Friday, April 20, 2007

The Empty Monty

On Tuesday April 17th, we went to Welshpool on the Montgomery canal - affectionately known as "The Monty" - partly at the invitation of the Powys Tourism Services Unit. They are charged with promoting this wonderful waterway as a tourist attraction, and wanted us to see if the canal was any good for Winsoming.

The canal is a very old one, originally connecting the agricultural heartlands of Montgomeryshire with the Llangollen Canal at Frankton. Like many canals, it went into decline very early in the railway era, and was finally closed to traffic in the 1930's. Since then, it has suffered from some over-building, but long stretches of it have remained "in water" and it has become a tranquil linear water park with a rich flora and fauna. It is now undergoing a revival as long stretches of it are being restored to navigation with the long term goal of reconnecting almost the entire original length to the remainder of the canal system. Welshpool is in the middle of quite a long navigable, but isolated, stretch. There are a few private boats on this stretch, and a couple of trip boats, but traffic is very light. This is the kind of waterway that Winsome was designed to cruise, provided we can launch the boat.

Tonia Parry, our contact at the Tourism Services Unit, told us about the slipway and mini-marina in the main public carpark in Welshpool. This is a modern (re)construction, but it is presumably the site of the original commercial canal "port" at Welshpool. The slipway may be a little narrow for a regular narrow boat, but is absolutely perfect for Winsome. When empty, Winsome's bow is almost clear of the water at the bow, and the Welshpool slipway is very shallow at the landward end, shelving steeply from about two feet into the water. This meant we could launch Winsome easily without getting our feet wet. There is a road down from the carpark and a turning spot that we used to unload Winsome from the roof rack (see below).



AFter a couple of short runs around the pound for photographs and demonstration, we said goodbye to our friends from the Tourism Services Unit, and set off North for Pool Quay. There used to be a pub at Pool Quay, but this has now closed so we had to stock up with sandwiches and drink in Welshpool.

The canal going North from Welshpool is initially very narrow, and perhaps because there is not a lot of boating traffic at the moment, and very little natural flow to the canal, a lot of floating vegetation has accumulated in the narrow spots. Our progress was somewhat hampered by the need to keep the bow clear of dead, but floating, reeds, which occasionally snagged the rudder and propeller as well. For this reason, our average speed on the Monty was not much more than 3mph, although in the clearer and wider stretches Winsome managed her normal cruising speed. Cruising the Monty is a little like cruising the Mon&Brec at the very start of the season, when all the winter debris and early season bank maintenance has clogged the canal. We assume that on the Mon&Brec this is cleared by the boat traffic when the cruising season gets underway, but BW also do weed clearance runs with an amazing paddle-boat that has a front end like a water-borne combine harvester. Perhaps they don't do this on the Monty.

The canal moves through some lovely countryside, and doesn't twist and turn as much as the Mon&Brec. Outside the town of Welshpool, it broadens out a bit in places, but we were quite glad we didn't encounter any other boats we would have had to pass. This might not be too much of a problem at busier times - if there ARE any of these on the Monty! - because the canal is relatively straight and you can always wait in a wide bit for oncoming traffic.

There are a couple of lift bridges between Welshpool and Pool Quay, and these are much simpler to operate than the hydraulic type we have encountered before. They are finely counter-balanced - see below - and you just pull on a chain to raise them to the vertical position. However, from the Winsomer's point of view, it's important to remember that these balance bridges are only stable when fully open or fully closed. Our normal practice of partially opening those bridges we have to open at all is not to be recommended on the Monty. Having said that, they are much quicker and more satisfying to operate, and you don't need a winch handle.



We arrived at what we thought was the deserted lock at Pool Quay in time for lunch. As it turned out, however, there was a huge boat already in the lock coming southwards. This was the trip boat Heulwen II, (see below) which together with her sister boat Heulwen I operate round the year excursions for the disabled or in this case parties of the elderly. The boats have been specially adapted for wheelchair access, and the trips are free. They don't run at weekends or bank holidays because they are crewed by employees of the charitable trust that own them.



