Kennet & Avon Canal at Easter

[Mike on the Wey]

Good evening all. I have been lurking for a while and enjoying the wide variety of conversations, and this is my first post. I have a 32' Sea Otter at Pyrford Marina.

 

I plan to go to Bradford-on-Avon and back over Easter. I have read that there are quite a few liveaboards on the K & A, and was wondering whether I will have any issues with finding places to moor overnight. We tend to go for quiet spots, often away from towns and villages - we rarely use pubs (we carry large quantities of cider as ballast) and we home-cook. Are remote towpath locations plentiful and "easy"? My wife can't use a plank, and we will need to get a dog ashore.

 

Heading back east we have family joining us, using the train to double back to fetch their car over three days. Planned overnight mooring locations are Bedwyn, Kintbury and Woolhampton. Are those locations particularly busy? Being half a mile away from a station is no problem.

 

All helpful hints about the K & A are welcome. I know to be very careful of the weir streams; in that respect it is similar to the Wey. I plan to take the boat to Reading the week before to get a head start. Should I have a Thames licence to cover the 5 days when she is resting in Thames & Kennet marina?

 

Mike

[billS]

There are no shortage of places to moor overnight - particularly if you like to moor out in the sticks. My boat draws 2 ft 6 inches and I rarely use a plank - just put your bow into the bank and leave the back out in the deeper water.

 

I just hope the water levels have returned to normal by Easter. I have never seen the Kennet so high for so long.

[RichLech]

Mike,

 

We are based at Pyrford Marina and went from there to Bath last summer. We found that remote towpath moorings with easy access are not that available on the K&A. We used official visitor moorings for the whole trip and found it pretty easy to find a decent spot, even in July. Took us about a week each way, although that was to Bath - a bit further than BoA.

 

We found the K&A hard work but enjoyable. There are a lot of liveaboards down the western end which means quite a bit of tickover cruising but that's no real hardship.

 

Not sure whether you need to be licensed while resting in the Thames & Kennett marina. It is on the Thames so I suspect you do. I'm sure someone will be along to confirm or otherwise. You will obviously need a CaRT license for the K&A. We bought a 30 day license valid for a year so wehave about 15 days left which we plan to use of the Oxford this spring.

 

Next time I'm at the boat I'll check the log and see where we moored.

Edited February 7, 2014 by RichLech

[RichLech]

Mike,

 

To clarify, when I said above that it took us about a week each way, that was from Reading, not Pyrford.

[blackrose]

Personally I wouldn't worry if your Thames licence expires while your boat is in T&K marina in Reading. You only have to come out the marina turn right and then left and you're on CRT waters. I never had any problems finding moorings on the K&A last Easter all the way from Reading to Bristol and my boat's a 57ft x 12ft wideass!

[JDR]

If the Kennet is flowing there are a number of pinch points betweeen Reading and Kintbury. The first one is the bridge at Burghfield just before the 14 day moorings for the Cunning Man pub.The approach to Tyle Mill can be slow but the lock landing is in still water so not normally an issue. Great moorings past Tyle Mill on the meadows. Going upstram at Woolhamptom don´t aim straight at the lock, stay as far right as you can then aim straight for the incoming stream which will hopefully end up with the bows in the lock mouth. Newbury town lock has a strong flow under the bridge. Personally I would want to do a recce, on the left hand side is a concrete shelf, if that is underwater I personally wouldn´t bother trying but that is on an 18ton narrowbaot with 35hp your Sea Otter may have a better power to weight ratio.

 

Cheap Coal and Diesel at Pinnocks if you moor at Thatcham before Monkey Marsh lock.

 

Moorings are not an issue, apart from the approaches to Bradford and Avon, but in March you willl have no problems.As BillS says above dont expect to be able to get the front and back in at the same time but otherwise not a problem.The Eastern side IMHO is a gem, don´t be surprised not to see another boat moving, lock queues are unheard of and the scenery is beautiful. Enjoy.

[Alan Saunders]

Not sure of the draft of a Sea Otter but my 33' Brummagem 'V bottom' gets close to the bank almost anywhere but the bank may be steep/high so I use my plank.

 

Visitor moorings have wood siding or steel piling with firm paths and mooring rings - even deep-drafted boats can get tight into the side.

