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Southern Oxford Summit.


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6 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

 

Yes they only sell "Hooky" in the real ale department which is a shame. Despite the similarity in name, a massively inferior ale to "Old Hooky" which I really like. 

Inferior in strength, yes - but therefore a good "session" ale, as you can have more of it before you fall over.

(And it's still better than the flavour-free Doombar).

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A lighter flavour, yes, as befits a beer of only 3.5% strength. The tastiest beer of that sort of strength which I've found is Marston's EPA (3.6%), available only in bottles as far as I know, which punches way above its weight in terms of taste.

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4 minutes ago, Athy said:

A lighter flavour, yes, as befits a beer of only 3.5% strength. 

 

Yes. Like I said, an inferior beer on all fronts to Old Hooky. 

 

(Which is often confused with 'Hooky' due to the similarity in name. The point I was making.)

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1 hour ago, Dr Bob said:

The Two Boats won my "Best pub in the world" competition last year.

I'm impressed by your dedication to duty in trying all the pubs in the world!

 

I notice this thread has morphed into one about beer (Adnams for me, as I may have mentioned before) and pubs.

 

Getting back on topic, briefly, there seems to be plenty of water on the Thames. Perhaps it might help if I fill a couple of buckets and then empty them out when I get to the Oxford summit.

 

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34 minutes ago, Lily Rose said:

I'm impressed by your dedication to duty in trying all the pubs in the world!

 

I notice this thread has morphed into one about beer (Adnams for me, as I may have mentioned before) and pubs.

 

Getting back on topic, briefly, there seems to be plenty of water on the Thames. Perhaps it might help if I fill a couple of buckets and then empty them out when I get to the Oxford summit.

 

I don't think there is plenty on the Thames (unless the rain on Sunday helped). The Thames harbourmaster Facebook page said summer boards on the weirs were going up and lockies were not to empty or fill locks without boats in wherever possible as flows very low...But the Thames won't shut will It...??

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I wonder what difference that will make to water levels. Simply, not that many boaters travel outside those hours, and those who do will all go though the locks between nine in the morning and six at night (as they all have to in France because the electrically-operated locks are switched off from early evening to nine in the morning).

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5 minutes ago, Athy said:

I wonder what difference that will make to water levels. Simply, not that many boaters travel outside those hours, and those who do will all go though the locks between nine in the morning and six at night (as they all have to in France because the electrically-operated locks are switched off from early evening to nine in the morning).

 

 

CRT say

 

Due to exceptionally dry weather during the last three months, some of our canal feeding reservoirs are lower than we would normally expect for this time of year. The recent rainfall has not significantly changed this situation. As the dry weather is set to continue into the autumn, we are taking steps now to reduce water usage by closing the canal overnight. This will allow backpumps to circulate water more effectively around the canal network.

 

So all about the backpumps then.

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10 minutes ago, philjw said:

 

 

CRT say

 

Due to exceptionally dry weather during the last three months, some of our canal feeding reservoirs are lower than we would normally expect for this time of year. The recent rainfall has not significantly changed this situation. As the dry weather is set to continue into the autumn, we are taking steps now to reduce water usage by closing the canal overnight. This will allow backpumps to circulate water more effectively around the canal network.

 

So all about the backpumps then.

Yes indeed, but as only a small proportion of boaters travel "overnight", will it make a difference? They'll simply travel during the day instead.

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3 minutes ago, Athy said:

Yes indeed, but as only a small proportion of boaters travel "overnight", will it make a difference? They'll simply travel during the day instead.

Like you I don't believe it will. Each boat will take a lockful off the summit pound regardless of the time of day it travels. Restrictions could cause boats to bunch together and be more likely to share......but not on the Oxford.

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2 minutes ago, philjw said:

Like you I don't believe it will. Each boat will take a lockful off the summit pound regardless of the time of day it travels. Restrictions could cause boats to bunch together and be more likely to share......but not on the Oxford.

 

Yes. Being a narrow canal with virtually no lock sharing I can't see it making any difference. 

 

Although I can imagine the general messge it sends out that the oxford is short of water, discouraging boats from coming onto the canal at all when otherwise they would have. 

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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes. Like I said, an inferior beer on all fronts to Old Hooky. 

 

(Which is often confused with 'Hooky' due to the similarity in name. The point I was making.)

