Average canal speed

[USnarrowboater]

Hello all

 

My wife and I will be crusing for a month in Sept, Oct 2010. For planning what would you say is the average speed between locks on pounds that are fairly long. Also once we get the task of locking through worked out, what would you say is the average time for a two pewrson crew.

 

Dave

[Kez]

well, you don't want to cane it between the pounds.. so long as your not dragging a wash behind you, your speed's okay. locks have different filling speeds, so there's not a difinitive time. When we brought Linnet back, we were averageing 4 minutes a single lock (yes, were very sad. we timed ourselves!) while using check ropes.

having said that, weve done alot of locks

[Guest User]

Depends on how busy the system is and how much you intend to stop, e.g. you may find a queue at some locks, or you might want to moor up and have a long lunchbreak/sightseeing stop ... but assuming no hold-ups the usual is often to allow 4 mph between locks and to treat passsage through a lock as equivalent to 1 mile e.g. 15 mins. However, this can lead to some ambitious scheduling, and 3 mph might be more relaxed for holiday cruising. It'd also be worth having a look at a canal route planner e.g. Canal Plan clicky.

Edited December 27, 2009 by Graham!

[Laurie Booth]

Hello all

 

My wife and I will be crusing for a month in Sept, Oct 2010. For planning what would you say is the average speed between locks on pounds that are fairly long. Also once we get the task of locking through worked out, what would you say is the average time for a two pewrson crew.

 

Dave

Where will you be crusing?

[Guest]

Hello all

 

My wife and I will be crusing for a month in Sept, Oct 2010. For planning what would you say is the average speed between locks on pounds that are fairly long. Also once we get the task of locking through worked out, what would you say is the average time for a two pewrson crew.

 

Dave

 

As a newbie I asked this some time ago and I was told (on here)

 

4 mph and 15-20 mins per lock

[USnarrowboater]

Graham

 

I have run several plans using the route planner. Have four vol. of Pearson guides.

 

Laurie

 

We have 28 days to cruse starting at Stone. We will visit friends at Marston Junction. Would like to go to Village at War at Stoke Bruerne and then to Black Country Museum.

 

All

 

Thanks so far for the information.

 

Dave

[PhilR]

Graham

 

I have run several plans using the route planner. Have four vol. of Pearson guides.

 

Laurie

 

We have 28 days to cruse starting at Stone. We will visit friends at Marston Junction. Would like to go to Village at War at Stoke Bruerne and then to Black Country Museum.

 

All

 

Thanks so far for the information.

 

Dave

 

Hi Dave

 

You will probably get loads of different answers to your question, but:

 

Most of your journey will be on narrow (and shallow) canals and both of you are inexperienced but keen to learn, so:............

 

I suggest you plan on 3mph and 4 locks per hour. In Sept/October you are unlikely to encounter any big queues at locks but there will be things like objects on the prop and probably a few groundings (until you get more experienced!) that will slow you down. I am sure you are unlikely to average better than the above even after a week or two.

 

Phil

Edited December 28, 2009 by PhilR

[Ange]

We work on 3-4mph / 15mins per lock as a rule of thumb. You have to allow some slack - it took us a couple of hours to go through the Tamworth locks (3 IIRC) last time as one of the locks was very slow filling and a huge queue built up. We also went through Middlewich on a Saturday afternoon, just as the hire company was seeing the novices through their first locks (I seem to recall, after having the lock turned against us, waiting at least 10 minutes for the hire boat to appear).

 

When we hired we decided on our general direction, then winded the boat just before half way through the holiday to make sure we got back on time, we made a conscious decisions not to set any targets because, for us, the whole point was to relax.

 

Have fun & keep us informed

[USnarrowboater]

Phil

 

I have never run a narrowboat but I have been operating boats and vessels sence I was about 12 now nearly 62. Have been through some locks but that was on a 133 foot US Coast Guard bouy tender. My wife on the other hand has only been on a few of the vessels that I have run so has zero boat handling experence. I am going to build a scale model of a narrowboat that is RC controled and I can build a canal with one lock in it on the property we live on. I hope to have her so she knows which way to move the tiller to make the boat do what she would like it to do. This is going to be a once it a life time for us so I am trying to plan so we don't kill our selves trying to get from A to B to C to D and back to A.

 

Dave

[DHutch]

Good times...

