David: State of the system

AT THE risk of contradicting Victor, our experience over the last month of the state of the canals doesn't match his.

In a cruise taking in the Grand Union from Napton to Lapworth, down to Stratford and then Tewkesbury, the Severn and G&S to Sharpness, back up to Worcester, twice round the Droitwich Ring (don't ask) and up Tardebigge to Birmingham we have encountered no problems with defective equipment, save the odd paddle not working, haven't run aground, no-one has gone past us too fast and have met only friendly and competent boaters.

I haven't even had to go down the weedhatch. I have seen quite a lot of evidence of vegetation cutting having been done on both sides of the canals, so they seem to have started addressing what was a major moan of mine and others last year.

Yes, there are three major stoppages at the moment, but CaRT seems to have dealt with the Trent & Mersey one as quickly as was possible in difficult circumstances, and we are promised it will be open at the beginning of next month. For the Aylesbury one it is not yet clear what the cause was, but CaRT seems to have dealt with the boats trapped by it.

The Huddersfield Narrow problem arises mainly from the fact that the original restoration had to focus on the clearance of major blockages, so was unable to deal with a number of less obvious problems, such as the shortage of water and dredging. Readers may remember that the same sort of problems afflicted the Kennet & Avon when it first reopened and it was only the provision of a substantial sum of lottery money (£25m as I recall) that got it into a decent state. I suspect that only a similar windfall will fix the Huddersfield properly.

Lack of traffic

One of the reasons why we haven't met any awkward boaters is probably because we have met very few other boaters. I cannot remember a cruise even at this time of year that was so quiet. Whole days have gone by without meeting another boat on the move. There has been no problem finding moorings, even here in central Birmingham.

Most of the boats moving here are trip boats—there must be more of them in this area than anywhere else on the system. Even during the school holidays we met very few hire boats and the bases we passed seemed to have most of their fleets tied up. I hope that this is only a temporary problem caused by the freezing weather.

Benefit of floods

The floods of the past year have had at least one benefit in putting an end to the career of one continuous moorer. The boat in the picture had been hanging around Tewkesbury for months, unlicensed and the owner refusing to pay mooring fees. Whilst the owner was not on board a flood left it literally hanging in the precarious position that can be seen on the river front at Tewkesbury. It is still a worry for the Avon Navigation Trust, since no-one can work out how the boat can be removed or who is going to pay for it, so for the time being it just hangs there.

Further up the Severn another victim of the floods lies beached, in what looks like an equally inaccessible position to the one at Tewkesbury. Moral: don't moor on rivers unless you have a floating mooring.

River moorings

Talking of river moorings, I do wish there was more public mooring on the Severn. Whereas on the Trent CaRT provide several floating moorings along the river, on the Severn they are very rare. Apart from Worcester and Stourport, where you don't really need them as you can go up into the basins, I think the only one is at Upton. This only accommodates four or five boats, unless you double bank, and even when the traffic is as sparse as it is now we secured the last space available at 4pm.

There is a handful of pubs with moorings, but these are usually popular with the plastic boat fraternity and you can't moor alongside them. Bankside mooring is almost invariably impossible because of steep slopes and/or overhanging trees. I would have thought there was a health and safety issue here, since in the event of an emergency it is difficult to see what you can do except drop anchor. In any case, a few more moorings would enable one to break up what is regrettably a fairly tedious cruise on the Severn, especially below Worcester—really only worth doing as a connection with other waterways.

David Hymers