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Alway Swilby

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What are the chances at this time of year of being stung for a one day licence of £45 when going from Isis lock up through Godstow and Kings locks then back onto CRT waters at Dukes Cut?

 

Also glad that we ignored all the dire warnings of lack of visitor moorings in Oxford, there's plenty of room.

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I would imagine it would depend on the time of day because of manned locks.

 

or you could get the 1 day license (early in the morning) and explore a little bit downstream on the thames (down to abingdon would be easily done) before heading back up to dukes for the end of the following day.

if you get the license on a monday morning you don't have to be off until tuesday night

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36 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

What are the chances at this time of year of being stung for a one day licence of £45 when going from Isis lock up through Godstow and Kings locks then back onto CRT waters at Dukes Cut?

Thin end of the wedge, one day licence today, next you'll be asking the likelihood of getting caught without a 12 months licence.

 

If it is 'payable' then pay your debts.

 

I don't think anyone on the forum, or the forum T&Cs would condone supporting a criminal act.

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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Thin end of the wedge, one day licence today, next you'll be asking the likelihood of getting caught without a 12 months licence.

 

If it is 'payable' then pay your debts.

 

I don't think anyone on the forum, or the forum T&Cs would condone supporting a criminal act.

I was wondering what the likelyhood was was of meeting a lock keeper at either of the Thames locks not how to evade paying a yearly licence! The cost of a licence for this trip is £45 for our boat, if it was likely that we'd meet a lock keeper and have to pay then we will turn round and go back along the canal because it's not worth 45 quid for a couple of hours.  Anyhow, we have to go down Isis lock onto the Thames to wind, would you also sugest I should pay £45 to do that?

 

I think the EA are missing a trick here. If there was a transit charge of say £10 then I think plenty of folk would make this trip.

 

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3 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:

Just a simple innocent question.

why do you want to do the 'transit'?

Just cos it's there. It would give the engine a bit of a work out on a river. Or I could just turn round and plod my way back past all the moored boats.

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Quite apart from the legalities and honesty of the matter - the Thames disparately needs the money. The infrastructure is beginning to crumble, Government has cut back the funding  - so cough up and thing of England.....

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12 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Ok, I'll be law abiding and turn round. Does anyone know if we are officially allowed to go down onto EA waters below Isis lock to wind or should I be a fine upstanding citizen and pay the EA £45 for 10 minutes on their waters?

Yes, this is allowed free of charge.

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14 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Ok, I'll be law abiding and turn round. Does anyone know if we are officially allowed to go down onto EA waters below Isis lock to wind or should I be a fine upstanding citizen and pay the EA £45 for 10 minutes on their waters?

Perfectly ok. I think though on a superb day like today 45 quid for actualy two days on a beautiful river is a bargain. Have you seen how much it is for say one person per one visit to a crap whole like Alton towers? Or a visit to Blenheim palace?

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9 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Perfectly ok. I think though on a superb day like today 45 quid for actualy two days on a beautiful river is a bargain. Have you seen how much it is for say one person per one visit to a crap whole like Alton towers? Or a visit to Blenheim palace?

The plan is to get a Gold licence next year and fully explore the Thames. Looking forward to many a good day.

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51 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:

Ok, I'll be law abiding and turn round. Does anyone know if we are officially allowed to go down onto EA waters below Isis lock to wind or should I be a fine upstanding citizen and pay the EA £45 for 10 minutes on their waters?

Last time I was there, there's a turning point just below the lock, and a (CRT) sign advising you on how to use the pontoon and your lines to turn around there. 

 

Anticlockwise and use the current to take your stern round.

 

I don't think you need an EA licence, even in theory, to turn here.

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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I don't think planning to do it without paying is really playing fair,  there is a good chance one of those two locks being manned I would say.  As suggested why not get a one day licence first thing in the morning and go down to Abingdon, lots of good mooring there, then next day came back via Dukes cut. 

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Nobody's going to chase you if you go to the end of the channel and turn round

at the junction.

The only staff that are around to collect money / challenge you are on the locks - so if you don't go through Osney (downstream), Godstow  or Kings' nobody will know......

There's a long run up through Port Meadow that is very pleasant.... 

Edited by OldGoat
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A bit naive many years ago - we did not have a Thames license - and my wife terrified of breaking the law - afraid to go down on the Thames where there was room to do a 'U' turn.

We used the winding hole at Isis lock to turn round.

On the face of it nothing of an issue. Except our boat is 50ft. and the winding hole is 50ft diameter.

We had to remove our rear fender and hold the rudder hard over to fit in the space, and then with crew on the bank, fore and aft, pushed and pulled and rocked and jiggled the boat, to get it to slide past the stones of the wall around the winding hole, chopping back weeds and undergrowth to clear a path.

