March of the Widebeams

[matty40s]

5 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I've certainly encountered a "My boat's bigger than yours so YOU need to get out of MY way, NOW" kind of attitude. It was even commented on by an observer!

I had this coming down the Buckby flight at lock 9, came along, 14ft widebeam halfway up in the lock with paddles at 1/4 open. So I moored on the lock landing(which only has one useful bollard now) tied up and walked down to help the 2 doing the paddles/gates. Chap on the back shouted that I needed to move my boat so he could leave the lock...I walked down to him and asked why, as the channel was clear...he said he needed to come out and use the lock landing to pick up his crew. I showed him the bank or trees parralel with the offside lock and asked where exactly was I supposed to go, the next lock was in easy walking distance, and I can shut the gates so his crew can get on now.

"But its our lock and we must do it".

I walked away.

[David Mack]

Just now, matty40s said:

he said he needed to come out and use the lock landing to pick up his crew. 

...

the next lock was in easy walking distance

It always amazes me how some crews will always board after leaving a lock and closing up, boat to the next lock and then get off to set the lock even when it is within sight. And not only that, they won't board and alight in the lock mouth, they have to go onto the lock mooring each time.

Worst example I can recall was a bunch of twenty and thirty something lads on a hire boat doing this in the thick of the Tardebigge flight. Fortunately they pulled in and let us past after following them for a couple of locks, during which we were setting ahead for them as they hadn't a clue. Goodness knows how long the flight would have taken if we had been behind them all the way!

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

13 hours ago, peterboat said:

Strange proper canals are, the canal question was probably wider on the way to Tinsley, but unfortunately Willow trees had completely blocked it! Even a narrowboat couldn't get through, Ian will have gone through after it was cut back and that was half a job as always. 

My mooring 57 foot boT can be turned around on ropes

 The Yorkshire canals/Rivers are wider. But now we’re getting continuous moorers on widebeams 60ft x 12ft and bigger, not moving but staying on the leisure moorings and they’re becoming a pain, not for the reason of passing, but for the reason they’re over staying, they have cars and are just mooring up. CaRT have lost control simple as that, but it doesn’t help when people on here are telling everyone “come up North we have wide canals” yes but not enough facilities. ☹️

 

 

Edited September 27, 2024 by BoatinglifeupNorth

[johnmck]

From Facebook today. Outside the entrance to Dunchurch Pools.

[johnmck]

A genuine Crt notice today, especially for widebeams it would seem!

 

A large tree has come down on the Grand Union Leicester Line, between Bridge 27 (Mountain Barn Bridge) and Bridge 28 (Elkington Bridge) .  

The W3W locations are ///redefined.afterglow.snails and ///pressing.breaches.acrobatic.

The tree is obstructing the navigation, which means wide-beam boats will not be able to get past.

Narrowboats may be able to pass, but are asked to proceed with care.  

We will be on site to fully assess the situation tomorrow, but specialist equipment will be required to clear the tree.

We will update this notice by Wednesday 16th October, or sooner if we have more information.

 

You cannot make it up!

[ditchcrawler]

3 hours ago, johnmck said:

From Facebook today. Outside the entrance to Dunchurch Pools.

This was moved by a boat mover and is there to be lifted out and transported 

[Ianws]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

This was moved by a boat mover and is there to be lifted out and transported 

It might be the camera angle but the approach to the bridge hole doesn't look great while they wait for their lift out. 

[MtB]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

This was moved by a boat mover and is there to be lifted out and transported 

 

I can't see the crane pad next to it....

 

 

[MrsM]

3 hours ago, johnmck said:

The tree is obstructing the navigation, which means wide-beam boats will not be able to get past.

Narrowboats may be able to pass, but are asked to proceed with care.  

Unless the navigation is completely obstructed by wide boats. In which case good luck!

[Stroudwater1]

6 hours ago, MtB said:

 

I can't see the crane pad next to it....

 

 

I expect the marina is pretty much full, or hasn’t been booked for the boat to stay while awaiting crainage. It’s  the camera angle that makes it look worse. For a start it’s not taken from the middle of the narrowboat but from the left side. The “jaws” of the marina entrance where the boat is moored are on the the wide side too. 
 

In any case on sighting a boat coming through the bridge it’s easy enough to reverse back into the wide area if the marina entrance. Some boaters forget they have a reverse tbh 😌
 

 

[Lady M]

I am under the impression that CRT do not permit wide beam boats to be moored on the N Oxford Canal so the cranage booking at Dunchurch Pools should have included a temporary berth.  Perhaps the boat mover got there early but I am a bit surprised they overlooked the mooring restriction.

[Momac]

On 26/09/2024 at 21:28, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

 The Yorkshire canals/Rivers are wider. But now we’re getting continuous moorers on widebeams 60ft x 12ft and bigger, not moving but staying on the leisure moorings and they’re becoming a pain, not for the reason of passing, but for the reason they’re over staying, they have cars and are just mooring up.

Are these visitor moorings are are they paid for as leisure moorings?

If visitor moorings then obviously they should be asked by C&RT to move. Perhaps they have been asked to move but have ignored the request.

