A Case Study Of Liveaboard Narrowboat Free Spirit

Dave and Alison are living the dream. They need to work to support their lifestyle but because they’re the clever techie types, they can work from the comfort of their boat for just a day a week and enjoy their lifestyle as true continuous cruisers for the rest of the week. What a life!

Who are you? (and your significant other and, of course, your dog if you have one)

Allison (51) Dave (47) and the dog Charlie (7). Charlie is a rescue dog and slightly bonkers. We like to think that we are less bonkers but people who know us may disagree. Dave and I have been together since 1997.  He’s clearly quite mad as he took on me and my three daughters 17 years ago when they were just 4, 8 and 10. He is the best step father ever and has the patience of several saints having gone through ridiculous quantities of PMT.

Tell me a little about yourself and why you decided to live a life afloat

Allison and Dave enjoying the view

My Dad and my Uncle both have narrow boats and I’d been on boating holidays in my younger days. After Dave and I married we did a few hire boat holidays with friends and really enjoyed them. My Uncle took his boat to France and cruised around there for several years and then some friends of ours decided to buy a boat and live on it up at Sawley.

After a few more boating holidays and chatting with friends and relatives with boats we started thinking about possibilities for the future. We had very stressful careers and we decided that a change of pace would be a good idea after Dave was diagnosed with Crohns disease. It wasn’t possible short term as we had the three girls and my Mum who lived near us had terminal cancer and needed our help.

We decided it was a viable long term plan and in 2007 we bought a boat suitable as a future live aboard. We spent the next 5 years driving from Kent where we lived to the boat, near Daventry, almost every weekend and holiday. We loved it and after my Mum died in 2011 and the girls were all gone or planning on leaving home we decided to move onto the boat full time in June 2012. Our house in Kent is now rented out which pays the mortgage and gives us a little bit of extra money.

What is your boat called and why did you decide on that name?

We couldn’t afford a new boat so we bought one that was 10 years old and came with the name ‘Free Spirit’. We loved the name when we got the boat but the regular shouts from the towpath of ‘I’ll have a whiskey’ and our standard reply of ‘we only have gin’ is wearing thin.

Do you have a permanent mooring? If so, tell me about it.

We had a permanent mooring at Weltonfield when we got the boat until we left in June 2012. We thought we would return to Weltonfield each winter but it hasn’t proved practical. We now moor up in whatever marina we can find if we need to go away for any reason and find a marina for Winter wherever we decide we need to be October/November.

I’d love to have a permanent residential mooring with a postal address and a bit of land but they are difficult to find and the CRT ones we have seen have been very expensive. Eventually I think we will sell the house in Kent and see if we can afford a house with a canal mooring in the midlands.

What is you boat length and style?

A 55ft Liverpool Boats Cruiser – we almost bought a 62 ft semi trad but we decided that was just a bit too long and it needed a lot of work considering it was £10,000 more.

How long have you been a narrowboat owner?

7 years

How did you finance your boat?

We had lots of equity in our house so we re-mortgaged and paid £38000 for Free Spirit

How much time do you spend on your boat each year?

All of our time other than when we’re visiting friends and family. This year I think we will have left the boat in a  marina and gone away for about 8 weeks in total.

Are you still working? (If so, what do you do?)

We were and still are IT Solutions Architects. We design IT systems for a  very large Insurance company. We were extremely lucky that when we resigned in 2012 they were so desperate not to lose us (yes we both worked at the same place doing the same job) that they were happy for us to work part time from the boat. We work 1 day each a week and that keeps us in relative luxury.

What do you like least about narrowboat life?

Not having an address is tricky. We have relatives in Kent that manage our post for us and we are still registered with doctors in Kent. We keep our post to an absolute minimum but there are some that still require a postal address. Winter can be difficult but that’s mostly down to a lack of going anywhere and the constant mud. I volunteered for Age UK last winter and did two days a week all winter. It was great fun and really worthwhile.

What do you like most about narrowboat life?

Moving on to new places nearly every day and being able to explore the UK from a new perspective. Our lives are much simpler, less stressful and we have less stuff. Stuff is over rated and despite being our only home our boat is very uncluttered. We have got storage well and truly sorted. Living on the boat has also made it easier to be places we need to be even if it takes a bit longer to get there. My Dad is now ill so we were able to spend last winter in a marina on the Macclesfield to be near him.

If you could change just one thing about your boat, what would it be?

The boat is perfect as it is for the two of us but when we have visitors a little more seating space would be helpful.
It would be great if the boat were just a bit longer, maybe 60 FT, and there was room for a diner between the kitchen and saloon.

Dave would like a semi trad stern but Charlie is not convinced.

When you are cruising how do you resupply (How do you get to the supermarket without a car)?

We walk to the nearest shop or occasionally get a supermarket to deliver to us if we can find a suitable location. It means we live on chicken a lot of the time (Roast Chicken, Garlic Chicken and Thai Green curry are our favourites). We usually manage to get to a decent sized shop or town at least once a month to stock up. In winter we do a lot of casseroles on the stove as its so easy to do and it saves on gas.

How do you do your washing when you are cruising?

We have a washing machine on board and washing usually dries quite quickly hung about the boat with the windows open.

What type of toilet do you have and are you happy with it?

Traveller drop through pump out which is fine. They can get a bit smelly on flushing if its nearly pump out time but some extra blue usually sorts that out. Last winter we got a cassette toilet and used the Elsan point to save moving to the pump out station every two weeks. Luckily the cassette toilet slotted in nicely next to the pump out toilet and Dave didn’t seem to mind emptying it every 3/4 days.

How do you connect to the internet when you are on your boat and are you happy with the service you receive?

We have a 3 wireless modem which gives us 15 GB of data a month. It’s essential for our work and having travelled quite a lot on the UK river and canal system we can say that there are very few places we don’t get a signal. Our office gave us a Vodaphone dongle – it was useless. We rarely had a signal so we gave it back to them. 15 GB used to be loads of data for a month but we are noticing that as apps and gadgets become more data intensive we are starting to get very close to our 15GB limit each month. No watching catch up TV on the internet these days.

What is your favourite canal or section of canal?

We loved the Llangollen but we also loved the Kennet and Avon from Bradford-on-Avon to Bath. When we did the Thames from Oxford to Reading last year we decided rivers were our thing but I think our absolute favourite so far is the Caldon Canal down to Froghall – especially the bit around Consall Forge where the steam train runs alongside.

How do you generate electricity when you are cruising and how much do you use?

The engine generates a fair bit of electricity and we move for around 3 hours most days but we also have 2 x 100W solar panels that are amazing. We had the batteries replaced last winter with 3 x 140 amp batteries and that made a huge difference to how long we can keep ourselves in electric without running the engine. We use quite a lot of electricity with all of the gadgets but we don’t have a freezer (except the little compartment in the 12v fridge), microwave or some of the other electricity guzzling appliances we see on other boats. We also only use high power appliances like the washing machine while the engine is running. I have learned to live without hair dryers and straighteners unless its a very special occasion.

How warm is your narrowboat in the winter?

Very warm. If we are moving we have a heat exchanger that runs the central heating. We also have an Eberspacher that will run the central heating but we rarely use that. If we’re stationary we have a Morso squirrel stove that we can keep going continuously on 2 bags of coal a week.

What advice can you offer someone considering living on a narrowboat?

Don’t under estimate the costs. Boats are expensive to maintain and there always seems to be something that needs doing. Since we bought the boat its been blacked 4 times, had a repaint, new stove, numerous engine repairs and eventually a new engine. On average we spend around £2000 a year just keeping the boat in good condition. Buying food in local shops can be expensive and diesel and pump out costs add up. I reckon we end up spending around £400 a month on food, pump out and diesel. Having said that its cheaper than living in a house and much more fun. We could spend less by moving less.

We knew that moving onto a boat from a house involved getting rid of a lot of accumulated possessions. We had to clear a 4 bedroom house and move into a 55ft narrowboat. This took us around 2 months of going to charity shops, the tip and selling anything we could. We kept some really important sentimental stuff (again relatives with spare cupboard space) but the majority of what we owned had to go. We got rid of all of our CD’s, records and books and most photos went in favour of kindles, ipods and hard drives. Once we’d managed it we found it was incredibly freeing but it was really really hard to do. The local hospice and British Heart Foundation made a fortune from our donations and we don’t miss any of it.

Beware if you are not used to spending lots of time with your other half. We already worked and lived together before we moved onto the boat but we still found that we were spending even more time together on the boat. We make sure that we have our own space (we have a settee and TV each end of the boat for football/rugby/Grand Prix days) and we see other people as often as we can. Some times we get to large cities and realise that we have forgotten how to operate in normal society. Its easy to accidentally become a bit of a recluse if your a natural introvert and spend all your time with someone you know really well.

What obvious questions have I missed from this list?

Family reaction. Our families have been very supportive and help us out with the ongoing issue of needing a postal address and storage of the few things we couldn’t let go of. Our three daughters had grown up and left home (27. 25 and 21) and thought it was a great idea. I do worry that they don’t have a family home to return to if things go wrong but so far so good. They have their Dad and he has a beautiful home if they need a place to stay. We’ve had a family crisis or two in the last few years but we have the money to rent places to stay and hire cars if necessary. We’re very lucky and we know it but I do sometimes feel guilty that we aren’t around to help out more with Dave’s parents who are getting on. At some point I think we will end up back in Kent helping out.Its a shame that there is nowhere near them to moor the boat. Maybe we can low load the boat to their back garden.

What’s the link back to your blog/web site?

Dave writes a blog. Its not like most boat blogs as Dave has  a very well developed sense of humour and loves music. You’ll see what I mean if you read a few entries. Its a great way of making sure family and friends can keep up with what we are up to and Dave seems to like doing it.

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Are you one of the lucky few who lives the dream on board your own narrowboat full time? Would you like to share your experience with some of the thousands of potential floating home owners who visit this site? If you can spare the time to answer a few simple questions, I would love to hear from you. Just let me know so I can email the questions to you. I’ll create a post like the one above complete with a link back to your own blog or website.

2014 05 25 Newsletter – Single Handed Boating Part 2

Crick! It’s the biggest event in the inland waterways’ boating calendar. The Crick Boat Show is always held on the Spring Bank Holiday, as is the local Napton Show, or the Napton Horse, Pony and Novelty Dog Show as it’s properly called. Both are renowned for dismal weather. Last year was a welcome exception. Three days of unbroken sunshine delighted the crowds. This year we’re back to form.

Calcutt Boats are exhibiting at the Crick Show this year as usual, but unusually the stand is under cover in the Kingfisher marquee. The stand is protected from the weather but access to it is not. I spoke to Steven Cox, our buyer who is attending the show, on Saturday morning just before he left Calcutt in time for the show’s 10am opening. The sodden ground behind the marquee was already a quagmire on Friday when the exhibitors were setting up, and that was before another four hours of continuous rain on Saturday morning.

If you’re going, make sure you take a good pair of wellies!

Saturday was quite a busy day for us on the wharf with six of our hire boats going out in the afternoon. Preparing the boats before they go out is always a challenge in heavy rain. We always pray for a break in the weather for the afternoon when the hirers arrive for a possible wet waterways week.

The weather improved yesterday as the day progressed but not enough to prevent us from regularly swapping between tee shirts and waterproofs. At least we didn’t have the wind to contend with as well.

One of the crews I instructed yesterday were enthusiastic but inexperienced. They last hired a narrowboat twenty years ago. On this trip they wanted to introduce their two teenage daughters to the pleasures of a leisurely break on the waterways. I’m not entirely sure that the holiday is going to be successful though after overhearing a mother-daughter conversation on the front deck.

“This is BORING!  I don’t want to listen to that man talking. I want to go NOW! When can we go Mum? When? When?”
“Just be patient. We have to learn how to handle the boat safely first.”
“What’s the problem with it? We’re in, like, two inches of water!”
“Just shut up and listen for once will you!”
“And it’s not as though I can talk to my friends. My phone’s not working in this stupid place!”
“I’m sure you’ll enjoy it as soon as we get going.”
“WHERE are we going?”
“We’re going to Warwick.”
“But we passed Warwick on the way here. It’s just up the road!”
“We’re going to go there by boat. It’ll be exciting.”
“How long will it take?”
“We should be there on Monday.”
“Two days! We only passed it in the car half an hour ago!”
“Yes, but we’re going by boat this time. You’ll like it. You can open the locks.”
I don’t want to open the locks. I don’t want to go on a boat. I want to go HOME!”

