Ashton Boatman

  The weather was kind to us during the docking so we were able to get the necessary jobs done in good time. That makes a change. So often the end of a docking involves a desperate rush to finish jobs so that the boat will actually float by the deadline. The last few days just involved adding a few extra coats of tar and clearing up the clutter around the boat.

The day of the launch came, and it all went smoothly. Aaron, strong as an ox,  took the role of horse again to bowhaul us up to Portland Basin

Iain steered while Vicki filmed.

Hazel's docking has gone well so far. We've had lots of new volunteers and dry, largely sunny weather. Luke was here over the weekend and Iain and Vicki came on Sunday and Monday. Kim and Aaron have been helping pretty much every day. All the new plating is done, one side is tarred.

All that is left to do is odd jobs like filling a few bolt holes, tarring the other side, tidying up a bit of shoeing etc.

She goes back into the water on Sunday   - then we start on the cabin! No rest for the wicked. I must have been very bad!

A week on dock and we've done lots, with help from Kim, Nessie, Luke, Vicki, Iain and of course the faithful Aaron. I've mostly been minding the chalico stove mixing heady brews of pitch, tar and horse manure. The stove has been sitting unused in a corner of the Heritage Boatyard for the last few years and when we moved it it nearly fell apart because of corrosion. I bodged it up with clay to stop it drawing too much cold air but it will need to be repaired properly after this docking.

We've renewed the shoeing (sacrificial metal edging which protects the ends of the bottoms) and fitted plating to the bow where it was getting a lot of hammer entering locks etc. We've also plated part of the side to protect a plank that had a few splits, repitched seams, done a bit of caulking etc. Tomorrow we start tarring the sides.

Ideally a wooden narrow boat is docked every couple of years. The last few years have not been ideal, so Hazel was well overdue for a docking. Today we took her a short journey to the Ashton Packet Boat Co's slipway at Guide Bridge and pulled her out of the water for the attention that she needs.

I had arranged to meet Aaron and Kim at the basin at 9am. Aaron said he'd come earlier to wind the boats so that Hazel would be tied on the outside ready to go. I arrived at 9 to find that the ship had sailed. I drove to Guide Bridge and walked back along the towpath where I met the boat. It seems that Aaron had set out about 8.30 shafting along. Kim and his partner Kath were walking up the towpath and met him along the way. Kim took over steering while Aaron bowhauled and Kath walked the towpath with their new little dog.

I climbed aboard and turned on the tap to start emptying the huge water tank which was weighing down the stern end. It's necessary to minimise the draft to make slipping easier.

We tied on the rings opposite the boatyard and waited for people to arrive. Soon they were there and started preparing the slip. We moved Hazel into the basin and the fun began of forcing the trolleys far enough into the mud so that they are deep enough for the boat to float over them.

The end two trolleys are pulled by an old steam winch, now running on compressed air because its boiler was condemned. The middle trolley is pulled by a hand winch.

The first attempt at slipping had to be aborted as the boat began to slew and the stern end was in danger of falling off the trolley. This was corrected and she emerged dripping from the water. As soon as she was secure me and Aaron got to work prising off the old shoeing.

Shoeing is sheet metal folded round the ends of the bottom boards to protect them from abrasion. It is a sacrificial layer to protect the wood and needs to be replaced every few years. If bottom boards are left unshoed for too long they wear away and the iron spikes that hold the bottoms on become exposed. This shoeing was fitted before Hazel's launch in 2013 so it was due for replacement.

Meanwhile, Kim got to work water jetting the slime and scum off the sides of the boat.

Throughout the day we were entertained by trains running up and down the narrow gauge railway, though the purpose for their movement was obscure.

By the time it started getting dark about 4pm all the shoeing, except the bits trapped where the boat sat on trolleys, was removed and gathered into a rusty pile of scrap.

https://gofund.me/58a2f896

It was just after Christmas. One morning I got to the basin to find a CRT work flat drifting about. I captured it and tied it up abreast of Lilith. Obviously someone had been having fun untying boats for a CRT tug and pan were also missing. I was told that they had drifted away past Walk Bridge out of sight. One of our volunteers alerted CRT to this situation. Nessie tried to bring the boat back, but couldn't get on board.

About a week passed, then a CRT crew came looking for their work boat. I helped them to take it back to the towpath side.

Shortly after they'd tied up the tug and pan appeared and described a graceful pirouette around the basin. I captured this one and put it alongside Lilith in its turn. Time passed. I was busy trying to make the heating work on Hazel . I got a 'phone call from a CRT man at Standedge tunnel. They intended bringing their electric trip boat down for a docking at the marina and could we look after it whilst waiting for its turn on the dry dock? I explained that we were already looking after one CRT boat and there wasn't really room for another, but I'd do my best. He took the index number of the tug and said he'd contact the relevant people. Apparently it should be on the Macclesfield canal.

