moorings - where to start

[PaulE]

Hi,

After being to numerous boats shows / festivals, my wife and I have decided to look into buying a narrowboat.

Before we buy and while we peruse various boats etc, I would like to get people's opinion / advice on suitable mooring locations.

Initially, due to work commitments, we would be using the boat at the weekends and a few weeks throughout the year, but dont want to be limited to just one river / canal.

We live in north Notts, Mansfield to be exact, so the Trent and Chesterfield are the closest. Been to visit the wonderful tea room at Torksey Lock on numerous occasions, this also looks a nice place to have a mooring, again would this limit my choice?

Also been to Beeston, Red Hill and Sawley marinas, these giving more scope for travel.

Your opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and regards,

Paul

Edited June 30, 2015 by PaulE

[Jess--]

Don't worry too much about getting a mooring close to where you live.

 

get a mooring close to where you want to use the boat.

 

I live in lincolnshire but keep my boat in the midlands because there is a lot more choice over where to go with the boat from there, I could keep it at lincoln or newark but either of those places are a couple of days travelling by boat from where I want to cruise.

[Naughty Cal]

We moor at Burton Waters on the Fossdyke and have done for the last seven years.

 

Despite using our boat extensively we have yet to even scratch the surface of the waterways which we can cruise from there.

 

It suits us down to the ground as we have a wide range of inland waterways to explore but also easy access to the sea a days cruising away either down the Witham to Boston or down the Trent and Humber to Grimsby, although perhaps not so much of a consideration on a narrowboat!

[Woodstock]

Hi- We bought our first boat 3 years ago and moored at Shardlow- the marina which is accessed on the Trent. We loved the marina and the area but found that there were many times when we just couldn't get out of the marina because of high water levels. I think we bought at the end of a wet summer going into a wet autumn and winter, so it may have been an unusual year, but we just didn't get enough use out of the boat as we wanted. We did spend time on her, but hadn't expected a lot of it to be in the marina. I had hoped to boat most of the year round but it wasn't possible from our moorings

 

We can only use the boat at weekends and the odd week- same as yourselves

 

We've since moved to a marina on the Coventry canal and have used the boat a lot more since- plus I haven't missed the big double locks around there. They were good if you shared with another boat but some of those gates are heavy.

 

It might be worth thinking about the pros and cons of river versus canal moorings if you have limited oppportunities to go boating- Personally I love river moorings but they just aren't practical for us at the moment

 

Good luck

[mark99]

Hi,

After being to numerous boats shows / festivals, my wife and I have decided to look into buying a narrowboat.

Before we buy and while we peruse various boats etc, I would like to get people's opinion / advice on suitable mooring locations.

Initially, due to work commitments, we would be using the boat at the weekends and a few weeks throughout the year, but dont want to be limited to just one river / canal.

We live in north Notts, Mansfield to be exact, so the Trent and Chesterfield are the closest. Been to visit the wonderful tea room at Torksey Lock on numerous occasions, this also looks a nice place to have a mooring, again would this limit my choice?

Also been to Beeston, Red Hill and Sawley marinas, these giving more scope for travel.

Your opinions and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks and regards,

Paul

 

 

We moor closish to home as from there there are numerous close routes we can go including London Canals, Thames, Lea, Stort and Wey. Plus a few canal arms.

 

If there were not so many routes, we would moor near a central canal place in the Midlands.

 

Don't forget you can do long distances by travelling in your boat (not returning home in boat but by car/train) and leaving your boat in a far marina for a week or two - which we do too. Inching further along to the next marina.

 

Marina's - never had one yet say no room for a transient visitor for a few weeks.

Edited June 30, 2015 by mark99

[stagedamager]

Langley Mill, approx 12 miles from Mansfield is I believe closer. (Depending which side of town you are of course!)

[magictime]

Being moored on the Trent does sound a little limiting, plus you have the sort of potential issues Woodstock talks about with mooring on a river.

 

If you do decide to take the attitude that multiple cruising options are more important than closeness to home, a midlands mooring is certainly one option - but it might be worth pointing out that you're just as close to several northern waterways as you are to those in the midlands. Somewhere near the intersection of the Four Counties and the Cheshire Ring would give you lots of options. Sheffield isn't far from you at all and a mooring there or nearby would mean you were only a couple of days' cruise from both the Trent and the Aire & Calder, which in turn puts the Selby, Ouse, L&L etc. in easy reach.

 

And bear in mind that even if you take a mooring some distance from Mansfield, you could still be keeping it closer to home during those times of the year when you want to be out cruising every weekend (either in local marinas or just on towpath moorings).

[Alan de Enfield]

Kings Marina Newark

Marina not affected by water levels

The locks on the Trent are electrified and operated for you (during normal working hours) - lazy days !!

 

Half an hour or so to Mansfield (depending which side you are on)

one-day to Nottingham and onto the canal system then the worlds your oyster - Trent & Mersey, Soar, 4-counties etc.

or one day up to Lincoln

or a couple of days and you are on the Yorkshire canals.

