Slough Arm

[Bob Blues]

Wotcher,

Does anyone have an update to the Slough Arm dredging or how serviceable it is now?

 

I have been wanting to cruse for a year or so but has always been told its very difficult to navigate. Then I heard that the CaRT were dredging it.

 

Bob

 

[kbarber]

You should be OK as far as High Line (about halfway along) - lots of boats in & out keep scraping the muck off the bottom & stirring it up. What it's like 'twixt there and the Basin I don't know. We got there & back OK a couple of years ago, albeit we stirred up some pretty foul smells and picked up several bladefuls (but nothing we coudn't hook off with a decent shaft).

[Guest User]

The going is good. The weekend of 7th-8th September was the Slough Canal festival which saw about a dozen visiting boats go all the way to the basin (and back!), along with the trip boats making the journey from the festival site to the basin several times over ... albeit one of the trip boats picked up a fleece jacket around its prop which took a bit of dislodging, but that sort of random mishap can happen anywhere on the system ...

Edited September 27, 2013 by Graham!

[Bob Blues]

thanks,

Did CaRT complete the dredging I know it was held off after being promised earlier this year

 

Bob

[Daiboy]

Being a newcomer to the Slough Arm I understand that the dredging was fully underway but for the collapse of a bridge (can't remember the name) further down towards Peachy Junction on the main GUC. This meant that dredging stopped and repairs started. I came in on the 11th Sept and all was ok. I went to the winding point about a mile from HLY and all was clear. The dredger has now (according to local folklore) has now "broken down" Oh dear

[saltysplash]

No dredging again this year so far. the arm is very navigable and if the new proposed marina gets the go ahead, the jungle drums suggest the arm could have a new lease of life.

[roggie]

I'm moored on the Arm - no problems getting down to the basin earlier this month so give it a go. Its quite a pretty canal even if the banks are not that easy to get close to in places. The dredging was cancelled after a potential landslip problem at a industrial estate in Iver (works on site in last week) and not the bridge issue. CRT are well aware of boaters frustration after promising much after seemingly ignoring the arm. The 'Friends of' group are very vociferous and taken seriously by CRT - the broken down machine was a weed clearer rather than dredger. Most of the costs of dredging is due to removal and disposal of the silt - last i heard CRT were looking to re-use it rather than send to landfill. Great place to moor on the arm is just after the GU junction, couple of hundred yards past marina entrance - very rural apart from slight rumble of the M25 in the background. There is even diesel, pump out and well stocked chandlers at High Line in Iver. Langley station is 50 yards from the canal so a quick trip into London is easily done.