When the trip boat, well, sort of two really, a push tug and butty, turned up, Hazel was over at Dixon & Smith (motor engineers) of Dukinfield where she had got frozen in after having her batteries charged. The tug and pan were now against the wharf, so the trip boat spent a couple of nights alongside Forget me Not.

By the way, the whole caboodle of this set up is about 76 feet long, but there was only one of the 32 locks that they passed through on the way down from the summit where they had to split the butty from the tug to get through.

On Monday we had Airbnb guests booked. I had at last got the heating working but the boat was a mess and had to be cleaned thoroughly. I met the CRT men and let them on to the wharf to collect their boat. They brought it across the aqueduct (struggling with the depth) then ran into ice. The skipper used to captain an icebreaking tug on the St Lawrence Seaway, but Dukinfield ice was a challenge for this square bowed boat.

Aaron moved Hazel back across the aqueduct through water cleared by the trip boat. Aaron, Lisa Rowbotham and I spent most of the day preparing for our guests.

In order to comply with CRT requirements we have to take our guests on a trip. As Forget me Not's gearbox is still in bits this had to be a human powered trip.

In the morning Kim and Aaron came to help. I bagsed the easy job of steering this time. Kim bowhauled for a short distance until the towpath ended.

Aaron took over, shafting past Cavendish Mill

and into the Asda tunnel.

At the far end Kim took over again,bowhauling.

At Eli Whalleys we winded with Aaron on the shaft

and Kim hauling on the stern line,

Then it was back through the tunnel

and past Cavendish mill to tie up, the other way round, back at Portland Basin.

There's an old saying that bad things come in threes. It seems to be holding up at the moment. A few weeks ago Forget me Not's gearbox failed again. It was professionally rebuilt in March but since then I've found it impossible to get it adjusted properly. All of a sudden it stopped working altogether. I took it out of the boat and stripped it down at Stalybridge.

The only problem I could find was that two pins were missing that were intended to stop the pressure plate rotating in the clutch. I tracked down two suitable rollpins and fitted them, then started contemplating re-assembling the thing. I'm not really a mechanic and an attack of midwinter malaise made it seem like a big job.

In the absence of a volunteer driver I've been doing shop deliveries with the Land Rover and trailer. On the last Thursday before Christmas I was out doing this, with a couple of strong lads to do the lifting, when I suddenly realised that the indicators weren't working. I checked the fuse, but this was OK. I thought it must be the relay so I went to the car parts shop to buy one. It wasn't listed. Apparently the vehicle is so old (26 years) that parts are becoming unavailable. I looked up the problem online and found that the most likely culprit was the switch. I ordered one online (£34 secondhand refurbished) but we were into Christmas and postal strikes so I knew there would be a long wait.

On Christmas day I was enjoying a bit of quiet relaxation with Emuna. I had a look at my phone and found a message from Nessie. He and Mary were staying on "Hazel" for Christmas, but the central heating pump had failed so they couldn't use the stove. I rushed down there and between us we removed the rather inaccessible pump.

The problem was that the casing of the pump part had split, causing the water to rapidly leak out. It being Christmas day I couldn't really just go out and buy a replacement and, as I've since found, 12 volt hot water pumps are not exactly a standard item. I took it home and superglued it together. Nessie fitted it, but it still wasn't pumping and for some reason it kept stopping. On boxing day I investigated again. The non pumping could just be an airlock, but why did it keep stopping?  If you switched it off and on again it would restart, then stop again.

I took the pump out and stripped it down again, but could find nothing wrong. I decided, before re-fitting it, that I would dangle it in the cut and connect it to a battery to see if it would shift any water. I really needed three hands to do this, but managed by trapping one wire under the battery. I touched the bare wire ends to the battery but nothing happened. In an inattentive moment I let go and the pump gently spiralled down to the bottom of the canal. My attempts to recover it with a keb produced a nice heap of mud and plastic bags but no pump.

We had two bookings for people to stay on "Hazel" between Christmas and New Year. With no heating I didn't think they'd like it. They both agreed to cancel.

Today, 4th January, the Land Rover switch arrived. I fitted it and the indicators still didn't work.

This afternoon I cycled over to the boatyard and did a bit more re-assembly of the gearbox. I stopped when I realised that I would need to check the exploded parts diagram to make sure I was putting it together right. The workshop manual is pretty useless and I hadn't brought an exploded diagram with me. I listed some surplus stuff on Ebay as part of my mission to clear out things we don't need, before riding home.

I'm still waiting for the pump to arrive. We have another guest on 20th.