You are right. I used to call Hooky  (which is actualy Hook Norton best bitter with an updated poncy name) Car wash when I had waddies pubs. You would drown before you got drunk on that stuff and Old Hooky is a vastly superior brew as is their Double stout.

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1 hour ago, Dave123 said:

I don't think there is plenty on the Thames (unless the rain on Sunday helped). The Thames harbourmaster Facebook page said summer boards on the weirs were going up and lockies were not to empty or fill locks without boats in wherever possible as flows very low...But the Thames won't shut will It...??

I may have exaggerated!

 

However, there is still a fair amount coming over the weirs down the bottom end. No doubt less than normal for this time of year but when we left Abingdon 9 days ago there seemed to be more coming over the weir than at this time last year. The river level was normal and the lockeepers I have spoken to along the way have said it is holding up very well. The flow is minimal though, same as last year.

 

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

Yes indeed, but as only a small proportion of boaters travel "overnight", will it make a difference? They'll simply travel during the day instead.

 

But presumably the difference is that the staff who lock up at the end of each day can make sure that all gates and paddles are properly closed, so there is less likelihood of water running to waste during the night.

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1 hour ago, Athy said:

Yes indeed, but as only a small proportion of boaters travel "overnight", will it make a difference? They'll simply travel during the day instead.

To quote from C&RTs Drought FAQs

https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/specialist-teams/managing-our-water/drought/drought-faqs

Do restrictions simply concentrate the same lock usage (and hence water use) into a shorter period?

No, our experience shows that where we’ve implemented restrictions of this kind in the past we’ve subsequently seen decreases in lock usage of 20-40%.

Why don’t you operate pounds brimming with water as the longer pounds could operate as a reservoir?

The loss of water from a canal pound due to leakage and seepage is the largest component of water demand on a canal system. Loss rates are at their highest during the summer, when soil is dry and water tables are low. The leakiest part of the canal lining is the top 15 cm (6 inches), because it is continually wetted and dried. It is also subject to holes or cracks formed by burrowing animals and wave action from boat propellers. So by increasing the operational level of a pound, especially in a drought, would greatly increase loss rates. During a drought, we actually aim to run pounds as low as operationally possible to reduce losses.

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1 minute ago, roland elsdon said:

The summits never been closed to my memory ,but before the present pumps got put in ( remember the diesel ones) it got down to 4 hrs open a day, and big qs.

My memory is that Napton was closed in 76 when we hired from Braunston.

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2 hours ago, Athy said:

I wonder what difference that will make to water levels. Simply, not that many boaters travel outside those hours, and those who do will all go though the locks between nine in the morning and six at night (as they all have to in France because the electrically-operated locks are switched off from early evening to nine in the morning).

 

2 hours ago, Athy said:

Yes indeed, but as only a small proportion of boaters travel "overnight", will it make a difference? They'll simply travel during the day instead.

 

2 hours ago, philjw said:

Like you I don't believe it will. Each boat will take a lockful off the summit pound regardless of the time of day it travels. Restrictions could cause boats to bunch together and be more likely to share......but not on the Oxford.

 

2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Yes. Being a narrow canal with virtually no lock sharing I can't see it making any difference. 

 

Although I can imagine the general messge it sends out that the oxford is short of water, discouraging boats from coming onto the canal at all when otherwise they would have. 


As David Mack has indicated it is not solely about reducing the number of lock passages.

It is also about trying to stop a situation where people go through late, in a hurry, and don't close everything up properly.

 

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3 hours ago, alan_fincher said:

 

 

 


As David Mack has indicated it is not solely about reducing the number of lock passages.

It is also about trying to stop a situation where people go through late, in a hurry, and don't close everything up properly.

 

I think it is also about discouraging people from going that route, although these seem tame restrictions compared to what have been in place twice in recent years for the Oxford summit.

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2 minutes ago, john6767 said:

I think it is also about discouraging people from going that route, although these seem tame restrictions compared to what have been in place twice in recent years for the Oxford summit.


The thing though is that they can quickly reduce from "open most of the day" to "only open a few hours a day" if they want to, and may well do yet, if reserves worsen.

A few years back when most of the Southern Grand Union and Oxford flights only opened a few hours a day, it was hugely limiting, because it was in some cases not possible to do one starting at the earliest available time, then get to the next one before that flight was locked.

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