I quietly retreated at this stage and helped get the boat ready for departure. The young lady’s mood improved a little when she was unleashed on the lock but judging by the squabbling with her sister about who should raise the paddle, who should lower the paddle, who should open the gate, who should do just about anything at all, it’s wasn’t going to be a peaceful and harmonious trip.

The father “supervised” his two daughters while the mother took the boat into the lock while I stood on the back of the boat with her and watched. She managed a perfect lock entry, then brought the boat to a very graceful halt inside the lock. The warring sisters opened both gates to allow us out, and then we met another novice hire boat crew.

They hadn’t discovered that in order to move the boat out from the side they needed to push the bow out, so they were grinding the bow down the reinforced concrete on the towpath side between the two locks with the stern jutting out into the canal and across our path. Our lady steerer was at a bit of a loss. She remembered me telling her that she must pass boats port to port. Clearly she couldn’t do that here, so she began to panic.

Of course, if she had a few more boating trips under her belt, she would have expected the unexpected and simply maneuvered carefully around the floundering hire boat on the “wrong” side before entering the next lock. Once she had been given the solution, the execution was no problem at all. With minutes we were safely in the second lock watching the windlass wielding competitive sisters.

Successful narrowboat navigation is all learning the theory then using common sense when putting it in to practice. I can help you with some of the theoretical stuff below. I’m afraid you’re on your own with the common sense part of it.

Narrowboat Handling

In last week’s newsletter I discussed the narrowboat style which I think is most suited to the lone boater and basic equipment you should have on hand to make your cruise both safer and more pleasant. This week I’m going to talk about boat handling.

Before I go into the intricacies of boat handling I want to briefly mention a common addition to narrowboats, usually but not always cruiser stern boats, which makes boat handling a pain in the backside.

Head high rear deck covers, or pram covers as they are often known, are a nightmare. I love moving boats around the marina. I enjoy the challenge of steering boats of different lengths with a variety of engines and handling characteristics and responsiveness in reverse (ranging from none to very little). I love them all, apart from those fitted with pram covers.

Rear deck covers are wonderful for cruiser stern boats which spends long periods on static moorings. They are far less than wonderful as far as actual boating is concerned.

For a start, a cover encasing the rear deck impedes access to the boat’s centre rope. Easy access to the centre line is essential for lone boating. On all the deck covers I’ve seen, you can fold down the plastic window in front of you, so it’s possible to reach forward and grab the centre line, but you then can’t step off the boat with it in your hand. The deck cover’s side panels get in the way. The only way you can step off your boat holding the centre line is by precariously shuffling along the gunnel to get around the deck cover before quickly grabbing the rope then leaping off the boat before you fall into the gap between the boat and the approaching bank. It’s not pleasant, safe or easy.

Another problem with cruising with the covers up (and if you want to cruise with the cover removed you have to find somewhere to put it) is that you can’t feel the wind. Why do you need to feel the wind? Because when you are handling a narowboat you either have to work with the wind or really struggle to control your boat on anything other than a still day. I’ll cover the effects the wind has on your boat a little later on.

One final disadvantage with rear deck covers is negotiating bridge holes. I was talking to a couple on the wharf on Tuesday who were sadly on what was going to be their last ever cruise on a boat which they’ve owned for twenty years. The man, who had just turned eighty, had lost his enthusiasm for boating. The effort of carting possessions from house to boat and back again, hefting heavy bags of coal and gas cylinders and working stiff locks and bridges had become more than a chore than a pleasure.

They had a head high cover over their rear stern which had cost them a fortune. It cost them an arm and a leg to have it made in the first place and then repaired, twice, after the top caught on low bridges.

The whole point of boating is to get you out of an artificial environment and into a natural setting where you can enjoy the sights and smells around you. It’s very difficult to become one with nature when you’re encased in thick plastic! Forget the thought of having a pram cover over a cruiser stern. Buy a trad stern narrowboat and enjoy getting wet instead!

OK. Now that’s off my chest, on with narrowboat handling.

Steering A Narrowboat

Imagine your boat as a compass. It pivots at the centre so if you want to turn your boat to the left, you have to push the tiller over to the right and vice versa. It’s very simple and you soon get used to it. As part of the instruction we do with our hirers we take them along the canal above Calcutt Top Lock for five hundred metres before jumping off and leaving them to their own devices. Very few new boaters have problems steering the boat forward. Going backwards is a different kettle of fish.

The only way to reverse a narrowboat effectively is to get the boat pointed in the right direction by going forwards, then stick it in reverse and hope it goes in a straight line. It rarely does. Most narrowboats will drift to the left because of “prop walk” If the boat drifts off course, you need to correct the line by going forward again. Once the boat is again pointing in the right direction, you can again put it in reverse.

Some narrowboats, not all of them by any means, can have their direction influenced slightly by pointing the swan’s neck in the direction you want it to go. It’s usually not much of a help, but it is a help.

Getting On And Off Boats

Once you have steered your boat gently towards the bank, and applied reverse thrust to bring the boat to rest, you can get off. Of course you don’t want to get off and then discover that the boat has gone off on a cruise of its own so make sure that you put the boat into neutral and then take it out of gear. It’s very easy on a cruiser stern narrowboat to catch the morse control (the gear lever) with your foot as you step off. If the boat is still in gear when you catch it, the boat will go surging off down the canal without anyone on board.

I actually saw this happen at Calcutt Top Lock a couple of years ago. The crew of a hire boat – not ours – had brought their boat to a controlled stop beneath the bottom lock. The two ladies stayed on the front deck while first one man, then the other, casually stepped over the boat’s side rail and onto the towpath. The centre rope remained neatly coiled on the roof in the middle of the boat.

The second man to step off caught his food on the morse control as he stepped onto the footpath. The boat, still in gear and now at full throttle, surged forward and away from the towpath. In a desperate attempt to regain control of the boat both man tried to jump back onto it. Both failed. Both fell into the canal. One narrowly missed jumping into the spinning propeller. The boat crashed into the closed lock gate knocking both ladies on the front deck off their feet.

An experienced nearby boat owner first talked to two shocked ladies into taming the out of control boat before asking them to throw the centre line to the two dripping and very embarrassed males who had been pulled out of the water onto the towpath. No harm was done on this occasion apart from a few splinters out of the long suffering lock gate and a few chips out of the boat’s bow paintwork. They were very lucky.

Another fundamental mistake made by narrowboat novices is when they try to move from the towpath back into the centre of the canal. Remember that a narrowboat turns from the centre? So, in order for you to move at an angle from the towpath back into the middle of the canal, the stern would need to swing round to allow the bow to point in the preferred direction of travel. Of course it can’t if the boat is hard up against the bank, but that little inconvenience doesn’t stop novice boaters from trying.

We see no end of hire boats surging along the towpath between locks knocking chunks out of the concrete and scraping the little remaining paint from the boat’s rubbing strake.

The way to move quickly and quietly away from the side is to give the boat a helping hand. Keeping hold of the centre line you walk along to the front of the boat, lay the palm of your hand against the cabin side and give it a good hard push, making sure that you don’t lose your balance and fall into the canal. Yes, I’ve seen it happen at Calcutt, more than once.

By the time you reach the back of the boat, the front should be pointing towards the centre of the canal so as soon as you step on board you can travel in a straight line away from the bank.

Negotiating Locks

Locks fill many novice boaters with dread. A wide range of skills are required, especially if you are a lone boater. You need to carefully bring your boat to rest just before the lock, secure the boat, raise the paddles, take the boat in through a gap barely wide enough to accommodate the boat, close the hefty gate behind you ( the gates at Calcutt weigh 480kg each), let the water in to or out of the lock, open the far gate, take your boat out, then close the gate behind you.

Calcutt Top lock is the first lock encountered by our own boat hirers plus those from Black Prince at Wigram’s Turn marina and Napton Narrowboats just around the corner. On busy turn round days in the summer we can sometimes have half a dozen novice hire boat crews congregated at the top lock, racking their brains to remember what they’ve been told about lock procedures.

The first and possibly the most common mistake is when they try to bring their boats close to the bank for the first time. The boat needs to be be brought gently to a halt, by letting the speed bleed off rather than by putting the boat in reverse, and at no more than thirty degrees to to the bank.

We often see boats approaching the bank too fast, which results in the boat being thrown in reverse with great enthusiasm, and one or two of the crew skiing along the towpath as they try to bring the boat to a halt by hauling on the bow line.

Even when the boat is brought to a controlled stop, the crew often have problems if they, as they often do, try to hold the boat to the side using either the bow or the stern lines. Powerful pumps carry water from miles downstream before depositing it in the summit pound about fifty metres back from the lock gates, just at the point where many of waiting boats pull over. When the pumps are running, the force of the water pushes one end of the boat into the middle of the canal unless the boat is secured firmly by the centre line. Controlling the boat should always be done with the centre line if possible.

Locks are a step in the water levels between one stretch of canal “pound” and another. The principle is always the same. If you want to go “downhill” you have to bring the water in the lock up to the same level as your boat, take the boat into the lock and then let the water out until it’s the same level as the next pound.

The lock will have either ground or gate paddles at either end which, when raised, will allow water to flow into the lock from the upstream end and out of the lock at the downstream end. Paddles at both ends should never be open at the same time.

If both the upstream and the downstream paddles are open, water flows from the upstream pound, through the lock and into the downstream pound. The result is that (A) the lock will never either fill or empty enough for you to open the gate and (B) more importantly, may flood the pound that the water is running in to.

A flooded pound is something we used to have quite often at Calcutt. Our wharf is located between Calcutt Top and Calcutt Middle locks. The distance between the two is just over ninety metres so it’s a relatively small area which can flood quite quickly. If we didn’t spot the rising water in time, the water would flow over the side of the wharf and cascade downhill to our engineering workshops. Load swearing from the sodden engineers would alert us to the problem.

We made life much easier for ourselves by raising the level of the wharf by six inches. Now if the paddles are left open, the towpath floods rather than our buildings.

I know our locks and the locks on the Grand Union and Oxford canals close to Calcutt very well indeed. But I’m not familiar with many of the different styles of locks in other parts of the network. It’s an important subject and one which I want to cover in as much detail as possible so I’ve enlisted some help.

Peter Earley (Pearley on the forum) has more than enough experience for the both of us. Since he sold his house and had his boat built in 2007 he’s been continuously cruising the network. He kindly agreed to jot down a few notes about locks. Here they are…

Narrow locks going up

The top gates may have just ground paddles or ground paddles and gate paddles. Open the ground paddles first but gently. All locks have there own characteristics but you should be able to see from the behaviour of the boat when and how much to open more gate paddle. The initial surge of water will tend to push the boat back. Keep your tiller turned to one side to prevent the rudder hitting the gate. Your rear fender should be long enough to prevent this but! If the boat starts to charge forward or backwards you are opening them too much but a gentle movement is OK. It is OK to allow the
boat to ride up the front or rear gates, after all you have fenders but keep an eye out for any obstructions that might foul the boat. When the water level has risen enough, usually up to the fill, then you can progressively open any gate paddle.

Narrow locks going down

Again, you can have ground but gate paddles are more likely. Whatever, it is normally OK to open these fully but ensure your boat is well forward from the cill. The boat will be drawn forward by the flow through the paddles so just let it gently nudge up to the gates and drop down with the fender riding down. Be careful when the lock is empty as there is a tendency for the boat to start to move back meaning you could strike the cill.

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN ALL THE TIME. KEEP YOUR FENDERS UP.

It is not generally necessary to use ropes in narrow locks unless you are single handed.

Wide Locks going up

If you’re a single boat going up a wide lock it is a real pain. OK, if you have a big crew someone in the front can be holding the boat with the front rope whilst the steerer holds on with the stern rope, that’s if the bollards are nicely placed. If your crew is just the two then it is normally the centre rope you use. And now the bollards definitely won’t be in the right place but there might be a handily placed ladder.

Theoretically you open the ground paddle on the side that the boat is against. The water enters the lock in front or under the boat, hits the opposite lock wall and rebounds to hold the boat against the lock side whilst it rises nicely. This might work on the Hatton Flight but not everywhere. If you see the water is pushing the boat out and the steerer is frantically trying to hold onto the rope then close the paddle down and try the other side. With gate paddles it was considered normal to open the one on the opposite side from the boat on the theory that the water flow coming across the lock would hit the bow or front side of the boat and again hold it against the side. However, most gate paddles now have baffles to ensure the water doesn’t enter in a great spurt and flood your boat. These baffles will either direct the water downwards or against the lock side. If the latter then the water will be forced between the lock wall and your boat and push you out into the lock. Unfortunately, if it is an unknown lock to you then it is suck it and see.