Another year we ventured on to the Thames at Isis lock and eventually bought a 7 day license - that didn't allow time for a decent visit to the Wey or K&A - so we had to pay a second time when the first one ran out.

 

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1 hour ago, Horace42 said:

A bit naive many years ago - we did not have a Thames license - and my wife terrified of breaking the law - afraid to go down on the Thames where there was room to do a 'U' turn.

We used the winding hole at Isis lock to turn round.

On the face of it nothing of an issue. Except our boat is 50ft. and the winding hole is 50ft diameter.

We had to remove our rear fender and hold the rudder hard over to fit in the space, and then with crew on the bank, fore and aft, pushed and pulled and rocked and jiggled the boat, to get it to slide past the stones of the wall around the winding hole, chopping back weeds and undergrowth to clear a path.

Another year we ventured on to the Thames at Isis lock and eventually bought a 7 day license - that didn't allow time for a decent visit to the Wey or K&A - so we had to pay a second time when the first one ran out.

 

And just to clarify for other readers, this is the winding hole above Isis Lock. The turning point below the lock will take a full length boat. I think.

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10 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

And just to clarify for other readers, this is the winding hole above Isis Lock. The turning point below the lock will take a full length boat. I think.

Below the lock will very very easily spin a full length boat. In fact an 80/ footer if they built em with ease. My tiddly 68 footer misses both ends with ooge amounts of space

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4 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

And just to clarify for other readers, this is the winding hole above Isis Lock. The turning point below the lock will take a full length boat. I think.

From distant memory, the winding hole above the is some way beyond the lock and you have to turn round somewhere because the canal ends soon after.

I suppose boats 50+ft have to back up - but to where? Seems little choice but to use the Thames.

The river below the lock is a large area of open water with plenty of room to turn.

But as said above, is it certain that a Thames license is not required to use the Thames just to turn round ? Knowing that would have saved us an hour or so - apart from which there was nowhere to buy a license at Isis even if we wanted to.

I would not know about things today.

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Here's a photo from Google earth.

L is Isis lock.

W is the winding hole, about 150' to the north. You can just see the "notch"

H is the dead end to Hythe Bridge Street, no turning point there

T is the turning point below the lock. you can see the pontoon.

S is the Sheepwash channel  leading under the railway to the Thames, just above Osney Bridge, and passing the listed (and out of use) railway swing bridge.isis.jpg.7255afaa756c83d9cdea0b7079e9f03f.jpg

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I'm not at all sure you need a Thames licence to use the Sheepwash Channel or the Castle Mill Stream, even by statute, and if you turn below Isis lock you are in the Castle Mill Stream. There is a reason why there are many boats moored in this parallel to the Oxford Canal as you go upstream. 

 

Once onto the main channel you need a Thames licence, but your first opportunity to get one is at the first lock. Personally, if I did Godstow and Kings I'd expect to pay, and I'd budget for that, but sometimes one may never be asked to. When I took Lutine down from Oxford to Reading last year the lock keeper at Osney was about to go and attend to something else, he commented that if I'd missed him I should have bought the licence at the next lock. I asked how far this would apply for, and he replied until I found a manned lock, and if I never did I'd have got the K&A for free. 

 

You have to be given the opportunity to pay, if the system is pay the lock-keeper and there is no lock-keeper, you haven't been given the opportunity pay. One day automatic boat recognition and mobile phone payment apps will make this redundant, but it hasn't happened yet...

 

BTW, if you have a narrow beam craft based on the Thames, with a Thames licence, and decided on a whim to use the canal between Dukes and Isis, how would you get pay, and who would notice if you didn't?

Edited by magpie patrick
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46 minutes ago, Horace42 said:

From distant memory, the winding hole above the is some way beyond the lock and you have to turn round somewhere because the canal ends soon after.

I suppose boats 50+ft have to back up - but to where? Seems little choice but to use the Thames.

The river below the lock is a large area of open water with plenty of room to turn.

But as said above, is it certain that a Thames license is not required to use the Thames just to turn round ? Knowing that would have saved us an hour or so - apart from which there was nowhere to buy a license at Isis even if we wanted to.

I would not know about things today.

The winding hole is directly above Isis lock, just you can hardly tell it is there it is so small, there is an indentation in the towpath side.  Unless the boat is very short I would have thought it would be easier to go down the lock to turn.  If you continue on the canal past the lock and the long term moorings there is a visitor mooring at the end (by the road!) but you would have to reverse back to Isis lock.

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Many years ago, we turned a 47 ft hire boat at the dead end of the Hythe Arm - just pulling it round on a rope.  Subsequently, we managed to turn a 45 ft boat there in a similar fashion.  Last time we visited Oxford, I think it was signed max 30 ft for turning.  Probably too overgrown and silted up now.

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