Winsome

Winsoming from Windsor to Hurley

2008-07-29T08:13:00.000-07:00

Potential customers of our 17 foot pedal-powered boat, Winsome, sometimes ask us whether the boat is roomy enough to carry overnight camping gear on longer cruises. We assure them that it is whilst admitting, slightly shamefacedly, that we have never actually tried it. We have so far opted for overnight accommodation in waterside pubs and B&B’s on our occasional longer cruises. So, when summer arrived in the UK for
the first time last week, we decided to experiment with a 2 day cruise camping overnight.

We were keen to try an ‘un-Winsomed’ stretch of the Thames and so settled on launching at Windsor and pedalling 15 miles upstream to Hurley lock where we found we could book a camping pitch on an island.

We launched the boat at Windsor Leisure Centre.

Their public slipway (free) was excellent with plenty of room for parking and offloading and mooring alongside. The only people we saw were a couple of friendly Traffic Police having their morning break and they were keen to learn about Winsome.

Having launched, we had to park the car in the adjacent Pay & Display car park. The meter only allows you to pay for 24 hours (£10) but the carpark staff said that, as long as we paid for 2 days and attached two tickets to our windscreen, all would be well. Although that cost us a total of £20, we considered it cheap for the combined use of a Thames slipway and overnight parking.

Earlier experimentation had shown that our sleeping bags and mattresses (packed in Waterproof Dry Tube bags) would fairly easily stow in the fore and aft buoyancy chambers without overfilling them. We slung the tent under the engine ‘bridge’ under one side deck. That kept it well clear of our pedalling. The stove and cool bag went behind one seat and the food box and clothes bag behind the other. With the bulky stuff out of the cockpit or stored behind the seats, the boat didn’t seem unusually full at all.

At 11.30am, with everything stowed we pedalled off under Windsor Bridge. In the stretch by Windsor Racecourse, we encountered an Environmental Agency Boat floating midstream with a flashing blue light and a strange set of bubbles astern. As we passed, a couple of divers surfaced. Sadly, we discovered from the lock keeper at the nearby Boveney lock that they were police divers searching for a man who had gone missing after diving off a trip boat the previous evening. A sobering start to our trip.

We needed to make it to Hurley Lock (15.2 miles) by 6.30pm to collect the key for the island campsite before the lock keepers went off duty. We were therefore pleased to discover that we were easily averaging between 3.5mph and 4mph against the stream but a long wait at the first two locks reminded us why canal folks measure distances in ‘lock miles’ and why we couldn’t afford too many stops en route. The idle time at locks reduced our overall trip speed to 2.8mph.

Winsoming on the Thames on a glorious summer’s day is a delightful experience.

For a start, every bend in the river brings new interest – grand houses,

beautifully cut lawns, ancient churches and priories,

famous bridges, impressive weirs and, best of all, some beautiful traditional riverboats.

And inbetween you pass through silent wooded stretches with a glimpse of a mansion (in this case Cliveden) in the distance.

The only thing which spoils the experience is the number of high-rise, gas guzzling, white motor cruisers which thunder by (sometimes two abreast) in complete oblivion of the noise, fumes and disturbing wash they create. Do they leave such an ungainly wash because of their huge square sterns? We noticed that the traditional river trip boats with their elegant counter sterns created minimal wash despite being 2 or 3 times the size. Maybe, the Environment Agency could start to charge licence fees according to hull shape and engine size….

As on our previous Thames trips, we found the 7 locks (whilst time consuming) formed a timely break from pedalling.

We enjoyed putting our feet up, chatting to the lockkeepers, responding to the inevitable Winsome interest and passing the time of day with other river users. We’d still like to find an alternative to hanging onto the slimy green chains as the lock fills/empties. Getting wet gloves on and off is tedious and hooking the chain links with the boat hook or other hooked implement can be fiddly. The rush of water filling the lock looks alarming (from our lowly position) but disturbs Winsome’s equilibrium surprisingly little.

We are more affected by the turbulence (and fumes!) created by the boats leaving the lock ahead of us. We like to nip out first, when we can, given that our initial acceleration is a lot faster.

Passing under Marlow bridge at the 12 mile mark, our legs started to feel tired for the first time. We became more aware of the hot sun and the strength of stream against us and our pedalling speed dropped below 3mph. We passed the famous Compleat Angler Hotel and thirstily eyed their attractive terrace restaurant. However, the pristine white table cloths, besuited waiters and well dressed clientele sipping champagne sent out a less than welcoming message to a couple of sweaty pedallers in shorts and sunhats. Instead, the crew produced a couple of chilled beers out of our onboard cool bag and on we sped, refreshed, to tackle the last two locks and last 3 miles of river arriving at our destination, Hurley Lock, at 5.30pm.

At Hurley, we camped on an island behind the lock (£7.50) and were delighted to be able to pitch our tent within feet of the boat.

Our “neighbours” (a large family from Reading) welcomed us, showed us the ropes, lent us their mallet and generally made us feel at home. A short stroll into the village brought us to the Rising Sun Inn where we ate and drank well before returning tired and happy to our camp.

Our second day dawned early (courtesy of the Heathrow flight path!) and we managed to have breakfast in the sun, strike camp, re-pack the boat and be ready for Hurley Lock when it opened at 9am.

As we turned for home, we immediately noticed the difference of pedalling ‘downhill’. With fresh legs, we found ourselves batting along at an easy 4.5-5mph, recording a 6.8mph maximum speed at one point (showing off probably). We certainly surprised the friendly Irish skipper of a narrow boat (also heading for Windsor) when we stayed ahead of him fairly effortlessly for the entire morning until we reached Maidenhead and stopped for lunch.

With the weather again so hot, we were delighted to discover that wrapping our water bottle in a wet sock (and dunking it over the side at regular intervals to keep it wet) kept the water at a pleasantly cool temperature for drinking. The wonders of evaporation.

Even though we were effectively retracing yesterday’s steps, we found that the return trip was entirely different.

Having left Hurley Lock at 9.15am and had a brief lunch stop, it looked like we’d be back in Windsor by 2pm. However, at our last lock (Boveney), we were waved inside by the keeper who informed us that the river ahead was closed and we would have to stay in the lock until it reopened. It transpired that the police divers had found the body they had been searching for and were currently recovering it. The news was sobering and we chatted about the tragedy with the crew of a trip boat who were sharing the lock. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to see how one could quickly recover a man in the water from such a large boat.

We eventually arrived back at Windsor Leisure Centre at 2.45pm and unpacked and recovered the boat, lashed it on the roofrack and were heading reluctantly for the M4 within 30-40 minutes.

Next time, I think we might try 2 nights camping and a 60 mile trip (downhill) if we can find a train or bus service to get us back to rescue the car. Winsome still has plenty of the Thames left to explore.

Winsome at the Saul Canal Festival

2008-07-09T07:02:00.000-07:00

We spent last weekend demonstrating Winsome, our 17 foot pedal-powered boat at Saul canal festival near Gloucester.

The Saul Canal Festival & Folk on the Water Weekend is a fund raising event organised & operated by Cotswold Canals Trust Volunteers. All surplus funds are used to further the restoration of the waterways link between the Rivers Thames & Severn.

Conditions on Saturday were extremely windy. Because of her sleek hull shape, Winsome barely notices the wind as long as we are pedalling straight into it. However, we really struggled to make a U turn into the wind in the narrow confines of the canal at Saul junction – the minute we turned across the wind, the bow would catch the wind and spin back to leeward. This made life interesting with 20 ton narrow boats bearing down on us – sometimes from both directions. However, inspired by the Dutch tradition (see below), the crew deployed a paddle as a makeshift lee board whilst turning and the problem was effectively solved. Phew.

The afternoon saw us take part in the “Interesting boats parade” complete with tannoy commentary. Unfortunately for us, the parade moved at such a snail’s pace that a light boat like ours couldn’t maintain steerage way in the gusting 4-5 wind. With a crowd of other parade boats which were several times our length and weight, this was somewhat alarming.

We opted for being the last boat in line so we could drop back far enough to create open water and then pedal at a reasonable pace to maintain steady steerage way. Because I slightly overestimated the gap we needed to leave (according to the view of the crew), we ended up passing the parade viewpoint at a cracking 5-6 mph (into the wind) which clearly impressed the waving, cheering crowds ashore!

We were pleased by the interest which Winsome attracted from cyclists, narrow boat owners and the occasional sailor. As ever, the experience of actually going in the boat created a new set of Winsome converts. Even in the blustery wind and rain showers, she continued to surprise and delight.

Whither Winsome?

2008-05-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Fans of Winsome may be wondering what happened to us. Well, we’re back and ready for a fresh Winsoming season.

In 2007, we covered 500 miles in our 17 foot, pedal-powered boat. As readers of this blog will know, we pedalled the Montogomery, Llangollen, Lancaster, Kennet and Avon, Gloucester & Sharpness and Grand Western canals, the River Thames, Cardiff and Bristol city harbours, the Norfolk Broads and Lakes Windermere, Coniston and finally Derwent Water. The boat and her sister ship also traversed Loch Ness and the Caledonian Canal in aid of charity last August.

The new season has kicked off well with several sunny evening trips from our home port of Pencelli on the Mon & Brec canal a few miles along to our local pubs at either Talybont-on-Usk in an Easterly direction or Groessfordd to the West.

We are booked into the Saul Canal Festival (4th-6th July) and will be offering people the chance to try out the boat there. We also plan to attend the Green Boat Show in Norfolk again in September. Anyone who would like to try the boat is welcome to contact us.

We hope to visit Henley and Marlow this summer on a 2-3 day trip and are also looking at the possibility of pedalling from Dartmouth to Totnes if we can judge the tides right.

Look out for us.

Winsome on Derwentwater

2007-10-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

At the kind invitation of the Camping and Caravanning Club, we took our pedal powered boat, Winsome, up to Derwentwater to take part in their Open Day for selling their Exclusive Holiday Lodges at Lakeside, Keswick. The photo show one of the residents kindly cleaning the jetty for us!

The weather was overcast but dry and the lake was calm and very inviting for pedalling.

Unfortunately, very few lodge owners or visitors were around but, given that Winsome is named after my late aunt, Winsome Baty, we welcomed a visit by some of her other Baty relatives and friends who happened to be holidaying in the area.

They enjoyed trying out the boat and chatting about the design. It's always encouraging when keen cyclists give Winsome the thumbs up.

Later we pedalled over to Nichol End Marina where we enjoyed some excellent home made soup and a reviving cup of tea.

After giving one of the lodgers a go in Winsome, things went quiet again and we couldn’t resist the pull of exploring the lake. En route, we chatted to becalmed sailors, dodged the steamer's alarming wake, amazed people with our speed (Winsome definitely moves faster on lakes) and enjoyed watching paragliders gradually descending from Cat Bells in the still afternoon air.