 

I doubt you will have a problem finding 32' on the visitor moorings at Gt Bedwyn or Kintbury, both near to the railway station. I have no recent knowledge of Woolhampton.

 

Easter weekend the annual canoe race starts early Friday morning from Devizes. Watch them go by, cheer them on and, maybe, make a late start. Some competitors know they will get to Westminster in 24hrs and may start at any time. They are not a problem; expect more canoes than usual, maintain your course and they will whizz by on either, or both sides.

 

Enjoy, Alan

[b0atman]

Main mooring problems we found was where there was a Railway station nearby then you got lots of continuous moorers/commuters.otherwise was ok except for boats moored on water points at 3 places .

[Mike on the Wey]

Thank you to all for the responses ... particularly details of the tricky places. Local knowledge is so useful. (If anyone ever needs details of the tricky bits of the Wey just ask). My boat's draft is 1' 9", so it will almost float in a puddle. Already looking forward to the trip, and hopeful that the Thames will drop over the next few weeks. So sad for the flood victims - both boaters and residents.

Edited February 10, 2014 by Mike on the Wey

[Loafer]

My single experience of K&A mooring (proper CC) was that NOBODY slows down like they do oop north.

 

If you moor in the sticks, esp if leaving the boat, get some heavy mooring tackle. I spent a lot of my time re-mooring loosened boats.

[Kiwidad]

Come easter we will probably all still be moored up waiting for the floods to recede, so don't worry about boat movement pulling your pins out :-(

[sassan]

There's a lot of us on there, but plenty of spaces to be found. I've never really struggled to find a spot.

 

The river sections are a different matter. I have no experience of the Kennet yet, but the Avon is very short of official places to moor. That being said there are plenty of places on the Avon where you could moor overnight and quite clearly the landowner wouldn't notice or care.

[KenK]

 

There's a lot of us on there, but plenty of spaces to be found. I've never really struggled to find a spot.

 

The river sections are a different matter. I have no experience of the Kennet yet, but the Avon is very short of official places to moor. That being said there are plenty of places on the Avon where you could moor overnight and quite clearly the landowner wouldn't notice or care.

The Kennet is a different animal from the Avon. There are river sections but equally long stretches where it is more like a canal and there are offical moorings. Even some of the river sections have easy places to moor.

That said I just walked back to the car past Greenham lock and my old marina mooring. The canal just before the lock is encroaching on the offside bank which is sloping and only a couple of inches from the piled bank on the towpath side. Greenham lock paddles are wide open top and bottom and the canal is still overtopping the gates and running down the towpath. The marina has no land visible and the Kennet which flows alongside the canal and then around the marina is in full spate with all the sluices wide open and it has flooded the allotments alongside. Even during the long wet 2012 summer it was nowhere near as bad as it is at the moment.

 

Ken

[Bunny]

As much as we love our winter mooring(Aldermaston Wharf K and A) come the end of March we can almost 'taste' the urge to get moving again. This year, I can't even guess when The Thames will be safe to navigate , or even if the Kennet will have settled enough for us to leave our mooring, when/ if it eventually stops raining. I've just had an op so no rope work or lifting for a few months, so was hoping for a gentle start to spring, well that was the plan. Bunny

[matty40s]

I moved boats both ways on the K&A in August an then late Sept/Oct and never had a problem finding a mooring late at night , quite obviously, if I had a favourite mooring next to a particular tree or pub, I may have struggled, but hey, a mooring is a mooring (explain that to the IWA in a easily understandable way!!!)

[Chris3]

I haven't checked but the Devizes to Westminster canoe race is usually on over the Easter w/e. That will slow you up a lot and it can get quite busy all night too !

[billS]

I'm not sure what state the locks will be in by Easter - even if the water has receded to navigable levels. I suspect there will be damage from scour. Also some planned maintenance has been deferred, for example on Aldermaston lock gates which are on their last legs, because they can't get the equipment in.

[RichLech]

Had a look at my log when I visited the boat at Pyrford yesterday. When we went to Bath last year we moored at:

 

Aldermaston

Newbury town centre

Hungerford

Great Bedwyn

Pewsey Wharf

Devizes

Seend

Dundas Aquaduct

Avoncliff Aquaduct

Sells Green

Crofton (by the pumping station)

 

All nice moorings and space available in July. I think they were all official visitor moorings except Avoncliff Aquaduct that may have been Cross Guns pub moorings.