Stupid place for moorings

THE recent towpath upgrade works at Rugby have resulted in all mooring between bridge 58 at Brownsover being closed and the water point re-sited on the park moorings on the offside between 58 and 59, writes Kevin McNiff.

So to 'help' visitor mooring, a new set of rings has been installed at very useful intervals, but one thing they’ve overlooked is the whole stretch is on bends!

Totally unsuitable

This is okay for a water bug, 20ft GRP cruiser etc. but totally unsuitable for anything over 40ft. With passing at a premium, not to say a challenge, for full length boats, we now have the obstacle of boats moored at tangents to the bends.

It would seem that the works on the straight bit have been more to cap the sloping sides with sandbags and thus provide a suitable towpath width for—guess what—cyclists and walkers. However, woe betide anyone wishing to set foot between the Rugby Arm and Newbold, this still remains a muddy morass which never really dries out even in summer.

You couldn’t make it up!

(Kevin tells us he couldn’t get any pictures, he was too busy missing boats!)