Victor: How about joining the gravy train?

Published: Sunday, 29 November 2020

IN THESE uncertain times many of you boaters must have concerns about your jobs, so why not join the gravy train at Canal & River Trust?

Yes my friends, whilst many others are shedding their staff, CaRT is busy hiring, with some rather plum jobs on offer during the past month, and you boaters should have the advantage of at least knowing  about the waterways, though on second thoughts, that perhaps would be of little account.

Anyway, here's a few for you to consider with their yearly salaries:

SharePoint Developer at £38,300.

Archives Manager at £30-33,000.

Cost Intelligence Manager at £32,000.

Ecologist at £22,313.

Social Media Executive at £22,750.

Social Media Executive number two at £22,750.

And the list goes on including Reactive Team Craft Operative, Property Surveyor, Licence Support Officer.

All for the 'wellbeing for everyone' and such a great help for us boaters...

More delay

The restoration of the Grantham Canal has had more than its fair share of setbacks with bridges, at one time the Secretary of State deciding one was to remain a culvert and the plans of another not leaving enough headroom for boats.

The latest bridge setback is at Cotgrave by the Hollygate Park estate that has now been completed by Barratt's and David Wilson Homes, with wrangling after the bridge design was formally rejected by the council.

During a somewhat heated discussion Barratt's suggested that CaRT is the most difficult organisation they have ever had the misfortune to deal with!

LockmasterShortNot so much 'wellbeing', eh?

Making life easier—for us!

Moored at Sawley, we have the advantage of the choice of four waterways, but alas all are broad locks, and for you who have only experienced the narrow ones, the paddles on those are invariably difficult to move, especially if like our Thomas, getting rather long in the tooth.

So to hopefully ease the problem we have invested in a Lockmaster windlass from Jannel Cruisers Chandlery, the decision prompted by seeing a lady tackling one of those too stiff paddles on Stenson Lock with ease whilst we struggled later with the same paddle and a normal windless.

LockmasterLongUpon examination it seems a well made and designed piece of kit, acting as either a normal windlass but with the advantage of a ratchet—that can be selected both ways.  But the great advantage is that it can be turned into a straight lever, that means maximum leverage can be applied with the least effort, and the advantage of the ratchet meaning a simple pull-push operation is all that is required and saving having to bend down to operate such as ground paddle gear.

At the moment, for some strange reason we are lumped into tier 3 in the fight against coronavirus, so no visiting the boat to try our new 'toy'—but no doubt there will come a time, and I shall certainly let you know how it fares.

The keyring torch was obviously a gift, but alas it came out of the box first, then came the windlass and splattered it—but not to worry!

Proven right

It seems that our contributor Kelvin Alexander-Duggan has been proven right when he expressed concern at CaRT selling off all it's tools, a few years back, and turning to relying on a tool hire company.

HSS was to provide the tools when required. The hire company has barely returned a profit since 2016, and is at risk of going bust and is to close more than half it's current depots in the next few months.

Which means CaRT staff will have to travel further to collect the tools needed to do a job, that's if the tools are available at that depot.

We have already seen what happens when staff don't have the right tools for the job!

Victor Swift