There are some canals where upper gate paddles are the norm. Open these very carefully. Also be aware of any walkways on the lock gates. Most are on the outer side but not all. It is very easy to get a fender caught under one whilst rising in the lock, especially in those shorter Northern locks where you are trying to keep clear of the lower gates at the same time.

Of course, all this is avoided if you are sharing the lock with another boat but, if the two boats are of unequal length, problems can still occur.

Wide locks going down

This is much the same as a narrow lock. Just open the paddles. If you open the one on the side of the lock you are against then the flow through the paddle can help to hold you on that side.

Staircase locks

Follow the instructions on the notice boards. On narrow staircases it means you cannot pass another boat so there is normally some sort of rota like 3 boats up then 3 boats down.

On wide staircases, despite what some boaters might believe, it is possible for boats to ascend at the same time as another boat is descending. If it is one up and one down, no problem. One up and two down, or vice versa, again no problem, you just have to shuffle around a bit. Two and two down getsca bit more difficult and depends on the lengths of the various boats.

Guillotine Gates.

I can only think of 3 on the canals. Slaithwaite on the HNC, Todmorden on the Rochdale and Salterhebble on the C & H. The rivers Nene and Great Ouse have a lot and there is one on the Whitham and some on the Middle Levels. There are others but I won’t list them here.

Just follow the instructions and you can’t really go wrong but be aware that a few don’t have paddles as such but rely on the gate being opened a fraction so that water flows under the gate to fill the lock. This can be a bit like a mini waterfall. If the gate is manually operated don’t open it too much.

Those on the Ouse and Nene are usually automatic in that you just press one button and the opening sequence start on a timer. You might have to watch the warning lights which will tell you when you can press the button again to open the gate fully. Don’t try to anticipate this. Pressing the button again during this period just resets the timer to the beginning, delaying you even further.

Trent/Aire & Calder Locks

These are big! If you are lucky you might find a keeper. If not they have an operating console at each end of the lock accessed via your BW key. Insert your key and it will all light up. Again, follow the instructions, pressing the buttons when directed. Once your boat is in the lock and the gates are closed, you need to remove your key, walk to the other end of the lock and fill/empty the lock from that end. There are wire ropes recessed into the lock side to secure your boat to. Don’t do it too tight or the rope will snag. If ascending keep to the back of the lock to avoid the turbulence. Here again, the sequence is automatic once you press the button.

Low water levels.

The lock gates close against a wooden or concrete cill that sticks up from the bottom of the canal. You can see the one for the top gates easily if you look behind you when at the bottom of the lock. The lowest point on your boat is the skeg, that bit of steel that sticks out behind the boat to support the bottom end of the rudder. With low water levels it is not unknown for the boat to stick on this so exit the lock slowly. If you do

stick, don’t be tempted to reverse and take a run at it. You’ll only damage the cill and cause another stoppage. Often, taking the boat out of gear will allow the stern to rise a couple of inches and the boat may float out.

If necessary, run some water down from the lock pound above but only enough to get you moving. Remember, that water won’t flow back uphill so running down too much will make problems for either you or the next boat. If in doubt then phone CRT.

That’s the end of Pete’s information but I would like to add a few comments about locks.

Locks offer all the ingredients for serious accidents; copious quantities of fast flowing water, immensely heavy gates, often with walkways across them, enclosed spaces, slippery and heavy metal windlasses loosly attached to paddle gear, unresponsive boats, algae and lichen covered stones and bricks, steep drops, deep water, churning propellers and, last but not least, excited and often untrained boaters.

Here are some safety and operational suggestions;

• Don’t let enthusiastic bystanders help you with a lock without your permission and without your supervision. Some may be working a lock for the first time and won’t have a clue how to operate it correctly. Some may have been boat owners for many years, and still don’t have a clue how to work the lock properly! If you allow people to help you with the lock, don’t be afraid of taking control. If you want the paddles raised slowly, tell them. If you don’t want the paddles raised at all, tell them.
• Always make sure that the paddles are down at the end of the lock where you bring your boat in before opening the paddles at the far end.
• When you are raising the paddle, stand at right angles to the rotation rather than in line with it. If the windless slips out of your hand, the weight of the paddles crashing back down can cause the heavy metal windlass to spin like a propeller catching your chest or groin as it spins. You don’t want to to happen to you unless you want to end up sounding like Demis Roussos, and you don’t want that!
• The windlass can be slippery when wet. There’s a chance of it slipping out of your hand when the paddle is fully raised, especially if you’ve been winding it up quickly. DO NOT try to catch it if it slips out of your hand. I’ve done it before. It hurts a great deal.
• Make sure that no one is in line with a potential flying windlass while you are working the paddle. Two pounds of flying steel windlass will dampen the enthusiasm of even the keenest boater.
• If you have children with you, or excitable adults, don’t let them jump on and off the boat roof from the side of the lock. Both the lock side and the boat roof are likely to be slippery when wet.
• Make sure that the lock gate’s are closed behind you before you open the paddle at the far end. If you open the paddle while the gates are open, the surge of water will slam them shut, damaging the gates.
• When going down in a lock, ALWAYS make sure that your boat is in front of the cill markers. The cill markers are clearly painted lines inside the lock close to the upstream gate. The photograph below shows what can happen if you allow your boat to drift behind the cill markers.

The cill markers denote a concrete or wooden ledge at the upstream end of the lock. If you allow your boat to drift back behind the marker, and the boat stays there as the water level drops, the rudder or the skeg (the horizontal metal bar welded to the boat’s base plate to support the rudder post’s lower end) will remain on the cill while the front of the boat continues to drop with the water level.

In extreme cases, the front of the boat will drop until the well deck and then the cabin fills with water and sinks the boat. The usual result is that the rudder is pulled out of the cup rendering the rudder unusable until it has been refitted. We have a hire boat caught on the cill about once a month during the season. Re-seating the rudder can often be done by the side of the canal but if the skeg is bent, the boat has to be towed back to base and taken out of the water before it can be repaired.

• When leaving a lock, check to see if there are any boats waiting to come in. If there are, you can leave the gate open as you leave. If there aren’t any boats waiting, make sure you close the gate behind you, and once more check to make sure that all the paddles are down.You will often share a double lock with another boat in a wide lock so both gates will be open to allow both of you to leave. However, there may only be one boat waiting to come in. The waiting boat only needs one gate left open for it so you need to speak to the owner of the boat in the lock with you and agree which one of you will close a gate. It’s customary to leave the gate open on the towpath side. Please note though that the crews on some boats waiting to come in, usually but not always hire boat crews, are reluctant to enter a lock through just one gate so will want you to leave both gates open. It’s always a good idea to speak to the incoming crew to find out what they want to do.
• Lone boater entering a lock going down – It’s an easy lock to enter because the lock is full. You steer the boat into the lock slowly and stop mid way between the two gates and lightly secure the centre rope to a bollard. Make sure that the rope is lightly secured because if the lock is deep and the centre line is firmly secured, as the water level drops, your precious boat can be left dangling on the lock wall secured by a relatively weak rope until the strain proves too much for the rope, the rope snaps, and your boat crashes into the water beneath. Keep an eye on the centre line as the water level drops. Make sure that it’s not going to snag on any obstructions on the roof as rope tightens. If the rope is too tight to allow the boat to drop with the water level, lower the downstream paddles before any harm is done and, if necessary, raise the upstream paddles to let more water into the lock until you have enough slack in the rope to resolve the issue.

  Once you have emptied the lock, it’s time to take your boat out. You have a choice; you can either climb down the lock ladder on to your boat roof and then hop down onto the back deck, or you can haul your boat out of the lock using the centre rope. Personally, I prefer climbing into the lock and on to the boat. I find it the easiest option, but you need to be careful.

  Lock ladders need negotiating with care. They are often wet and therefore slippery, and they are often bolted fairly close to the wall so you can’t get as much of your foot on the rung as you would like. Always have three points anchored on the ladder (i.e. both  hands and one foot) so if you slip, you won’t fall.

  Always take care when you step from the ladder onto the boat. Ideally, you should line up the boat’s rear deck with the ladder before you climb down so that you can simply step off the bottom of the ladder on to the safe and easy to negotiate deck. The boat may drift though so you’ll be obliged to step from the ladder onto the cabin roof. Tread carefully. I have to watch out for my pole and plank and the brackets securing them to the roof, and my three solar panels and cabling.

  If you are on your own in a double lock, sometimes the wind will push the boat away from the side of the lock with the open gate in front of you to the opposite side of the lock behind the closed gate. If you’re organised, you will have made sure that the centre rope is still on the opposite side of a lock-side bollard to the boat so that you can ensure that the boat stays tight to the lock wall.

  If you’ve forgotten to do this, providing the wind isn’t too strong, you can carefully walk along the gunnel to the bow and push the boat off the “wrong” lock wall. By the time you reach the back of the boat again, the bow should be in line with the open gate.

• As you leave the lock, if there is no traffic coming in, you are obliged to close the gate behind you. It’s quite time consuming when you are on your own to take your boat out of the lock, tie it securely to one of the bollards at the lock entrance, walk back to the lock to close the gate and then return to your boat to carry on with your journey.

  The quickest way is to leave the lock slowly and bring the boat to a stop so that you can step off onto the landing beneath the lock, run up the steps, close the gate, run back down the steps and onto your boat. The whole process should take less than a minute once you have done it a few times. Always make sure that you step off the boat with your centre line. You don’t need to secure it but leave it on the ground so that you can use it to pull the boat back towards you if it drifts away from the landing.

  This technique will only work on relatively calm days. If there’s a wind blowing, there’s a good chance that the boat will be pushed away from the landing or the bow pushed into the bank.

I hope you find these tips useful. If there’s any aspect of working a lock which you feel is missing or which you are unsure about, please email me to let me know. I’ll add the missing information as soon as I can.

Bogus Narrowboat Adverts

How would you like to buy a narrowboat for a fraction of its real value? I’m sure you would jump at the opportunity to save thousands or even tens of thousands of pounds. But you need to be very careful with online sellers offering bargain boats. If the offer seems to good to be true, it probably is.

Two years ago I was contacted by a lady who had seen a wonderful narrowboat being offered for sale on eBay for a fraction of what she would have expected to pay for it. After receiving several emailed replies to her queries she was still uneasy so she contacted me. I wrote about the scam in this post.

Earlier in the week I received an email from Pillings Lock marina. They have noticed that a number of boats for sale at their marina, now sold, are once more being advertised for sale online without the current owners’ knowledge. Here’s the email from Pillings Lock marina…

“I want to spread the word about fraudulent Narrowboat adverts.

http://www.usedhuddersfield.co.uk/classified-ad/1981-Sagar-39ft-Traditional-Style-Narrowboat-_22753750

 Many of our own adverts have been copied very recently on websites like “Friday-Ad”, “Loot” “Gumtree” and “Preloved” – there was even some on local Bristol and Huddersfield websites. It is not the fault of these websites, the sheer scale of advertisers & email only contacts mean that it is almost impossible to stop this kind of activity. But what we can do is publicise the problem and it may deter the criminals involved.

 If the advert is fraudulent, it seems the boat in question is usually under-priced, for quick sale etc. to encourage potential viewers into sending a holding deposit to hold the vessel before viewing it.

 Please advise all Boat Buyers to not get into this situation;

 Always go and see a boat before handing over any money.  

1. Ask to see documentation – previous bill of sale, CRT license data/corresponds with owner, BSSC, Mooring bills, boatyard bills…
2. Ask owner for photo ID (passport or photo driving license) and evidence of address details.
3. Or buy via an approved Marine Broker/Boatyard/Marina.

 It would be a shame if anyone was caught out but this awful type of scam so any publicity you can give to this matter would be really helpful.

 Many thanks for your assistance!

Paul Lillie
Managing Director
Pilling’s Lock Marina Ltd”

  As you can see, the advert Paul linked to has been removed by the site owner. Here’s another which I copied before it was taken down…

It’s possibly not the best example to use as the boat was actually sold for £14,000 by Pillings Lock so it’s not the best appointed narrowboat you’ll find but the current advertised price is about a third of its true value.

Paul offers excellent advice in his email but in addition, please read my post of the fraudulent eBay advert. I’m sure that communication withe the “seller” would follow a similar pattern.

Helmsmen, Beware In Locks!