 

We work on around 3mph and 10min per lock, which if your working a lock with a bit of though it quite achievable. It also makes each mile worth two locks. Hence 'lockmiles' where the number of miles is added to the number of locks divided by two. A good steady day sees around 24 lockmiles. Bingo.

 

That said however, for any serious trip i just use Nick Attys CanalPlanAC as above becuase its just so much faster than even working out how many miles it is let alone days boating.

 

Ofcause in reality no day is an 'average' day but they tend to average out fairly well over really quite a short time scale. We tend to find nick attys routes very simular to what we do ourselfs, although the speeds tend to be a bit greater (heavy and slow boat), we tend to lock a bit faster (work a bit harder with a bit of thought and skill) and it comes out in the wash. We also often do 12hour days in summer and anytime we;re 'pushing on a bit' to get somewhere.

 

 

 

Daniel

[David Schweizer]

I have maintained a Cruising Log for more than ten years which records cruising hours etc. and the one consistent observation I can make is that there is no such thing as an "average speed"

 

It is a rare day when the average Lock/miles time is much more than 3.5 per hour. The average is constantly affected by the number of locks (the more in a day, the better the average) and the depth of the canal, (the shallower, the slower)

 

We work on a planned average of 2.5 to 3 lock miles per hour, but also consult the log for past performance on that section. We are never over ambitious, and are always prepared to stop short of our planned journey if delays prevent us from reaching our anticipated destination. If we need to catch up then the only solution is to start earlier the next day.

Edited December 28, 2009 by David Schweizer

[Keeping Up]

We've kept detailed logs for over 30 years now. There are very few canals where you can reach 4mph between locks; neither of the two main contenders in this category (Gloucester & Sharpness, or Bridgewater) are anywhere near your route. Two places near your route where you would be able to reach 4 mph are the Trent & Mersey south of Stoke (if you go north of Stone that is) and along most of the BCN main line.

 

Generally if you plan on 3mph you won't be far out, but always allow some extra time for delays such as spending too long in the pub at lunchtime, or for running aground after spending too long in the pub at lunchtime.

 

The CanalPlan site that Graham and others mention, is absolutely excellent. The default speeds there used to be too fast, but they are now more sensibly set at 2.5mph on narrow canals and 3.25mph on broad canals.

[Woollymishka]

Hi Dave

We work on how many miles from point A to B then add how many locks there are ---- then divide the whole lot by 3 or 4 (speed at 3mph or 4mph) and the figue you come up with is how many hours it will take.

You could work it out at 2mph - then this would allow a slight leeway for those unexpected stops?

Have to say this is the theory!

Hold up at locks - lunch stop - pub stop - chat to friends - etc etc all play their part

Enjoy it no matter how long it takes (if you can - return deadlines etc)

[bottle]

Dave (USnarrowboater)

 

To come at this from another direction, it is not only the miles, lock/miles that you need to be aware of, it is the number of hours that you are willing to travel.

 

Now of course here in the UK we have wall to wall sunshine, in the summer , and if you are feeling really fit could probably travel for 10 or 12 Hrs per day.

 

When I hired, hirers tend to travel a lot more than liveaboards, we always planned on 5 hours per day that may not seem to be much but a small delay will extend that if you need to be somewhere, safety margin built in, also gives a small amount of time for visits, if no delays then a chance to just 'chill' and enjoy the surroundings.

 

ps. the three lock/miles per hour did prove about right for us when hiring but now live-aboards this seems to be a bit fast.

 

Edit: a lot younger then and had a three person crew, makes a lot of difference.

Edited December 28, 2009 by bottle

[alan_fincher]

Many cruising guides over the years have talked about the "lock mile" as a planning aid - namely the concept that it takes around as long to work a lock as it does to travel a mile.

 

Frankly from when first boating to back in the 1960s/1970s right up to present day, I have always found that fairly useless advice, (sorry folks who still propose it!....)

 

Even on the deep canals, by the time you have slowed repeatedly for lines of moored craft, you will be lucky if your average time between locks much exceeds 3 miles per hour - implying 20 minutes average to cover a mile, (much longer with deep draughted boat on a shallow stretch).

 

Unless held up at locks by queues, most, (but not all), locks can be worked in very much less than 20 minutes, and the easier ones generally in under 10, (we regularly cover flights of 7 locks in around an hour, when nobody else is slowing us down, and we ain't rushing).

