Early work and voyages on Seren
The 'About' page details some of the issues we've discovered on Seren. Some were apparent on the first trip from Pershore to St Neots, some emerged more recently. Some I fixed straightaway, others' I'll get around to one day.
2017
The photo above shows Coralita at Pershore where we bought her. The most noteworthy feature is the chimney for the woodburner.
About an hour after we set off, just upstream of Pershore lock, the flexible coupling between gearbox and propshaft went bang. The springs should be fitted into the inner plate (bottom left) which fits between the other two transmitting torque from one to the other but with a bit of 'give'.
Fortunately after a bit of internet research and phoning around I was able to order a new one to be delivered to Pershore Marina. |
The trip back to St Neots (we'd booked a berth at Crosshall) took about 10 days. Mostly uneventful apart from Linda blowing up the USB charging sockets on the solar panel control and me getting us stuck on the mud coming out of Salters Lode lock. The control panel thing wasn't her fault. A BSS inspector had told the previous owner he had to fit an isolator switch between any battery and anything connected to it. So he had. And Linda being very safety conscious turned it off before we left the boat at a mooring. Unfortunately without the battery to provide a reference voltage the solar panel output on a sunny day can go over 40V, at which point the voltage regulators that provide 5V to the USB ports go bang and two puffs of magic smoke emerge from the ports.
After almost 2 weeks afloat though it was apparent that we needed to get rid of the woodburner and use the space to extend the WC compartment to include a shower. It was also obvious we needed more storage space for things like the hose pipe, spare rope, mooring pins and lock windlasses. First job then was to make a roof topbox. Or rooftop box if you prefer. It fitted aft of the solar panel and was accessible from the rear deck. I kept it quite low though, even with the box on the 'air draught' is only 1.9m.
Later that year (2017) I did my first solo trip whilst Linda was away at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. I didn't get far, just to Bedford then as close to the theoretical head of navigation at Kempston Mill as I could.
Later that year (2017) I did my first solo trip whilst Linda was away at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod. I didn't get far, just to Bedford then as close to the theoretical head of navigation at Kempston Mill as I could.
2018
When we first bought Seren we booked a berth for her at Crosshall Marine in St Neots. It's a nice spot and beautifully kept with trees, lawn and flowerbeds. But I didn't feel comfortable working there. It's not the sort of place you'd want to set up a workbench on the lawn and start doing serious woodwork. I did make some new cockpit steps at home and fit them, and tinker with the engine/gearbox control a bit but for serious work I needed scruffy boatyard that wouldn't mind sawdust and shavings flying around. So in February 2018 I moved to Kelpie Marine, Roxton. Mostly fitted in between the twin A1 road bridges but extending under the newer (southbound) bridge and beyond, Kelpie is a bit cheaper than other Great Ouse marinas, and looks it, but ideal for me and closer to home too.
The first big job was removing the stove, chimney and fireplace. It created a lot more space than was needed to extend the WC compartment to include a shower so we would gain some extra storage space too. The WC compartment had been wallpapered (not a good idea on a boat) and it was starting to go mouldy and peel off with the damp. Behind the paper on the outer wall was mouldy plywood and behind that the remains of a window. If you look at the photo at the top of this page there's a blank section of cabin side where a window used to be. The gap was filled with more ply and body filler. So that all got pulled out and replaced with a GRP panel shown here.
Instead I fitted a small sump under the plinth and put an electric bilge pump in it activated by float switches and a relay. In the opposite corner is a small washbasin with a tap that can be used as a shower head. The hull side is insulated with Kingspan foam and whole interior clad in PVC panels. The photos were taken before the cladding was complete.
During 2017 #2 daughter had a new fitted kitchen and I bagged some of the old cupboards to adapt for Seren. Once the WC/Shower was done I could fit some drawers, shelves and clothes hanging space between WC and the end of the sofa/bed. I cut down the seat squabs/mattress too and Linda re-upholstered them.
Then on to the galley. I kept the work top but cut it and made the stern end of it lower to bring the cooker down to the same height as the rest. The old chipped sink was scrapped and I fitted a bigger stainless one with a drainer. Recycled some more cupboards and shelves, leaving a space for a small fridge.
Then on to the galley. I kept the work top but cut it and made the stern end of it lower to bring the cooker down to the same height as the rest. The old chipped sink was scrapped and I fitted a bigger stainless one with a drainer. Recycled some more cupboards and shelves, leaving a space for a small fridge.
