Getting "Hazel" Ready

Tomorrow we have wellbeing guests arriving for a trip up the Peak Forest canal to Marple aqueduct. We'll stay there overnight then come back on Monday. Me and Aaron have spent most of the day cleaning and sorting her out after her use as a film location. We took her over the Tame aqueduct to charge her batteries at the workshop of Dixon & Smith (Motor Engineers) in Dukinfield. She goes there by people power, on this occasion me and Aaron. The reason they built canals was that they enabled huge loads to be moved for very little energy expenditure. "Hazel" weighs about 20 tons but she's no problem for us to move.



Aaron keeps warm and dry in his new dayglo ski suit.

Nessie Carries on with the Job

After "Queen"s latest submarine adventure Nessie has got back to work concreting the bottom. This has involved a lot of shifting around of stuff inside. Some of it was rubbish and is being got rid of. Some of it is firewood and has gone to Stalybridge for cutting. Other stuff is useful or saleable. Once she's sorted out and reliably floating we can make good use of the space inside. It's all part of the WCBS getting sorted out after several years of drifting. We need more volunteers though, particularly people who are organisers rather than those who need to be organised.

Nessie emerges with bags of gunge out of the bilge.


New Volunteers. Things are looking up!

On Monday, I was working at the Heritage Boatyard in Stalybridge. Dave and Kim were there working on our new small trailer, built around remnants of a trailer donated on a recycling trip a couple of years ago.


Unfortunately our newest volunteer, Rosie, doesn't like being photographed, so I don't have a picture of her. She worked with me sorting out, cutting and stacking some wood that's been donated.

Yesterday I worked with Joan cleaning and tidying "Hazel" after our friends the film crew. They did clean up after themselves but, well, they're better film makers than cleaners.
Here's Joan at work in the kitchen.

I decided to clean the wheelchair lift as it had got very muddy. I ended up cleaning out all the coagulated gunge underneath it.

Today was planned as a well being trip to Hyde and back but unfortunately our guest was unwell so I turned it into a training trip for new crew members Ruth and Steve. My plans to teach them how to wind a pair in the big winding hole at Lumb Lane were messed up by picking up a tarpaulin on the blade at the crucial moment.
Ruth steered the motor on the outward trip and they swapped places for the return run.
Here's Steve steering "Forget me Not" through Guide Bridge. Ruth was steering the butty but she seems to have ducked as I was taking this photo.

With a bit of practice I think they'll both be really good boaters.

 More trainees always welcome. Email chris.leah@wcbs.org.uk

A Pleasant day at the Basin.

On Friday I collected some redundant advertising panels donated by Tameside Council. These had been round the market area while it was being revamped, a process that was delayed by the collapse of Carillion and then by the pandemic. They're made of tough plastic sandwiched between thin layers of aluminium. They'll be very useful for re-roofing "Southam" and are an environmental positive by being re-used rather than sent to landfill and then new materials having to be ripped from the Earth.

I tried to unload them and get them stacked on "Southam"s roof on my own, but discomfort from my catheter suggested I'd better stop. I later discovered that I'd taped it a bit too tightly to my leg, so certain movements were pulling it.

On Saturday morning Nessie and Aaron helped me to stack the panels. Aaron then helped to shift some bags of engineered wood flooring that have been donated. I'm not sure what we'll do with these but I'm fairly sure they'll come in useful.

Nessie started the pumps to raise "Queen" again. Her ups and downs are getting to be a bit tedious.



She came up fairly easily and we found the problem where I'd anticipated. In her fore end there's an area of bottom that is very weak and has been bodged over and over again. I doubt if there's anything left of the original elm bottom just there. The latest bodge, a layer of concrete, was well stuck to the layer underneath it. Unfortunately, this layer had come adrift from the one below it, allowing water to flood in.

With the help of an acrow prop and copious amounts of expanding foam, Nessie was able to stabilise the situation. I just hope she's still afloat this morning.

"Queen" again!

"Queen", the oldest surviving wooden motor narrow boat  afloat (sometimes) is being unhelpful. She's up and down like a yoyo. She went down about a week ago and Nessie raised her again yesterday. I checked her at about 7pm and, though she was leaking, it was well within the capacity of the pumps.