Derwentwater is beautiful but maybe a little on the small size for dedicated Winsome pedallers – getting to the South end and back took not much more than an hour even with a detour to visit the Keswick jetties and boat hire. Still, the cups of tea at Nichol marina and the many tiny islands offer plenty in the way of exploration for the more leisurely, short hop Winsomer.

Return to the Thames

2007-09-24T04:35:00.000-07:00

We had hoped to explore the Thames more this summer, but the river has been too high a lot of the time. We purchased our Thames licences for 2007, but only ventured onto the river at the Beale Boat Show in June. We have since discovered that the licence gives us 30 days on the Environment Agency rivers in East Anglia as well, so it could still turn out to be a good investment!

We arrived about 11 and found Dave - who runs the most amazing chandlery as well as supervising the slipway at Lechlade Marina. It's a good slipway for Winsome, with ample space to offload and assemble the boat. Unfortunately, like most slipways, it caters best for boats you can board from the slipway itself or while they are on the launch trailer. We can't do that, and ideally we like there to be a jetty or quay nearby where we can haul Winsome alongside. So we were quite grateful for the apparently derelict motor boat dragged up on the slip.

Dave said Summer 2007 had been a complete write-off for many of the marine businesses on the Thames. The marina and his chandlery had been flooded, and he feared that some rental businesses would go out of business as a result, having lost all their income. It has evidently been some time since the Thames flooded this far up stream, and to do so at the height of the holiday season must have been a blow.

We managed to get aboard and underway by around 11:30 and set off downstream for Radcot - about 6 miles and a couple of locks away. We were planning on lunching there and returning.

The weather was sunny but not hot, and we quickly made it to St John's lock, which is the first on the Thames going downstream. You can go at least 10 miles upstream from Lechlade (if you can turn round) so these upper reaches of the river are pretty placid. The lock keeper at St Johns was intrigued by the boat, and while we waited for the lock to fill told us how he had avoided the worst of the floods with a timely holiday.

It turns out he is primarily responsible for managing the water level via the weirs on the Thames for his area. Perhaps this is why the Thames enjoys the luxury of manned locks - the REAL job of controlling the river levels requires a level of staffing that gives the agency the capacity to operate the locks as well. It is certainly much more efficient and safer going through a manned lock.

St Johns lock is not particularly deep in canal terms, and has landing points above and below. We would not be able to port Winsome round the lock, though, because there is no clear towpath or the kind of quayside you could launch Winsome from. Indian canoes and kayaks could be hauled out, but the locks are generally so quick and efficient that it might not be worth the hassle unless the river is very busy. St Johns is the only lock on this stretch with a loo!

The lock-keeper told us that the next two lock we were to go through would not be manned that day, so I paid particular attention to the paddle mechanisms. When going into a lock witb Winsome, it's generally best for the bigger boats to go first because you don't want to be crushed from behind by a large boat being unable to stop. The water entering the lock does, however, create some turbulence, so sympathetic operation of the paddles can make for a smoother passage for smaller boats.

The bad news is that generally, boats emerge from a lock in the same order they went in, so it looked like we were going to be behind the motor boat that arrived just after us at the lock. But they generously waved us through, so that we had a free run down to the next lock at Buscot which was fortunately filling up with some boats coming up stream. I say "fortunately", because the general rule is that the Thames locks are left empty, which delays downstream traffic on an empty river.

Now we were operating an unmanned lock, but passers-by are always willing to help, and some of them seem to know what they are doing. When entering a full lock going down, you must shut the upstream gates and close their paddles before opening the paddles in the down stream gates to let the water out of the lock. You do this in two stages to limit the flow of water within the lock, but when the lock is empty you can open the lower gates and head off. It's polite to close the paddles before you set off, because they will need to be closed to fill the lock again. On this stretch of the Thames, you cross the lock by gangways on the gates themselves, so when you open a gate don't want to have to cross the lock again. In particular, you can often get away with opening only one of the gates until the boats have exited the lock, before closing it again and rejoining the boat at the mooring below or above the lock.

Locks work a bit like traffic lights, bunchng the traffic and normalising average speed on the river. On the Thames, Winsome isn't the fastest boat, but going downstream on this stretch she is quicker than the average cruiser or narrow boat. But not so much faster that she can get through the next lock before the arrival of the boats with which she shared the last one. The GPS said we were averaging about 4.5 mph down stream, and I was concerned that there was quite a bit more stream than we had noticed on our last visit.

At the next lock, we caught up with a narrow boat who generously delayed his departure for us, and even waved us ahead. We felt obliged to put on a bit of a spurt so as not to hold him up, and so arrived at Radcot fully 10 minutes ahead of him.

Just in time for a leisurely lunch, but alas the Swan Hotel was badly overstretched and lunch turned out to be rather too leisurely for our schedule. Rested and fuelled on cider and crisps, we set off back upstream, but decided to use the slower running channel under the old bridge at Radcot.

This turned out to be a mistake. A slow running backwater accumulates vegetation and the prop quickly picked up a clump from hell. This is a good time to be occupying the bow seat, from which you can sit back and take embarrassing photographs of the helmswomen clearing the prop and rudder from within the boat, just as the manual prescribes. Still, it could have been raining!

As we cruised back up stream, it didn't feel like harder work, but the GPS showed that we were now managing only about 3.9mph. I make that a river flow of (4.5 - 3.9 / 2) or less than a third of a mile per hour. Hardly a spate, though noticeably faster than we'd experienced here the last time we came. The floods had dumped quite a bit more vegetation in the river, and we picked up some more as we worked our way back up stream. You can often lose vegetation by back-pedalling for a spell, but we did have to stop and pull another piece off the rudder. Still, compared with our canal in the autumn, the Thames was remarkably free of crud. It is also spectacularly clear in this stretch, presumably as it starts to enter the chalk belt.

Our return trip was uneventful except for a poor execution of lock filling at Buscot. On our own except for the inevitable large crowd of admirers, I attempted to open the upstream gate before the lock had completely filled. This feels remarkably like the dreaded "lockgate jam" situation, which can happen but is thankfully rare. I was gently returned tothe paths of righteousness by a friendly and knowledgeable passer-by, so I won't make that mistake again.

And so we arrived back at Lechlade and enetered the marina at about 4pm, having cruised 12.3 miles on the GPS with an hour's stop for lunch. It wasn't quite as much exercise as walking the same distance, but it was certainly more interesting (for us). And it confirmed that Winsome really feels at home on the Thames. We wondered if the Cotswold Canal will be restored from Lechlade to Saul Junction on the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal in our lifetime. But even if it is, alas, the number of locks may make the trip infeasible with our remaining lifespan.

Winsome visits The Green Boat Show

2007-09-17T05:21:00.000-07:00

For the second year running, the Winsome pedal-powered launch took part in the Green Boat Show at Salhouse Broad, Norfolk on Saturday September 8th. According to its
website, this is “the only boat show dedicated to sustainable boating and green energy. The aim of the Show is to encourage ‘low carbon’ propulsion for boats – rowing, paddling, pedalling, sailing, electric and biofuel-powered – as well as to promote other aspects of environmentally-friendly design and construction.”

The Electric Boat Association plays a major role in the show.

Salhouse Broad is a beautiful location with plenty of room for people to try out the various boats in a lovely, friendly and relaxed atmosphere. A warm sunny September day also helped add to the enjoyment especially with a floating ice cream seller on hand.

We travelled to Norfolk a day early so that we could enjoy some time on the Broads. We launched at Salhouse and pedalled first to Wroxham to get some lunch and visit the excellent chandlery there and then down to Horning and back to Salhouse (~10 miles round trip). The Broads feels tailor made for Winsoming – there are endless miles of waterways to explore, lots of places to land and enjoy eating, drinking, shopping.

This is not surprising given that The Broads is actually the home of Winsome – the whole idea of boat like this pedalled by two people facing one another was invented by David Williams of Horning some 40 years ago for his own personal enjoyment and he has recently built his 3rd pedal boat (Life Cycle) which he brought to the show.

We were delighted that Winsome proved so popular once again – she was barely out of action all day with lots of different people keen to try her out.

The feedback, as ever, was nearly all positive, “that was simply magical”, “that’s the first time my husband and I have been in a boat together and not argued!”, “that’s so much more relaxing than canoeing”, “these seats are SO comfortable” and “what a wonderful way to exercise”.

We also learned that The Broads Authority are keen to promote this kind of eco-friendly boating and grow eco-tourism according to their chief executive, John Packman, who took time out to try out Winsome for himself at the show. Watch out for him running into the ice cream....

Sadly the show came to an end for this year and I leave you with this lovely shot of Mrs Jean Williams leaving for Horning in David's elegant electric launch.

Many thanks to David C. Williams and John Tate for the photos and Pam Williams for the video.

Caledonian Canal and Loch Ness

2007-08-23T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Winsome blog has been rather quiet for a few weeks. This is because we loaned two Winsome pedal boats to a group of 4 enthusiastic Scotsman (Mike Byrne, Ross Wood, Allan Wylie and James Glass) who had decided to pedal 60 miles from Fort William to Inverness in aid of Maggie’s Cancer Care Centres.

They drove all the way down from Edinburgh to Pencelli to pick up the boats. Above are the team ready to drive back North with Peter Williams and Nick Newland (far right) who designed and built Winsome.

The Caledonian canal involves numerous locks which are used (as you can see) by boats of varying sizes with Winsome (at 17 feet) featuring at the smaller end.

It also involves traversing the length of Lochs Lochy, Oich and (finally) Loch Ness. Fortunately, the weather for the team was mostly settled and dry.

They overtook a genuine pedalo en route!

At night, the group beached the boats and camped loch side.

They crossed over to the far side of Loch Ness to take a closer look at Urquhart Castle.

3.5 days later, they arrived at Inverness.

An excellent effort and a substantial sum of money raised in aid of a very worthy cause. They are still accepting sponsorship here. They tell us that next year's effort might involve lawnmowers so we assume that it will be a land-based affair.

Kennet & Avon Canal and the Slipway Problem

2007-07-15T07:15:00.000-07:00

We are fast discovering that the most challenging (and frustrating) aspect of exploring canals and rivers in our Winsome pedal boat, is trying to find spots where we can launch a 17 foot boat into the water and leave the car for the day. We can happily launch Winsome straight over a canal bank but only if it has a right angle edge and a drop of less than 2 foot into the water. There are plenty of such spots on canals but (a) they are rarely close to convenient parking and (b) without walking every canal bank concerned, we have no way of finding out where they are. We will certainly note them in this blog whenever and wherever we find them!

So, we tend to have to identify slipways in advance and head for those. But finding slipways using a combination of the current canal guides, relevant websites and Google is proving problematic.