All this domesticity needed some supporting technology; H&C running water and power for the fridge. There are expensive fridges for boats and caravans that can run off 12VDC, 240VAC or gas. But they are *really* expensive. So I found a small 240V fridge such as you sometimes find in hotels and holiday flats. And to power it I bought a cheap inverter from Ebay.
Cold water was no problem, there was already a feed to the galley and it was easy to take a branch off to the wasbasin/shower. For hot water I decided on a calorifier, basically a small version of a domestic hot water cylinder connected into the engine cooling system. But being cheap and bit of a mad inventor I decided to make my own. For a cylinder I had a large plastic barrel previously used for industrial detergent, and to heat it a heat exchanger salvaged from an old central heating boiler. The barrel fitted horizontally up the pointy end ahead of the engine which was convenient for the pipework but I never managed to get a good seal round the lid, so it leaked.
Cold water was no problem, there was already a feed to the galley and it was easy to take a branch off to the wasbasin/shower. For hot water I decided on a calorifier, basically a small version of a domestic hot water cylinder connected into the engine cooling system. But being cheap and bit of a mad inventor I decided to make my own. For a cylinder I had a large plastic barrel previously used for industrial detergent, and to heat it a heat exchanger salvaged from an old central heating boiler. The barrel fitted horizontally up the pointy end ahead of the engine which was convenient for the pipework but I never managed to get a good seal round the lid, so it leaked.
But undaunted I went to the Crick Boat Show near Northampton. Solo, with Linda to join me in the car once I got there.
It was a ''memorable' trip. But let's start with the good stuff. I got to Earith in one day despite loosing my EA lock key and having to stop at Jones' Marina to buy a new one. And as it was late and everyone had gone home I moored on the landing stage at Westfield over looking the Earith Washes. This part of the river is tidal, but this far inland it doesn't vary much.
Overnight the wind got up and by dawn it was quite serious. Still, inland waterways, how scary can it get? I planned to take the 'shortcut' down the New Bedford River to Denver Complex and Salters Lode lock And timing is critical. The idea is to leave on a high tide at Earith and go downstream with the ebb, arriving at Salters lode when the flow has slowed but there's still enough water to get into the lock.
So off we went, creeping under the road bridge with a few centimetres to spare then full speed ahead into the gale. The New Bedford runs almost dead straight for about 20 miles, roughly SW to NE. The gale was a northerly so we were banging along into the waves at a slight angle.
So off we went, creeping under the road bridge with a few centimetres to spare then full speed ahead into the gale. The New Bedford runs almost dead straight for about 20 miles, roughly SW to NE. The gale was a northerly so we were banging along into the waves at a slight angle.
And then there was a weird noise and a cloud of steam coming into the cockpit from the engine compartment. I've owned enough old cars in my time to realise steam usually means engine overheat imminent so cut the engine to prevent damage. The wind promptly spun us around, left to their own devices boats tend to point down wind, then pinned us to the south east bank. At least we weren't going to drift while I sorted out the problem.
It turned out that running the engine harder makes the water hotter, which softened the plastic barrel enough for the lid to fall off. So rather than drip which I could live with, it dumped about 50L of very hot water in the bilge. The engine cooling system was OK so I just disconnected the heat exchanger and capped off the pipes and we were good to go.
But first I had to get off the bank and turn around. Not easy in a gale. In fact it took about an hour of pushing with my flimsy boat hook and revving the engine to crawl about 20M along the bank. Then amazingly, nestled in the weeds I spotted a proper, sturdy boat pole. Probably dropped by some other boater in distress. I manged to snag it with my boat hook and with that was able to hold the bow away from the bank long enough to get under way.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful so here's some nice photos. They are: Water Newton lock, Fotheringay bridge, Gayton Junction and a lock on the Northampton arm and Gayton Junction. Locks on the N'hants arm are not designed for solo boaters. You enter the lock, climb the ladder and look for mooring bollards...
Click the images to enlarge them. |
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The fridge was the other bit of tech I mentioned. It worked fine during the day with the engine running but in the evening every time the fridge motor started the lights went out for a few seconds. After a few hours the load on the battery was too much and voltage fell to the point where the fridge wouldn't run at all. So I got in the habit of turning it off after I'd had my dinner, with the door shut it stayed cool enough overnight. Then it rained.
Approaching Crick it was raining a bit. Then we went through the tunnel which was relatively dry. And emerged into a real storm. It took a while to find my allocated mooring (the marshals weren't expecting a cruiser and just waved me on) so by the time I'd turned around and found it I was drenched. Worse still the locker with the inverter in was awash. It never worked properly after that.