After lunch we explored Pool Quay a little, but could find little trace of the original river port which marked the highest point of Severn navigation. When we returned to Winsome, the trip boat had gone South towards Welshpool, so although this would make our return run somewhat slower, we hoped that Heulwen would at least clear some of the vegetation from the canal surface for us. Alas, this didn't happen, so our return trip was again punctuated by frequent stoppages for reed clearance.



But all in all, a good day. On the drive home, we checked out a more southerly stretch of the Monty above Berriew. We had been warned that this might be even weedier, but it didn't seem to be. We could get there from Welshpool, although we would need to pass through a few locks to do so. We're going to come back some time to try this stretch.

The Monty is a great cruising ground for an experienced Winsomer, though a bit challenging for the beginner. If the Monty were more popular with boats, no doubt its water would be clearer for navigation in a low power propeller driven craft like Winsome. But then it would probably lose some of its charm, and it would not be the haven for wildlife and vegetation it is today.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Winsome at Saul Junction

The Saul Canal Trust is keen for us to bring Winsome to their 2007 festival at the end of June. Understandably, they were anxious to check the boat out first from a safety point of view, given that we are keen to encourage members of the public to try the boat out.
So, on Easter Monday, we took the boat to Saul junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness canal to let the festival organisers try her out.

Saul is a lovely spot, the canal is surprisingly wide and the sight of interesting passing boats instantly gives the keen Winsomer a hankering to get on the water and go places – upstream to Gloucester docks or downstream to Slimbridge and Sharpness.

First of all, we gave a number of Canal Trust members a go in the boat. They were all narrow boat owners but seemed enthusiastic about the different, more flexible and slightly more active experience which Winsome offers even a seasoned narrow boat owner. The comfort of Nick’s reclining seats and the touch sensitive tiller attracted particular praise!

Promising to return later, we then set off downstream to Slimbridge where we had been promised we would find ‘The Black Barn’ café.



There are numerous bridges over the canal with operators on duty and a red/green traffic light system in operation. It transpired that the system was for powered boats only and we discovered that the operators tended to ignore us in the hopes (probably) that we could squeeze under the bridges without the hassle of them opening them. Fortunately, we found that this was indeed the case although squeeze was an apposite term – we developed a technique of pedalling fast up to the bridge with the crew trustfully relying on the helmswoman shouting “DUCK” just before his head hit the oncoming bridge. We both then slid down in our (very comfortable) reclining seats until our heads were just above the gunwale and shot the bridge in impressive fashion (continuing to pedal risked banging our knees!).

Apart from shooting bridges, much of the interest (to us anyway) on this canal was the other boats, including huge commercial barges.

After 50 minutes, we arrived at the Black Barn café and moored alongside and purchased a welcome cup of tea and sausage roll. The photo shows the skipper consuming the same.




The return trip to Saul passed without incident. The GPS showed Winsome travelling significantly faster (when we pedalled at our ‘normal’ cruising speed) than on our considerably narrower and shallower home waters. We had noted this effect on Lake Windermere previously. The Mon & Brec canal is only 4 foot deep and very narrow and one can see (let alone feel) the volume of water which Winsome (and her pedallers) have to displace in order to move along.

After providing more Canal Trust members with go’s in Winsome, we reluctantly took the boat out to go home. But our appetites are now whetted for a passage to Gloucester docks – and even maybe linking through to the River Severn and up to Tewkesbury – an overnight passage beckons….

Reflections on a Canal



This fine picture is of Winsome on the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal, being pedalled at a leisurely 4mph by Drs Kidd and Williams. It shows the boat quite well. The canal that day was rather muddy and opaque, but it was a fine day and the light was good, making for a very good (i.e. coherent) reflection off the surface. Winsome generates very little wake, but a wake is notoriously difficult to photograph. This photograph shows the structure of Winsome's wake rather well, with the whorls in the water creating the "illusion" of some post-processing with something like Photoshop, when the effect was completely "natural".

Here is another one which shows the wake rather better, although the distortion in the reflection is not quite as pronounced.