The bad news is that listed slipways sometimes turn out not to be or sometimes belong to private marinas who will charge you more to launch and recover than our entire British Waterway (BW) licence for the year. The local BW office (when we call or email them) are usually polite and friendly but seem bemused by the strange notion of launching anything smaller than a narrowboat (for a season) or larger than a canoe (for a day). They are even unaware of the existence of some slipways – even when these are on their towpath. If BW want to encourage more day visitors onto the canals, then they need to provide more slipways and provide better information about those there already are.

However, the good news (we are discovering) is that, if you are lucky enough to find a slipway, you can pretty much guarantee to be the only boat launching there all day (or all week or month maybe) so it’s a delightfully low stress activity and very quick and easy to execute. If only finding them was similarly hassle free. We have so far had to call off two trips because we simply couldn’t find anywhere without making the long journey to look.

Anyway, having been told about a delightful 8-9 mile stretch of the Kennet & Avon canal which is lock free from the Eastern outskirts of Bath to Bradford on Avon, it looked like a perfect Winsome day outing. We called the Bath & Dundas Canal Co. at Brassknocker Basin but discovered that their slipway is only available to the public for 3 days mid-week and then only, they said, with 3-4 days notice. (Having visited here by car and seen how narrow and busy this boat park and hire spot is, we were not surprised).

Fortunately, we then found the Bradford on Avon Marina who were very happy to accommodate us for a very reasonable £10 (including parking).

With so much space and no interruptions, the boat was off the roof, assembled (engine, seats, fenders, lines, etc), launched and ready to go in 20-25 minutes. Perfect.

Heading West, our hope was to get through Bradford lock (unfortunately, the only available slipway landed us the wrong side of this) and head for Bath over the famous Dundas Aqueduct. After ¾ mile, we reached the lock and moored up to go and inspect it from a Winsome perspective. The lock itself looked fine but it was very busy with a small queue of boats waiting and (not surprisingly) an expectation for two boats to fit into the lock at a time. So, we watched the first two boats go through and could suddenly see where canal “barges” get their name from – especially when driven by people who have only been in charge of a boat for, perhaps an hour. For example, the skipper of the boat on the left happily employed the other boat, the lock walls and the exit lock gates as ready alternatives to engaging reverse gear.

We decided that we weren’t happy to risk Winsome sharing such a ‘barging’ space. Also, it brought home to us that queuing for locks might be fine when you are boating for a week but, when you only have a few short hours and hope to complete a 10 mile or so passage, then queuing (and the risk of further queues on the way back) is not an attractive option. So, we executed a neat 3 point turn and headed East instead vowing to return this way on a quiet mid week day, in say, November when, hopefully, there will be no queue and no “barges” to share the lock with.

The passage East was attractive but a bit less varied and interesting than the one towards Bath. However, the good news is that it was a nice clear run of 4.5 miles before the next lock and we spotted two water voles (which we understand is the preferred marketing term for water rat)one on the bank and one swimming across our bow. We also found the number of live-aboard boats fascinating having never seen so many before. We wondered when this guy last took his boat anywhere.

A rare half hour of blistering sunshine gave the crew a chance to try out his new golfing umbrellas as a putative Winsome sunshade – he seemed pleased.

One of the diversions en route was the impressive Staverton marina where, pedalling under its impressive bridge entrance,

we found an entire modern housing complex attractively located around a marina. What a perfect spot for a Winsome owner (we thought) but disappointingly (and slightly unnervingly) the place seemed to be a ghost town – despite the sunny afternoon, we saw only 1 inhabited balcony and 1 inhabited boat – where were all these people?

We were also intrigued by one person’s approach to docking their 60 foot narrowboat conveniently outside their house.

After an hour, we reached Buckley’s lock and the junction with the derelict Wilts and Berks canal.

A helpful boat owner advised us that the local pub sold excellent ice creams and he was right – mango or strawberry made with clotted cream. Yum.
Suitably iced, we turned for home – pleased that the erstwhile sunshades work equally well as umbrellas given a sudden downpour.

We had one slightly tricky moment on the return journey, as we speeded up (on a long, straight stretch) to overtake a 60 foot narrowboat which was travelling just slightly too slowly for us only to struggle to pass him (given the dragging effect of his wake) before encountering another narrow boat heading towards us. That took some puff! Phew. We have noticed this dragging (almost sucking) effect before when passing narrow boats (on narrow strips of water). We close a boat in front very quickly (if it’s travelling at 3mph, say) but then, once abreast of it, we struggle to pull past it.

Anyway, all in all, not quite the passage we had planned but still another enjoyable day’s cruise of around 11 miles.

Lake Coniston

2007-07-10T09:43:00.000-07:00

Fresh from our triumphs on the Lancaster Canal, we repaired to Lake Coniston on Sunday July 8th to meet Mike Byrne, who plans to pedal Winsome the entire length of the Caledonian Canal next month. We arrived at 9am to an almost empty boat centre, meeting Mike and his girlfriend Verity in time to demonstrate the delights of unloading and assembling Winsome.

There is a slipway charge at Coniston based on boat length, and ours came to £12.50. The slipway itself is ideal for Winsome, being hard and shallow with a jetty alongside. We managed to launch without getting wet, and could then pull the boat alongside the jetty.

Mike and Verity set off for a short cruise in very promising sunshine, while we waited for the cafe to open at 10, ordered a cappucino and sat at one of the beachside tables waiting for Mike to return as the lake started to come to life.

Coniston is about 6 miles long and there are no large settlements on its banks. The National Trust owns a good deal of the shore, and the lake appears to be reserved for unpowered and electric boats. At the Coniston Boat Centre you can launch unpowered and electric craft, hire wonderful classic rowing boats, and less attractive but more practical electric launches. You can also hire or bring your own canoes and kayaks, or take one of the frequent boat trips.

Easily the most spectacular trip boat is the very elegant steam launch Gondola, captained and crewed for the day by two gentlemen of taste and sagacity in equal measure. They were clearly smitten by Winsome, and honoured her with a blast on the steam hooter every time we crossed wakes throughout the day.

When Mike and Verity returned, we dragged the boat out of the water up the beach, using the inflatable boat rollers. On his Caledonian Canal voyage, Mike will probably need to do this overnight, definitely if there is rough weather. He returned to Scotland with a better idea of how easy (or not) it is to handle a 70KG, 5.5M plastic boat in what were ideal conditions. Fortunately for him, he should have more people on hand when he needs to do this for real.

By the time Mike and Verity had departed, Winsome had attracted a fair number of curious admirers, and she was much photographed.

We had arranged to meet some family and friends for the rest of the day, and everyone - even the New Zealander - enjoyed a quick spin in Winsome.

For lunch, we decided to leave the crowded beach at the boat club and head for a picnic rendezvous at the other end of the lake. The others had to go by car, and would have missed some of the splendid scenery you can only appreciate from the water.

.. not to mention the scuba divers who appeared out of nowhere to startle our dozy crew

We tied up for lunch at a public launch jetty at the other end of the lake. Canoes and Kayaks can beach almost anywhere, but Winsome is more sedate and needs a smooth beach or ideally a jetty like this one. Park a Moor is the nearest jetty to Peel Island, widely thought to be the model for a fictional island on Lake Windermere which features in the famous children's book "Swallows and Amazons" by Arthur Ransome. Those of us who had read the book were keen to see the island close up, and a series of circumnavigations were duly arranged.

Alas, few children of today would be allowed by their protective parents to sail unsupervised to an island, let alone spend the night there. We were delighted, therefore, to see what looked like a full re-enactment of at least some of the sense of adventure. Red-hatted pirates and a Skull and Cross Bones flag were to be seen, and the secret harbour housed two period sailing dinghies.

After our lunch and boat trips, we parted company with our friends and set off back to the top end of the lake, this time following the western shore.

The weather remained sunny, though the strengthening breeze was now producing a slight southerly swell, which became more pronounced as we neared the top end of the lake. This made for some fine dinghy sailing, and even some quite large yachts went out - some of them gamely beating their way south, others gently motoring south for (one hopes) a downwind return.

After a quick look at the very top of the lake, we returned to the slipway and recovered the boat to the intense admiration of everyone. Time for a final cup of tea at the excellent beach-side brasserie, and we were on our way home.

Coniston really suits Winsome, being almost a designated "green" lake. One could even believe that the boat in its present form might be a viable rental product on Coniston - the captain of the Gondola reckons Coniston's visitors to be gentler and "more sophisticated" than the more exuberant Windermere trippers, who were thought by the boat hire company there to present too robust a challenge for such a delicate craft!

All in all, a great day out. Winsome maintains her 100% record of never failing to deliver her potential, but the standard is getting higher and higher.

Lancaster Canal

2007-07-10T04:25:00.000-07:00

The Lancaster canal runs from Preston to Kendal. Only the Southern part is currently navigable but this includes a 41 mile lock free stretch which makes it an attractive proposition for Winsome.

As we needed to travel up the M6 in order to demonstrate Winsome to some folks on Lake Coniston, it seemed a waste to zoom straight past the Lancaster canal without sampling what it has to offer – especially as one gets tantalising glimpses of it from the motorway.

So, a few days before we set off, we tried to find where we could launch a 17 foot pedal boat for a day on the Lancaster canal. We found 3 slipways listed by British Waterways and called up all 3 to enquire about launching a day boat on their slipway. Unfortunately, we discovered that all 3 were owned and operated by private marinas and would charge us £30 for the privilege (£15 each way). It seems it’s cheaper to launch at the height of the season at Henley-on-Thames than on the Lancaster canal!

So, we contacted British Waterways to see if they could advise us on a means to access their canal for less than the cost of our annual BW licence! Sadly not. The BW staff we managed to talk to didn’t know of any public slipway. Once again we found that launching on canals as day visitors is not a recognised nor particularly welcome concept on many inland waterways.

But we are persistent, so Saturday morning saw us, map in hand, inching our way along the A6 (which runs alongside the northern end of the canal) trying to find possible launch spots. Thus we happened on the “Canal Turn” pub at Carnforth – we drove into their carpark, stepped across the towpath and there was a slipway! Not a great one but certainly good enough for us. We called the telephone number advertised on the BW sign nearby and spoke to a friendly official who didn’t know about the slipway but thought it probably belonged to BW given it was on the towpath side!

The only problem was where to park so we tracked down the landlord of the Canal Turn pub who was very friendly and quite happy for us to park and offload the boat as long as we patronised the pub which we were certainly very happy to do!
Launching was straightforward and with the added pleasure that the marina slipway (which we could see directly opposite) would have set us back by £30!