 

I prefer as a rule of thumb that you can often do two locks in the same time as it takes to travel a mile in "typical" conditions.

 

However summer queues can totally bugger things up. Whilst we might generally work say the Stoke Bruerne or Braunston flights in around an hour if nobody else is about, we have taken over three hours to do the same when it's congested.

 

The same is even more true with tunnels - you can do the tunnels at those locations at 4 mph or so, if they are clear, or at painfully under 1 mph if they are full of people proceeding with extreme caution. The former means you would clear Blisworth tunnel in way under half an hour, but queues have seen us in there for over two.

 

Unless you know how busy the waterways you will be boating on get at your chosen times, you need to build in a lot of flexibility in your schedule, for these reasons.

[soldthehouse]

If 1 mile equals M and time is measured as t times 60 squared, the depth of a lock is H minus w , then taking speed as v/e, and also allowing for variables like mood the, aha factor when spotting something worth lingering over and the weather calculations of any kind should be left to a] the ability to store provisions b]tangible excuses for extending the holiday at the last minute, trying to spreadsheet a canal holiday would seem an anathema, and I would suggest a deep breath and dive in [not literally] head first, get wherever you will and return maybe whenever...

[Steilsteven]

I prefer and find it much simpler to use an average speed over all.

Some years ago I did a trip from Reading on the Thames to Ellesmere Port, after completing this trip, I worked out our asoa was 1.8mph.

This was with a working pair, in mid Summer and we had a few problems en route.

Since then I use a calculation of 1.6mph for any journey, which should be easily acheivable for any chosen route.

 

Keith.

[Laurie Booth]

Graham

 

I have run several plans using the route planner. Have four vol. of Pearson guides.

 

Laurie

 

We have 28 days to cruse starting at Stone. We will visit friends at Marston Junction. Would like to go to Village at War at Stoke Bruerne and then to Black Country Museum.

 

All

 

Thanks so far for the information.

 

Dave

Great place to start from, you'll be fine.

[jake_crew]

I normally tell people that overall (ie including a sprinkling of locks), if you're in a hurry, get off and walk.

[carlt]

If you can get up on the plane, between moorings, your average speed will increase significantly.

 

(oops, wrong account!)

[dor]

Most of my boating is on narrow canals. I use 3 mph / 3locks /hour when planning and rarely find i'm far out. Ok so a good run up the Audlem flight can see you averaging less than 10 mins/lock, but equally you could be struggling to get through some in half an hour. My boat swims fairly well, yet I rarely get near 4mph, in fact rarely exceed 3.5, and I'm not one for dawdling. And that is measuring with an accurate gps backed up by timing mile markers.

 

Go for 3 lock/miles per hour, then if you get a bit ahead you can enjoy a bit of extra time. Plan on 4 and you could find yourself getting behind schgedule quite easily.

[DHutch]

(oops, wrong account!)

Norty!!

[steve hayes]

Around the BCN, not the main line, 2 to 2.5 mph is good going and probably 3 lock miles is a good starting point.

 

However using lock miles up a flight of locks may see you getting up at 4 in the morning to ensue that you finish in time for tea

Tardebigge from Stoke Prior to the top is 36 locks and 3 miles so even based on 4 LM's that would be 10 hours, I have never taken more than 5 hours for this and often less than 4 and that is working only two up.

[Keeping Up]

I just looked back over our log of the last 25 years, which covers a wide range of canals and rivers over about 20,000 miles . Averaging in each case over the whole year:

 

Taking just miles into account:

fastest year 2.4 mph

slowest year 1.9 mph

average of all 2.2 mph

 

Taking miles and locks into account, and simply adding them together:

fastest year 4.0 lmph (lock-miles per hour)

slowest year 3.2 lmph

average of all 3.6 lmph

This shows a clear bias towards the "fastest" years being simply the ones with the most locks, so I don't think it's very accurate.

 

Taking miles and locks into account, but dividing the number of locks by 2 (as Alan Fincher says, and which is the way I have always done it):

fastest year 3.0 lmph

slowest year 2.7 lmph

average of all 2.9 lmph

This is by far the most consistent set of results, so I reckon it's the most accurate.

[USnarrowboater]

Carlt, Jake Crew, Soldthehouse

 

You guys have me ROTFL. The rest thank you for the information.

 

Dave