THE promised repairs to the Deepcut Flight of the Basingstoke Canal, have still not started, despite many promises, as previously reported in narrowboatworld.

The flight has now been closed for three years, and though Surrey County Council has signed the contract for the work, its starting date is still not certain.

Disappointed

Even though Basingstoke Canal Society members are doing all they can to preserve the waterway, there is only so much that can be achieved. Members are particularly disappointed with the delay that has occurred in the commencement of major structural repairs to the canal, in particular to the Deepcut Flight.

A further problem is that any work has to have the approval of Natural England, the agency that protects the waterway as a site of special scientific interest, and inevitably this too has been delayed.

Further impact

A further impact on the working of the canal is that due to recent redundancies the Basingstoke Canal Authority has been reduced to one ranger on standby call.

This means that the authority will not be able to manage the navigation and allow visiting boats at weekends or Bank Holidays from now on. And unless it can find satisfactory alternative arrangements to manage loss of water and maintain safe levels for the house boats, Woodham Flight will remain closed outside normal working hours.

If boats cannot access the Basingstoke Canal at weekends or Bank Holidays, this will have a very serious impact upon the viability of the canal and, in the opinion of at least one society committee member, would effectively close it.

WE SET out up Hatton flight two weeks ago with the intention of going to Droitwich via the North Stratford and, hopefully returning to Warwick via the Avon and the Southern Stratford, writes contributor Roger Fox.

My previous investigation of water levels proved to be accurate, about 10″ down above Hatton and about 6″ down on the Birmingham New Main Line. It is a pity that information about these levels is not made available generally, but I did find out from another boater that British Waterways issues regular water updates to hire bases and similar companies. Why not send this data out on the regular stoppage email service? It would not cost anything.

Encounters with British Waterways personnel

We had several encounters with British Waterways personnel and I give most of them glowing reports. Our prop picked up a car tyre on the North Stratford near Bridge 8. I was unable to move it, and summoned help from British Waterways. Two men came out and did their best but we all failed to move the offending item. Having spent the night moored and unable to move I called the non-emergency Fire Brigade number.

They went to considerable efforts to find the right help and Pauline of the Hereford & Worcestershire Brigade thought that she had come up trumps when Nicky of the British Waterways Customer Service Department promised that they had men and equipment available who would be along to sort me out.

Couldn’t be bothered

When nothing happened after four hours, I backtracked and found, surprise, surprise, that Sue the British Waterways Section Supervisor had no intention of sending help again, and couldn’t be bothered to call and let me know. Nil points to Sue. I have a feeling that she might benefit from some practical boating experience.

Finally we were liberated from the tyre three days later when a boater volunteered that he had a dry suit and the right tools and he would get it off. Nearly two hours later off it came and we were free. Thank you Taff!

Revised trip

The lost time called for a revised trip so we decided to turn round and go down the Stratford. This entailed going to King’s Norton to turn. The back of the boat leapt about six inches as it went over what I suspect is a car in the South mouth of the stop lock.

I was struck by how good some of the bridge maintenance is on the Stratford. There is one bridge with excellent new brickwork and red sandstone. My enthusiasm stopped when we reached Bridge 53 at Wooton Wawen before the Anglo Welsh base. I think that this must be the Stratford’s entry in the British Waterways worst bridge repair competition which currently has the Oxford in pole position.

Our next encounter with British Waterways was at the top of Lapworth Locks. Three men were moving an empty mud hopper up the locks using a pole and ropes. Nothing wrong in that, but why did they have to lockwheel so far ahead? Three locks further on and we found a dredger owned by Rothens of Atherstone coming up the lock ahead.

All paddles open

Funny, I thought, it’s taking a long time. About a foot had drained from the short pound before the crew noticed that they had paddles up at both ends. When we finally passed I asked if they had received training in lock operation.

No, was the reply. Their response to my query about the loss of so much water was that it was none of my business. Are these people really working for British Waterways?

The state of the top gate cills on the Wilmcote Flight is terrible with many loosing huge amounts of water. Some seem to have clear holes right through.

I READ with, absolute agreement, the comments in Richard Swan article (Loopy Learners) little knowing that by the end of the day we would have some first-hand experience of new hirers having problems at the first locks they encountered, writes contributor Roger Olver.

The event required attendance from British Waterways staff to refill the pound between a flight of three locks which had been emptied by the crew of a hire boat due to their lack of understanding in how to operate a lock.

Almost no tuition

I did actually meet the hirers as they were halted in the bottom of a lock (while British Waterways went about putting things right) and it would appear that they had had almost no tuition, apparently shown a diagram of a lock and a brief discussion of the workings. By all accounts they didn’t understand the instruction they were given as they were all too glad to admit.