The first part of the canal running south from Carnforth is close to the A6 which makes it slightly noisy but not unpleasantly so. A sudden downpour might have dampened our spirits but the latest addition to Winsome’s onboard kit of two large golfing umbrellas means that such sudden showers no longer hold any fear for us.

Nearing Hest Bank, we encountered the Hatlex Swing Bridge. We moored alongside and both went ashore to investigate whether we could open the bridge and, if so, how. Having tried our BW key in the padlock and discovered it didn’t work, we then spotted we didn’t need to unlock anything, simply push.

So, the helmswoman nipped back to Winsome whilst the crew put their back into swinging Hatlex bridge open. Unfortunately, the conditions were extremely gusty and, in the absence of the considerable (and delightfully sociable) ballast usually provided by the crew, a gust caught the bow as I approached the bridge and swung Winsome hard around across the narrow canal. Without being able to get up speed (no room) and without forward ballast (no crew), she would not turn back into the wind. By this time, the boat had turned right around and I pondered reversing through the bridge but decided it would be easier to take her to the bank and rope her through.

If one is Winsoming any distance single handed, Nick has provided a forward chamber which can be filled with water to balance the boat and prevent this kind of thing happening. Unfortunately, we might need to find a very quick way to ballast the boat for these 2 minute solo trips through windy bridges at slow speeds.

On the return trip, the operation looked less risky due to having a following wind but, as there were a group of curious ramblers huddled on the towpath watching us, I took ballast on board (in the form of a helpful female rambler) for the short passage under the bridge. Unfortunately, one might not find such obliging well ballasted ramblers whenever one encounters such a windy solo moment. Food for thought.

Along the last mile of the canal entering Hest Bank, rows of houses of all sizes and ages run down to the canal.

Pedalling past such a creative variety of garden-ends and pontoons proved one of the more entertaining aspects of the trip. It was easy to spot whether the main interest of the residents was in boats, garden plants or simply sitting relaxing by the water.

On arrival in Hest Bank, we moored alongside and employed our new waterproof seat covers in case of further rain. These are simply elasticated rucksack rain covers and serve the purpose perfectly. We just wish they weren’t such a loud orange colour.

Hest Bank runs to an excellent Deli sandwich shop and that served our lunch needs well. Bacon and Salsa, we discovered, is a combination worth trying.

After lunch, we explored another mile or so South of Hest Bank before turning reluctantly around and heading back the 4 miles or so to Carnforth and a welcome drink in the friendly Canal Turn pub.

If we can find other places to launch and recover on this interesting and attractive canal, we will be back.

The Grand Western Canal

2007-07-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

Another forecast break in the monsoon and we set off for the Grand Western Canal, an isolated contour canal in Devon, running from Tiverton to the Somerset border. This canal was originally part of a grand scheme to link Bristol to Exeter and provide a more reliable route between the midlands and the south coast. The Grand Western Canal was the only part of this scheme built. It was completed late and way over budget, and never quite established itself before the railways came and took away its market. Although closed to boat traffic for 50 years, the section of the canal from Tiverton to Lowdwells was saved from landfill and is now run by Devon County Council as a country water park. As it doesn't belong to British Waterways, you need a separate licence.

The only public slipway on the canal is at Boehill, near Sampford Peverell. This is very near to Junction 27 on the M5 and Tiverton Parkway station. Tiverton itself is 6.5 miles away by canal, and there is no longer a railway station in the town itself. It is a small irony that while the railway killed the canal as a commercial transport system, the canal has been returned to life as a leisure facility and wildlife habitat.

It was a very straightforward run down to Boehill along the M5. We bought a day licence for £3 and day parking for £1 from the Minnows Touring Park, a touring caravan site on the canal, although (as it turns out) not the actual slipway. We filled out the rather grand form and were duly issued with a paper licence "plate" to stick on the boat. We followed their directions to the slipway which is accessed down a narrow track. This would be a nightmare for someone towing a trailer if they ever met anyone. Fortunately, the track opens out to a very nice slipway area with plenty of room to turn round or, in our case, to unload and assemble the boat. It might not be so stress-free if the slipway was ever busy, and it will require some logistic skill for the canal to host the 2008 Trail Boat festival unless they are planning an additional slipway at the showground.

Once assembled and launched, one half of the crew set off eastwards back to the caravan site while the other returned to park the car there for a very reasonable £1 charge. We arrived at about the same time, turned the boat round, and set off westwards towards Tiverton. The promised break in the weather had not entirely materialised at this point, but the rain was losing some of its enthusiasm.

By the time we had covered the short distance to Sampford Peverall proper, the rain had stopped and there was patchy sun. And it was starting to dawn on us what a really beautiful canal this is. The water is wonderfully clear, and the banks are lush with vegetation.

The many fishermen we saw looked like they expected to catch something. There were kingfishers, and water lillies, and ... duck weed.

Duckweed has a bad reputation among boaters because you often find it on stagnant water, and such water tends to be impassable. But that's not because of the duckweed, which as far as we could tell was simply floating on the surface. As you can see, Winsome cut through it with no apparent effort. I'm guessing it isn't the duckweed but the fact that it hides underwater debris that accumulates on the relatively static water duckweed tends to colonise. In fact, there were no underwater obstructions we encountered, and duckweed is a sign of healthy water - which the Grand Western Canal certainly is.

About halfway between Sampford and Tiverton there is a canalside car park with a lifting pedestrian bridge. We think Winsome could be launched over the bank here, although the safety boulders planted by the CC to stop cars running into the canal would need to be avoided. The lift bridge is a recent construction on an older abutment, and is very finely balanced. You need to open its combination padlock (you get the number with your licence) and then reach up and pull down on the counterweight bar to lift the bridge onto a catch which holds it in the vertical position. When you release the catch, it drops down smoothly but alas not quite completely. This means you have to walk onto the partially open bridge to complete its descent, which is quite noisy - but fun!

We made good progress - our usual 4.1mph on the GPS - along the canal and under its many beautiful bridges. The bridges on the Mon&Brec are somewhat "rustic" by comparison, and I wouldn't mind betting that having so many bridges built with dressed red sandstone must have had some impact on the budget - that, and the late decision by the builders to avoid locks on this section of the canal. This makes it longer than it might have been to follow the contour where feasible, but incorporating costly cuts and embankments where it isn't. That, and the need to divert around the the rather fine house of the Bishoip of Exeter of the time to keep the canal 100 yards away from his doorstep. In the early 1800's, having a canal on your doorstep probably didn't do a lot for property prices. In 2007, of course, everyone wants to be close to the water, provided, of course, that doesn't mean being regularly inundated.

So in about 2 hours we arrived at the canal terminus at Tiverton, which is some way from the town centre (actually at the top of a hill). It's not clear the canal builders expected this arm of the canal to go much further in this direction. At the terminus there is a visitor centre, a floating canal shop (closed when we got there) and a ranger station on the other side of the canal accessed by an intriguing self-operated ferry.

There was also a horse-drawn trip boat, with horse waiting to go. Below the canal at the terminus is a car park and a delightful thatched tea room offering exactly the kind of "light lunch" we were up for after our morning cruise. Not even an unconvincing rain shower could spoil this.

After lunch we returned to the basin to discover that the horse-drawn boat had gone. Hoping we would have no trouble passing her, we set off ourselves. We were surprised to find that it took about a mile to catch the trip boat, and when we passed her the horseman said they reckoned to cover about 2.5 miles in an hour. We would have been gaining on her, therefore, at about 1.5 miles an hour.

We stopped on the way back to examine some of the many water-lily colonies. We had learned from the guide book that, when the canal was under threat in the early 1960's, there was a water-lily business harvesting these delightful plants for wreaths!

We arrived back at Boehill with enough time to spare to explore the upper reaches. The ranger had warned us that the vegetation in the eastern half of the canal might be more obstructive, but what prompted us to turn back was a family of swans with cygnets. We had already made the mistake of splitting a swan family, and this does not go down well. In any case, we'd done our 15 miles for the day and needed to recover the car and get the boat out. This was done with consummate method and skill, and we were on our way in 20 minutes - just in time to join a 20 mile traffic jam on the M5.

Eco-Dining

2007-06-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

Our penchant for heading off in Winsome to a nearby pub for an evening beer after work has evolved into a penchant for Winsoming for pub suppers. On a fine June evening (not that we’ve had many), there’s something really satsifying about travelling by water a couple of miles to a country pub, consuming an excellent chilli-con-carne with half chips and half rice swilled down with a bottle of Shiraz and then heading home at an even-more-laid-back-than-usual pedal rate watching the evening light over the Brecon Beacons. And no petrol consumed.

Living in Pencelli, we are fortunate to have excellent pub suppers on offer 2.5 miles away (by water) in both directions.

Last night, we favoured the Three Horseshoes at Groesffordd (we particularly like their chilli!). This means a pedal down to Brynich Aqueduct where we can moor Winsome and trot up the road to the pub.

When there’s shopping to be done, we head on through Brynich Lock for Brecon (another 2 miles on). Unfortunately, although this is the only lock between us and Brecon, it’s not a Winsome-friendly one. The photo shows the fierce outfall at the entrance to the lock which can easily slew the bow and then (whilst you are still recovering) the stern into an inhospitable stone wall.

This is made worse in our case by the fact that the crew has usually been dropped off to go open the lock which means Winsome’s bow is somewhat lighter in the water and not offering its usual grip. The helmswoman is also not in a useful position to fend off the bow when entering the lock. Winsome’s hull is certainly tough enough to sustain any such bang but it’s not a comfortable experience.

After one or two near misses, we’ve taken to dollying around this particular lock rather than going through it. Fortunately, that takes us less than 15 minutes, i.e. much the same time as going through the lock.

Last night though we watched a hefty narrow boat coming through the lock and winced as even a boat as heavy as that was pushed sideways by the outfall and hit both bow and stern against the rough stone wall.

I was therefore amused to discover that Brynich Lock has won British Waterways’ award for “The Best Lock in Wales” on 3 separate occasions – the announcement (for 2005) reads “Brynich Lock was in tip-top condition for the judges' visit. With safety of paramount importance, a non-slip surface was fitted to the footbridge over the lock, additional safety rails were installed and mooring bollards were relocated. Various parts of the lock were repainted using environmentally-friendly, water-based paints, and visitor information around the lock was improved. Neatly-trimmed grass, carefully-tended borders and colourful hanging baskets further enhanced the surroundings.”

I can’t help wishing that the judges had paid slightly more attention to the effect on boats of the lock’s outfall than they did to the “carefully tended borders and colourful hanging baskets”.

Anyway, after a hot chilli and a bottle of Shiraz, we weren’t in a mood to worry and we turned Winsome around...

...and headed off home observed only by some grazing cows.