Two weeks ago I wrote about common narrowboat accidents including ones we’ve witnessed at Calcutt and others I had been told about from across the network. I mentioned one particular story which I hadn’t been able to verify about a tragic and fatal accident in a lock. Graham Clutton emailed me with a link to an account of the accident on the BBC news website. I have reproduced the article in full below and included a link to the article on the BBC web site.

Mother’s Oxfordshire narrowboat death an accident

The death of a mother who fell under the propellers of a narrowboat she was steering on a family holiday was a tragic accident, an inquest heard.

Amanda Chapell, 47, from Devon, was negotiating a lock in Cropredy village, near Banbury, Oxfordshire, when the boat hit the lock gate last July.

She was propelled into the water. Her husband and children witnessed her death, the hearing was told.

The Oxfordshire coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Mr Chapell, 44, told the inquest that his teaching assistant wife had been at the helm of the boat as they entered the canal lock on 30 July, 2009.

Mr Chapell said he and their daughter, Anna, 15, were controlling the two sluices while their son, Tom, now 18, was at the front of the boat.

‘Over the handrail’

The family, from Totnes, began to “jiggle” the craft into the middle of the lock, as they had been advised, the hearing heard.

Mrs Chapell put the boat into a stern gear, as she had done many times before, after “quite a lot of water flowed in to the lock”, her husband said.

The inquest heard the vessel then began to move backwards.

But by the time his wife realised she had already moved from her position at the helm – possibly to pull in one of the narrowboat’s fenders, Mr Chapell said.

When she attempted to return to the helm to put the boat in neutral or reverse to steady it, the craft’s rear fender struck the lock gate.

In “a matter of seconds” she was sent straight over the handrail, said Mr Chapell who had been about 50ft (15m) from his wife when she disappeared into the water.

Coroner Nicholas Gardiner said: “I view this as a tragic accident.

“[Mrs Chapell] was not very highly experienced. The boat collided with the rear gate of the lock with some force.

“She would have been sucked around in the swell of the boat and suffered the injuries [from the propeller] causing her death.”

The original article is here.

Boatie folk!

This weekend saw me at the Rickmansworth Canal Festival.

Booze, bands and Boatie Folk at the “Boatie Folk” night on Friday when all the Canal community and those who have moored up for the festival get together, then all day Saturday with my two little boys looking at boats and buying ice cream!

The sheer number of people for who this is their closest contact with the canal is staggering.

The one thing that stuck in my mind most of all though was the sheer breadth and width of the canal community (With apologies to “Blazing Saddles…) “Smokers, tokers, drinkers, thinkers, preachers, papists and pagans, Doctors, lawyers, rich men, poor men, straight,GAY, and undecided. Left and right and stuck in the middle, Narrows, Widebeams, Trads and modern, Rockers, Jazz and folkies- all the spectrum of British life on a water filled channel 20 feet wide!”  Absolutely brilliant! LOL!

The community is so diverse and yet all seem to rub along. The general approach being to “live and let live.”

If you have never been to the Ricky Festival I encourage you to come and have a blast!

Oh, and following on from my rusty woodworking skills I have discovered that project management is not high in my skillset either! We are so far about 4 weeks behind schedule! Granted there have been issues and additions to the plan but even so the going is slow!

This has given me food for thought on the timetable for my fit out. I was looking at 4 weeks. I think twice that is realistic with probably the same for “snagging”.

Also had a long discussion with John the chippy about hot water systems and the solar warmer he is installing to go with the panels he has that mean that he has not run his engine all week until he wanted a shower. Hence the interest in an alternative method of heating that is not via the engine calorifier. Volunteered to help when he builds it. Always happy to learn on someone elses dime!

2014 05 18 Newsletter – Single Handed Boating Part 1

I am now working part time for the Canal & River Trust as a volunteer groundsman, working hard to ensure that the landscaping next to their locks stay rubbish free and aesthetically pleasing. They haven’t thanked me for the work I do probably because they don’t know I’m doing it yet.

As you approach Calcutt Boats from Napton Junction your first view of the business is as you slow down ready to negotiate Calcutt Top Lock. Last winter I spent a week taming what used to be the lock keeper’s cottage garden. When Calcutt Boats opened for business forty years ago, owner Roger Preen lived in the dilapidated cottage with his wife Rosemary and two small children Matthew and Catherine. In more recent years, the cottage has been home to marina manager Martyn and his wife Sue. Neither of them were very interested in the garden so the Calcutt grounds team, Pat and I, have added the garden to the areas we tend.

The cottage garden is Calcutt’s responsibility but the landscaping the other side of the garden’s black and white painted iron railings is looked after by the Canal & River Trust.

Unfortunately, they haven’t been looking after it very well. We see the Trust’s landscaping contractors maybe once a month. Once a month, at a time of the year when we cutting the grass around the site every five or six days, is not often enough to keep the area looking smart. Even on their monthly visits, the time spent in any one area is very brief. It’s not the fault of the guys driving the nippy mowers or scarily powerful strimmers. They have a huge amount of ground to cover each day so they can’t spend the time I’m sure they would like on the areas they cut. Sadly, if we want to give a good first impression of Calcutt Boats to visitors who arrive here by boat, we will have to do the work ourselves.

At 8am on Tuesday, a beautiful morning under a cloudless sky, I loaded one of our two 150lb three-wheeled mowers onto the rear deck of a moored hire boat to transport it a hundred feet onto the towpath side of the canal.

By the time I had unloaded the mower and temporarily moored our hire boat on the bollards close to Calcutt Top Lock’s entrance, masses of bruised purple clouds hung over me, lightening their load by dropping enough water on the grass I was cutting to make my grass cutter look more like a boat than a mower. I didn’t want my boat to obstruct the lock entrance for long so I battled through the deluge for half an hour until the cutting was complete. Of course, the minute I finished, the rain stopped and the sky returned to its cloudless blue. Don’t you just love the English weather?

Wednesday was yet another grass cutting day followed by Thursday, the first day of my “weekend” Sally and I spent most of Thursday eating. We drove into Leamington Spa using the excuse that we needed to visit the EE store to unlock Sally’s old iPhone and visit Homebase to get some tools. We could have sent the unlock request via the EE web site, and we didn’t really need the tools. What we really wanted to do in Leamington Spa was visit Nandos. We love Nandos fiery chicken  and Mediterranean salads so we shared a whole chicken, finished off with an ice cream each and then wandered back to the car, stopping for an hour in Leamington’s beautiful and tranquil Jephson Gardens,where we had another ice cream each to finish off our gluttonous outing.

Sally was back at work on Friday. For me, the day should have been spent newsletter writing, but I’m afraid that the weather was too tempting. I’ve gone into more detail below.

I was back at work on Saturday and, unusually, I wasn’t working on the wharf. We had a full compliment of wharf staff and instructors and only four boats scheduled to go out in the afternoon. As we had eight boats due back in though I decided to hang around to give them a hand to take the boats down through the lock and reverse them onto the wharf.

Our hire boats are due back at Calcutt at 9am but they can arrive at the lock waiting to be taken down any time between 8am and 9.30am. While I waited for the boats to arrive at the lock, I raked the grass  which I had cut at the beginning of the week next to the towpath.

Greeting the happy hirers at the end of their holiday is always a pleasure. In most cases they have had a wonderful time. Many are complete novices when they begin their cruise and are often very nervous boat handlers. Usually a week on the water has transformed them completely. Yesterday’s batch were particularly interesting to talk to as they had set out with the wind blowing hard enough to deter even experienced boat owners. As the week progressed, the weather improved. When they arrived at the lock yesterday the sun was blazing from a cloudless sky and the windless water was mirror-smooth.

By 9.30am all the boats were safely back on the wharf so I abandoned my raking for a while to cut the grassed car parking area in front of reception. Then I abandoned the car park grass cutting when one of the ride-on mower’s drive belts snapped. It’s lasted two years so I can’t complain. Unfortunately I won’t be able to get a replacement now until Tuesday or Wednesday. At the rate of growth at the moment it will be waist high by then.

I went back to my lock-side raking at a now very busy lock. Hire boats were out in force including some early starters from Black Prince at Wigram’s Turn marina. I watched one novice crew try unsuccessfully to lower the water level in the lock by raising the upstream paddles. After five minutes I pointed out their error. They thanked me before nervously heading for the next lock.

And then we had some excitement. I told you about an accident at the lock recently and wrote about the dangers of boating in general and the potential for accidents in locks in particular. Yesterday’s accident was in the lock.

New live board boaters Janet and Andrew Ledbetter had moored their boat on the towpath above Calcutt Top Lock half an hour earlier so that they could visit our chandlery. Andrew was concerned that their three year old rescue German Shepherd, Lucky, had been a little too enthusiastic crossing the lock gate on the way to the chandlery so to protect him, so he put the dog on a lead for the return journey.

Half way across the gate, Lucky lunged forward, so Andrew pulled on his lead to check him and pulled Lucky off the gate and into the lock where he hung, still attached to the lead and Andrew’s hand, until the pain from the lead handle stripping skin from his hand caused Andrew to drop the heavy dog and his lead into the empty lock and onto the sill.

The boat entering the lock nosed forward so that the teenaged boy on the front deck could reach Lucky where he stood trembling ankle deep on the concrete platform. The boat couldn’t get close enough to the dog because the bow hit the sill so we decided to close the gate and slowly raise a single paddle to gently introduce water in the lock to float the boat’s bow over the sill and closer to the frightened and shivering Alsatian.

By the time there was enough water in the lock to allow the boat’s bow to move forward towards the dog, the water had risen to a depth over the sill too deep for the dog to stand, which panicked him into thrashing about in the water looking for a way to escape.

Lucky was a heavy dog and too difficult for the teenager to pull on board from where he lay across the bow. He wasn’t doing the dog any favours either by trying to pull him on board by his collar. All he succeeded in doing was choking the terrified animal.

I climbed down into the lock and onto the boat’s front deck, reached down into the water, grabbed Lucky by the scruff of the neck and hauled him on board. It was fortunate for both me and for the dog that Lucky had a very placid nature and didn’t once complain about the rough treatment he received from two complete strangers.

We filled the lock until Lucky could safely jump off the front deck into the waiting arms of a tearful and thankful Andrew.

Thankfully Lucky suffered nothing more than an unwanted cold shower from the leaking lock gate. Andrew vowed to let Lucky make his own way across lock gates in the future rather than try to protect him and actually put him in a more risky situation. He talked about getting a harness with a carry handle for Lucky but acknowledged that it would be pointless as he wouldn’t be able to lift him anyway.

Crick Boat Show

It’s that time of the year again. The meadows at Calcutt are a riot of colour, the site’s fifty species of trees and shrubs are bursting with spring buds of the freshest green and our car parks are full as boaters make the most of the early season sun. The weather’s looking good for next weekend, which might come as a bit of a surprise to the tens of thousands of boating enthusiasts who have visited the Crick boat show in previous years.

Historically, the weather during the three day show is a little damp. Last year was the exception to the rule. Three days of glorious sunshine swelled the crowds and helped to make the 2013 show one of the most successful to date. The late May bank holiday weather forecasts is looking just as good this year though so the Northamptonshire marina is worth a visit on at least one of the three show days.

I’ll probably be there as usual on the final day of the show hoping for a bargain but expecting just to empty the contents of my wallet into the pockets of the exhibitors offering products to help me improve my boat’s appearance and functionality.

One of the many exhibitors worth paying a visit is Martin Lambert and his MaxMon boat monitoring equipment on stand Kingfisher 57 (sensibly under cover in case there’s rain on any of the three days).

Martin installed a test unit on James just before I escaped the English winter for a month in the Philippines. The daily reports I received via email were very reassuring. My main concern at the time was the temperature on board. I’ve seen some disasters at the marina when boats suffered substantial damage because of inadequate heating during very cold spells. The MaxMon emails included graphs of the temperature on board every hour for the previous day so I didn’t have to worry about returning to burst pipes or, as happened just a month ago to one boat at the marina, finding out that the boat had sunk.

A sensor can be attached to the unit which monitors the water level. If last month’s sunken boat had been fitted with one of these monitors, the owner would have been alerted to excess water in the engine room. He could have called us and we would have been able to immediately assess the situation and pull the boat out of the water before water entered the cabin.

It’s a great bit of kit. You can see it in action at the Crick Boat Show Stand Kingfisher 57.

 Single Handed Boating

The thought of single-handedly managing a fifteen to twenty tonne boat measuring up to seventy feet in length as it travels along narrow canals and even narrower locks fills many potential boat owners with dread. Many existing boat owners too would rather spend an afternoon with Piers Morgan than take their boats out without a crew.