So back home after the show with no disasters. We did a few day trips with family and then I set about more improvements ready for 2019.
2019
Mostly I just fixed the issues shown up on my trip to Crick. Ditched the DIY calorifier and bought a real one (£300, ouch!) and plumbed it in along with a thermostatic mixer valve as I'd noticed before the plastic barrel failed that the water temp was over 80°C. With the new calorifier it still gets that hot but the water supply to the taps is blended with cold to bring down to a safer level.
The photo shows the rails where the calorifier fits, the white tank in the bow is a recycled water purifier used here as an expansion tank. Bigger than necessary, but it was free!
(Late edit 2022) I might need to move it though to make room for an anchor chain/rope locker)
The photo shows the rails where the calorifier fits, the white tank in the bow is a recycled water purifier used here as an expansion tank. Bigger than necessary, but it was free!
(Late edit 2022) I might need to move it though to make room for an anchor chain/rope locker)
The big job was the rear deck. Trentcraft were built as 20' or 25' (Seren is 25') with either an inboard engine in the bow and a long propshaft in the keel (like Seren) or with an outboard. Accordingly there is a 'well deck' at the stern and a transom suitable for an outboard, The 'well' is self draining and in the outboard version was equipped with gas bottle holders. On the inboard engine version the well is decked over at transom height. The deck extends about a foot making the Trentcraft 25 actually 26' long.
When we bought Seren all seemed OK apart from one corner of the deck seeming a bit flexible. At Crick were moored very closely together. So closely that the prow of the narrow boat behind us was overhanging our deck and one dark and stormy night it bumped repeatedly. By morning a substantial crack had opened up and it was obviously not new, being filled with wood, rope(!) and body filler. It looked beyond sensible repair so I decided to make a new one.
When we bought Seren all seemed OK apart from one corner of the deck seeming a bit flexible. At Crick were moored very closely together. So closely that the prow of the narrow boat behind us was overhanging our deck and one dark and stormy night it bumped repeatedly. By morning a substantial crack had opened up and it was obviously not new, being filled with wood, rope(!) and body filler. It looked beyond sensible repair so I decided to make a new one.
The original was a GRP moulding and I could, possibly, have repaired it sufficiently well to take a mould from it then lay up a replacement in the mould. But that would be a lot of work for a one-off deck, and expensive. Actual 'decking' as sold for gardens seemed a decent choice, especially the wood/resin composite stuff that's rot proof. It need a frame to rest on and the decking company also sold composite joist material. So that's what I used and I was pretty pleased with it. No photos unfortunately.
The 2019 trip took me to Llangollen for the International Musical Eisteddfod. We lived in Llangollen for almost 17 years and went every year and I thought it'd be cool to go by boat. It took most of June to get there, the Eisteddfod is always the first week of July, via the Middle Level, Nene, Grand Union, BCN, Shropshire Union and Llangollen Canal. The big locks on the GU into Birmingham and on the BCN were heavy work and I got stuck on a mud bank in Wolverhampton for an hour but the 'highlight' was Wellingborough Upper Lock on the Nene.
It had been raining for days and the river was quite high and moving fast. I stopped overnight in Wellingborough and set off in the morning expecting another miserable day.Approaching the lock it was obvious all was not well. A narrowboat stern was visible over the closed guillotine gate, and water was pouring over the top of the gate. There were several people milling about and another narrowboat already taking up most of the landing stage so I hung about midstream for a while wondering what was going on.
Eventually the people, the owner, the owner of the boat on the landing stage and a posse of builders who were restoring an old lock cottage managed to haul the boat away from the guillotine and raise it a little to let the water out. It took quite a while but at last they raised the gate fully and the boat backed out, the owner looking distinctly shaken. We returned to Wellingborough where I got the full story.
Nene locks generally have guillotines at the bottom and 'pointing doors' at the top. Both are set lower than the lock sides and when the river is high water flows over the top gates. At Water Newton it flows over the top gates all the time, but usually quite gently. Unlike most locks elsewhere, on the Nene boaters are asked to always leave the lower gate fully raised. The narrowboat owner had only recently bought the boat and not previously been on the Nene. He motored into the lock and seeing water coming over the top gates assumed it was normal . He didn't notice that whereas at Water Newton there's usually about an inch flowing over the gates here it was about a foot! When he shut the guillotine the locked almost instantly, then overflowed slamming his boat back against the gate. He didn't dare raise the gate for fear of hanging the stern on the gate and sending the boat nose first to the bottom.
