Slow everybody down

THERE is absolutely no need to worry about speeding boats in the future, the lack of dredging will slow everybody down, writes Adrian Fellows.

I have been unable to use my boat for four years due to illness, but recently having been 'mended' I once again looked forward to the delights of cruising in my converted traditional narrowboat, but what a difference.

Very much slower

At set revolutions on the engine the boat would be going along quite well, then it would be slower—very much slower.  It was then I realised that having a deep draughted boat it was the lack of dredging that was causing it to slow right down. This was on the Staffs & Worcs, but as I reached the Trent & Mersey Canal the same thing was happening, and it was talking to boaters whilst taking water at the junction that I was told of the problem.

A fellow boater, also with a deep draughted boat told me that things were so bad that he had to choose which canals he went on, as combined with leaking locks and being caught on the cills, he was now limited to certain canals, and advised me of those to steer clear of.

Gloss over

In hospital and then convalescing I thought I had kept up to date with all things waterways with the magazines, but how they gloss over!  It was only when a friend told me about narrowboatworld that I realised how bad things had become, with spending on anything but the canals, that of course was why there is so little dredging undertaken, with reading how spending on dredging had been less and less year upon year, and so such as I with deep draughted boats now suffer.

I can see why there is no freight carried any more, for a loaded boat would have no chance on the canals today if the Staffs & Worcs and the Trent & Mersey are anything to go by, and why it can only function on the rivers.

I just wonder what the future holds for boating now that it is to be run as a charity, with so little boater representation.  Things don't look good.

[Thank you for your kind words about the work that narrowboatworld does, but this has been omitted as we do not include self recommendation—editor.]