If you are a potential boat owner and you subscribe to this view, you’ll be pleased to hear that single handed boating is much easier than you think. It’s true that certain aspects of negotiating the inland waterways in a narrowboat are easier with an extra pair of hands but generally you just need to be a little more organised when you are on your own.

Choosing The Right Boat

I prefer traditional “trad” stern narrowboats for a number or reasons; I like the additional living space available in a trad stern boat rather than a cruiser stern, I think they look better, and I think they are far better designed for the single boater.

A cruiser stern is designed to accommodate a group of people standing at the rear of the boat keeping the helmsman company during a cruise. If there is a group to help you, the helmsman, then a cruiser stern narrowboat is perfectly OK. However, if you remove the convenience of an extra pair of hands, the cruiser stern’s additional space becomes a bit of a pain.

When you’re cruising on your own, you will want to have everything you need close at hand; a waterways guide to check your location, water points, refuse stations, junctions and moorings, maybe a notebook and pen to record sights and sounds as you cruise, a pair of binoculars to zoom in on an elusive kingfisher perched on a bull rush, a camera to capture a moment forever and a set of waterproofs to protect you from the inevitable rain. On a cruiser stern narrowboat you can’t easily keep these things both accessible and dry.

On a trad stern boat, the cabin is just a couple of feet in front of you. In fact, you’ll probably spend much of your cruising time standing inside the doorway to the engine room, immersing your lower half in the comforting heat rising from the engine. You’ll be able to lay the tools of your trade within easy reach on the roof when it’s dry or on a shelf inside the engine room when the rain falls.

I also find a trad stern boat more comfortable during long spells at the tiller. A cruiser stern boat may well offer somewhere to sit, but sitting down often involves peering over the roof at the half-seen canal ahead. I can stand at the tiller on my own boat and enjoy a marvelous unobstructed view in front of me, but take the weight off my legs by leaning against the hatch.

Think carefully about your boat’s stern if you know you’re going to be cruising alone most of the time.

Your Best Friend On Board – The Centre Rope

If you don’t have a centre rope on board, buy one. Or better still, buy two. A centre line helps you easily control your boat when you step off it to either moor or to negotiate locks or swing or lift bridges. Having two centre ropes means that whichever side of the boat you step off, you can always take a rope with you which isn’t going to get caught on roof obstacles.

One of the most often seen mistakes made by inexperienced hire boat crews is their rope handling. You often see them try to hold the boat into the side by either the bow or the stern rope. The end result is that the end of the boat they aren’t holding often swings away from the bank into the centre of the canal.

With a centre rope you can easily step off the boat and retain complete control, confidently and quickly secure the boat to the side before doing what you need to do.

When you select your centre ropes, make sure that they will reach from where you secure them on the roof to about three metres past the boat’s stern. This extra length comes in very handy, for example, if you want to step off the back of the boat to pull parallel to a wharf to have it pumped out or to change the gas bottles in a bow locker.

Proper Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance

Remember your scouting days before you were thrown out for being a bad influence on the other scouts? Was that just me? Be prepared!

When you are on your own you don’t have the get-out-of-jail-free card that you have when you have crew on board. You need to think ahead to make sure that everything you need once you leave your mooring is close at hand.

Centre line: One of the first things to check is the location of your centre rope. It’s no good coiled up neatly on the roof if you can’t reach it when you need it. Always make sure that the centre rope(s) are within reach from where you stand at the helm.

Tiller: If you have a detachable tiller, make sure that you bring it out of the boat and fit it before you undo your mooring lines. It’s very embarrassing to find yourself drifting out from the canal bank into the face of oncoming traffic without means of steering

Anchor: If you are on or are about to join a river, make sure that you have an anchor ready, already attached to the boat and ready to deploy from where you stand at the helm. If your engine stops when on the river and you are being carried along by a strong current, you want to be able to bring the boat safely to rest as quickly as possible.

Life Jacket: Essential for rivers, recommended for single handed lock work.

Phone: You will be on your own probably somewhere in the countryside, often where others are not. If you hurt yourself, your phone may be your only means of calling for help. Make sure that your phone is within reach and fully charged.

Waterways Guide:  A good quality guide showing bridge numbers and facilities along the way is a must. Make sure you can reach it from the helm.

Glasses: If, like me, you are a boat owner of a certain age, there’s a good chance that your youthful 20/20 vision has taken a bit of a battering. There’s no point in having a guide handy if you can’t actually read it.

Location: If you do have an accident and need to let the emergency services know where you are, make sure that you can give them an accurate location. Make sure that you have your waterways guide to hand while you cruise and make a mental note of the bridge numbers as you pass them.

Note Book: Are you keeping a record of your journey? A note book and pen within reach make the job so much easier

Camera and binoculars: Ditto above.

Waterproofs, Hat & Sunglasses: Whatever the weather, make sure you don’t get caught out.

A Hot Drink: You might not want the hassle of mooring up when you’re ready for your hourly brew. Fill a thermos before you start in anticipation of your hectic cruising schedule and solo coffee breaks

What Goes In Must Come Out: If you don’t have the time or the inclination to moor up before you visit the loo to get rid of all that coffee you’ve been drinking and you find yourself on an unpopulated stretch of river or canal, you can use a pee bottle (Much easier to use if you have the privacy of a trad stern to hide behind).

I have an apology to make. I wrote the section above on Friday, the second of my two days off this week. I was trying to make sure that nothing was missing from the list above. I glanced for the umpteenth time out of the window at the clear sky and glorious sunshine and decided that the only sure way of including everything on the list was by refreshing my memory with a short cruise.

Within minutes I was untying my mooring ropes and heading out of the marina. I planned to spend an hour out of the marina, two at the very most, but I’m very weak.

Because I didn’t have much time, I turned left out of the marina entrance and headed north west along the Grand Union towards the Stockton flight. There are a couple of lock free miles before reaching a new place to turn just before the flight. Turning used to be possible in the entrance to Kate Boats’ marina but they weren’t very happy with boats turning there and often left boats moored close to the entrance to discourage the practice.

The latest option is the recently developed Nelson’s Wharf which last saw activity in 1968 when the army’s trainee demolition engineers blew up the old cement works buildings to practice their fledgling pyrotechnical skills. The new wharf has been built by Willow Wren Training. The recently cleared short section of the old cement works arm makes a very easy to use winding hole. I don’t know what their official position is on boats turning there, but I received an enthusiastic wave from a talking on the phone in the doorway of the new all timber office as I nosed into the arm, so we’re off to a good start.

I left the marina at 1pm. I should have been back by 2pm but as normally happens when I’m out on the boat I completely lost the will to complete the day’s routine tasks ahead of me. Instead, on the return journey and only about half a mile from the marina, I moored against the towpath, made myself a cup of coffee, grabbed my Kindle, rolled back the cratch cover and sat down to read. I don’t think I read more than a page before I was seduced by the gentle art of people watching as a stream of happy boaters cruised gently by.

In between smiles and casual waves to happy cruisers, I tried to do a little work. I sat with my laptop across my legs with twitching fingers poised above the keyboard, but I couldn’t do it. I closed the lid and watched a mallard with her seven little balls of fluff, surfing over the wash from passing boats. I watched a crested grebe duck beneath the brown water in search of afternoon tea. I watched a flight of Canada geese wheel across the sky towards the marina. I watched and I sunbathed and I watched some more. I climbed off the boat to clean the windows on the towpath side, and I watched the world go by.

I spent so much time watching that I didn’t get back on to my mooring until 6pm, just in time to get our evening meal ready, but far too late to make a significant impact on the newsletter. What I have been able to include though are the answers to some general boating questions which were included in an email I recently received asking me for information about lone boating. The email I received and my answers to the questions are below..

Simply keep your tank full. Most narrowboat hold enough diesel to allow you to cruise and to heat your boat for many days at a time. Mine holds 350 litres which, I once spent half an hour on a cold and wet Sunday afternoon calculating, would allow me to travel from Calcutt to Braunston, turn left up the north Oxford before joining the Coventy, then the Trent & Mersey canals, hold my breath while I negotiated the Ribble link, explore the length of the Lancaster canal before turning round at Tewitfield then retracing my steps to arrive back at Calcutt a month later. All without stopping for fuel. But my not stopping for fuel odyssey wouldn’t necessarily be over. I could then cruise down the south Oxford to Oxford, join the Thames for forty exhilarating downstream miles to Kennet Mouth before spending the final eight days of my six week journey carefully steering around a profusion of live aboard boaters on the Kennet and Avon as I headed towards Avonmouth while I waited, at last, for my diesel tank to run dry.

As you can see, you have to work very hard at running out of fuel. However, if you want to make absolutely sure that there is no danger of emptying your tank, make a dipstick for your tank.  Buy yourself a 3′ – 4′ length of dowel, fill the tank up, push the dowel down to the bottom of your tank, mark the diesel level on the dowel as your “full” mark and then measure your half and quarter marks from there.

Of course you may well forget to dip your tank on a regular basis so the simple solution is to keep it topped up. Topping the tank up also helps to reduce the risk of getting condensation forming inside the tank.

Gas

I use gas for cooking and for water heating. We do a fair amount of each (especially since we’ve installed the twin tub washing machine on the boat and washing everything we own, virtually every day, has become a bit of an obsession with Sally). A 13kg cylinder lasts us about three weeks. Those who use gas just for cooking will tell you that a 13kg cylinder will last them for 3-4 months or more.

We always have two cylinders in the bow gas locker. As soon as one runs out I switch to the other full cylinder and make sure I buy a replacement ASAP. I’ve never run out of gas.

If you buy a boat with a gas water heater, you will probably waste a huge amount of gas. You will probably want hot water either end of the day for a shower and/or for washing dishes. For the rest of the day and night, maybe twenty three and a half hours out of every twenty four, your gas heater is unused but the pilot light is still burning rather expensive propane. By turning your pilot light off when you don’t need hot water can double the life of a single cylinder and cut your gas expenditure in half. I’m embarrassed to have to tell you that I only discovered this money saving tip fairly recently, and even more embarrassed to report that I haven’t yet done anything about it.

Water

When you’re out cruising, don’t miss an opportunity to top up your water tank. Of course you’ll have your trusty Pearson or Nicholson guide to hand to identify the water points along your route. If you have a boat and don’t use one of these guides, you’re missing a great deal.

Personally, I prefer Pearson’s Canal Companions. They tell me a huge amount about the route I plan to cruise including quiet places to moor, places to empty our toilet cassette, pubs and shops close to the canal, winding holes and the lengths of the boats which can use them, bridges, roads and railways and the average cruising time along the illustrated sections. The guides also show the location of the water points along the route too.

I’ve scanned page twelve of the Pearson’s Canal Companion: East Midlands to demonstrate what I’m talking about (with permission from Michael Pearson of course. Thank you Michael).  Two weeks ago I mentioned that Sally and I are taking the boat out for a couple of weeks at the beginning of June. I didn’t need to, but just out of interest, I plotted the route on the excellent CanalPlan web site. Using the default settings, the route planner advised me to stop by bridge 6 on the first night. However, a quick glance at my Pearson’s guide persuaded me to ignore the suggestion.

If you had to choose a place to moor on the network to guarantee a sleepless night, you would be hard pressed to pick a better spot than this with the suggested mooring’s close proximity to the thundering traffic on the M1 supplemented by more noise on the A5, the roar of trains speeding between London and Rugby and the hectic Watford Gap motorway service station relieving thousands of weary travellers of vast amounts of money for food of dubious quality. Instead, we’ll have a peaceful night at Braunston followed by five or six hours cruising the following day to get past the traffic noise to the tranquility of the open countryside after Crick marina.

Returning to the subject of water though, we intend to spend a few days enjoying the remote and lock free summit pound so, thanks to our Pearson’s guide, I can see that after ensuring that our water tank is full when we leave Calcutt we can either top up at Braunston or briefly stop beneath the Watford lock flight. Braunston is too soon, and isn’t the best place to stop for water. We’ll make the quickest stop we can at Watford gap to top up before moving on. Without a waterways guide, the location of facilities such as water points would be a mystery.

Provisions

Back to the waterways guides again. They show locations of supermarkets close to the canals and rivers and also have a section giving further details on the stores available. Please note though that however good you are at planning your route, sometimes circumstances will get the better of you. Always make sure you have enough dry provisions to get you out of trouble. We have enough rice and tinned fish and vegetables on board to keep us going for a week if necessary.

That’s it for part one of the two part lone boating newsletter. Next week I’ll discuss negotiating locks and lift and swing bridges.