For several years we've been doing Airbnb's on "Hazel" to bring in a bit of income to subsidise her proper work providing time afloat for those in need of a boost to their well being. We keep it under control, we don't want her to be purely an Airbnb boat and we always offer an optional extra of a trip. Last year we didn't have many Airbnb guests because we had a lottery grant so they weren't so necessary. The grant has now finished so, until we get some more funding, she's listed on their website again.

A while ago we got an email from our friend (!) at CRT's licensing department to say that we were very naughty for doing Airbnb's as "Hazel" didn't have the appropriate licence. This puzzled us. She has all the upgraded safety requirements and we can take people on holiday, so why can't people just stay overnight? I was vaguely aware that they'd brought in a new licence category specifically for Airbnb's, but this was because private boat owners had taken to renting out their boats for overnight stays.

I looked into it and soon realised that the problem lay in the static nature of Airbnb bookings. We replied to say very sorry, didn't realise, tell you what, all future Airbnb bookings will include a trip. They seem to have accepted that and we amended the listing accordingly. All Airbnb guests now have to have a trip, whether they like it or not. Extended trips available for extra dosh.

This weekend we have a couple from Portsmouth staying, Caroline and Mark. Mark grew up in Ashton and used to play around Portland Basin. He remembers the pioneering Big Digs that got the canal restored.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWlOv3hPHa8

 There was a problem about doing a trip though as "Forget me Not"s gearbox is currently in bits. They asked for a trip starting at 12.30 today, Saturday.

The standard trip, included in the Airbnb offer is to go through the Asda tunnel, wind at Eli Whalley's ( just before the start of the Huddersfield Narrow), then back to Portland Basin. We could do this by human power.

Aaron volunteered to help, so we set off with me hauling and Aaron steering. Soon we were at the point where the towpath diverges from the canal.

Before 2002 the towpath ran right under Cavendish St bridge and ended in a set of steps up to Asda. In that year the retaining wall became unsafe and they covered the towpath with a stone bank to stabilise things. 20 years later the banking has quite mature trees on it and, as far as I know, they're still arguing about who should pay to repair the wall.

I threw the line to Aaron and he started shafting the boat along the narrow watery gap  between the tree covered stone banking and Cavendish Mill. When he reached the tunnel he laid the shaft down and started legging. This is not easy as the Asda tunnel is too wide for wing boards and almost too high to leg off the roof.

I went through the superstore car park  to the other end of the tunnel. You used to be able to get right up to the entrance but now it's been cordoned off as a nature area, so I had to wait at the barrier.

Aaron threw me the line again and I restarted bowhauling. Mark had taken over steering. We passed the Sea Cadet moorings and crunched into ice at the winding hole.

 Even thin ice makes winding difficult, but with Aaron pushing the bow, me hauling on a line at the stern and Mark smashing the ice with the cabin shaft, we were soon round and set off again, repeating the procedure in reverse order.

Despite the cold, the snow and the drizzle, I really enjoyed doing that little trip.

A word from our sponsor.

                                          I hope you enjoyed reading this and my other blog posts. Now please help out a bit. You may have noticed that "Hazel" has some tarpaulins on her roof and the paintwork is getting a bit tatty. In the new year we intend to put this right, as well as doing some internal improvements. We can't do this though without extra funds. If everyone chips in a bit we'll soon have the necessary money, so, please help out in this virtual whip round to keep "Hazel" running into the future.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/bring-hazel-back-up-to-scratch?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&fbclid=IwAR0TF3ZcTkuIYgZYYi3I0PQ8J4MPaqEsP911_cWEx5PXQdVIzDKKoM5vJhw

It was going to be a busy day, but manageable. Yesterday afternoon I moved "Hazel" across the Tame Aqueduct to tie her alongside the premises of Dixon & Smith (motor engineers) to charge her batteries. There was a skim of ice on the surface of the water, but nothing to impede progress.  As usual I returned at about 9 pm to change over from one battery bank to another. Everything was covered in frost and moving about on the boat had become rather dicey. I foresaw problems for the morning.

At first light I returned to disconnect the chargers. The boat was locked in ice. All the lines were like iron and the whole boat was covered in a treacherous coating of the slippery stuff. I summoned the wonderful Aaron and, like genie from a bottle, he showed up just when he was needed.

The sun rose bright and sparkling, but it was bitterly cold.

I gingerly moved about the boat untying stiff lines and trying to coil them. I had to throw a line to Aaron on the towpath. Easier said than done when it's frozen stiff, but, after several tries we succeeded.

Aaron is strong as the proverbial ox. He pulled and pulled, but the boat wouldn't budge until I had broken some ice with the shaft, a tricky business. I nearly slipped off the roof a couple of times. The cold from the frosted shaft quickly ate through my gloves. numbing my fingers.