Eventually the people, the owner, the owner of the boat on the landing stage and a posse of builders who were restoring an old lock cottage managed to haul the boat away from the guillotine and raise it a little to let the water out. It took quite a while but at last they raised the gate fully and the boat backed out, the owner looking distinctly shaken. We returned to Wellingborough where I got the full story.
Nene locks generally have guillotines at the bottom and 'pointing doors' at the top. Both are set lower than the lock sides and when the river is high water flows over the top gates. At Water Newton it flows over the top gates all the time, but usually quite gently. Unlike most locks elsewhere, on the Nene boaters are asked to always leave the lower gate fully raised. The narrowboat owner had only recently bought the boat and not previously been on the Nene. He motored into the lock and seeing water coming over the top gates assumed it was normal . He didn't notice that whereas at Water Newton there's usually about an inch flowing over the gates here it was about a foot! When he shut the guillotine the locked almost instantly, then overflowed slamming his boat back against the gate. He didn't dare raise the gate for fear of hanging the stern on the gate and sending the boat nose first to the bottom.
The other boat I mentioned waiting at the lock was Ebenezer, a replica narowboat tug owned by Nick who lived (I guess he still does) on a house boat at Hartford. I'd seen him posting on social media about an impending trip to Wales so I was looking out for him. After the drama I went and introduced myself. We didn't travel in convoy but passed and re-passed a few times on the Nene then met up at Northampton.
The Northampton Arm joining the Grand Union canal to the Nene is short but annoying. It has 17 narrow locks, four individuals each about ½mile apart and the Rothersthorpe flight of 13.
In between the locks it is shallow and weedy. Tackling lock flights solo I often bow-haul Seren from lock to lock as it's easier than getting on/off and starting/stopping the engine. Rothersthorpe makes it tricky because there is so much weed between towpath and clear water and it's hard to keep the boat out of it. To add to the fun the old British Waterways fitted anti-vandal locks to the canals operated by a normal waterways key. The anti-vandal locks have been vandalised so some won't close, so you can open the paddles without a key but quite a few are jammed so you can't open some paddles at all.
The Northampton Arm joining the Grand Union canal to the Nene is short but annoying. It has 17 narrow locks, four individuals each about ½mile apart and the Rothersthorpe flight of 13.
In between the locks it is shallow and weedy. Tackling lock flights solo I often bow-haul Seren from lock to lock as it's easier than getting on/off and starting/stopping the engine. Rothersthorpe makes it tricky because there is so much weed between towpath and clear water and it's hard to keep the boat out of it. To add to the fun the old British Waterways fitted anti-vandal locks to the canals operated by a normal waterways key. The anti-vandal locks have been vandalised so some won't close, so you can open the paddles without a key but quite a few are jammed so you can't open some paddles at all.
Then there's the ladders and bollard joke. You motor into an empty lock, stop by the ladder and climb up clutching your mooring rope and windlass. There's a lovely row of mooring bollards on the lockside. The other side. So the only option is to tie your boat to the ladder.
There's more. Most narrow locks have planks fitted to the down hill side of the mitre gates so you can walk across to reach the opposite gate. The planks are on that side for a reason. When one gate is open the plank is over the water and given the locks are only 7' wide its a short stride onto the other gate, avoiding a walk around the lock. Makes a difference if you are doing 15-20 locks a day! Some fool at CRT though decided to make the Northampton locks 'safer' by putting the planks on the other side so it's *almost* impossible to get across.
Fortunately Nick is younger, fitter and taller than me so he did each lock first then reset it for me before moving on. With his long legs he could defeat the Elfin Safety folk and clamber across the gates. Even so it was hard keeping up with him so about 7 locks from the top I gave up and moored for the night.
Whilst cooking dinner I noticed we were tilting. Looking out I could see the pound was almost empty and we were sitting on the mud. The top gate of the lock behind us had blown/drifted open and the bottom gate was leaking badly. I shut the gate, opened the paddles of the next lock up and re-floated Seren but almost emptying the next pound. Unless there was an overnight miracle I'd have to repeat the performance several time the next day.