Made in Britain

Sounds like I’m ready to knock something and yes I am but please don’t get me wrong. I know a lot of what was made in Britain and what still is made in Britain is excellent … excellent engineering, innovation and of the highest quality. But not swing bridges no – ok, ok I know they’ve only had 200+ years to get it right and probably they weren’t and still are not thinking about the lone traveler but who can’t spell for toffee’s but what a day…

Probably its just me misunderstanding the whole point of what engineering is for – to make it easier, more efficient more conducive to (in this case) traveling on the canal, yes that’s it…it’s just me again.

Swing bridges that leave one on the wrong side of the canal so unable to access the boat once the bridge is open…I was thinking maybe the barge pole could be used as a pole vault to get back across the canal to ones boat so as to take it through after the bridge had been opened and then get back again after to close the bridge or perhaps they are designed so boaters could drop off their spouse/traveling companion so other boaters could pick them up and make new ‘friends’…dunno.

How much would it cost to put up a pontoon so boaters could moor on the correct side ‘do’ the bridge and then moor again after and close the bridge again afterwards. How much…that much wow would it take a think-tank as well so lots and lots of money once the management have been paid.

Front line workers from C&RT are great almost to a man and/or a woman though thus far I haven’t met a woman C&RT lock-keeper or worker but the system put together by management lacks credibility.

Today I have encountered stuck swing bridges – so stuck they used all my strength and ingenuity to get them to move. Lying on my back on the non-lever end pushing with my feet to get them going then jumping up all in a hurry to clamber onto the opening bridge so I didn’t fall in and working my way back to the lever end as the bridge opened on its own momentum.

Then to find the lever hovered over the water so with all my might I’d have to pull the lever grunting and squealing (like a pig) because without wings it is impossible to push the thing.There are the ones that have manually operating barriers that don’t stay shut and don’t lock shut, give no warning to stop the traffic which keeps on going until the bridge actually moves.

At bridge 218 on the Leeds/Liverpool the thing would just not move to open at all and the number provided on the bridge to contact the authority led to a trail of operators telling me it had ‘nowt’ to do with them and they had no idea where I was unless I could give them a post-code.

The fantastic C&RT dude brought a transit van with a tow hook and used a rope to haul the thing open…we (my fellow single boater and me) tried to cool it with water, tried to use the boat to haul with members of the public a pushing (bless them) to no avail, we tried oiling it, hauling it, shoving and a pushing it, shooshing it (sounds like a Val Doonican song), pulling it but only the transit did it until we were knackered…despite the muscles of the mighty but only the transit worked.

Consequently we only managed 8 miles today and were finally stopped at the top of Newlay locks because of kids swimming in the locks and vandalism on the lower lock meant work was in progress. Now we’re moored at the top of Newlay locks (operated only by the C&RT) as there is no going forward today. He (C&RT) is meeting us tomorrow at 7.30 am for an early start to get through.

So am now absolutely worn out and off to bed can’t wait for me head to hit the pillow as I know I will be straight out tired as I am.

UK Houseboats – A Typical Day On Board

UK houseboats come in several forms; craft that can negotiate oceans, coastal waters, rivers and of course the traditional canal network narrowboats or, as they are sometimes called, canal boats.

This article concentrates on the charming and gentle way of life that you can experience living on narrowboats.

UK houseboats – A typical liveaboard

Narrowboats have earned their name because they are just that… narrow. The canal system in the UK was developed at the height of the industrial revolution. To keep costs as low as possible, the new waterways were reduced to the minimum practical dimensions. The canals just allowed two boats to pass in opposite directions. The locks – the increases and decreases in gradient along the route – were often built just over seven feet wide which meant that the maximum practical width for the boats passing through them was, and still is, just 6′ 10″. An average adult can lay with feet touching one side and hands touching the other.

Today there are very few working boats on the canal system. It’s now usually cheaper and far faster to transport goods by road. However, there are now more narrowboats using the canal network for leisure than there ever where for commercial purposes. An increasing number of narrowboat owners are now living on their boats full time. I am one of them.

My narrowboat, James, is a very comfortable compact home. At 62′, James is a good length for a houseboat. James is a traditional design which means that nearly all of the length is under cover. The entrance is via a stern hatch directly into the engine room. A door leads to the aft cabin (my bedroom) with a fixed double bed. Next is the small bathroom, followed by a further bedroom/study. Next is a small lobby where I store my wine and where I can access the narrowboat’s exterior via hatches either side. Finally there is the kitchen and living area.

Life on my UK houseboat is a joy. I can do just about everything you can do in your house but probably not quite as quickly or easily. But the location more than makes up for that and, if I get fed up with the view, I can always move my house!

The day begins at 06:15. I have a routine. Because my gas kettle takes a while to boil, I fill the kettle, turn on the gas and jump in the shower. Actually it’s a 4′ long shallow bath with a shower attachment but it does the job. By the time I’ve showered, dried myself and dressed, the kettle has boiled.

At this time of year, I don’t have to worry too much about overnight and early morning heating. In the winter I have to make sure that my coal stove lasts the night and is rekindled first thing in the morning. In late April with fairly mild nights and warm days, I can get away with turning on the electric fire for an hour while I have breakfast and prepare for work.

After breakfast, I empty the ash from the stove if it’s been used, say hello to the ducks, geese and swans outside the boat. I’m off to work at 08:00 but I don’t have to worry about commuting. I work in the marina where I moor so it’s a three minute walk through woodland to start the day.

My lunch break is for half an hour at 13:00. I come home for a sandwich, cup of coffee and a quick read of my book laying on the narrowboat roof in the sunshine then another three minute commute for the afternoon session.

Work finishes at 17:30. At 17:33 after a grueling commute I’m back at home for the evening. It’s back on the roof for another coffee and more reading before my domestic chores begin while there’s still some warmth in the sun.

I must remember to make my daily checks; gas, electricity, water, kindling and coal. All can run out. Some can’t be replenished until the following day if I run out after the shops have closed.

There’s a gauge in my living area to indicate the level of water in my tank. I can top up my tank anytime but I like to do it in the light (and when it’s not raining). Gas isn’t really a problem. I have one cylinder in use and always keep a full one spare. Electricity isn’t too bad either. I’m plugged into a meter controlled mains supply. I top it up by inserting a pre payment card available at the marina shop. If I run out of electricity my lights will still work because they are powered by the boat batteries. Their charge will last until I can get to the shop. Coal and kindling is more of a problem.

On a cold winter’s night, there’s no finer feeling than sitting in front of a roaring stove. Coal is very difficult to light though so if I don’t have kindling or fire lighters, I can forget the fire. I won’t die if I run out of coal. I still have my little electric fire. The electric fire doesn’t work off the batteries though so if I run out of coal AND electricity it’s very cold in the boat. I just have to go to bed early.

There’s one other check I have to make – the toilet. There are two narrowboat toilet systems; one has a large waste holding tank which can last for two to three weeks. The other is commonly known as a Portapotti. A Portapotti is actually a brand name and is a type of cassette toilet. It has a small removable waste box directly under the toilet bowl. It must be carried off the boat and emptied at a disposal point every four to five days. I have a Porta Potti. The waste disposal disgusted me at first but the toilet waste cassette is very well sealed so there’s little smell and no mess. It’s a small price to pay for living on board.

After my chores I have my evening meal. The boat’s kitchen is as well equipped as any dry land home so I can cook what I like. At this time of the year though it’s usually a salad, some fruit and a glass or two of red wine.

After dinner, I sit down at my laptop for an hour or two’s browsing or work on my web site. Connecting to the internet is quite straight forward but requires a little exercise. I connect via a USB dongle. The signal within the boat is poor so I have to feed the lead through a window then climb onto the roof to pull it to the highest point on the boat. When it’s there I can surf and download at speeds that don’t frustrate me too much.

To rest my eyes, I just have to look up from my work, look out of the window and watch the wildlife on the marina. Tonight, the geese seem to have upset one of the swans. He’s chasing them across the water. They are faster than him but he has them worried.

At 22:30 I finish browsing, turn off my laptop, climb onto the roof to retrieve my dongle, and read for half an hour before bed. I don’t watch television. I can’t. I don’t have one. There are plenty of narrowboats on the marina with televisions but they use long aerials to ensure that they receive a reasonable signal. I don’t want the expense or the unsightly aerial and I’m really quite happy with my books.

After a hard day’s work, a glass or two of wine, the gentle rocking of the boat, the sound of the wind or the rain on the windows and the sound of the wildlife, getting to sleep is no problem nor is staying asleep before another gentle day tomorrow.

2014 05 11 Newsletter – How To Avoid Common Narrowboat Accidents

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you’ve arrived here after clicking on the link in the introductory email for the 18th May newsletter, you’re out of luck. You’re out of luck because I’m stupid. I should have linked to the correct newsletter for 18th May here. And if you arrived here via any other route, please ignore what you have just read. I’m really quite a bright guy and I never make mistakes!

We reported the damage, they did nothing. We reported it again, again they did nothing. Several of our moorers also phoned the Trust to highlight the worsening condition of the entrance wall to lock ten on the Napton flight. Once more, they did nothing.  At the beginning of the week the inevitable happened. The lock wall collapsed, closing the flight and trapping one of the boats we look after for the Royal Navy south of the stoppage.

All of our boats were scheduled to go out at the weekend, including the four RN narrowboats. We had two contingency plans in place in case the flight didn’t open in time for the usual Sunday change of crews. We couldn’t swap the new crew onto another boat because all the boats were all fully booked so we planned to either (A) get the stuck boat as close to base as possible then send staff out to it to prepare it on its canal-side mooring, and then tell the new crew that they had no other route option other than travel south down the south Oxford towards the Thames or (B) ask one of the staff to bring the boat back to base via the only other route.

The alternative way back was to go back down the south Oxford, travel south down the Thames to London, then turn north back up the Grand Union before joining the Oxford canal again at Braunston and the final two hours to Calcutt. There was much hand raising for this trip. Fortunately for Calcutt but sadly for one or two daydreaming members of staff, myself included, the lock was repaired and the flight reopened by Friday. It’s only a temporary repair and the contractors can’t promise how long the wall will stay in place for, but at least the navigation is open again.

I was off work on Thursday and spent all day tapping away at my keyboard while I watched vertical rain rods plunging deep into the still water outside my window. The day was perfect for pottering inside the boat so I typed for a while, replaced the Ecofan blade which fell off last week, typed for a while, experimented with different positions on the stove to get the fan working more efficiently (the Torgem stove has quite a small footprint. Ideally, the fan should stand at the back of the stove facing towards the front so it can draw cold air from behind and push it past the warm air rising from the stove top but the Ecofan won’t fit there on my stove without the blades hitting the flu), typed for a while, experimented with different stove fuels and rates of burn to reach the optimum stove efficiency (as I suspected, if I allow the stove to burn at the manufacturer’s recommended temperature, the boat is likely to melt) and programmed the alarms on my Smartgauge battery monitor and then, or course, typed for a while.

I am absolutely delighted with the battery monitor. It’s already alerted me to a problem with my starter battery which, in turn, highlighted an issue with my alternator which was doing nothing other than driving me slowly mad with its annoying squeal when the engine’s running. It certainly wasn’t charging the batteries.

The monitor has also removed the mystery from the battery bank’s state of charge. The alarm is now triggered if the capacity drops below 75%. It’s a visual alarm which flashes when triggered and which continues flashing until the capacity increases to 95%. Now that I have the Smartgauge fitted I realise what a hit and miss affair my charging regime was before, and how lucky I have been not to experience any problems as a result of not knowing the capacity of either the domestic bank or the single starter battery at any time.

To test the battery capacity alarm, I turned off the mains charger while I was programming the monitor. Thanks to my solar panels, even with a mainly clouding sky, two days later the capacity had only dropped to 88%. Four days later, this morning, it had only dropped a little further to 82%.

Apart from an incident earlier in the week (more on that below) my working week has been all about battling growing grass between showers. The last seven days hasn’t been as varied as most weeks but still immensely enjoyable.

On Friday we had to do some “normal people” stuff. Sally has a house with a lovely garden. A garden which would be very pleasant to sit in while basking in the spring sunshine if it wasn’t for the monstrous, light blocking Leylandii bordering the bottom of the garden in the house behind her.

Before I met Sally, she tried but failed to negotiate lowering the hedge to an acceptable height. The retired and rather belligerent burly hedge owner was a little more flexible when she visited his property with someone equally as belligerent. He wouldn’t do the decent thing and cut his own hedge, but he did agree to us cutting the hedge for him on his behalf.