In the evening I took part in a very positive committee meeting. We have a really good committee now. The biggest problem is that they're all so busy with their day jobs. We could do with some retired people joining (preferably ones without too many grandchildren, boats or camper vans so that they have some spare time)

Anyway!  I confidently reported to the meeting that "Queen" was afloat, only to find this morning that she'd gone down in the night. This time 3 pumps were still running strongly despite their batteries being under water. Obviously there's been a big influx somewhere. Mind you, I thought that before when she went down.

I wonder if we have a quantum leak, ie, one that doesn't leak when you're looking for it but pours in when you're not.

Nessie is not happy, especially as his car engine has blown up so he has to walk everywhere.

Here's a picture of "Queen"s bow when she was afloat yesterday. Isn't it a lovely shape!


Starting the Big Clearup

Over the last few years through various difficulties such as not having enough volunteers, me having health problems and then the covid pandemic, certain areas of the WCBS have got into a mess. It's now time to make them unmessy! A big clear up is in order, particularly at the boatyard and aboard "Elton".

Poor "Elton" has always been the Cinderella of our fleet and when we didn't have enough time to sort out the metals collected on recycling trips etc, they  got dumped into "Elton"s hold. The idea was that they'd get sorted when we had time, but somehow that time was never found. A couple of times "Elton" sank and the additional sludge left after each inundation didn't make the job look any more attractive.

We decided to set up a working party to get it cleared, and the date selected was today.

At about 9 AM I extracted "Elton" from her place in the museum arm and shafted her across the canal. I tied her right next to the junction where we could work on the bank without risking conflict with passing towpath users.

Joe, the tree surgeon, was visiting from deepest Cumbria and, having been warned about the task in hand, brought some appropriate tools. At first it was just me and Joe. I bagged up aluminium cans in the boat and handed to Joe any items that needed stripping down. We bagged up separately the different categories of metal.

Soon Aaron arrived, then Kim. They took over working in the boat, Joe carried on stripping metal. I was kept busy carrying full bags of metal over the bridge to the trailer and advising on the different grades.


As the light began to dim we started to tidy up. We'd made a good big hole in the pile aboard "Elton", though plenty remained. I think we'll need two more sessions to completely clear it. There was little room to spare in the trailer. On Monday it will all be weighed in, along with more bags of aluminium cans that have been donated by the towpath litter picking teams.

I shafted "Elton" back into her place in the last of the daylight. Every scrap from the bank had been cleared away.

To my mind recycling is something that we all need to be doing as part of our duty to look after the planet that sustains us. We need a shift in attitude. So many people still see the things that they no longer need as so much rubbish that they just want to be rid of. In fact, much of it is valuable material that can be recycled so that less new stuff has to be ripped out of the Earth.

"Elton" is our youngest boat, having been built at Rickmansworth in 1937 for the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company, mostly running between London and the midlands carrying a wide range of loads. As the Cinderella of our fleet she needs a Prince (or Princess) Charming to look after her and spruce her up. If you would like to volunteer for this role please get in touch via the comments.


Raising the "Queen"

"Queen" is, as far as we know, the oldest surviving wooden motor narrow boat. She dates from 1917 and seems to be mostly still original wood. Needless to say, she is pretty poorly.


It was about 3 weeks ago that she suddenly decided to play submarines. She went down so fast, with all her pumps still running, that I had unpleasant visions of one of her rather weak bottom boards having split open.

Today we raised her. Imagining the worst we hired in a couple of extra pumps and I was resigned to the possibility that we may get her up, examine the damage, then let her sink again whilst working out a strategy for repair.

Nessie and me set up the pumps then, as he started them, I went over to Stalybridge to fetch Cheryl who was coming to take photos. I was amazed when we returned to find that the boat was already floating.

Job done, you might think. Not so!  A leak in her swim (where the planks curve inwards to guide water to the propeller) seemed to be what sank her, though it was no-where near what I had imagined. That one was easily fixed with rags and expanding foam. There was still water flowing from all over the place though. Nessie had to restart one of the petrol powered pumps (getting thoroughly soaked as he was in the wrong place as it started to pump)  as the battery powered ones that we had set up were fighting a losing battle. All afternoon I was moving stuff about so that I could trace trickles of water back to their source. I quickly ran out of expanding foam and had to go and get more.