There was a routine. Open the next lock and cruise in. Shut gates, open top paddles, but of course there's no water so walk up to the next lock and open all the paddles to fill the pound and lock below. Shut paddles open bottom gates, return to Seren. Repeat. After 2 locks some CRT workers showed up. They'd walked down from the top opening all the paddles on the way to refill the entire flight. Apparently all the Rothersthorpe locks were very leaky, except for the top one which had new gates the previous year. As a result, with no water leaking down from the top, one or other of the lower locks drains out every night and CRT walk down every morning to refill it!
There was a routine. Open the next lock and cruise in. Shut gates, open top paddles, but of course there's no water so walk up to the next lock and open all the paddles to fill the pound and lock below. Shut paddles open bottom gates, return to Seren. Repeat. After 2 locks some CRT workers showed up. They'd walked down from the top opening all the paddles on the way to refill the entire flight. Apparently all the Rothersthorpe locks were very leaky, except for the top one which had new gates the previous year. As a result, with no water leaking down from the top, one or other of the lower locks drains out every night and CRT walk down every morning to refill it!
Most of the rest trip went to plan, I went via Birmingham with an overnight stop at Cambrian wharf then onto the Shropshire Union. One of the later Telford-built canals it features a lot of long straight pounds with embankments and cuttings rather than the more winding path of the earlier canals that tended to follow contours avoiding so much earth moving. From the embankments you often get views as you'd expect but the cuttings have charm too, especially on hot sunny days when cruising under a tree canopy with shafts of sunlight filtering through is cool. In both senses.
I kept in touch with Nick via text message over the next few weeks and at passed him on a mooring at some point. The final section of the Llangollen Canal is narrow and twisty, carved into the rocky side of the Dee Valley. The advice to boaters is to send a crew member on foot (or bike) along the towpath to make sure the section is clear of oncoming boats before setting off. When you're single handed that's tricky but I'd arranged with some friends from Llangollen to meet me at Chirk Marina and do the checking for me. I texted Nick about this arrangement and as by then he too was near Chirk we agreed to do it convoy.
This final leg of course includes Chirk Tunnel and aqueduct then the Pontcysyllte aqueduct. the header image on the home page shows me 'piloting' Seren over Pontcysyllte.
There is a nicely restored wharf in Llangollen used by horse-drawn trip boats that can navigate the shallow feeder almost to the Horseshoe Falls, a shallow weir built across the Dee to provide a head of water for the canal. The same company run motorised trip boats to Trevor wharf adjacent to Pontcysyllte so their isn't much mooring space for visitors on the wharf. Llangollen is a magnet for tourists so CRT have built a basin just past the wharf for visitors. There's a 48 hour time limit on it and I intended staying a week but fortunately CRT allow you to return to the basin after a night away so I had to shift down to Llandyn a couple of times, then return.
The Eisteddfod was great, as usual and we met a lot of old friends there, and in town. but after a week it was time to go, once again taking friends along to walk the narrow section of the canal. Hiraeth set in once we'd parted and I was alone and heading in the wrong direction.
This final leg of course includes Chirk Tunnel and aqueduct then the Pontcysyllte aqueduct. the header image on the home page shows me 'piloting' Seren over Pontcysyllte.
There is a nicely restored wharf in Llangollen used by horse-drawn trip boats that can navigate the shallow feeder almost to the Horseshoe Falls, a shallow weir built across the Dee to provide a head of water for the canal. The same company run motorised trip boats to Trevor wharf adjacent to Pontcysyllte so their isn't much mooring space for visitors on the wharf. Llangollen is a magnet for tourists so CRT have built a basin just past the wharf for visitors. There's a 48 hour time limit on it and I intended staying a week but fortunately CRT allow you to return to the basin after a night away so I had to shift down to Llandyn a couple of times, then return.
The Eisteddfod was great, as usual and we met a lot of old friends there, and in town. but after a week it was time to go, once again taking friends along to walk the narrow section of the canal. Hiraeth set in once we'd parted and I was alone and heading in the wrong direction.
The trip through Birmingham was something I'd wanted to do for years, but the big GU locks were hard work so I decided to return via the Middlewich Arm and Trent & Mersey. It's slightly longer but fewer locks, and the locks are narrow so lighter to operate. The total round trip involved 400 miles and more than 600 locks. I lost a couple of kilos!
2020
Fridge problems on the Llangollen trip convinced me I needed something different. I did some research on inverters to run the fridge and found that the basic problem is that motors have very low impedance when stationary which rises rapidly as the motor starts to turn. Unfortunately fridges use compressors which have a high load at start up as they hit the first compression stroke before they've built up any momentum. In combination the result is fridge motors have a very high starting current compared to their regular service current and the start-up phase is longer than with a lightly loaded motor.
