Boaters' Update November 2011

It could be you?

Would you like to stand for election for the Canal & River Trust’s inaugural Council and get involved in shaping the future of Britain’s waterways? Seven positions on the council are to be filled by boaters or boating businesses. Four positions are to be elected by boat licence holders and two positions elected by boating businesses.

The Council is the guardian of the long-term values and purposes of the Canal & River Trust. While the trustees are responsible for determining policy and strategy, the Council will have an important role in helping to shape policy, raising and debating issues, and providing guidance, perspective and a sounding board for the trustees.

Tony Hales, chair of the Canal & River Trust, said: “The boating community has a wealth of hands-on experience of the waterways, and having boaters on board is essential to the success of the Canal & River Trust. I am writing to all licence holders and I encourage them to put themselves forward and add their voices to those shaping the Canal & River Trust’s future.”

If you want to stand for election please complete a simple nomination form which will be available for download from www.waterscape.com/trust from 12 December 2011 until 18 January 2012. To be eligible to stand for election and vote in the election, boaters must hold a 12-month boat licence on 18 January 2012. Nominations must be supported by ten sponsors who each also hold a valid 12-month boat licence on this date.

Read more about the Council, how to nominate, the voting process and deadlines

Winter moorings

BW is again promoting winter moorings for boaters without a home mooring but who would like to stay moored at a single site for the remainder of the winter. During the first month over 320 permits have been purchased via BW’s online winter moorings site www.bwmooringvacancies.com/winter-moorings.php.

Following feedback from customers last year, a number of improvements have been made to the site. Customers can now chose the length of their stay rather than being limited to a fixed length of time. So far just over 130 customers have taken advantage of this change.

Another new feature is you can print the permits direct from the online payment system giving instant confirmation of your booking saving time and effort.

Winter moorings are still available at many sites, please check availability at www.bwmooringvacancies.com/winter-moorings.php. Private mooring operators are also listed on [/ www.waterscape.com] – navigate to ‘in your area’ and use the left hand menu to find boating and moorings. Or try www.which-marina.com.

Top tips for ‘winterising’ your narrowboat and safe winter boating

Winter has definitely arrived, temperatures have started to drop and it’s time to think about winterising your boat. If you live aboard or are planning to take your boat out regularly please read Waterscape’s tips for safe winter boating.

However, if you’re going to leave your boat unattended for any period of time you should take steps to protect it from the damaging effects of winter.

Waterscape has some top tips and reminders for looking after the exterior and inside of your boat, protecting your engine, best practice plumbing and keeping your batteries fully charged.

Read the full guide of tips and reminders about winterising your narrowboat

In order to help BW’s long-term mooring customers BW has produced the following guidance document, with assistance from the Residential Boat Owners' Association www.rboa.org.uk, explaining what services will and will not be provided in extreme weather conditions.

Stay warm and safe with the solid fuel stove on your boat

To help you keep warm safely, the Boat Safety Scheme (BSS) website also has new safety advice, based on lessons from real incidents linked to solid fuel stoves over the past ten years. It covers the two deadly risks of fire and carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.

Fires linked to wood and multi-fuel burners have seen various causes. Over-firing, where the normal burning, picks up, races away, and gets out of control, is one. Having wood and combustibles too near the stove and getting too hot for too long, is another.

Carelessness in running stoves and disposing of ash and cinders is yet another reason for damaged and burnt-out boats.

CO is very toxic and can kill in minutes. In lower concentrations it can cause chronic illness. Where a flue pipe or a stove is badly installed or in a poor condition, flues gases can escape into the cabin. They can be 100 times higher in CO, than those from a gas burner.

Whether you’re using an existing stove, buying a new one or just revamping the cabin around your current appliance, the BSS stove web pages has a wealth of tips to keep you safe. See www.boatsafetyscheme.com/solidfuelstoves

In addition, the ever-helpful Residential Boat Owners’ Association has some good advice to help you prevent your stove from enveloping your neighbours in dirty great clouds of smoke:

• Only use smokeless fuel – widely available from coal boats and land based coal merchants
• Avoid ‘ordinary’ house coal
• If burning wood, only use fully seasoned logs
• Add fuel in small quantities rather than large amounts all at once. This should reduce the volume of smoke emissions.
• Ensure the flue and chimney stack are kept well swept
• Ensure the stove is properly maintained so as to ensure proper combustion
• When in use, maintain the stove at its optimum operating temperature – magnetic flue thermometers are cheap to buy and readily available from stove & chandlery shops
• Don’t use the stove for rubbish burning
• When running your stove, always give due consideration to neighbours – water and/or land based

BW urge all customers to follow the advice, especially if you’re moored in built-up areas where nearby neighbours are more likely to be affected.
Read Damian Kemp’s blog Smoke on the water

Boat checker update

During October, customers reported 40 sightings of unlicensed boats. Of these 25% have subsequently relicensed and a further 58% were already in BW’s enforcement process, 12% resulted in new cases being opened for action, and the remaining 5% were boats which were not identifiable through a valid boat index number, but the details have been passed to BW’s enforcement teams for further investigation.

Visit the online boat checker

Olympic honour for canals & rivers

And finally, Thomas Telford’s magnificent Pontcysyllte Aqueduct has been named as one of the locations for the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. The Olympic Flame will travel over the aqueduct on 30 May 2012.

Sebastian Coe, Chair of London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), said: “We have worked hard to devise a route that achieves proximity to people while taking in the diversity of the UK’s landscape and landmarks. By taking in this area and Telford’s alternative mode of transport we are doing just that. This is the UK’s moment to shine and I want to encourage people across Wrexham to start planning how they can be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity and show their support for the inspirational torchbearers.”

It has also been confirmed that the torch will travel through Foxton Village in Leicestershire and London’s Camden as well as by canal boat through the Black Country Living Museum on the Dudley Tunnel Branch. The relay will end by travelling down the River Thames to the Olympic Stadium, arriving on 27 July 2012 for the Opening Ceremony of the Games.

Read more about the 70-day Olympic Torch Relay

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Last updated: 30/11/2011