The cutting took three and a half hours with my trusty chainsaw and now there’s a mountain of cuttings piled on the lawn waiting to be removed. Not once did the owner of the hedge come out to help, offer encouragement or otherwise acknowledge in any way that we saving him the cost of hiring a tree surgeon to do a job he promised to complete a year earlier. When I mentioned to Sally her neighbour’s reluctance to help with the hedge cutting, she suggested a novel way of disposing of the branches. Because I thought all of the branches wouldn’t fit and because her idea would cause Mr. Grumpy some difficulty when sitting down, I will borrow the truck I use for work to cart them away instead.

Saturday, as is normal during the fleet hire season, was wharf day for me. We had eight boat scheduled to go out in the afternoon. They all needed checking to make sure they were ready and one needed a complete engine change. By 1pm the old engine had been removed, the new one fitted and all the boats were bobbing about on the wharf, washed and ready to go.

The boats were bobbing about because of the near gale force wind howling across the water. You can always count on an interesting afternoon when you mix a strong wind, a flat bottomed boat and a novice boat crew.

As part of the instruction, we take the crews up through Calcutt Top Lock and a quarter of a mile up the canal towards the junction before we step off and leave them to their own devices. The route passes the forty acre Napton reservoir. The wind often howls across the reservoir unimpeded before playing havoc with any passing boats. On a day like Saturday, many full time boaters would simply moor up and wait for the wind to die down. Hirers have a short period, usually a week, to achieve their objectives so they don’t like to waste a minute. On particularly windy days like Saturday, hirers are often moving while boat owners are not.

We managed to get all of the boats past the reservoir and then past a row of moored boats close to the junction, travelling past the moored boats a little faster than normal to maintain some steerage in the wind. We have normally left the boats by the time they reach the junction where they have to slow down to make a right angled turn. I suspect one or two would have been pushed into the reeds at that stage.I hope they managed to negotiate the junction safely but it’s all part of the boating experience!

All of the boats were away by 5pm. At half past five I borrowed the company’s Nissan Cabstar, drove to Sally’s house, loaded the back high with Leylandaii cuttings, roped it down and returned to the marina before offloading the cuttings in our tip area ready for burnings. I’ll need another two trips to clear the garden though.

How To Avoid Common Narrowboat Accidents

This week I was going to focus on single handed boat handling and continuous cruising as a result of a suggestion from Alan Hayes who, I presume, is planning some single handed continuous cruising in the near future. I’m sorry Alan but you’ll have to wait until next week. The incident I mentioned earlier on prompted me to write about the perils of boating instead.

I wrote about narrowboat safety in this article eighteen months ago. This week’s accident has prompted me to to highlight once more just how often a momentary lapse of concentration can spoil weeks or months of boating enjoyment.

We had the emergency services here again on Tuesday. Narrowboats may travel so slowly that anyone who is reasonably fit can travel faster by foot along the towpath, but they, and the canals and rivers they use to creep across the country, need to be treated with respect at all times.

Our one to one and a half hour instructions with new hirers always include some basic health and safety. That particular part of the instruction has to be judged carefully. I don’t want to spoil the hirers’ holidays by filling them full of dread, but I do want to impress upon them the need to take care.

Here’s an example; all of our boats are cruiser stern narrowboats with a gas locker on either side of the tiller at the rear of the boat. The gas locker lids make comfortable and convenient seats. Most hirers are tempted to sit on them at every possible opportunity so I have to point out the danger of doing so in confined spaces. I point out that if the boat drifts back and touches a vertical obstruction such as our wharf wall or a lock gate, the first thing to touch will be the rudder. The boat’s momentum will force the rudder to fold flat and force the tiller to sweep to one side or the other. The tiller will sweep anyone sitting on one of the gas lockers off the boat and into the water, straight into the path of the churning propeller.

Of course accidents like this don’t happen very often but once is enough if you happen to be the boater concerned. Something similar happened about five years ago to one of our moorers in his own boat when he reversed it on to our wharf to buy some diesel. The unpleasant result of the accident was a severed femoral artery which one of our wharf staff had to pinch together to stem the huge blood loss until the air ambulance arrived. I understand that the boater took over a year to recover.

I’ve heard another often repeated story – although I can’t find a definitive account – of someone being pitched off the boat in a similar fashion in a lock. The boat was in reverse, which caused it to hit the rear gate with considerable force. When the helmsman was catapulted into the lock over the back of the boat, he slipped between the boat and the gate after the boat bounced away from the gate after the impact then the boat, still in reverse and with no crew on board, again reversed into the gate and stayed pinned there. Unfortunately the boater was trapped under the boat. Onlookers failed to move the boat and reach him before he drowned.

There have been two accidents on the canal at Calcutt in the last two years. Last year the owner of an old and dilapidated GRP cruiser slipped from the lock sidethen fell onto his boat in the empty lock beneath. Calcutt wharf staff saw the accident but the guy, still looking dazed from either the fall or the suspiciously long and fat roll up cigarette he was smoking, indicated that he was OK and carried on down through the lock flight. By the time he reached the bottom lock he told us he was suffering from severe chest pains.

We alerted the emergency services. Because of the nature of the injury they dispatched a helicopter and a fast response car. Both arrived within minutes and were followed five minutes later by an ambulance. They came to Calcutt Boats because they could get closer with their vehicles to the injured man than they could by going to Ventnor Farm marina which is on the opposite side of canal. Unfortunately, the towpath, where the man was sitting next to his cruiser, was on the Ventnor side of the canal. Five paramedics and hundreds of thousands of pounds of high tech medical equipment were thwarted by a sluggish ribbon of dirty brown water.

If the situation hadn’t been so serious, the solution would have been comical. Rather than waste more time by driving three miles to Ventnor Farm, negotiating the electric entrance gates, then trudging over a long and uneven footpath to where man and boat were waiting, the ambulance crew asked the injured boat owner, who was bent double complaining between gasps about the difficultly he was having breathing, to walk back up the towpath to the head of the lock flight, climb over the lock gate and down the steps to our reception area where the crew could meet him with the ambulance.

By the time the ambulance had made its way from the marina entrance to reception the boater was waiting for them. We later learned that he had luckily just bruised his ribs.

Tuesday’s accident was less dramatic but the injuries were much more serious.

Dave and Sally Tailor had just realised a lifetime’s dream. The previous Wednesday Dave retired. Two days later they picked up the boat they had just purchased, their third in twenty years of enthusiastic boating on the inland waterways. Their plan was to cruise down the Oxford canal, past Napton Junction and down the south Oxford to the Thames.

Unfortunately the entrance wall to lock ten on the Napton flight collapsed at the beginning of this week so the flight was closed pending repairs. Neither Dave nor Sally wanted to wait for days, perhaps weeks, before the flight reopened so they decided to change their plans completely and head north west from Napton Junction along the Grand Union towards Birmingham.

Their first stop was Calcutt Top Lock. Dave expertly slowed his 62′ boat and pulled alongside the bollards next to the lock. Sally, as she’s done a hundred times before, stepped off the gunnel centre rope in hand to secure the boat before setting the lock. What she doesn’t normally do is forget to look where she’s putting her feet.

She tripped over one of the mooring bollards, knocked herself out, broke her cheek bone and fractured her arm.

Dave stayed with his wife while a passing dog walker ran to our office to ask us to call an ambulance. Once again, the response to the call was swift. Within fifteen minutes there was a paramedic by her side. By then she was conscious but in considerable pain. The rapid responder made her comfortable while he waited for the ambulance crew.

Once the ambulance crew arrived she was carefully lifted onto a stretcher and then onto the boat’s bow. Unlike the boating accident the previous year with the cruiser, this boat had a large and uncluttered bow which could accommodate the stretcher bearing the injured lady and enable Dave to gently transport her to the opposite side of the canal and the waiting ambulance.

Dave threw the boat keys to me, shouted instructions about shutting down his vintage Russell Newbery engine, what to do with his lovely new boat, and what to do with the two confused terriers in basket under the dinette table, and disappeared into the back of the ambulance with Sally.

I reversed the boat a hundred metres back up the canal towards the junction, moored the boat on the towpath away from the locks, let the two terriers out for a wee before their afternoon’s unexpected solitary confinement, locked the boat and left the boat keys in our office pending Dave’s return.

He arrived back at the boat three hours later to collect the dogs and to confirm his wife’s injuries. I didn’t get a chance to talk to him before he left. The boat has gone now. I don’t know whether it’s gone with Sally back on board, or gone to a more convenient mooring closer to wherever she is convalescing. I hope she recovers quickly.

Even though her injuries are both serious and painful, they shouldn’t inconvenience her too much on board. A damaged arm is bad enough but injured legs make life on board very interesting indeed.

A fellow moorer, Anthony, lived on board for much of the time before he went to work in China. He has a solid 72′ narrowboat which he often takes out single handed. A couple of years ago he experimented with the use of his leg as a fender. The experiment wasn’t very successful.

On a windy day he was moored next to a towpath when he noticed a fully laden working narrowboat drifting sideways across the canal towards his pride and joy. He instinctively, and rather foolishly, thrust out a leg to fend off the approaching twenty tonne boat. Just before the two heavy boats made contact, he slipped off the gunnel and into the gap between the combined forty tonnes of unyielding metal. He successfully protected his paintwork but the damage from the impact caused considerable bruising and swelling and a very interesting technique for getting on and off his boat for a month and a half afterwards.

At least he could get on and off his boat afterwards. The lady owner of narrowboat Saphire moored on the same pontoon as me suffered a more inconvenient injury to her leg a couple of years ago. She was about to step from the algae covered wooden pier onto the boat’s front deck when her foot slipped off the pier into the gap between the pier and her boat. Her body fell forward into the boat while her leg remained upright… until it snapped.

The ankle to thigh cast meant that she simply couldn’t get on or off the boat until the cast was removed six weeks later. Fortunately she didn’t live on board.

I’m not trying to dredge up every unpleasant incident I can remember in an attempt to put you off boating. However, I think it’s important to realise just how easily accidents can happen if you drop your guard. I climb in and out and on and off boats regularly during my working day. I’ve fallen in the marina twice and the canal at our wharf once since I’ve worked here. All of my involuntary baths could have been avoided.

The most spectacular was undoubtedly the first time. The accident was on dank and rather chilly day in December just three months after I started working at Calcutt Boats. I was pulling a boat closer to the slipway using the centre line, leaning backwards pulling with all my might to demonstrate to my new work colleagues just how strong I was. Unfortunately all I succeeded in doing was demonstrating just how stupid I was when I somersaulted backwards through the marina’s thin ice and into the dirty water beneath. When those present stopped laughing, they suggested that I should return to my boat for a hot shower and a change of clothes.

The incident taught be a valuable lesson; when hauling on a rope, I should always brace myself so that if a rope snaps or comes undone, I will not lose my balance. Ropes have come undone on two subsequent occasions but because I was standing correctly I stayed on my feet. I was fortunate on the day of my very cold dip that the space I fell backwards into didn’t contain anything other than water. If I had fallen over the front of a moored boat into the well deck for example, I would have needed more than a quick shower to make me feel better.

Most of my slips, trips and falls were when I was new to boating. I see many new boaters every day, and some of the things they do terrify me.

Because we have our own fleet of hire boats, and because we have three other narrowboat hire companies close by, we see many holiday boaters negotiating a lock for the first time. Our wharf is between two locks so as part of our instruction, we take them through a lock and show them what to do, and what not to do. Other hire companies are not so conveniently located so they cover lock operation either DVDs sent with booking confirmation, or by using models of locks at their base. Of course, by the time the happy hirers reach their first lock they have forgotten most of the information about its operation.

Locks are exciting places for children. Locks offer them the perfect opportunity to display their agility by jumping between the lock side and the boat’s roof. Both are often extremely slippery either because of rain or early morning dew. I have seen many children fall. Fortunately they’ve only fallen onto the boat roof and not off the roof into the lock and fortunately, because they are young and fit, they tend not to hurt themselves.

The raising and lowering of the lock paddles is another opportunity for fledgling boaters to hurt themselves, or to hurt those around them. It’s not unusual to work a lock in the rain. The metal windlass handle is slippery when wet. If the windlass slips out of a wet and cold hand when the paddle is raised, the weight of the paddle will cause the windlass to spin like a propeller. The temptation is to try and catch the handle to arrest the paddle’s fall. The result is usually a severely bruised forearm. A rapidly spinning windlass, if left to its own devices, will often fly off the paddle with some speed either flying into the water or into a novice boater standing in the line of fire. We always advise our hirers to (A) refrain from grabbing at a spinning windlass and stand back and (B) ensure that any spectators stand away from the paddle.