Gradually, with much creaking, "Hazel" moved a bit, then stopped. I broke more ice. She moved again. I broke more ice. She moved a bit more. At last she got into a position where Aaron had a straight forward pull. The boat surged forward through the shattering ice.

We stopped on the aqueduct for coffee and finger warming.

 At the junction the boat had to make a 90 degree right turn. difficult in ice, but it was thinner there and Nessie had arrived to help Aaron to pull her round into clear water. We tied her on the towpath side, her stern end kicking out a bit because of the low water levels.

The plan had been that me and Aaron would be at the shop at 10 am to do deliveries. This is not my job but we currently lack a volunteers driver.  It was gone 10 when we tied up.

A crowd of CRT volunteers and organisers were crowding round the museum gate. They were on a mission to rid the waterway of floating pennywort.

Since we've had the Land Rover it's had a problem starting in cold weather. Batteries don't seem to be holding their charge, though they're perfectly good ones. I bought a new battery, but it had the same problem. Something seems to be draining the power whilst the vehicle is parked. My strategy was to swap batteries when it failed to start, then charging the one I'd taken off and keeping it in the boot when needed. This worked until the new battery disappeared. I bought an engine starting pack, which packs an incredible punch for its size. Knowing that it would struggle in such cold I connected up the starter pack before I tried starting.

The engine turned over a few times but showed no interest in firing. We connected jump leads to Nessie's car, but this didn't supply enough power. We left the car running to slowly build up the power. One of the CRT volunteers came over to tell us we were doing it all wrong.

I mentioned in passing that the second battery had gone missing. "Was it a grey one" asked Nessie. " I think so" I replied. He went and fetched it out of "Queen". We connected it up and I turned the key. The engine burst into life!

We drove to the shop where our other volunteer muscle man, Josh, was waiting for us. Only an hour late. Mike had a long list of deliveries and collections for us.

One of the latches on the trailer doors had broken. I thought it would be an easy repair when we got to the shop. It wasn't. I had to keep doing bodges to keep it fastened all day.

So, off we went to Oldham for our first pick up. I won't go into the complications of the day's collections and deliveries. Suffice it to say that we had our share of difficulties finding places, getting things through doors, dismantling things, putting things back together etc.

I was scheduled to meet Lisa at 1pm to strip the beds on "Hazel" ready to be made up for our next guests. There was no way I was going to make it. I rang her, no answer. I rang Nessie. No answer. I left messages. Eventually I got communication going. Nessie had driven home to change trousers as he'd slipped on "Forget me Not" and gone in up to his waist.

Nessie let Lisa into the boat and I explained over the phone what she needed to do. She took this lovely photo.

It was nearly dusk when we finally got all our delivery jobs done. I went to "Hazel" to drop off mattresses and collect various not needed things then called at the shop to put the spare Land Rover battery on charge. Em was there chatting with Mike as they prepared to close. I gave her a lift home, pleased to have finally got all my morning tasks done.

Today was the allotted day for raising "Elton". She's been down for a couple of weeks and previous attempts to refloat her failed. This time we assembled every pump that we could.

With them all running the water level in the boat started to fall, but it stuck at about 9 inches. I knew there was a big hole in the side just above the normal water line. In the summer I might have jumped in and stuffed something in it, but the water is cold at this time of year. On the cabin top a lightweight tarpaulin was folded up. I started to unpack it and dropped one end into the water roughly where the hole was, then used a lightweight ladder, which just happened to be handy, to press it against the hull. It worked. The pressure of water held it in place over the hole, which it effectively blocked.

She began to rise. As she rose the leaks reduced as they cleared the waterline. With the depth inside diminishing I decided to wade in and try to stop some more leaks. This was a bad move. As I tried to plug a minor leak by pushing a plastic bag into it a piece of rotten wood fell away and I suddenly had a big leak to deal with. Annoyingly this was just where the work that we did at her last docking, after she'd been rammed by a steel boat, had finished. I slowed it down by filling it with a wodge of cloth.

Gradually she came up. I made some temporary repairs to the troublesome holes and Nessie set up the electric  bilge pumps so that, fingers crossed, she'll stay afloat for a while.

Today was not the nicest of days for working at the boatyard, but the stove was burning brightly in the brew hut. It drizzled on and off all day. Kim was working on new steps for "Forget me Not"s engine 'ole.

Dave was busy in his den making fittings for the new boatyard gate that we are making.

My job was unloading and stacking some good quality plywood donated by Splinters, the theatrical scenery makers based near Portland Basin. Apparently it was purchased and cut for a play that was cancelled because of covid. It will be very useful in refitting "Hazel.