.

[dmr]

3 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

Thing with super duper systems is they tend to fail on a regular basis,

look at the Anderton Lift as an example,

and when they fail the specialists have to be called in at great expense,

and the super duper system always needs an upgrade,

perhaps a bell on either end of a 3 mile piece of string would be fine, 

 

 

 

The Tunnel leading up to Tuel Lane Deep Lock (Sowerby Bridge, Rochdale Canal) had some sort of comms system so the Lock keepers could signal to waiting boats (as boats should not enter the tunnel while the lock is emptying).

It broke.

Now the lock keepers have a whistle, they bend down towards the tunnel and blow the whistle and the sound travels through the tunnel quite well.

[Naughty Cal]

10 hours ago, MtB said:

 

On that, I was idly looking around a car lot flogging VW campers. I looked at a particularly nice one with £7,995 on the screen and I thought blimey that looks good value. Then I looked again and it was actually £79,995, lol! 

 

 

Yep. They are not cheap.

 

A new one of our van is now knocking on the door of £90k. And that's a mid range van.

 

High end manufacturers are well over £100k now. 

 

Not a cheap choice anymore. Used vans are holding their prices well because new ones are so expensive. 

[peterboat]

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

Yep. They are not cheap.

 

A new one of our van is now knocking on the door of £90k. And that's a mid range van.

 

High end manufacturers are well over £100k now. 

 

Not a cheap choice anymore. Used vans are holding their prices well because new ones are so expensive. 

That's why so many Van's are being converted to campervans. I did ours for that reason, plus a proper Motorhome didn't give us what we wanted, which was kennels under the bed with a storage system at the stern. We didn't want a shower as we use swimming pools for that, and I still needed the ability to fit a 1 ton bag of wood in the van for the stove. Yours is undoubtedly a better vehicle than ours but wouldn't work for us.

[Grassman]

Getting back onto the topic 🙂, we've just spent the last month doing the 4 counties ring with a detour to Llangollen and back, and it's definitely been quieter than usual for this time of year. Even at the busy end of the Llangollen there were only a few boats on the move, and they were mostly hireboats.

[Arthur Marshall]

3 minutes ago, Grassman said:

Getting back onto the topic 🙂, we've just spent the last month doing the 4 counties ring with a detour to Llangollen and back, and it's definitely been quieter than usual for this time of year. Even at the busy end of the Llangollen there were only a few boats on the move, and they were mostly hireboats.

I passed a few hire fleets over the last few weeks and was surprised that most of them were still pretty full of unhired ones. But at the prices mentioned, and the way the weather has been (and was forecast to be) , I suppose it's to be expected. Doesn't bode well, though for them, especially with the expected summer water shortages and stoppages on the popular rings.

[IanD]

37 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

I passed a few hire fleets over the last few weeks and was surprised that most of them were still pretty full of unhired ones. But at the prices mentioned, and the way the weather has been (and was forecast to be) , I suppose it's to be expected. Doesn't bode well, though for them, especially with the expected summer water shortages and stoppages on the popular rings.

I suspect the hire companies were hammered by Covid and then the slow business return afterwards, which meant they put their prices up, which discouraged people from booking boating holidays, so fewer boats were hired, so the prices went up -- and the increasing number of stoppages in the past few years can't have helped either, once you've booked a fixed-date holiday with a planned route it can be difficult to change when you find out just beforehand that you can't do it.

 

This could well be a death spiral for a lot of the financially weaker hire companies, as well as those who are quitting/selling up due to retirement. Anyone know what's happening to Shire Cruisers in Sowerby Bridge?

[Arthur Marshall]

32 minutes ago, IanD said:

I suspect the hire companies were hammered by Covid and then the slow business return afterwards, which meant they put their prices up, which discouraged people from booking boating holidays, so fewer boats were hired, so the prices went up -- and the increasing number of stoppages in the past few years can't have helped either, once you've booked a fixed-date holiday with a planned route it can be difficult to change when you find out just beforehand that you can't do it.