The British Waterways guy was really helpful and very quickly sorted the problem out. He did mention to the culprits that in this instance they had only wasted water down the by-washes, had it been at another place on the system they could have flooded houses.

Completely clueless

Descending the locks, when the water levels made transit possible, we met another crew from the same hire company and they were also completely clueless as to the procedure of safely negotiating locks.

So, this was going to set the scene for me to get up on my soap box and berate every hire company in the land at their lack of duty of care to their hirers etc. etc. (well not quite, but you get the drift) had it not been for the very informative insight by Linda Andrews from Cheshire Cat Narrowboat Holidays (Lock working for hirers).

Location of hire company
So this got me thinking in a more balanced way, analysing the location of the hire company involved today and the proximity of the first lock, in one direction and then the other.

The lock to the South of the hire base, which I think they should be using for tuition, is about 1.5 miles away. It is a stop lock of probably six inches rise, but immensely superior to a diagram.

Other locks North of the hire company would be 25 miles and 38 miles respectively, though I would have a serious wager that 90% of their traffic is South.

Not viable

So from starting off the day fully agreeing with Richard, we have been affected by the lack of tuition he was highlighting but I now cannot agree with him. Taking every novice hirer through a lock is definitely not always a viable proposition as Linda pointed out.

Many hire operators are members the Association of Pleasure Craft Operators (APCO) http://www.apco.org.uk/. This member body lays down hand-over procedures and apparently checks the hire companies adhere to the requirements.

Today’s hirers incident company are members!

Simple solution
There is of course a very simple solution to this problem, all the hire operators get together and commission Nintendo to produce a handover program for their Wii console !

Or better still get APCO to pay for it, possibly a better way of using members’ money and it would ensure they all could comply!

FOLLOWING the boat builders that have gone out of business due to the economic climate, brokers too, unable to sell boats are going under.

The very well known company, Harral Brokerage, whose main office is at Wincham Wharf on the Trent & Mersey Canal this week ceased business.

Quickly expanded

Founded in 1996 by Stephen Harral, the company quickly expanded from its base at Wincham Wharf as the demand for boats increased, with a further base at Nantwich, together with an interest in brokerage at the new Mercia Marina, that was eventually sold.

However at the moment the company has nearly 80 unsold boats on its books, as boaters also hit by the recession try to sell their boats, but the ever increasing costs of overheads, coupled with the lack of buyers has forced liquidation.

On land

In addition to boats in the water, most of Harral’s boats are on land, that gives prospective clients the ability for a closer inspection, and so thus an advantage over normal water-based brokerages.

However, some intimation of the situation could be gathered by the fact that the company’s ‘Weekly Update’ on its website was dated the 9th of July, showing that its situation was somewhat in doubt.

Took over

The owner of Wincham Wharf, David Massey, took over the premises on Tuesday as the debts of Harral Brokerage were unsustainable, with the unsold boats still at the wharf.

It seems that the company Wincham Wharf is also taking over the brokerage business under a yet to be registered name, and we understand this new company will be in negotiations with the owners of the boats currently at the wharf.

Higher overheads

With many new marinas coming on line, and no few operating their own brokerage businesses, this has had an effect on the independent broker, who has the higher overheads of renting premises, so is not in such a strong position to weather the steep downturn in boat buying at this time as boating gets ever more expensive, coupled with people’s shrinking incomes.

Yet it was just a few years ago that Harral Brokerage was selling around four boats a week, but by 2009/10 it had fallen, then dramatically this year with very few boats being sold, certainly not enough to keep the company in business.

LACK of rainfall is causing more problems for boaters, with more restrictions in force in addition to those on the Oxford as already reported.

The Grand Union Canal is the latest casualty with the Leicester Section down to two to three weeks stock in its Saddington Reservoir, that serves the northern section, it is estimated, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Foxton and Watford flights

The reservoirs supplying the pound between Foxton and Watford flights are a little better, with an estimated four to five weeks stock based on normal usage.

British Waterways is now advising boaters to reduce their activity along the affected areas, to enable boating to extend to the end of the season.

The outcome is that lock usage on many waterways is restricted to 7am to 2pm daily, with some locks being manned.

Gloucester & Sharpness

Remarkably, even the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal is facing restrictions with the Severn in drought regulations thus restricting the feed to the canal. Use of the locks at Gloucester and Sharpness (pictured) are now restricted as boaters may have to wait to share.

Most surprising of all is that none of the Yorkshire waterways are closed—it may be remembered the Leeds & Liverpool Canal was closed for many weeks last year through water shortage—but only have what is becoming their normal lock opening time restrictions.

Much work was undertaken on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal to stoppage leakage, that has paid-off.

But there is little boating on these waterways in comparison to the heavy use at the honey-pot sites further South.