Bristol Harbour

2007-06-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday 17th June, 2007, signalled a change in the weather from monsoon to simply overcast. It wasn't settled enough for a long trip, so we decided to "do" Bristol Harbour. On the map this looked good for a short jaunt - no great distance, but plenty to see, and other things to do if the forecast proved wrong. Winsome was loaded up, we set off and arrived at Bristol Marina about 90 minutes later.

The marina is to the west of a large boat-yard and the S.S. Great Britain, on the southern side of the harbour. They have built a lot of houses here in recent years, and there are frequent water buses and ferries to the town centre and beyond. This end of the harbour also sees a lot of water sport activity, and there were dragon boat races between the marina and the seaward end of the harbour.

We were anxious, as one always is on trips like this, that we might not be able to park somewhere quiet enough to get the boat off yet near enough to the water for us to launch. Bristol Marina proved outstanding in this respect. There is a double slipway with ample floating jetty space for mooring along side after launch, and a barrier-controlled car-park for slipway users. This was all included in the £7.50 launch fee which includes the necessary day licence to use the harbour. This probably compares favorably with a long stay car park in the city centre!

We bought our licence from a very helpful lady at the marina office and found a quiet corner of the car park to unload and assemble the boat. We were on the water 30 minutes after arriving.

Bristol has a "floating" harbour held at high tide level, so boats float all the time. The tide rises up the river to a point where you can get out to sea for only a relatively short period each tide, but quite large boats can still make it right up to the centre of Bristol. Historically, the city was built around its harbour and it is still a focal point even though Bristol has not been a major commercial port for more than 100 years. Unlike Cardiff, a major commercial port in more recent times, Bristol still "faces" its harbour. As you proceed out of Bristol city centre up the river you can still find "backside" water frontage, but even this is slowly being converted to, or replaced by, homes and offices that face the water. This is good news for Winsome, and for residents and office workers in central Bristol.

Also good news in terms of exposure are the large numbers of visitors. Bristol Harbour is a tourist destination with waterborne activities and waterside attractions such as museums and art galleries and the @Bristol exploratory, the S.S. Great Britain and the replica of Cabot's Matthew, theatres, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, pubs and shops. There is ample mooring in the city centre for visiting craft, and there is clearly a substantial resident population living on boats moored in the harbour. And these boats are not, in the main, "posh" - some are quite old and battered, but even the new ones can be interesting.

Because of the dragon boat races, we decided to head "upstream" to the town centre to see what we could find. Looking at the map, we didn't expect this to take very long, but it did. There were two reasons for this: firstly, there is a great deal to see, and secondly the harbour, the river and its feeder canal are much larger and longer than we thought.

We noticed at the outset that we were going much more slowly than we usually do. Rural cruising offers more spectacular scenery, but it changes slowly, so there can be long stretches where there isn't much new to see. In Bristol Harbour, there is something new to see every few yards, and the best place to see it is from the water. We're not very conscientious photographers (you may have already noticed that) but we took more photographs in a couple of hours in Bristol Harbour than we normally would in a month. You'll be pleased to learn that most of them suffered from the poor light and poorer technique, but the fact that we are resolved to get a more up-to-date camera as a result of this trip says a lot.

There are ferries and trip boats plying up and down the harbour, and we noted that some of the newer water-facing offices have jetties to supplement the frequent public water bus-stops. You can well imagine Bristol residents commuting to work at a waterside office in the city centre from one of the residential developments at the western end of the harbour or even, perhaps, from house along the Avon to the east of the city. We haven't seen what the place is like after dark, though, so perhaps getting home from the pub or restaurant after work is more difficult.

Just east of the marina slipway is the marina itself which has extensive moorings for boats that can in principle make it out to sea. We wondered how many of them ever do. In Cardiff Bay, the commodore of one of the yacht clubs reckoned only about 30% of his members ever went through the barrage locks, but Cardiff Bay does provide some sailing area. We guessed that sea trips would probably not be very frequent, if only because it would take a while to get to Avonmouth anyway, and we doubt you'd be able to make a day trip of it.

The next major attraction upstream is the S.S. Great Britain centre - the huge 6 masted ship has its own dry dock and a substantial visitor centre. It was a backup destination for us if the weather broke, but it didn't. All we have are photographs.

Beyond the Great Britain on the south side of the harbour are what remains of the working port. There are railway tracks and cranes, but there are also ice-cream stands, a couple of cafes, some loos (with a jetty) and an industrial museum. The high harbour walls give you some idea of the size of boat that was formerly serviced here, and there are some sizeable residential boats. A small boat like Winsome can only land at a few places where there are steps down the water or where there is a jetty. On the north side there is a lot more office and premium residential building, but the same high quaysides predominate. There are, however, some pretty spectacular houseboats moored on the north side. A couple of these were based on what had been fairly sea-going hulls, but I doubt they would now survive anywhere other than secured to a dockside in the floating harbour.

Even in the city centre, the quaysides are "ship" height, but there are now more floating jetties, some of them accessible to visiting boats like ours, other private moorings protected by security gates. We cruised up past the Watershed building to where the original harbour has now been filled in. We'd never seen the cascading water feature from the water before.

This water cul-de-sac is bounded on all sides by eating and drinking places, as well as arts centres like the Arnolfini. We executed a controlled u-turn to the evident delight of the crowd, and returned to the main drag. Turning left under the swing bridge we now proceeded further up the river past floating restaurants and shops.

We made a short detour down to Bathhurst Basin, which must once upon a time have provided another exit point from the floating harbour to the river Avon beyond, but now offers a rather fine marina and residents' moorings for the housing that encircles it.

Emerging from the basin we turned right to pass under Bristol bridge and pass the old castle park. This would be a good place to stop if you were on a shopping expedition, being the nearest point to the main shopping centre. Above the castle park, the river is closed in on all sides by former dockside warehouses with no obvious quayside where goods were presumably hoisted directly into the buildings. Some of these buildings are now derelict, but others have been or are in the process of being converted to apartment blocks or new offices. There are also some completely new buildings which take more advantage of their waterside location. Whereas the old industrial buildings often present a blank wall to the water, the newly-built ones are clearly making the water an attractive feature. With luck, this will generate demand to make the waterway itself more attractive. In these upper reaches of the harbour there are still a large number of houseboats, but more of these were now conventional canal narrowboats rather than boats that might once have gone to sea.

Bristol is several miles from the mouth of the river Avon, at its (original) lowest crossing point. The river is tidal well inland of the city, but the rise and fall of the tide in the Severn estuary probably made Bristol even in its heyday quite hard work as a port. You'd probably need help coming up the river on the tide, and you'd dry out between that tide and the one on which you left, but the port would at least have been sheltered with decent road access to the midlands. The floating harbour was built around the turn of the 19th century, and required diverting the river to the south of its original course, and putting a couple of big locks on the original channel which opened only at high tide. Netham weir on the Avon to the east of the city maintains the water level in the floating harbour. It also marks the start of the Avon navigation up to Bath from where you can take the Kennet and Avon canal through to Reading and the Thames. Bristol is therefore a canal terminus as well as a sea port, which is presumably why there are so many narrowboats.

As you cruise up the floating harbour into the eastern side of the city, and under the railway bridges at Temple Meads station you are abruptly diverted left onto an artificial "feeder" canal that re-joins the river Avon at Netham. We had already decided to turn round at this point, rather than go through the lock, but when we got there were puzzled to see that the lock was open, and showed no change in level to the river beyond. So it would have been easy to go through and travel the further 4 miles up to the first "proper" lock on the Avon navigation at Hanham. We later learned that Netham lock only closes when particularly high tides on the Avon rise above the level of the weir. In other words, Netham lock and its accompanying weir are designed to preserve the water level in the floating harbour. I guess the sea locks at the Western end of the floating harbour also have to be kept shut at the top of spring high tides for the same reason.

So we turned round and retraced our wake back to the city centre for a cup of tea and a bun at the Arnolfini before returning down to the seaward end to observe the dragon boat racing at closer quarters. Here we spotted and explored a fine residential development at Pooles Wharf which appeared to have residents' moorings and a rather fine dutch barge.

It was now nearing 4pm and although the marina offices close at 4, we had been issued with the keycode number to exit the car park. However, just to be on the safe side, we decided to call it a day and proceeded to the slipway to haul the boat out. This was fairly straightforward, although the slipway is somewhat steeper than any we have used before. It's possible we might have been able to recover Winsome directly onto her dolly, but we used the boat roller just in case. We rolled her back to the car park, stripped her down, and were on our way by shortly after 4.

All in all, a great day out and we would have set off earlier had we realised the weather would hold and that access to the river above Netham would be free. We'll do that next time. A final note that struck both of us was how friendly everyone was at Bristol. The marina office couldn't have been more helpful. The harbour master was very welcoming and the numerous ferry and trip boat skippers who passed us all smiled and waved as they went by. The rowing club safety boats supervising the dragon boats were very engaged and engaging, and we had pretty positive interchanges with everyone we met. It must be something in the water.

Exploring Cardiff Bay

2007-06-03T11:52:00.000-07:00

Winsome last visited Cardiff Bay on blustery, wet day in February in order to provide a photo call for the Welsh Assembly’s Waterways Group.

We made a mental note at the time to return in more clement weather to explore the Bay properly. The forecast on Saturday was good so we set off for the Riverside Leisure Centre in Cardiff which (we’ve discovered) is an excellent place to launch and park for the day for only £6.

Our only challenge on Saturday was the large fleet of kayakers – those in the water were no problem but the empty ones covering the entire jetty made it tricky to bring Winsome alongside after launching.

The map of the Bay below shows our passage marked in red.

Half an hour after arrival, we were afloat and pedalling up the River Taff (away from the Bay) in order to view the Millennium Stadium from a novel angle.

Wales’s football team were playing the Czech Republic which meant we got heckled by large numbers of seriously inebriated red-shirted soccer fans (“Oi, the sea’s the other way mate!”) and peered at suspiciously by the police and security guards parading the Millennium terrace.

Unfortunately, the height of the stadium terrace above the water means that Winsome would probably not be a good alternative for attending International rugby matches. But the novelty of the idea was briefly appealing.

Having exercised a languid U-turn at the main road bridge above the stadium, we had the added treat of hearing the strains of “Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” as we pedalled our way back past the stadium at precisely 3pm.

Next we headed out of the Taff and round towards Mermaid Quay skirting the outer moorings of the Cardiff Yacht Club. In the Force 4 conditions in February, this stretch of water was memorably rough but we were surprised at the amount of swell across this same stretch on Saturday when the wind was only 2 or 3 at most. At first we blamed the washes of passing Aqua buses and trip boats but the swell persisted for about ½ mile until we rounded the corner towards St David’s Hotel. We wondered if it’s some effect of the current out of the River Taff meeting the still (supposedly) waters of the Bay?