 

This could well be a death spiral for a lot of the financially weaker hire companies, as well as those who are quitting/selling up due to retirement. Anyone know what's happening to Shire Cruisers in Sowerby Bridge?

Water was so low at the T&M summit last week that I couldn't get into one of the Stoke locks, and it has rained a bit lately. The CRT bloke who came to sort it out blamed vandals for opening paddles overnight - I did point out that the gates on the flight leaked so much that a lock someone had just emptied (and mistakenly shut the gates on me as I approached it), was half full again by the time I'd walked up to it. Others on the flight, filled by someone going up just before me, were almost empty by the time I reached them. It really doesn't bode well for the summer.

Until a few years ago there were anti vandal locks on the top couple, too, presumably taken off because vandalism isn't really a problem.

Edited April 25 by Arthur Marshall

[IanD]

3 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Water was so low at the T&M summit last week that I couldn't get into one of the Stoke locks, and it has rained a bit lately. The CRT bloke who came to sort it out blamed vandals for opening paddles overnight - I did point out that the gates on the flight leaked so much that a lock someone had just emptied (and mistakenly shut the gates on me as I approached it), was half full again by the time I'd walked up to it. Others on the flight, filled by someone going up just before me, were almost empty by the time I reached them. It really doesn't bode well for the summer.

Until a few years ago there were anti vandal locks on the top couple, too, presumably taken off because vandalism isn't really a problem.

The water level at the T&M summit was fine when I went through it the week before...

 

If the culprit was vandals, putting the locks back on would help -- I assume they were the usual handcuff key ones?

[Heartland]

Hiring boats can be expensive at certain times of the year and that can be a factor.

 

Visiting Birmingham is worthwhile and recommended and there are some canal such as the Wyrley & Essington and Tame Valley that deserve more boats to explore their routes.

 

The cyclists and scooter owners remain it seems to be a deterrent and it sad the CRT has not more to regulate the more antisocial aspects that tarnishes all the good and care the sensible cyclists do. As to the electric scooter users their use should be regulated more and it should be recognised that they are banned on the Rail Network. 

 

Towpath improvement has contributed to the higher speeds of bikes and scooters and those that moor up can be confronted by those that do speed past their boat. CRT seem totally oblivious of the Risk Assessment and Health and Safety concerns.

 

 

[IanD]

13 minutes ago, Heartland said:

Hiring boats can be expensive at certain times of the year and that can be a factor.

 

Visiting Birmingham is worthwhile and recommended and there are some canal such as the Wyrley & Essington and Tame Valley that deserve more boats to explore their routes.

 

The cyclists and scooter owners remain it seems to be a deterrent and it sad the CRT has not more to regulate the more antisocial aspects that tarnishes all the good and care the sensible cyclists do. As to the electric scooter users their use should be regulated more and it should be recognised that they are banned on the Rail Network. 

 

Towpath improvement has contributed to the higher speeds of bikes and scooters and those that moor up can be confronted by those that do speed past their boat. CRT seem totally oblivious of the Risk Assessment and Health and Safety concerns.

 

 

How are the H&S concerns any different for towpaths than pavements and footpaths where fast (and often illegal) ebikes/escooters are also ridden illegally, and have hit and killed pedestrians?

 

Regulation is useless without enforcement, and I don't see that there's a damn thing that CART can do about it, given that elsewhere the police force can't keep them under control either, and they have far more powers and staff than CART do... 😞 

Edited April 25 by IanD

[Stephen Sugg]

I looked into hiring a boat for the end of May for a long weekend, just me and my wife, far too expensive, so we're driving to Bruges and staying on a hotel boat instead, half the price, all in, including the tunnel. Unless we go with another couple, my (narrow) boating days are over. 

[Heartland]

Enforcement, I agree may well help and may be it should be a topic to consider in the forth coming elections.

 

On the roads and footpaths there is the problem of Deliveroo and Just Eat cyclists, electric cyclists and even ic powered scooters who regularly are odds with the Highway Code. These abuses can no doubt be seen by those who monitor the cameras in certain places. May be the companies should be fined as a way to get their staff to follow the rules.