The proper answer to this is to buy a very expensive, large inverter able to handle the high load for a couple of seconds. But they are two or three times the price of the fridge and beyond my means. So bought another cheap one to try and found it just popped it's overload button as soon as I switched the fridge on. The internet suggested a current limiting device on the AC circuit but I couldn't find a workable solution.
The inverter went back to the vendor and I sold the fridge on Ebay and bought a 'coolbox'. It's actually the same size and shape as the fridge with a door rather than a lid but it employs Peltier effect cooling running on 12VDC rather than a compressor. The downside is that it can only reduce the internal temperature to 15°C less than the ambient temperature so on a really hot day it's not that cold in there but it's cool enough to stop the butter melting and keep leftovers from one meal to the next, so that's good enough.
The inverter went back to the vendor and I sold the fridge on Ebay and bought a 'coolbox'. It's actually the same size and shape as the fridge with a door rather than a lid but it employs Peltier effect cooling running on 12VDC rather than a compressor. The downside is that it can only reduce the internal temperature to 15°C less than the ambient temperature so on a really hot day it's not that cold in there but it's cool enough to stop the butter melting and keep leftovers from one meal to the next, so that's good enough.
Of course the big news of 2020 had nothing to do with boats but it did rather curtail activity. in the Summer when restrictions were less onerous I took Seren down river the St Neots Marina (Brierley's) to have her lifted out so I could clean the hull, fill a few scrapes, remove a lot of black marks from landing stages rubber rubbing strips, replace some damaged rubbing strake, scrape the underside and apply anti-fouling paint.
Rather than go straight home once Seren was back in the water I went downstream to Pope's Corner, up the Cam a short way and onto Wicken Lode. Lodes are a local name for drainage/navigable canals and there are three in the area, Reach, Burwell and Wicken. They may date back to Roman times but no-one seems totally sure. These days they are narrow, shallow and weedy, most river cruisers owners wouldn't risk getting their boats stuck but a small canal cruiser like Seren has no problem. Wicken Lode ends at Wicken Fen a restored area of fenland created by the National Trust. Well worth a visit. It's quiite odd though, most of the fens were drained hundreds of years ago and the ground level has been steadily falling ever since as the peat dries out, shrinks and is blown away. At Wicken the fen has been recreated by building a bund around it and pumping water in to recreate the wetland.
Autumn/Winter 20/21
As I've mentioned elsewhere Seren has a sliding roof over the cockpit with PVC side screens. the roof was heavy and hard to move, not weather proof either and the side screens were cloudy and starting to crack. So I decided to make a new one. A hardwood frame running on rollers rather than greasy slides with some sort of sheet material covering. I looked at various plastics and marine ply and finally settled on aluminium. I replaced the side screens too with wooden frames glazed with clear polycarbonate. They are removable when the roof is open but held in place when it's closed. It was all quite complicated but the pictures give an idea.
2021
With Covid vaccines and summer the waterways reopened and I was itching to get away. The original plan was a 'grand tour' of the north, up the T&M to Preston Brook or maybe the Anderton Lift then either the Bridgewater into Manchester or the Weaver and Manchester Ship to the Mersey and cross to Liverpool. That got ruled out fairly early on as meeting the requirements of the Ship Canal Co plus organising a pilot across the Mersey was too complicated/expensive. Plan B was to take the L&L to Liverpool and meet up with my wife there, it's her home town and her sister, nephews etc are there. Next part of the plan was to go north to the Ribble Link taking Linda along but with the backup plan of having her sister collect her if it was too much for her (she has fibromyalgia).
Here we have one of Seren's sisters, photographed on the Trent & Mersey (I think, I didn't enable GPS on my phone!) It's the same hull and cabin but minus the rear deck and fitted with an outboard. I imagine that makes the cockpit a lot more spacious but a petrol outboard would be expensive to run on a long trip and many marinas don't sell petrol so the inboard diesel is probably the better option for me.
This also on the T&M a little further north (near Stone?) If you have a steeply sloping garden with a canal at the bottom, this is the way to do it.
On the spur of the moment I decided to approach Manchester via the Macc and Ashton canals rather than the Bridgewater. This somewhere on the Macclesfield canal. Quite near Macc, possibly Mow Cop. Wherever it was, the whole trip along the Macc was beautiful. The Ashton less so...