Our hope to impress the patrons of the St David’s Hotel (seated on the balcony for afternoon tea) was slightly dented due to a piloting oversight which meant we grounded briefly next to the wetlands just short of the hotel. A judicious spot of paddling (rather than pedalling) and a slightly heated exchange between helmswoman and crew put this event behind us and we pedalled gracefully into a berth at Mermaid Quay’s very fine ‘Pay&Display’ jetties.

We were particularly delighted to find ourselves alongside a very old wooden Wayfarer complete with rowlock fixed on the stern for sculling. Unfortunately, there was no sign of her crew.

Having paid at the ‘parking’ meter, we enjoyed a brief trip ashore to sample the benefits of city centre life (toilets and ice creams in our case). Mermaid Quay was heaving with city folk enjoying the sun and water and, after 10 minutes of city living, we were glad to escape back to the boat.

After executing a neat stern board exit from our pontoon (which, unlike our grounding, was probably witnessed by nobody), we headed back out into the Bay.

Crossing the main part of the Bay to the barrage was uneventful apart from a couple of bright yellow, high speed RIBs stacked with paying punters screeching with delight at each high speed circuit executed rather closer to us than we would have liked. Watching Winsome bobbing around in their (repeated) wake was probably considered part of the entertainment for the punters. It was less entertaining for us and we guessed that the few small boats sailing found them as irritating as we did. It made us wonder, on such a small stretch of water, how the various very different water-based interests can be amicably (and safely) accommodated. Fortunately, as long as we kept up a good cruising speed and turned bow into the worst of the washes, Winsome took it all in her ladylike stride.

There were plenty of navigational disincentives to inspecting the barrier close up but we enjoyed watching the gates and road bridge open and numerous boats entering and (best of all) the two high speed RIBs boats disappearing through them and out to sea.

Pedalling past the barrier, we entered the River Ely and passed a Drascombe Lugger drifting lazily in the light and variable winds. The helpful crew told us that we would be fine to explore up the River Ely for several miles until we reached a weir. So, on we went. Either side of the river are new executive riverside apartments – we were hailed with a question by one resident from his balcony high above us but couldn’t identify which balcony it was (there were so many) so the question went unanswered.

We noted (with regret) that the apartments offer fantastic balconies overlooking the river but no means for residents to land or keep boats. What a shame.

Leaving the housing developments behind, the contrast of the quiet, almost rural river, after the hustle and bustle of the Bay was delightful. We encountered only two other boats and spotted herons and grebes. You start to feel you are miles into the country until the next bend reveals a deserted gasworks or dual carriageway flyover droning overhead.

An unexpected treat was a line of 5 classic old sailing boats (an original Cardiff Bay racing fleet we wondered?). They were in a poor state of repair but had beautiful, old fashioned lines and we just hoped that someone has the funds and plans to renovate them.

Although the upper reaches of the Ely beckoned (“let’s just see what’s round the next bend?”), we had to keep an eye on the clock and reluctantly turned for home. The Channel View leisure centre had been anxious to point out that they close up shop (and slipway presumably) at 7.30pm.

We made fast progress back down the Ely and the final leg back up the Bay into the Taff and back to our launch point. 3 or 4 cruising boats returning from a day out beyond the barrage motored home past us and commented on Winsome. A friendly steam launch also chugged by and waved. It was nice to chat to passers by not in narrow boats for a change!

Back at the leisure centre we quickly recovered Winsome, stripped her and had her on the roofrack and ready to drive home in under half an hour.

So, another area of Britain’s intriguing waterways has now been “Winsomed”. Bring on some more.

Sunny Sunday lunchtime run to Llangynidr

2007-05-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a lovely sunny Sunday morning and a good forecast for the day. Llangynidr for lunch, we decided – a 10 mile round trip from Winsome’s “home port” of Pencelli.

We hastily packed all the gear: sunhats, drink, lunch, monster torch and horn (for navigating the Ashford tunnel), The Sunday Times (for the crew to read during the more leisurely stretches of the canal) and portable radio (for keeping up with England versus West Indies test match at Lords). And off we go.

Between Pencelli and Talybont-on-Usk (our regular evening pub run), there are 3 drawbridges. Only one of them gets left down in the summer and, fortunately, it’s one that we’ve recently discovered we can shoot (just) if we get both heads (and knees) down to gunwale level – mistakes in height assessment can be painful and the crew needs implicit trust in the helmsman for the signal to “Duck now”!

After Talybont, the next challenge is the 375 yard Ashford tunnel which is very narrow and has no towing path. Apparently, the horses were originally led over the top whilst the boat was legged through. The first photo gives a feel for how dark it is once you are inside.

Winsome’s regular helmswoman discovered early on that keeping a straight and steady course through a pitch-black tunnel was not her forte and to retain domestic harmony, she now hands control to Winsome’s tunnel pilot who has turned the practise into his own specialism. You can see him in action here complete with torch. The regular helmswoman (now crew) concentrates on sending out intermittent blasts on our old, but very loud, horn. The darkness and narrowness, combined with Winsome’s silent propulsion, concentrates our minds on keeping narrow boats well clear of entering the tunnel until we are through. One time, we tried following a narrow boat through the tunnel but will avoid doing this ever again. Inhaling their engine fumes was unpleasant, it was noisy, we were repeatedly thrown off course by their (considerable) water displacement and it took about twice as long as when we nip through ourselves at only a little less than normal cruising speed. A lesson learned.

Back out into the warmth of the sun and on to Llangynidr. Fortunately, the Mon & Brec canal is never very busy and we only passed two other boats (easy) and had to overtake one (bit harder). We find two main problems in overtaking narrow boats. The first is getting them to notice you coming up astern but without creating unnecessary anxiety – a polite “hello” doesn’t usually get heard. A short toot on our fine horn would work but feels rude. Once into the manoeuvre, we can put on a 5mph burst of speed and get past in no time at all. The problem is that, if the narrow boat crew only notice you as you start to draw alongside, they tend helpfully (they think) to steer into the bank (to create more room for us) but, of course, this swings their (hefty) stern out making our passage a lot more hairy. The most effective approach is simply to cruise cheerfully by shouting “stay as you are, stay as you are”….

Just above the first lock at Llangynidr is a lovely peaceful mooring spot and this is where we stopped for lunch. This time we had our own picnic but the very fine “Coach & Horses” pub is only 10 minutes walk down the tow path and that is sometimes our favoured option.

The final photo shows the tunnel pilot (replete with picnic lunch) roping Winsome round ready for the 5 mile trip home. With a bit of luck, this will include an ice cream stop at Talybont…….

Llangollen Revisited

2007-05-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

With a spell of fine weather promised, we decided to try the Llangollen canal again. We booked into a canalside B&B near Froncysyllte, where we could tie up for the night. We couldn't launch there, but we could at the "slipway" at Froncysyllte, on the southern end of the famous Pontcysyllte aqueduct . This slipway is clearly not designed for launching, as you can see, and it isn't marked on the British Waterways maps as a slipway. Our host at the B&B thought it had been installed for the benefit of the ducks, and other wildlife, who cannot otherwise get in and out of a canal that is concreted for long stretches.

Once in the water, we scooted across the aqueduct

and back to make sure we had everything in place for the major passage the following day. The northern end of the aqueduct at Trevor is a narrowboat hire company base . We threaded our way through the moored boats to the pub.

This must be quite an exciting place to be when the hiring week starts. What with the aqueduct in one direction and the very narrow Llangollen canal in the other, it must take quite a while for everyone to disperse. After a quick drink, we re-crossed the aqueduct and then repaired to Chirk (by car) for an excellent curry.

The following morning we set off from our B&B, crossing the aqueduct unimpeded. This was useful because the aqueduct is strictly one boat wide, the canal can be pretty busy, and narrow boats proceed even more slowly than usual across this engineering marvel - it must be something to do with the altitude.

We turned left at the nothern end and set off up the Llangollen arm of the canal, which clings to the sides of the Dee valley. It was originally intended mainly to feed water into the canal from the Horseshoe falls above Llangollen, and since it wasn't therefore primarily a commercial waterway, it is very narrow in places. The canal is still a major supplier of water to some towns in Cheshire, which probably helps to keep it in good condition. There is therefore quite a water flow, but we were pleased to note that this was having little effect on Winsome - we were able to maintain our usual 4mph without additional effort. The flow is certainly greater than it is on the Mon & Brec, but the waterway is also quite a bit deeper for the most part, so I guess the power required to push the boat along is probably comparable.

There are two sections between Trevor and Llangollen where two boats cannot pass. There is no signalling system and the signs advise you to send someone ahead to ensure the canal is clear (and stays that way) before entering the sections. We were held up on the upper section - about 500 metres - waiting for a boat coming downstream. This place must be a nightmare on busy days.

When we got to Llangollen, which took us just under an hour, we tied up outside the British Waterways booth where you buy tickets if you plan to moor overnight. The very friendly BW officer remembered another pedal boat from last year, and gave us this photograph of it.

It looks rather fine, with two pedalling stations and a good deal more storage space than Winsome. We hope we encounter it again. The BW guy said we ought to be able to get up to Horseshoe falls - where the canal takes water from the Dee - but we would need to watch out for the only boat that normally proceeds beyond Llangollen, the horsedrawn trip boat.

We walked into the town to buy some sandwiches and ginger beer for lunch, and then set of westwards towards the source of the canal. Just above the main Llangollen quays, and opposite the International Eisteddfod field, there is a new marina where about 20 narrowboats can tie up for the night. Since this was early in the season, there were only a couple moored there when we went past. Narrow boats have to turn round at this point - above the marina the canal is narrow and shallow but (more importantly) there are no "winding holes" where 60 or 70 foot boats can turn round. There is even a sign forbidding boat traffic from travelling up the feeder, but we had been invited by the BW manager for Wales and North West England to proceed to the source, and BW at Llangollen seemed happy for us to proceed.

The canal above Llangollen is wide enough for boats to pass, but because it gets very little traffic apart from the horse-drawn trip boat, it is shallow near the banks in many places. BW clearly do not expect motor boats on this stretch, although organised parties of canoists are welcome. We passed the horse-drawn trip boat about halfway up, and managed to stay well out of its way.

Here's the horse:

and here's the boat, with a troop of what looked like junior scouts aboard:

The boatman obviously doesn't encounter many other boats on this stretch! The horse-boat is quite long but it is double-ended and you can move the entire rudder and tiller from one end to the other. This enables the boat to proceed pretty well as far as we did - to the hotel just below the Horseshoe falls.

We arrived at the terminus at the famous Chainbridge hotel about 30 minutes out from Llangollen, and immediately saw that the warnings about not being able to turn round were quite serious. We knew that, if necessary, we could lift the bow out of the water to turn the boat, but the concrete banks are quite high, and the water flow is more pronounced at this point.

