Survey results - a leap in the dark?

[MtB]

Exellent stuff Froggers.

 

When you've had the boat a few years, enjoyed using it, appreciating the unusual layout and reminded yourselves how lucky you were to find it a few hundred times, I bet you'll have forgotten how much you paid for it anyway!

[Jak]

Great news Froggy. Looking forward to seeing some pics

[Froggy]

 

Exellent

 

Tim

 

 

Good news Froggy! I hope you have many happy times with your new boat.

 

 

Exellent stuff Froggers.

 

When you've had the boat a few years, enjoyed using it, appreciating the unusual layout and reminded yourselves how lucky you were to find it a few hundred times, I bet you'll have forgotten how much you paid for it anyway!

 

 

Great news Froggy. Looking forward to seeing some pics

 

Many thanks for all your good wishes, guys. It's been a busy few weeks viewing boats, and basically learning all the complexities of boating more or less from scratch. This forum has been an invaluable aid on the journey. We'll ensure that any future boat purchases are made well before the winter stoppages, and with enough leeway to get any blacking and other out of the water work completed in one go to save on the additional haulage and craneage fees we'll be incurring, and which have cost us, by the time the boat has new blacking and anodes in the spring, somewhere in the region of an extra two grand!

 

You can view a description and slideshow of the boat here as long as the advert remains live:

http://www.narrowboatbrokers.com/boats-info.asp?id=109

[Froggy]

So, having finally secured the boat, where exactly can't you go on the network in a 60 footer?

[MtB]

So, having finally secured the boat, where exactly can't you go on the network in a 60 footer?

 

Leeds and Liverpool is the main bit off limits, I think.

 

Is it a fat 60 footer or a thin 60 footer?

(If fat, the list is LONG!)

[Froggy]

 

Leeds and Liverpool is the main bit off limits, I think.

 

Is it a fat 60 footer or a thin 60 footer?

(If fat, the list is LONG!)

 

Nope, it's just a plain old narrowboat Mike. Pics are in the brokerage link a few posts back, although i think you viewed them a while back before i removed the link after i decided i was just giving the seller free publicity for a boat we hadn't yet bought!

[Captain Pegg]

I thought Leeds & Liverpool is fine at 60'. It's the Calder & Hebble that isn't (at least not if you want to do things comfortably). There is stuff on that topic on the forum. I think that's the only through route you will struggle with and the other places 60' can't get are dead ends.

 

JP

[David Mack]

I thought Leeds & Liverpool is fine at 60'. It's the Calder & Hebble that isn't (at least not if you want to do things comfortably). There is stuff on that topic on the forum. I think that's the only through route you will struggle with and the other places 60' can't get are dead ends.

 

JP

Calder and Hebble is said to be doable at 60 ft but not at 60ft 1in, so you may need to measure the boat accurately or just try it. You may also need to go backwards through Salterhebble Middle Lock. There's a page on Pennine Waterways about it.

 

A couple of short locks in the Fens too.

Edited November 9, 2016 by David Mack

[Froggy]

Calder and Hebble is said to be doable at 60 ft but not at 60ft 1in, so you may need to measure the boat accurately or just try it. You may also need to go backwards through Salterhebble Middle Lock. There's a page on Pennine Waterways about it.

 

A couple of short locks in the Fens too.

 

Thanks for this. I'm not sure i'd want to cut the margins as fine as that though! Anyway, as novices we'll get plenty of practice on the K&A where we'll have at least ten feet to spare!

[Mendip-Locks]

Lillyanne with Mick & Pip aboard are 60ft http://canalplan.eu/boat/104289. Their blog https://nblillyanne.wordpress.com is a mine of info of where they have been including the Calder & Hebble and The Huddersfield Narrow etc. Worth a look use the search field on the right of the page a little down for finding stuff.

[Froggy]

Lillyanne with Mick & Pip aboard are 60ft http://canalplan.eu/boat/104289. Their blog https://nblillyanne.wordpress.com is a mine of info of where they have been including the Calder & Hebble and The Huddersfield Narrow etc. Worth a look use the search field on the right of the page a little down for finding stuff.