First the good news. I arrived at the junction of the Macc and Ashton canals on a Friday evening and moored at Portland Basin opposite the museum. The following morning the first stretch of a couple of miles is lock-free and quite pleasant. At the top lock I met some helpful volunteers who stayed with me all the way down. It's an increasingly urban canal as you descend to Ashton under Lyne with anti-vandal locks on the paddles but apart from feeling a surge coming out of lock as Seren's keel passed over over something squidgy (probably a tyre) coming out of a lock and a scrape as we slid over something else (probably a shopping trolley) things went quite well. By early afternoon I was at Fairfield Junction with the Rochdale, planning to tackle the Rochdale 9 alongside the (in)famous Canal Street the next day.
However the '9' was closed. One of the lock beams had parted company from the heel post. Before I left I'd been watching a 'Silver Foxes' video about the Rochdale and they highlighted the wonky beam. I didn't expect it'd still be an issue months later and actually close the canal. The CRT Helpline suggested waiting until Monday for an estimate of when it would be fixed. So I did some washing and cleaning, walked up to Halfords at Manchester Fort retail park and bought a new leisure battery (and a trolley to wheel it back) and fitted it. On the way to Manchester I noticed that at least one of the supporting beams under my new rear deck had broken where it rested on the transom and overhung, The beams are wood/resin composite roughly 25x50mm with two almost square cavities running through. So while I was in Manchester Fort I found a DIY store and bought some square steel tube to put inside the beams, and a bottle of expanding glue to hold it in place. Seemed to work OK and felt a lot firmer.
The news on Monday wasn't good. Canal Street is now a conservation area and whilst CRT staff could happily make a steel bracket to re-attach the beam, in a conservation area they have to have the design of said bracket drawn by a specialist conservation architect then passed by the planning committee. No-one would hazard a date for all this but it would probably be weeks not days.
However the '9' was closed. One of the lock beams had parted company from the heel post. Before I left I'd been watching a 'Silver Foxes' video about the Rochdale and they highlighted the wonky beam. I didn't expect it'd still be an issue months later and actually close the canal. The CRT Helpline suggested waiting until Monday for an estimate of when it would be fixed. So I did some washing and cleaning, walked up to Halfords at Manchester Fort retail park and bought a new leisure battery (and a trolley to wheel it back) and fitted it. On the way to Manchester I noticed that at least one of the supporting beams under my new rear deck had broken where it rested on the transom and overhung, The beams are wood/resin composite roughly 25x50mm with two almost square cavities running through. So while I was in Manchester Fort I found a DIY store and bought some square steel tube to put inside the beams, and a bottle of expanding glue to hold it in place. Seemed to work OK and felt a lot firmer.
The news on Monday wasn't good. Canal Street is now a conservation area and whilst CRT staff could happily make a steel bracket to re-attach the beam, in a conservation area they have to have the design of said bracket drawn by a specialist conservation architect then passed by the planning committee. No-one would hazard a date for all this but it would probably be weeks not days.
Clearly I wasn't going to get to Liverpool so I decided to turn right and head across the Pennines via the Rochdale canal. The first lock was unbelievably hard to operate but I got in, closed the bottom gates opened the top paddles and waited. And waited. And eventually noticed that the bottom gate had a broken plank and the only thing holding the water in was a load of debris, plastic bottles, rope, clothing etc, wedged in the hole. Unfortunately not wedged tight enough to allow the lock to fill completely. I called CRT and a maintenance guy came out to help. We got the top gates open, but by then the level in the pound above had dropped revealing the ugly truth about the Rochdale canal restoration.
When the canal was closed the local authorities realised that a lot of surface water drains ran into it. If they just filled it in they'd flood a big part of Manchester. Building proper drains would have cost serious money so they had a cunning plan. Half fill the canal and tarmac the floor of it to make a shallow storm drain with the locks converted to weirs. It was like that for years until the restoration effort got under way.
Now the Rochdale was a wide and deep barge canal, wide and deep enough for the opening ceremony to feature a Thames sailing barge bringing cargo direct from London to Manchester. Restoring to that spec would have been prohibitively expensive, these days the boats are mostly steel narrowboats and the occasional GRP cruiser like Seren. So the second cunning plan was to use a digger to cut a channel in the middle of the tarmac and leave the sides shallow. With jagged edges to tear your hull if you try to moor.
But the CRT guy let water down and opened the next lock for me. So I motored in, climbed the lock ladder and found once again I couldn't move the gates. Too heavy (the gates), too old (me), too stiff (me and the gates). Finally I gave up and backed out, turned around and spent another night at Fairfield Junction.