 

We spent a couple of weeks having a slow run Newark, Lincoln, Boston and back.

 

Newark - there are plenty of options.

 

The only downside is that in severe weather conditions the Trent can be closed due to a 'fast stream'.

[Naughty Cal]

Kings Marina Newark

Marina not affected by water levels

The locks on the Trent are electrified and operated for you (during normal working hours) - lazy days !!

 

Half an hour or so to Mansfield (depending which side you are on)

one-day to Nottingham and onto the canal system then the worlds your oyster - Trent & Mersey, Soar, 4-counties etc.

or one day up to Lincoln

or a couple of days and you are on the Yorkshire canals.

 

We spent a couple of weeks having a slow run Newark, Lincoln, Boston and back.

 

Newark - there are plenty of options.

 

The only downside is that in severe weather conditions the Trent can be closed due to a 'fast stream'.

That's one of the reasons we chose to stay on the Fossditch rather then moor on the Trent or Ouse.

[David Schweizer]

 

 

We moor closish to home as from there there are numerous close routes we can go including London Canals, Thames, Lea, Stort and Wey. Plus a few canal arms.

 

If there were not so many routes, we would moor near a central canal place in the Midlands.

 

Don't forget you can do long distances by travelling in your boat (not returning home in boat but by car/train) and leaving your boat in a far marina for a week or two - which we do too. Inching further along to the next marina.

 

Marina's - never had one yet say no room for a transient visitor for a few weeks.

 

Yes, looking for somewhere to leave our boat for a few weeks in the North West, I contacted quite a few marinas, they all had space, We planned to use Swanley Bridge, who apparently had plenty of space, but were foiled by Hurleston bottom lock (too narrow!) We ended up at Venetian, who were able to offer us a choice of about twelve spaces.

[Bee]

If you have work commitments then close to home makes sense. If you are looking at retirement soon then you can go anywhere, our boat is in France, works ok for us.

[Beo]

Mercia Marina at Willington might work for you. We chose it over Sawley & Shardlow which are both nearer home for all the reasons given already regarding access to the system via the river. It's near the junction of the A38 and A50 (Toyota roundabout) so I guess fairly easy from Mansfield.

[PaulE]

Many thanks to you all for your responses, its very clear I have some thinking and research to do.

Living closer to the Trent I still haven't decided on having a narrowboat or motor cruiser, but as 'magictime' states, I am also close to the northern canals, something I hadn't considered.

A work colleague is selling a 60 ft widebeam (was a liveaboard but has bought a house), again something I haven't considered, would this be viable on the northern canals, I presume via the Trent - something that fills me with trepidation?

Beo - have visited Mercia three times now, does look a very nice place to moor, prefer it to Sawley and Shardlow.

Bee - at least twelve years from retirement, so main use would be weekends and school holidays (wife is a teacher).

Off to the Stratford Boat festival this weekend after being at Braunston last weekend, good times ahead.

Thanks again for your input.

[magictime]

If you're considering a widebeam, it might be worth taking a look at this:

 

http://www.waterwaysworld.com/downloads/widebeam_guide.pdf

 

- and specifically the "Where can you go?" section starting on page 22, which includes a map and guide. Most of the northern waterways are suitable for widebeams - unlike those in the midlands - BUT at 60ft, you'd be too long for some of the locks on the Calder and Hebble and Huddersfield Broad. That would still leave you plenty of options though, including the Sheffield and South Yorks, the Aire and Calder, the Selby, the Ouse, the Leeds & Liverpool, the Lancaster and the Rochdale. Whether you had to access those waterways via the Trent would depend on where you had your home mooring - there'd be no need to travel on it if you were moored in or near Sheffield, say.

[magictime]

...just to add:

 

For what it's worth, my own feeling is that unless the extra space on board is really important to you, you'd be better off saving yourselves some money and choosing a "go anywhere" narrowboat under 58ft or so. Having a widebeam would mean missing out on the Four Counties Ring and the Cheshire Ring, plus the midlands waterways, all of which would otherwise be good options for you in terms of closeness to home.

[PaulE]

Thanks for you opinions 'magictime'.

After visiting the Braunston narrowboat festival and Stratford river festival this last weekend and talking to various members of the boating community, we have decided on a 50-57ft narrowboat.

To decide on where to moor, we plan on visiting some marinas in the south Yorkshire region. We have already visited some Midlands marinas, with Mercia at Willington a favourite.

Just for the scenic option, I would be interested in opinions as to the Midlands and southern or Yorkshire and the northern canal network.

Regards,

Paul

[Richard10002]

We moor our boat a ten minute drive from home. This means we can spend much more time on it than if it were an hour or so away, so we can wake up next to water, surrounded by countryside, ducks, geese and birds, as often as possible. The fact that it takes a day to get "somewhere different", is neither here, nor there, compared to the pleasure of just being onboard.