The lack of dredging
FOLLOWING up on my previous article 'The dreaded 'd' word', it's more bad news I'm afraid, writes Gareth Haines.
Yesterday, Thursday 19th, I travelled from Lyons Boatyard on the North Stratford to the winding hole past Shirley Drawbridge and back. To say it was not a pleasurable experience is a massive understatement—it was a nightmare.
Crawling along the bottom
The whole trip was spent at about 80% throttle (not doing anything for my fuel consumption) whilst crawling along the bottom of the canal. Indeed, I came to a halt a number of times and whenever negotiating a sharp bend I had to perform a three point turn; ploughing the bottom means that your manœuvrability is severely compromised..
My average speed for the trip was less than 1mph. Whilst I appreciate that boating is meant to be an unhurried activity, something that I wholeheartedly subscribe to, this is frankly ridiculous. On one particular stretch it took me half an hour to do 300m.
Make navigation difficult
Each year I pay a not inconsiderable licensing sum (nigh on £1,000 for a 70ft boat) for the pleasure of being able to navigate the canals. When the going is this difficult, it seems like money wasted. One could be forgiven for thinking that CaRT is trying to make navigation as difficult as possible in a bid to restrict boat movement and force everyone onto moorings...
Now, those of you with shallow draught boats may well be wondering what all the commotion is about. Well, it's not merely the fact that a journey takes a long time, shallow canals are also dangerous. Yesterday, I had a head-on collision with another boat because I was stuck ploughing the middle of the channel and was unable to take evasive action as they came round a corner. Thankfully there was no damage—this time. A quick conversation with the skipper of the other boat (a shared ownership holiday boat) confirmed that they were enjoying their cruise as much as I was!
Purely bridge holes
In response to Allan Richards' piece on dredging on the North Stratford, I have it on good authority from Gary Harte (owner Lyons Boatyard) that the dredging that took place last financial year was purely bridge holes. This is akin to papering over cracks as it only takes a handful of boats moving through an area to move the silt back into place again.
Furthermore, Gary tells me that he's at his wits end with complications that result from the shallow nature of the canal. Over the course of the year he has helped numerous boaters of all stripes who have had complications ranging from rudders forced out of their cups to grounding and extreme propeller fouling—all solely as a result of the lack of canal depth. Additionally, Gary's day trip boat, Happy Valley, has trouble on the summit level—and that's a short, relatively empty boat with barely a 2ft draught!
Awaiting a response
I'd like to reassure Rick (of the fuel boat) that I do indeed report all of my difficulties to CaRT. This latest episode has been reported to CaRT's office in Birmingham and also to Head Office's customer service team. I'm awaiting a response. At the very least I'm hoping that they raise the water levels to their maximum, they're currently about 4 to 6in below, which will help a little with navigation.
In other news, CaRT sent out a 'random' request for me to prove I have boat insurance. Well, at least there's one aspect of the organisation that appears to be working, although as a frustrated boater I'm sure it will understand me saying that it's my opinion that it has got its priorities slightly wrong.