Now the Rochdale was a wide and deep barge canal, wide and deep enough for the opening ceremony to feature a Thames sailing barge bringing cargo direct from London to Manchester. Restoring to that spec would have been prohibitively expensive, these days the boats are mostly steel narrowboats and the occasional GRP cruiser like Seren. So the second cunning plan was to use a digger to cut a channel in the middle of the tarmac and leave the sides shallow. With jagged edges to tear your hull if you try to moor.
But the CRT guy let water down and opened the next lock for me. So I motored in, climbed the lock ladder and found once again I couldn't move the gates. Too heavy (the gates), too old (me), too stiff (me and the gates). Finally I gave up and backed out, turned around and spent another night at Fairfield Junction.
Which left a return trip up the Ashton and down the Macc as the only option, and being mid-week, no volunteers to help. The first couple of locks were OK but when I climbed out of the third one to shut the gates I could see the next pound was empty. Not totally empty, it was strewn with junk and it was obvious just how shallow it would have been when full of water.
So I phoned CRT again and the same local guy came out and worked with me for hours letting water down and hauling me over the debris in the shallows. And then when I got back to Portland Basin and went to update my blog I realised my laptop had gone. At some point while we were both out of sight ( a few locks have road bridges over the tail obscuring the view back down the cut) some lowlife had nicked it from the cabin. It was a $200 US import with an ARM64 CPU running an obscure Linux distro. And password protected. I doubt you'd get the price of a pint for it in any of the dodgy pubs in south Manchester so by now it's probably in the canal along with the trolleys and washing machines and tyres.
The trip home was a bit dispiriting but nothing went wrong until, back on the Nene in Northants, I saw warning signs about a lock failure at Wansford, then a couple of days away. Not much I could do about it so I carried on, hoping it'd be repaired by the time I got there. It wasn't. The winding spindle on the guillotine was broken where it connects to the gearbox and electric motor set up. And so badly EA couldn't just remove the motor/gearbox and fit a handwheel as I've seen elsewhere. It needed replacing and it's a custom item not a generic off-the-shelf part. I tied up to the lock landing stage, left note in the window asking EA to call me when the lock opened and called my wife for a lift home.
EA didn't call but a few days later I noticed on the EA Twitter feed that the closure notice had been rescinded so Linda took me back to Wansford. The queue of boats had all gone, and so had Seren's rear deck, or at least the overhanging section all the beams were snapped and together with a couple of planks had presumably sunk. I fished around with a boat hook hoping to salvage the planks but couldn't find them. My guess is either kids jumping on the 'springy' deck until it wasn't springy any more, or a narrowboat prow bearing down on it.
The final return to Kelpie was uneventful but the whole experience, the locks, the deck, the laptop left me feeling a bit discouraged.
The final return to Kelpie was uneventful but the whole experience, the locks, the deck, the laptop left me feeling a bit discouraged.
2022
Over the winter of 2022 I replaced the rear deck. This time I made the frame from 50x25mm aluminium tube. I did most of the work at home but kept taking the part-completed frame back to the yard to check it would fit. Lacking any welding facilities it's all held together with plugs, gusset-plates, pop rivets and epoxy. So far so good. Click any picture in the gallery for a bigger picture.
The final picture above shows the state of the doorway leading out to the rear deck, made even worse by my ripping off some of the lining so I could bolt though the bulkhead to secure the frame. So the next job was a new door.
I've lain in bed hundreds of times staring at the increasingly obvious bodge job of a hatchway filled with ply and filler and wondered what to do. Fitting a proper hatch (and making the door narrower again to suit) was the obvious thing but I had a very useful storage box on the roof right where the hatch would be. Eventually I decided the answer was to make a hatchway then to make a new sliding top box rather than a conventional hatch cover.
I've lain in bed hundreds of times staring at the increasingly obvious bodge job of a hatchway filled with ply and filler and wondered what to do. Fitting a proper hatch (and making the door narrower again to suit) was the obvious thing but I had a very useful storage box on the roof right where the hatch would be. Eventually I decided the answer was to make a hatchway then to make a new sliding top box rather than a conventional hatch cover.
The pictures above bring the story up to the end of May 2022. In June I went into hospital for 10 days and apart from a brief trip to the Bedford River Festival in July Seren was neglected most of the summer. In September 2022 I started this new website & blog so everything of interest since then is here on the blog.