The friendly manager came out to see what was happening, and between us we found a spot - just outside the door to room 44 if you want to repeat this feat - where you can rope a 17+ foot pedal boat around. Fortunately, although the canal is very narrow it is also quite deep - there was therefore little risk of grounding the boat while turning her round. With Winsome pointing in the right direction for the return trip, we rewarded ourselves with a drink from the bar and a look at the falls.

We timed our return to avoid the horse boat, due to make its next trip at 2pm. Even so, we managed to stop on the way to eat our sandwiches and bask in the sun. The GPS showed that we were making about 1/2 mph more going downstream, and we arrived back in Llangollen pretty quickly. Things looked quite quiet on the canal so we decided to sprint through the first narrow section and hope for the best. This was a mistake. About 200 metres into the thing we encountered a hire boat coming towards us and decided to retreat. We may have been unnecessarily anxious about the flow, because we opted to tow Winsome backwards up the canal from the bank, rather than pedal her. This, it turns out, is not terribly easy to do - the rudder becomes a largely unhelpful encumbrance to sternward motion, and we could see why narrow boat rudders often have a small "eye" visible above the surface, no doubt for attaching towing roped under exactly these circumstances. But with much bumping and cursing, and help of someone from the oncoming boat, we managed to tow Winsome back to a passing place.

Our early hubris having received its just desert, we re-navigated this narrow stretch "by the book" with one of us jogging ahead along the towpath until we could see the way clear ahead. This means (a) proceeding 300 metres to a bend and beyond before returning and waving Winsome through and (b) one of us having to pedal the boat unaided through the narrows. Despite this unhappy conjunction of circumstance, the passage was made without mishap. The solo pedaller, aided somewhat by the flow, managed a record-breaking sprint over the 500 metres that almost left her breathless. Fortunately, the other narrow section has passing places at visible intervals and could be navigated under full power. Needless to say, it was quite empty.

The remainder of the trip back to the aqueduct proved uneventful and relaxing. We passed some boats coming up but none going in our direction. When we arrived back at Trevor, we stopped for an ice-cream before setting off back over the aqueduct for the last time .... or would have, but for a convoy of nicely spaced out narrow boats coming in the other direction. A narrow boat takes a loooong time to cross the Pontcysyllte aqueduct, and it seems even longer if you are waiting. It needs traffic lights!

When the last boat had come across, we sprinted for the aqueduct to book our place, and shot across at indecent speed. We need not have worried - the canal was now quite quiet again.

And thus we arrived back at our slipway after an epic 12 mile (or so, according to the GPS) voyage, and tied up alongside. We decided to strip the boat while afloat, because we were not entirely sure how we were going to get her out of the drink. As you can see from the picture above, the slipway shelves relatively steeply (good) but reverts to a regular canal bank about a foot from the water's edge (bad). The challenge, therefore, was to get the bow out of the water and clear of the step and hope that we could drag the boat ashore before the rudder grounded.

We had brought two boat rollers just in case, and inflated both of them. The bow lifted easily enough and Winsome could be pulled ashore onto the first roller on the top of the step then pulled up the grass slope of the canal bank a little way before inserting the second roller. Things were going reasonably well when it became apparent that the boat was rolling off the top most roller and the bottom roller decided to detach itself and disappear down the canal to Chirk. A friendly passer-by retrieved the roller and we managed to regain control of the boat by some inelegant shoving and a fair bit of cursing. All in all not the most graceful recovery we have done, but not something we wouldn't attempt again, either.

All in all a delightful trip, and one we are keen to do again, but we would counsel any other Winsomers to avoid busy times of the year or of the hire boating week. Narrowboating is relaxing only if you are the narrowboater.

The Empty Monty

2007-04-20T03:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Winsome at Saul Junction

2007-04-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

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

2007-04-18T06:35:00.001-07:00

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.

Winsome’s Day Out at The Welsh Assembly

2007-03-02T03:54:00.000-08:00

The Welsh Assembly run an all party ‘Waterways Group’ in partnership with British Waterways. The group’s brief is “Improved Quality of Life through the Sustainable Development of the Waterways of Wales”.

We had been invited by Marc Evans of Civitas Cymru to give a short presentation on Winsome at the next meeting of the ‘Waterways in Wales’ group on March 13th.. Winsome is certainly about “quality of life” on the Welsh Waterways, she definitely represents a sustainable mode of transport and, most importantly, she provides a perfect alliterative fit to the Group’s title! Maybe this is why Marc also asked if we’d be happy to make Winsome available for a photo call with Val Lloyd, the Assembly Member who chairs the working group.

So, Tuesday morning (February 27th) found us pedalling furiously in a blustery Force 4 and intermittent driving rain, across the broad expanse of Cardiff Bay headed for The Welsh Assembly. The Cardiff Bay Harbour Authority had been signed up to look after us for the morning and their friendly and helpful wardens did an outstanding job – from greeting us on the River Taff slipway until shepherding us home 3 hours later on a very rough and wet windward passage back across the Bay. By this time, despite the generous provision by the crew of a large (and fairly clean) handkerchief to dry the helmswoman’s spectacles, identifying the navigation buoys at the entrance to the Taff river had become a serious challenge.

This was probably the roughest conditions we have experienced in Winsome (although the nautically-robust Newlands have surfed in over a lively Cardigan Bay bar before now). We were really pleased with how stable she felt and how little “green stuff” we shipped. With the flow out of the river Taff, we also set off at a surging 5mph leaving the Harbour Authority power launch surprised to discover what it took to keep up with us!

Twenty minutes or so later, we arrived safely and tied up at the ‘Pay&Display’ jetties below the Senedd and retired (with our harbour authority friends) for a hot cup of Cappuccino before returning for the photo call with Val, Marc and friends. Val is not a boater but enjoyed (we hope) experiencing a craft which was dry and stable, had comfortable reclining seats and didn’t immediately demand any insider knowledge or specialist jargon. We just felt sorry not to able to give Val a more gentle introduction to Winsoming in the altogether calmer waters of Winsome’s home port - the Mon & Brec canal at Pencelli. Although it rains as much here as in Cardiff, our 20 foot wide canal struggles to develop any decent waves even in a gale!

Photo call over, it was back to the café for an enjoyable lunch learning about Marc Evans’ interesting company, Civitas Cymru – then, lifejackets, waterproofs and hats back on and out into the driving rain and wind for our return passage under the ever watchful eye of our patient Harbour Authority friends. As we busied ourselves sponging the rainwater out of Winsome’s bilges, they asked us (politely) whether we would prefer a tow home but my late father (a life-long sailing man) would have turned in his grave at the idea of his daughter accepting a tow simply because of adverse weather conditions – no, it was Winsoming back across the Bay for us into the strengthening Westerly wind and, as ever, we enjoyed it.

We also discovered just how quickly we are able to get Winsome out of the water, stripped down, loaded onto the roofrack and lashed down when it’s pouring with rain and we are both 100% focussed on getting home as soon as possible for hot showers and tea!

Coming alongside Pencelli slipway (video)

2007-03-01T03:06:00.000-08:00

Winter Winsoming on Windermere

2007-02-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

For a couple of days in mid January, we rented an historic cottage from the National Trust on the shores of Lake Windermere complete with its own stone jetty. The cottage – Low Strawberry Gardens – got its interesting name from a period during which the owner catered for a water-borne market in strawberry teas for Bowness-based tourists in the 19^th century.

We were able to launch Winsome (somewhat spectacularly) from her dolly over the side of the jetty. Although the jetty is also a slipway, when it reaches the water it degenerates into an irregular pile of rocks, preventing a more normal launch.

We had a GPS to monitor our speed and noticed straight away that we were going about ½ mph faster than we do on our canal. Although we hadn’t expected this, it makes sense because on a narrow canal I guess you expend energy moving the water along the channel, and on open water I suppose this effect is much less. In any event, for the same (low) energy input we were able to maintain a steady 4.5mph on Windermere, whereas we tend to cruise at 4 to 4.1mph on our canal.

Flush with this discovery, and freed (so we thought) from speed limits, we tried a short sprint. We found we could do 6.5mph fairly readily and peaked at 6.8. Not bad. We later learned that there is a speed limit on Windermere: 6mph where we were and 10mph elsewhere on the lake. Fortunately, our high spirits went (we have to hope) unnoticed by the authorities. In any case, true to form, Winsome leaves no discernible wake – which is more than can be said for the passenger boats that ply up and down the lake every day throughout the year.

The next morning dawned bright and clear and, in a gesture of majestic blasé, we decided to nip across the lake to Bowness before breakfast for our morning paper. This took about 15 minutes, or would have done but for a minor pilot error which saw us coasting merrily inside a perfect circle of hazard buoys. We managed to reverse out unscathed, grateful that the manoeuvre would not have been widely observed at 9:00 am on a January morning. Fortunately, reversing in a dead straight line is pretty easy in Winsome.

After returning to our cottage for a sumptuous breakfast (complete with morning paper), we set off again in Winsome northwards to the top of the lake, a distance on the chart of about 5 miles. The weather was mainly cloudy, with patches of sun that rarely seem to include where we were

It took us just over an hour to reach Waterhead. The lake was deserted on the way up except for the passenger boat that runs regularly up and down the lake and creates an exciting wash which, “taken at the flood”, can provide a sensation akin to surfing, but taken at right angles is less comfortable.

We passed a number of properties with wonderful boathouses just yawning for a Winsome. One of these is Wray Castle – a Victorian construction with turrets and mock castellation – reportedly rented in the summer by Beatrix Potter’s parents when she was a child. It is a much grander property than the house used in the recent film, and even in the 19^th century must have cost quite a bit to rent. But perhaps property rental at that time was not so much a commercial venture for the landlord – more a way of offsetting the cost of running his own country house.

We tied up at the jetty at Waterhead and went in search of a light lunch…

We returned to Low Strawberry Gardens late afternoon and lit a large log fire!

The following day dawned somewhat murkier than the previous one, with a very light drizzle or mist and indifferent visibility. We decided that we would still go fetch our paper, and something for our tea – which we thought at that stage we might well be taking early. Our passage across to Bowness was uneventful, but definitely damper than before.

Given the damp weather (but not wanting to miss out on exploring the lake), we decided to pedal right down the lake to the Southern end and land for tea (hopefully) at the rather grand Lakeside hotel.

This was a lengthy passage with persistent light rain and a westerly breeze of variable strength. The lake was pretty calm the whole way. We were trying out yet another cheap poncho we had bought in Ambleside, and yet again it did not quite work. The waterproof trousers did, however, keep our legs dry and we looked quite a bit wetter than we actually were.