Gunnel walking is another source of joy and excitement for boaters. Most gunnels are safe to walk on with care. Mine are not particularly safe. They were originally five inches wide but when I had the cabin over plated the width was reduced to three inches which doesn’t leave much to stand on.

Even if the gunnels are wide enough, they can become very difficult to walk along when wet in the warmer months and when icy in the winter. I have seen several experienced boaters slip off their boat’s gunnel into the murky water beneath. One boater did it so often that when his wife, who was steering at the time, heard a splash coming from somewhere in front of her, she looked skywards and shrieked “NOT A-BLOODY-GAIN!!” In the meantime her accident prone husband calmly stood in the mud chest high in brown water, calmly trying to polish his misty glasses.

I don’t fall of gunnels these days. I have invented my own gunnel shuffle. Rather than step along the gunnel trapping ice or water between the sole of my shoe and the metal underneath, I slide my feet along to dislodge the liquid and to give my feet a better grip. At the same time I ensure that I always have an elbow hooked over the roof rail so that if one or even both feet slip off the gunnel there’s still part of me secured to the boat.

There’s one final potential hazard you need to be aware of; your rope handling. You need to be especially careful when trying to secure your boat, either at a lock or on a mooring, when the wind is blowing. Often, if a wind is pushing the boat away from you, you’ll haul on one of the three lines with all your might to bring the boat close to the side before frantically throwing a loop of rope around a bollard. Make sure you don’t catch a finger or hand in the rope loop before the wind pulls the rope immovably taught again. The rope, with the weight of the boat behind it, can easily remove the skin from your fingers. Trapping your hand in a taught rope loop could prove especially difficult to escape from if you were on your own. I always carry a Leatherman multi tool with me in a belt pouch. I use it regularly throughout the day when I’m working and very often when I’m cruising too.

Once again, I don’t want to put you off boating. It’s a wonderful leisure activity and a hugely enjoyable lifestyle. The more you know about the dangers you face, the better prepared you are to prevent accidents from happening. I hope you’re a little better prepared now than you were at the beginning of this article. I wish you happy, and safe, boating.

Are You Ready For Your Five Minutes Of Fame?

I had an email at the beginning of last week from television company researcher Gemma Singleton. She wants to talk to you if you live on board and have an interesting story to tell. Given that every live aboard boater I’ve ever spoken to has an interesting story to tell, she’s going to be spoilt for choice. If you want to find out more about her project, here’s a post she’s added to the forum.

Available Residential Moorings

You may have heard about the Pillings Lock Marina dispute. It was widely covered by the waterways press and concerned the payments the marina was obliged to make to CART under the Network Access Agreement. The ongoing dispute resulted in a standoff and threats by the Trust to blockade the marina entrance.

Fortunately for all, the dispute was resolved about a month ago. Now it’s business as usual, which is good news for you if you’re looking for a residential mooring. They have plenty. The marina is located between Leicester and Loughborough on the Grand Union close to the junction with the river Soar. Their website is here. There’s plenty of information on it, including rates and rules and regulations. Please note, live aboard boat owners aren’t allowed cats on board. I quite like cats. I just couldn’t eat a whole one.

 They’re Weighing You Up

Richard Varnes, the narrowboating American, is back with his tales from the towpath. Richard doesn’t write about the waterways he cruises along, he shares his thoughts about the people he meets on his travels. Here’s one about a warm and friendly tea shop just twenty minute’s walk from Mercia marina. Here’s his article.

Me and my Morso

So I came down the hillock and headed for Adlington Ellerbeck boatyard (I highly recommend this Boatyard as they do a good job with other jobs done as part of the deal and their pricing is fair compared to what I have experienced elsewhere) and had some necessary work done. I had my ballast re-sorted as the boat listed to one side. The holes that let water off the front deck seem and remain very close to the waterline maybe about 7-10 cm so just a little rocking lets water in which also seems to go out again I wonder how I will be on rivers with proper waves.

But I also had my engine serviced – which with a mate I did myself…he did more than I and showed me what to do. I had the isolator for the starter battery sorted and I had the Morso moved to the front of the boat and all is now warm…almost like a sauna in here and since its chucking it down outside all my clothes are drying and I’m sitting here hardly clad enjoying the warmth of the Morso.

I am now at Bridge 141 on the Leeds Liverpool and have a small flight to do tomorrow and a chicken chasseur in the oven brewing slowly for my tea, supper and/or dinner depending on which part of the country you are from.

But I was swamped at Andlington…stuck in a swamp…not going on and unable to go back. Swamp gets into the mind I think and

clogs up the marbles and I am happy to have got going again.

Swing bridge 113 and 114 were a bother with 113 having a mooring jetty that crowded the opening of the bridge meaning I had to move the boat right back and secure it by the nose only even then it got stuck under the open bridge and required some considerable messing about to get sorted…obviously not intended for single crew users. Once past the bridge I couldn’t get close enough to moor again because it was too shallow and sort out the bridge…in end I had to leap to the shore, sort the bridge and then leap back again.

114 was no better with a very stupid almost inaccessible route from mooring to bridge bits, then the bridge wouldn’t stay open so I had to rope it open. Getting back after mooring on the other side involved climbing under a barbed wire fence…so annoying and a lot of work for a single crew user.

Not much to report since then though have lots of pics I want to share but alas keep getting an error message…Gannow Tunnel with Fouldbridge (I’m not sure which tunnel it is but apprently for one of them I will need a pilot from the C&RT) not far off and slowly like my barge I feel myself getting into the swing of it again. Weed hatch blues continue with so much rubbish getting caught round the prop – I just find myself more aware of it now by how the tiller feels but have had to clear the hatch twice today.

No plans for each day just take it as it comes…and when I can I will update the journey thus far with pics from Adlington Marina, up Johnsons Hillock again and ever onwards…me and my Morso…

I notice the pump for the water shudders every now and again and a little water is emitted into the shower basin from the pressure release valve…why does the pump do this…will I need a new pump…why, why, why….I am losing about a gallon of water to this event every day as the pump shudders or operates for less than 1 second about every 3-5 mins discharging about 50-200 mls of water each time..I have taken to switching the pump off when I am not running water.

They’re Weighing You Up

We had signed up for one of the “theme nights” at “our” newly discovered local tea room “Kay’s” located in Willington — a small Derbyshire village about 20 minutes down the towpath from Mercia Marina where “Stardust” was to have her winter mooring. “Kay’s” is the epitome of a charming English tea room, run by three indefatigable and warm-hearted middle-aged sisters: Jackie, Sharon and Susie. On the Willington high street, the small white-walled shop is open seven days a week, come rain or shine or wind or sleet — or, it being England, all of the above in quick succession.

Kay’s is named for their fourth sister who died from a crippling spinal illness over forty years ago — her picture and a collection of tender and candid family photos, featuring Kay being happily wheeled about on various family outings, hang on the walls.

I think it was Mexican Night when the event in question took place — because I remember Susie appearing periodically in a serape and moustache and there was a decent quantity of excellent tequila at some point.

Valari and I had a small table in the corner — with the other tables occupied by a single woman, a couple, two other couples and, right behind us, a table of four very lively women of a certain age, including Sheila — one of the village matriarchs whose wheel-chair had been neatly tucked away in the next room.

For a long time conversation remained quiet and within the bounds of each table — to the extent that we thought: “how very British, clearly these are fine, friendly people, yet so restrained….”

But, imperceptibly, close quarters and good wine began to gently peel away the thin veneer of propriety and before long old friends were calling to and joshing each other across the room.

I was sitting closest to the next table and suddenly a very striking and handsome older woman with close cropped hair and a positively wicked gleam in her eye turned around and, addressing me calmly and directly, said (of her companions): “They’re weighing you up you know — that’s what they’re doing…” And then she turned away leaving me to ponder what exactly was included in this “weighing up” and to wonder what the result might be — especially if I was found wanting.

Before I had much time to consider my fate, Beryl, for that turned out to be her name, swivelled round again and said with that same challenging gleam: “I’ll bet it’s been a long time since you were weighed up…?”

Indeed! Well, this was more than could be passed off with a diffident “I suppose so” or “rather not I think” or some other feeble response. So, I picked up my trusty verbal racket and decided to send a scorcher straight down the centre line on Beryl’s side of the net.

“Well” I sipped my wine and responded slowly, keeping my eyes locked with hers, “it certainly has been a long time since I’ve been told that was what was going on…!”   Whereupon their table erupted in gales of laughter and calls of“he’s got you now Beryl he does, he’s got you now!”

And from that point on we were no longer strangers and thereafter always passed the time and talked of walking and the weather whenever we met at Kay’s or out on the high street.

However, back to Mexican night — making a classic beginner’s mistake, we were among the first to leave Kay’s at about 10:30 and so missed the excitement of Beryl and company wheeling Sheila out the door and, in a moment of mysterious unsteadiness, almost dumping her out on the sidewalk — and me and my camera gone but moments ago….

It was a time of beginning to find our way into the life of this small English village where so many people have lived all their lives or had gone away only to return to Willington and its close, quiet life beside the Trent and Mersey Canal.

It was a time of laughter and the pleasant discovery of new friends in the making.  Within weeks, though, our friendship with Sharon and Jackie and Susie and Beryl and Sheila and many others would dive quickly and deeply into the most intimate areas of loss and joy that life brings us.

A few days after Andrew’s suicide I went to Kay’s for a late lunch and, my face betraying too much, I could not help but tell what had happened. It was one of those moments where people either close up to you or their hearts open and, of course, they sat with me and heard the whole story and then began to talk of the loses in their own lives — the death of their mother and a close friend within a week, a husband’s suicide, the recent passing of a dear friend and, of course, the loss of their sister Kay; all those things that tear us open and say to us: “Look: I am Life and Death and I am Terrible and Beautiful!”

After that, these wonderful women were always there for me. In the same way as we hold a candle for someone stumbling darkness they knew just when to come over and share a cuppa with me or when they should just go on with work and let me slip alone into the Daily Mail, or, in real desperation, The Sun or the Mirror — and so be taken away and diverted for a few decadent minutes.

The winter days of the north Midlands shortened to almost nothing and the cold rain increased, but several times a week I, or we, were at Kay’s  — where we knew people and where we were known. And, by the coming of spring, there was laughter now and again — as there must be inside a small refuge of friends within the vast landscape of all humanity — every one, sooner or later, touched by fire.

And, as our time to leave England approached, there was the final, memorable  “Burns Night” at Kay’s — where Valari made the traditional “Address to the Haggis” and I had the high honor of plunging a large carving knife into the delicious steaming mass — and I think there was good whisky that night too…

Now we are back in Denver — drawn to help our families, touched anew by the ravening challenges of being human.

I miss each of the “Kay Sisters” every day. The home-made bread that Susie bakes and the soups and pies cooked by Sharon and Jackie are still, in my heart, only as far away as a short walk down the canal and into town for a bit of a natter with good friends.

Wooden you just know…?

As I get (slightly) closer to getting my own boat a strange thing happened.
You see, I predicated my budget on doing the fit out myself, I have been sparkys mate, wired houses, am a dab hand with the plumbing and always considered myself to be a decent chippy.

So when a friend said could I help outfit their business premises with a partition wall and fit a shower and new toilet (mascerator- type; due to distance from soil stack) I said sure. Help them, and help me brush up my skills!

As they say on the tube “Please mind the Gap”…in this case between the thought and reality!

A certain amount of slippage has ensued in the timetable. I am also less sanguine about my skills chippy skill as I was!
Granted it has been about 5 years since I last completed a major project but can I have lost all my skills in that time??

Thankfully not! But I am SERIOUSLY more rusty than I thought!

Just as well I have my good friend and bandmate (he is a fantastic lead guitarist) JOHN BRADBERRY a great Chippy and live aboard boater (Mob: 07931645497) He works on lots of boats and is based at Batchworth Lock on the GU at Rickmansworth. He has volunteered to help me when I [finally] get the boat.

Actually he is also the one who let me loose on the tiller of his broadbeam so I could experience the difference between steering a broadbeam and the small boats I have driven in the past! A brave (some would say foolhardy) soul!

His boat is intact but, I lost a good hat to an overhanging branch. Have CART never heard of “Preventative maintenance”? Like cull the trees BEFORE they fall in the water and become an obstruction?

However, it does bring home a fact that this forum and the “Living on a Narrowboat” blog illustrate time and again-research is no substitute for experience!