 

Hey, that looks like a great read, thanks! :-)

[Froggy]

As a postscript to this thread, then i'll wind it up, we had the boat successfully hauled down from Lea Valley to Hilperton on the K&A about three weeks ago. Well, apart from some broken crockery, and a freestanding chest of drawers blocking entry to the boat, and underneath which we found more sheets of lead ballast! I think the former owner might have been mooring up near village churches from time to time . We spent a night on the boat and then had a day's basic navigation training, after which we took the plunge and sailed it to Caen Hill over two days. This proved great fun. On the evening of the first day we were running out of daylight, and at one of the swingbridges we took account of the situation and decided that there was a promising spot on the other side of the bridge, so decided on that. After tying the ropes i had a little walk along the towpath in the descending dusk and recognised it as a spot that's been featured on Great Canal Journeys. It was a magical place, with only the distant sound of a country lane encroaching on the natural surroundings, and a spot of woodland featuring native British trees that would have warranted further investigation if not for the near darkness and slippery mud. The moon was out above the boat when i returned, and we soon had a sausage casserole going on the Morso. By the time we came to move off the following morning we'd both well and truly got the boating bug and can't wait until the spring arrives. I say 'moved off' because we were bottomed on the bed! We'd suspected this shortly after arriving when the boat wasn't rocking, but were too tired to do anything about it. However, after ten minutes or so of maneuvering we were soon on our way again and shared most of the seven locks that day with a couple who had 40 years boating experience and gave us lots of tips (including pointing the stern out in shallow water!). There are lots of jobs to do on the boat, and we've already got stuck into some of them, but we'are looking forward to plenty of adventures in the coming year.

 

Incidentally, a useful tip for making mooring pegs visible at night: the multipacks of crisps that have a silvered coating on the inside work great when turned inside out and tied around the peg with a cable tie, catching any light that is available.

[Athy]

A most heart-warming post - I hope that the "magical" aspect of your boat adventures never diminishes.

Broken crockery is just the Lord's way of reminding you (or Madame Froggy) that it's time to go shopping.

[MtB]

As a postscript to this thread, then i'll wind it up, we had the boat successfully hauled down from Lea Valley to Hilperton on the K&A about three weeks ago. Well, apart from some broken crockery, and a freestanding chest of drawers blocking entry to the boat, and underneath which we found more sheets of lead ballast! I think the former owner might have been mooring up near village churches from time to time . We spent a night on the boat and then had a day's basic navigation training, after which we took the plunge and sailed it to Caen Hill over two days. This proved great fun. On the evening of the first day we were running out of daylight, and at one of the swingbridges we took account of the situation and decided that there was a promising spot on the other side of the bridge, so decided on that. After tying the ropes i had a little walk along the towpath in the descending dusk and recognised it as a spot that's been featured on Great Canal Journeys. It was a magical place, with only the distant sound of a country lane encroaching on the natural surroundings, and a spot of woodland featuring native British trees that would have warranted further investigation if not for the near darkness and slippery mud. The moon was out above the boat when i returned, and we soon had a sausage casserole going on the Morso. By the time we came to move off the following morning we'd both well and truly got the boating bug and can't wait until the spring arrives. I say 'moved off' because we were bottomed on the bed! We'd suspected this shortly after arriving when the boat wasn't rocking, but were too tired to do anything about it. However, after ten minutes or so of maneuvering we were soon on our way again and shared most of the seven locks that day with a couple who had 40 years boating experience and gave us lots of tips (including pointing the stern out in shallow water!). There are lots of jobs to do on the boat, and we've already got stuck into some of them, but we'are looking forward to plenty of adventures in the coming year.

 

Incidentally, a useful tip for making mooring pegs visible at night: the multipacks of crisps that have a silvered coating on the inside work great when turned inside out and tied around the peg with a cable tie, catching any light that is available.

 

 

Excellent PS thanks.

 

The bit I highlighted jumped out at me though. NOW is the best time for boating, not Spring. In Spring the canals are teeming with hire boaters and weekend boaters without a clue. 'Quiet and peaceful' is not a term I would use...

Get out boating now!

[Athy]

In the current weather conditions (it has been 55 degrees here all week, with ample sunshine and only light rainfall) it's hard to argue with that.

[Froggy]

 

 

Excellent PS thanks.

 

The bit I highlighted jumped out at me though. NOW is the best time for boating, not Spring. In Spring the canals are teeming with hire boaters and weekend boaters without a clue. 'Quiet and peaceful' is not a term I would use...

Get out boating now!

 

 

In the current weather conditions (it has been 55 degrees here all week, with ample sunshine and only light rainfall) it's hard to argue with that.

 

Fair point, but we need to do a bit of work on the boat first, so maybe after Christmas! Agreed though, we have a pram cover up where we're currently moored and it was pretty balmy in there yesterday afternoon.

A most heart-warming post - I hope that the "magical" aspect of your boat adventures never diminishes.

Broken crockery is just the Lord's way of reminding you (or Madame Froggy) that it's time to go shopping.

 

Ha ha, I'll bear that in mind, and thanks for the good wishes.