 

Is it possible that the resources C&RT say they have for sighting  boats may not exist on the scale that is claimed?  Rather like the old TV detector vans which were an empty threat . I suspect these days C&RT have insufficient resources to do anything about overstaying boats other than the occasional isolated cases.

 

The observation that  these are widebeams, even when rafted up, have no impact on navigation for others is noted. So are the South Yorkshire navigations not the best place for them? I would say they are in their ideal environment.

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

37 minutes ago, Momac said:

Are these visitor moorings are are they paid for as leisure moorings?

If visitor moorings then obviously they should be asked by C&RT to move. Perhaps they have been asked to move but have ignored the request.

 

Is it possible that the resources C&RT say they have for sighting  boats may not exist on the scale that is claimed?  Rather like the old TV detector vans which were an empty threat . I suspect these days C&RT have insufficient resources to do anything about overstaying boats other than the occasional isolated cases.

 

The observation that  these are widebeams, even when rafted up, have no impact on navigation for others is noted. So are the South Yorkshire navigations not the best place for them? I would say they are in their ideal environment.

They are visitor moorings, yes wide enough for navigation as wide canals/rivers. The two big Waddingtons boats were to highlight the size of boats up here, these two, father and son owned do move quite a bit and aren’t a problem. The issue is like I said all the good visitor moorings/sanitary stations/shops are getting abused by over stayers/continuous moorers, just up here there’s more widebeams doing it and more apearing every year. 

Edited October 11, 2024 by BoatinglifeupNorth

[Momac]

13 minutes ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

The issue is like I said all the good visitor moorings/sanitary stations/shops are getting abused by over stayers/continuous moorers, just up here there’s more widebeams doing it and more apearing every year. 

Have you reported this to C&RT ?

 

[BoatinglifeupNorth]

5 minutes ago, Momac said:

Have you reported this to C&RT ?

 

 CaRT know the problem areas but do little to move them on, like a lot of known places/boats on the system,  places like Eastwood, Castleford sanitary moorings have been reported many times and the encamped Continuous Moorers are still there. CaRT need to be more active.

 

[Hudds Lad]

15 hours ago, johnmck said:

From Facebook today. Outside the entrance to Dunchurch Pools.

Just for fun, here's an overhead where i've cloned a widebeam from the marina to the approx position. Plenty of room.

 

 

[Paul C]

16 hours ago, johnmck said:

From Facebook today. Outside the entrance to Dunchurch Pools.

 

This is a very poor picture, there is almost no useful information in the majority of the picture on the left. And the right is cropped too tightly to show the towpath, thus we are unable to judge the available passing space. 

 

It looks like someone has gotten their boat into the open water of the marina entrance, lined up the widebeam with the bridgehole (almost) and taken the pic to try 'frame' it, or the boat mover.

[MtB]

1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:

Just for fun, here's an overhead where i've cloned a widebeam from the marina to the approx position. Plenty of room.

 

 

 

Thin end of the wedge. 

 

If it's fine for one to moor there, why not five?

 

And if five or more are ok, why not have the whole stretch made officially a wide canal?

 

 

[peterboat]

2 hours ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:

 CaRT know the problem areas but do little to move them on, like a lot of known places/boats on the system,  places like Eastwood, Castleford sanitary moorings have been reported many times and the encamped Continuous Moorers are still there. CaRT need to be more active.

 

Yes Eastwood is a pain, some haven't moved in in a year or more now

[Hudds Lad]

22 minutes ago, MtB said:

 

Thin end of the wedge. 

 

If it's fine for one to moor there, why not five?

 

And if five or more are ok, why not have the whole stretch made officially a wide canal?

 

 

If you read the Facebook post fully, which i guess you didn't, it was temporarily put there by a boatmover whilst space was made for it to be lifted out. Not someone mooring up and living their best life.

 

Also, this one…

 

 

Edited October 11, 2024 by Hudds Lad
add pic

[spud]

deleted

Edited October 11, 2024 by spud

[MtB]

9 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

If you read the Facebook post fully, which i guess you didn't, it was temporarily put there by a boatmover whilst space was made for it to be lifted out. Not someone mooring up and living their best life.

 

 

Even thinner end of the same wedge. 

 

How long should a single fattie (fatties are banned from mooring on this waterway) be allowed to moor on this waterway, in your opinion? 

 

And how about if another one arrives? 

Edited October 11, 2024 by MtB

[alias]

8 hours ago, Paul C said:

This is a very poor picture, there is almost no useful information in the majority of the picture on the left. And the right is cropped too tightly to show the towpath, thus we are unable to judge the available passing space. 

 

For information, (and not expressing an opinion about the mooring location), the left hand side is the marina entrance "V", and the towpath is that side, with a bridge over the marina entrance.

[MtB]

1 hour ago, alias said:

 

For information, (and not expressing an opinion about the mooring location), the left hand side is the marina entrance "V", and the towpath is that side, with a bridge over the marina entrance.

 

Certainly explains why PaulC can't see the towpath on the right! 🤣

 

 

[Paul C]

1 hour ago, alias said:

 

For information, (and not expressing an opinion about the mooring location), the left hand side is the marina entrance "V", and the towpath is that side, with a bridge over the marina entrance.

No wonder I didn't see it, its such a terrible pic!