Welcome to the latest edition. Before you dive in to the articles, and if you were one of the many who got in touch in response to the article on cruising past moored boats, thanks! It seems to be a hot topic and I’ve summarised what’s been said below.
Welcome to the latest edition. Before you dive in to the articles, and if you were one of the many who got in touch in response to the article on cruising past moored boats, thanks! It seems to be a hot topic and I’ve summarised what’s been said below.
Along with that you’ll find out how Mike Grimes, head of boating, got on when he was asked to answer the questions you’ve most frequently been asking the customer service team. There’s also a great video reflecting on how waterways were used in wartime and, as usual, a list of the maintenance, repair and restoration work that may affect your cruising this weekend.
The usual latest boating news and upcoming events are below along with other bits and bobs. But, as always, if there’s a particular topic you’d like to see in a future edition, or a regular feature you think will be useful, then please get in touch. In the meantime, click on the links below to jump to the article of your choice:
Happy boating,
Damian
Since the last edition you may have heard, or seen, that:
And if you’re wondering what you can enjoy on or by a canal in the next couple of weeks then you might be interested in:
Of course, there are plenty of other activities and volunteering opportunities around the network so please visit the events section of the website to find the perfect one for you.
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First and foremost, I’d like to reiterate the thanks given in the intro to all of you who got in touch to share your thoughts about this topic. The volume and passion conveyed clearly showed that this is more than just a bug bear for many of you. On the other hand, some think it’s much ado about nothing.
There’s not enough space to include every response here but if you’d like to read all 12 pages then here they are.
So, what did you say? In summary, 58% of respondents thought that most boats go too fast past moored boats and 74% said you should be at tickover when passing moored boats (with 10% adding that some situations such as strong crosswinds prevent slowing to tickover).
Interestingly, nearly a third (32%) said that, ultimately, it’s the moorers responsibility to ensure their boat is securely tied up. Those are the hard statistics but, for those who haven’t the time to read all the responses, here’s a summary of some of the advice, suggestions and opinion given:
I would have liked to include more comments but the above covers the most frequently mentioned points. If you’ve got the time do have a read of them all.
Reading through the responses the two main messages from the majority were that slowing to tickover a good few boat lengths before reaching moored boats was good practice and, if you’re mooring up, try using springs.
Do you agree? If not, do let me know why!
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The last few articles from Mike have mused about a busy summer, the hectic winter of maintenance ahead and the series of Open Days that are now in full swing. For this edition’s contribution Mike has chosen to answer the questions you’ve most frequently been asking our customer service team.
“Just one flick through any edition of Boaters’ Update underlines how broad the boating topic can be. With this in mind I wasn’t quite sure what questions to expect when it was suggested that I use my monthly column to answer the ones you’ve been asking the most.
“Thankfully no-one asked which two-stroke diesel engine is best or which metal polish will keep a tiller pin gleaming for years to come. I could have guessed at the second but my answer to the first would have gone no further than ‘a reliable one…’
“More thankfully, the thing most were keen to know is how you can update your boat details online – name, mooring, insurance details and so on – I know this one!
“There’s a handy online licensing website that you can use to do all of those things. If you’ve not already registered it only takes a few minutes and from there you’ll be able to keep everything right up to date.
“The second question you’ve been asking a lot is, now that it’s getting to winter and you’re taking your boat out of the water, how do you let us know and get a refund for that part of your licence (and how long will it take to come through)?
“You can let us know that your boat is out of the water using the same online system I mention above. With refunds it’s hard to be exact as sometimes we’re busier than others, but we’ll usually issue it within 15 working days and then it’s down to your card provider as we try to reimburse the card used to make the licence payment, which can take five working days, otherwise it’ll be issued in the form of a cheque.
“There were two final questions which relate more to your time on the water. Firstly, and particularly relevant considering the winter repair and restoration programme is in full swing, you’ve been asking how you can find out about any stoppages or closures that may affect your cruising.
“The best way is to use the stoppage system on our website – search by canal, and/or dates, and it lists anything (including lock opening times, booking details etc.) that affect navigation or towpath use.
“The final commonly asked question was about winter moorings. More specifically, how do you know which spot is yours when you turn up at your designated winter mooring location?
“Individual boats aren’t allocated a specific stretch. There’s space at each site for the number of permits sold so it’s just a case of turning up and finding a spot within the signed stretch that suits you best!
“Phew, that could have been a lot tougher! In my next column I’ll be looking back at the highlights of this year, my first full one as head of boating, and looking ahead to what lies in store for 2017.
“Happy boating.”
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A week ago the country stopped to remember those who served in previous conflicts and wars. To coincide with this, our heritage team produced a video to share their stories of how war has left its mark on our canals and rivers.
You may also be interested in reading our annual Waterways Heritage Report that was published yesterday (17 Nov) – if you love the wonderfully colourful history of the canals then you’re likely to enjoy reading about how we, along with volunteers, have cared for it over the last year.
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If you’ve read the heritage report linked to in the article above you’ll see that we have hundreds of buildings and structures that are centuries old. So, from time to time, things will unexpectedly go wrong.
To give you a better idea of what we dealt with in October I’ve summarised the reasons we had to close navigations – when combined there were only 30 instances of unplanned stoppages, with 25 of those coming from Abbey Lift Bridge on the Montgomery Canal which, for safety reasons, can’t be raised but we are working on a fix.
Four other unplanned stoppages were in the Manchester & Pennine region where we had to fix a hole in the bed of the Trent & Mersey and, at another location, remove a large tree that had fallen into the canal.
The only other one was in London on the Regent’s Canal where we had to do some emergency repairs to Acton’s Lock.
For the curious among you, we classify a closure as anything which stops navigation for more than four hours. If you’ve signed up to receive stoppages you’ll notice that we categorise them in to general reasons, such as repair, inspection or vegetation.
Of course, when we’re dealing with such old structures it’s not always as straightforward as ‘repair’ so we offer more detail in the body of the stoppage notice. But, in case you were wondering, here’s a handy guide to what we classify as a repair, maintenance, inspection and so on.
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Now that we’re deep into this winter’s major restoration and repair programme, the list of works that may affect your cruising is quite long if you actually planned to traverse the whole of the network this weekend!
So as your cruising will be confined to a particular region of the network I’ve provided links below to the respective stoppages. Just click on the one where you’ll be and a webpage will open listing the stoppages for that region. If you’re not quite sure which region your planned cruise falls in to please take a look at this map.
When any restrictions to navigation happen we get them up on to our website as soon as we can – always best to have a scan before you set off for a cruise.
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Happy boating!
Damian
Think of this blog as your one-stop shop for up-to-date boating news. It's packed full of useful information about boating on canals and rivers as well important safety announcements and upcoming events.
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