Surprisingly, the technique is to drill into the wood near to the leak until you hit a cavity. The foam is then injected into the hole and it often starts coming out in surprising places. Sometimes a mixture of water and foam comes jetting out of an unexpected place. Bits of rag or torn up carrier bags can be shoved into such eruptions with a screwdriver. If the flow can be stopped temporarily it allows the foam to expand and solidify. There were a lot of small bottom leaks. For these I drilled right through the bottom and fired foam into the water underneath. The buoyant foam spreads out and finds its way into leaks from under the boat.

While I was doing this Cheryl was busy cleaning and tidying inside "Hazel"

At last, soon after darkness fell, I had the leaks under control and was able to set up pumps on float switches, turning on and off intermittently as required. Lets hope she's still floating in the morning.


All photos by Cheryl Dinsdale.

A Winter's Trip

We planned to take "Forget me Not" up the 7 locks to Stalybridge yesterday, but Storm Arwen put paid to that idea. This morning dawned clear and still and sunny. I met Aaron and Danny at Portland basin and we set off at about 10.15. The sky had already clouded over.

Someone had unhelpfully tied their boat abreast of the CRT boat, leaving only just enough deep water to get past.

After the Asda tunnel comes the Sea Cadet moorings, shortly before lock 1 of the Huddersfield (very) Narrow Canal.
Things went smoothly though the weather was getting grimmer and grimmer. The hills in the distance were already covered in snow.
Unusually the long pound between locks 3 and 4 was brimful and running over the weir. At Clarence St moorings I noticed that the battered fibreglass cruiser that had been sunk there for a year had gone. We found it on the towpath side further along, still looking disreputable but now afloat.
I had a brief conversation with its new owner as I walked ahead to set lock 4. He said he was coming down tomorrow to tidy up, and seemed to be under no illusions about the task that he had taken on.
As "Forget me Not" entered number 4 the snow began, light at first but getting steadily stronger. As we worked through 5 the sky darkened further and the surroundings started to take on a Christmas card look.


The previous day's storm had filled the canal with leaves and the boat struggled to make progress as its propeller tried to grip in the cold leafy stew. The engine strained at the extra work and threw out thick black smoke.

The final lock, number 7, is by the main Mottram Road. Above it the boat winded, then reversed the last 100 yards or so to the boatyard. Danny steered with the shaft.


Piracy on the Ashton Canal

Today, we ran one of our thank you trips for NHS workers and family. We also took Heidi the Canal Pirate who filmed the trip for her regular Vlog. This comes out on You Tube at 6pm every Thursday. https://business.facebook.com/ThePirateboatUK/?__xts__[0]=68.ARAuCwy...&fref=nf She says it will be about 3 weeks until this episode appears, but it's well worth watching her channel anyway. The crew were Aaron (what would I do without him) and Julie and our guests said they really enjoyed it.

Here's the swans. They produced 2 cygnets this year, still bearing a few brown feathers. They'll be off to establish their own territories in the spring.

Here's Aaron steering "Forget me Not" towards the incredibly low Lumb Lane Bridge.

The pair passing under the low bridge

Julie and Heidi on the butty.

The guests looking happy in "Hazel"s fore end (NB, I got the kids to put lifejackets on but they were allowed to take them off after I'd gone).

Here's a video of the boats passing the Ashton Packet Boat Co

"Queen" Takes the Plunge

"Queen" is the oldest surviving wooden motor narrow boat (as far as we know) built in 1917 for Hildick & Hildick of Walsall she was originally "Walsall Queen" and apparently worked between Walsall and Brentford carrying coal with her butty "Queen of the Ocean". She's become known as the boat with nine lives as she's been sunk and abandoned 3 times so far. She finished her carrying career in 1947 with Harvey Taylor of Aylesbury and was left to sink. She was rescued in 1949 and became a pleasure boat until sunk again in 1987. Rescued again, she was patched up but sank at Denham on the Grand Union and was due to be smashed up by BW until rescued by the WCBS in 1994.

Yesterday morning Nessie checked her pumps and everything was OK, but, a couple of hours later we realised she was quickly going down. The pumps were still running, so she must have sprung a really big leak. Another task to keep us busy, raising Queen and fixing the leak.

We're going to have to start fundraising for her restoration before too long. Any offers of help?