After about 80 minutes of easy pedalling clocked at a steady 4.4 mph, we arrived at the Lakeside Hotel which, in its own words, “overlooks nothing but the lake”. We barged into their very fine conservatory bistro overlooking the lake looking like drowned rats and asked as confidently as we could for some tea. No problem. Tea for two at the Lakeside is £6 but this includes 4 pieces of ginger-flavoured shortbread biscuits to die for. I would personally have plumped for one of their enormous open sandwiches, but my partner was not feeling hungry enough.

We returned to our cottage about 4 and fetched Winsome out of the water at the nearby wooden jetty and beach in order to load her up for the trip home while it was still light.

From the Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge in the South to Ambleside in the North, Windermere offers a good 13 miles of cruising, a decent day out for Winsome if you are able to stay the night at the other end. For everyone else, the perfect spot is exactly halfway up the lake, where a full day’s cruising with stops will take you to either end and back. You really should try it, especially if you have a Winsome. It’s even enjoyable in January.

Portage Considerations

2006-09-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

A fully laden Winsome is too heavy for her crew to lift or carry any distance. Fortunately, she fits well on any open (Canadian) canoe trolley. These will easily take the weight because they are designed to carry large canoes with their considerable cargo. As with a canoe, you do need to make sure that the boat is centred on the trolley, and lash the boat to the trolley so that it stays that way.

There are two portage scenarios we have tried:

(Storing and) Wheeling the boat from home or car park to slipway.
Extracting the boat from a canal to carry round locks.

In both cases, one is dealing with the complete, ready-to-sail, hull. This is probably too heavy for most couples to manhandle, so a trolley is essential. Whenever the boat is out of water, it really is better off resting on something, and a trolley serves that purpose, as you can see from the first photograph. If you have to keep your boat out of the water, but are lucky enough to have a river or canal at the end of your garden, you could probably get away with leaving her on the lawn on her side, but otherwise you need something to keep the hull off the abrasive ground.

If you don't need to transport the boat any distance on land other than on a trailer or roof rack, you can consider manhandling the empty hull. This weighs about 120 pounds, but is quite easy for two people to lift and carry short distances. Once the propeller and rudder are fitted - which you can do on the trailer or roofrack - you can put the boat in the water and fit the "engine" and seats while afloat. This is a little more fiddly than doing it on a trolley, but not much.

But if, like us, you live 2oo yards from the nearest launch point, or if you want to scoot past a fleet of narrow-boats passing through a flight of locks (yawn), then you need something that will carry a fully laden boat, whatever it is has to fit in the boat, and you need to consider how to get the boat in and out of the water.

The system we have developed consists of a Canadian Canoe trolley (currently we're using an Eckla one, but anything that will take the weight will probably do), an inflatable boat roller, and a hand pump (optional) to inflate the roller quickly.

The fully laden boat can be launched over the bank directly from the trolley, but it's harder to do recover the boat from the water that way. The roller is used to extract the boat from the water. You need to beach or come alongside somewhere you can reach down, grab the foot of the bow, and lift her out of the water onto the roller. If you can do that, you can then haul the boat ashore, pushing down on the bow to lift the (heavier) stern clear of the water and the bank. You then have your boat ashore and dripping, her bow resting on the ground and the roller just under the propeller shaft.

Now you may need to manoevre her a little so that the roller is well forward of the middle of the boat, enabling you to lift the stern and your partner to place the trolley underneath the boat just aft of the centre of gravity (which in a fully laden boat will be about a foot astern of mid-ships). Make sure the boat is centred on the trolley and aligned. The second picture shows the boat recovered from the canal and resting on the tolley and the roller. You can then lash the boat onto the trolley and remove the roller. You can do this with a single 6M cambuckle lash, but the lashing needs to go twice round the boat about a foot apart because it not only has to keep the boat on the trolley but also keep her aligned. When you hit bumps and rocks on the road, the trolley has a tendency to twist if not lashed down tightly. and if you aren't careful you end up "crabbing".

With the trolley in place and the boat lashed down, one person can wheel a Winsome by bearing down gently on the stern to raise the bow and pushing her forward. You do need to think about keeping the bow off the ground, and also about the length of the boat, but it's otherwise fairly easy and we've bypassed a lock flight of nearly a mile in this way, saving ourselves at least an hour. The length of the boat means you need to plan your turns (especially when going under bridges on canal towpaths) because the boat overhangs about 9 feet in front of her only contact with the ground. But after you've side-swiped your first toddler into the water you will quickly get the hang of it.

Why not have multiple gears?

2006-09-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

We have tried different gear ratios on Winsome during the last 18 months. The gear box itself is fixed at 1:2, but by using different sized cog wheels on the pedal units, we can change the overall ratio from about 1:6 to about 1:9. The difference this makes is interesting - especially if you don't know anything about how boat propulsion works.

The "cruising speed" of Winsome is about 4 miles an hour. You can make her go at 5.5 miles an hour if you give it a bit of welly, and a very strong crew might manage the absolute maximum of about 7 miles an hour for a short time before exhausting themselves. The interesting thing - if you've only pedalled bicycles before - is that none of these figures is determined by the gearing!

Winsome goes at her 4 mph cruising speed at 300 rpm on the propeller. The effect of the gear ratio is simply to change how fast you have to pedal and how hard you have to push to maintain that speed. This is a personal preference for the customer. The first production boat, for example, will have quite a low 1:6 ratio. This means pedalling at about 50 rpm to sustain the cruising speed of 4 mph. For most of this year, we've been using a ratio of about 1:7.5, which requires about 40 rpm on the pedals to maintain cruising speed. The first ratio we used was about 1:9, and that needed only around 33 rpm, a leisurely pace that only I seem to have liked. Obviously, the work needed to keep the boat moving at a given speed is the same, so to cruise at 33 rpm you have to push harder than you do when cruising at 50 rpm.

We have had several cyclists try the boat, and most are convinced that what she needs is a decent set of gears. While impressed with how fast she goes, they insist that with decent gears they could have achieved twice the speed that they did. And with a proper gear box, they argue, you could start with a low ratio until you get going, then change up.

We'd rather not have variable gears, because any gear changing system introduces drag, and we don't have a lot of power to play with if we want a Winsome crew to be able to talk to each other and enjoy the ride. Gear shift mechanisms also introduce cost and complexity. But the main reason we're ignoring the cyclists is that they're wrong - the boat could not be made to go any faster with gears. Gears only control how quickly you have to pedal, and how hard you have to push, to sustain a particular speed, and the range of speeds that Winsome can achieve isn't wide enough to need a higher gearing to keep pedalling rates within human capability.
The "right" gear ratio is simply the one that is optimum for the crew in terms of rate and pressure at the speed they intend to go. There is an optimum speed where the pedals feel as though they are just about keeping pace with the boat. This speed, which I have referred to as the "cruising" speed above, is just over 4 mph.

The power Winsome requires to propel her at 4 mph is probably about 200 watts. The theoretical power curve in the diagram above is for a propulsion system with no drag at all - an ideal you cannot actually achieve. This ideal power system requires only 100 watts to maintain 4.2 mph, but the power-speed curve starts to head skywards above that. So, for example, it requires double the theoretical power to achieve 5mph, and nearly 4 times the power to achieve 6mph. Winsome's so-called "hull speed" - the practical limit on the speed of any boat whose hull is immersed in the water as distinct from planing on top of it - requires 6 times the cruising power. The theoretical 600 watts required to reach hull speed translates to well over a horsepower (765 watts) in the real boat, and it would require a couple of very strong men to deliver that!

This is where boats differ from bikes. The terminal velocity of a bike - the speed beyond which you require huge amounts of power - is determined by air resistance. If you can pedal fast enough, and push hard enough, you can drive a bike to higher and higher speeds with relatively small increases in pedal speed and force. Even so, a cyclist would struggle to reach half the terminal velocity of his bike, even with 21 different gears, whereas the Winsome pedaller can reach half the terminal velocity of his machine using only one gear, literally without breaking sweat!

Winsome Technical Details

2006-09-14T08:59:00.000-07:00

Winsome is a two person, pedal-powered launch. She's just over 17 feet long and 3 feet wide, and cruises at 4 mph. Her maximum speed is around 7 mph, but that requires unsustainable effort on the part of the crew, whereas you can maintain 4 mph seemingly for hours on end. The two pedal units are 90 degrees out of phase, so that one or other of the crew is always on a power stroke, reducing overall effort and eliminating the need for any kind of fly-wheel. Winsome is designed to achieve her cruising speed on a continuous power input of about 250 watts - 125 watts per person - and the effort required is comparable to cycling on level ground at a wobble-free speed. Cruising in Winsome is less taxing than walking the same distance, and does not inhibit conversation, for example.

The pedals drive the propeller through a custom gearbox with patented lubrication-free nylon crown gears that are virtually silent. The gear box has a 1:2 input output ratio, and the pedal mechanisms offer a further 1:3 to 1:4.5 ratio making a total of between 1:6 and 1:9. To drive Winsome at cruising speed requires a prop speed of between 300 and 350 rpm, so customers can choose between a reasonably fast pedal cadence of 50 rpm or a fairly slow and heavy one of about 35 rpm by their choice of cog. Keen cyclists, for comparison, prefer a cadence of between 80 and 90 rpm, but keen cyclists generally proceed at a brisk and aerobically taxing pace.

Winsome's propeller is 12" in diameter with an 18" "pitch" - the theoretical distance moved by the propeller tip in one complete rotation. The propeller is a resin casting delivering reasonable weight for its manufacturing cost. The propeller - pictured above - is designed for robustness and to shed weed and other debris as far as that is feasible.

The boat is steered using a finger-tip fore and aft tiller mounted under the right hand of the forward facing crew member, connected to a balanced rudder. The boat is extremely manoeuvrable both forwards and when going astern.

Winsome was designed to be transported to, launched on and recovered from rivers, canals, lakes and broads. The adjustable seats, pedal mechanism, gear box and rudder can all be removed from the boat, leaving a bare hull weighing around 55 kg which can be loaded on the roof rack of an estate car. Fully laden she weighs just over 70 kg, and can be wheeled on a canoe trolley along towpaths, around locks and to and from a car park or home.

Welcome to the Winsome Launch Blog

2006-09-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

This weblog was created for owners and potential customers of the Winsome pedal launch. This has been under development by Swallow Boats of Cardigan, Wales, for nearly three years, and will officially go on sale at the end of September, 2006. The hull design and propulsion mechanics were settled 2 years ago, allowing a a prototype Winsome to be built, extensively tested and exhibited at boat shows.

The production boat - pictures above - is slightly lower and sleeker than the prototype, and is made of glass fibre sandwich for lightness, strength and low maintenance. Official technical and sales information can be found on the boat builders web site at www.swallowboats.com. This web log is where we hope testers and customers will share practical experiences of using the boat.