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Chesterfield canal weed.....(not the smoking sort!)


frangar

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Well we made it! Moored tonight by the final winding hole after a glorious day's locking up from Shireoaks.

Yes it did get better after Forest Locks, a few sticky spots but generally ok.

I'm glad we battled on. Celebrating tonight in The Beehive at Harthill.

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We went up this wonderful canal at the end of June, its slow and Forest locks are really slow due to weed. It has a deep channel but its not very wide and it takes the cruiser line around the bends, which meant that on the long tight bend just West of the A1 we got well stuck because being 70ft long and drawing 3ft 4 we touched both on the inside and the outside at both ends all at the same time! Also the cows have trodden the offside bank in. Had to get C&RT to pull us off, which they did very quickly.
Morse lock defeated us, we need to loose about 1/2" to get through comfortably, I reckon.

Stopped below Worksop lock for the night, no problems.

Shame the pub by the A1 was shut for refurbishment.

The beauty of this canal is that the hedges are well maintained and cut to 4ft high so you can see over them from the boat, and admire the large vistas.

We also noticed that the pilling is of a really high quality for mile after mile.

The only real place we got stuck for depth was under the new road bridge below Worksop, and that was on crap, I believe Python gets stuck there too.

The best Bakewell tart by far was that which we had from the cafe on the far side of the market square in Retford - it was epic.
I also have never seen so many fish, small and large, swimming in a canal, that was wonderful. Could see really big pike.
A must do canal.

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It was wonderful to see Spey on the canal. I managed to get some lovely pictures of her as she headed back towards West Stockwith. I will see if I can find one to share when I am on my other machine

It is a huge shame that Morse Lock defeated you. It always used to be Stret that was the show stopper for any boats that hinted at being a bit wider than the norm but CRT sorted that one out. I think Morse is on their radar for "sorting" but I suspect it will be a good while before it climbs up the top of the "to do list"

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There are some visiting boats from The Soar Cruising Club at Clayworth this evening so perhaps we will hear how they have got on. Also John Lower has just arrived back from a trip to Kiveton Park and there can be few people with less experience of this canal than him so I will try and find out how the current situation with weed compares to previous years

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just to update this thread.

 

This weekend we did the stretch between Clayworth and West Stockwith (and return) and had no problems at all with weed. In fact if we had not picked up a length of pea netting we would not have visited the weed hatch at all. We also learned that pea netting makes a great magnet for any weed that does exist in the canal :)

 

Today I had the pleasure to meet another forum member .... who's handle is escaping me right now but it ends in a number 2 and the forum won't allow me to seach on just "2" He had been up to the top and was back at Clayworth and had experienced no problems with weed anywhere on the canal.

 

I think the weed problems are gone for this year unless we suddenly get another heatwave Huge thank you to CRT for dealing with the weed so effectively and efficiently and allowing so many people the opportunity to experience one of the best canals on the whole system this summer

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Yes, but the bottom being too near the top has not and my boat only draws about 20 inches - down to a little over 1 mph. in several spots and at least one field drain has put something of a shoal into the canal. Its a pity because its a beautiful canal and the locks seem to be in exceptional condition for a northern canal that has not seen commercial traffic for years.

 

Boaters moored in Retford we locked with confirmed the lack of water but the overspills looked up to level.

 

Visitor moorings are few and far between and often only one or two boats long. bank side mooring out in the sticks is all but non-existent up to Retford. New housing at Misterton has resulted in a no overnight mooring sign.

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New housing at Misterton has resulted in a no overnight mooring sign.

A few hundred metres east there is are good moorings on pilings, with a sheltered housing complex adjacent, and pleasant view across open fields.

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There was a lot of dredging done last winter on sections that you have not been on (yet) Tony. I know there are plans for more dredging but I don't exactly know where or when. The same thing applies to the need for dredging as it does for severe weed. In these days of a lack of lengthsmen we need to be the eyes of CRT and if you drop an email to them (or give them a call) reposrting exactly where the worst bits are then it will help them prioritise.

 

I can also confirm I have seen an email circulated by CRT with outline plans for a number of new visitor moorings to be created (and some others increased in length) along the canal during this winter.

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Yes, but the bottom being too near the top has not and my boat only draws about 20 inches - down to a little over 1 mph. in several spots and at least one field drain has put something of a shoal into the canal.

Whereabouts was that? In 2010 we got Fulbourne (drawing 3 ft) up as far as Stret Lock (then too narrow for us) and only got seriously stuck at one point. We then hitched a lift to the tunnel on a more modern boat, and I don't recall any particular depth issues at all.

 

Some dredging wouldn't go amiss, but the canal is certainly deep enough for most boats.

Edited by David Mack
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Just to update this thread.

 

This weekend we did the stretch between Clayworth and West Stockwith (and return) and had no problems at all with weed. In fact if we had not picked up a length of pea netting we would not have visited the weed hatch at all. We also learned that pea netting makes a great magnet for any weed that does exist in the canal smile.png

 

Today I had the pleasure to meet another forum member .... who's handle is escaping me right now but it ends in a number 2 and the forum won't allow me to seach on just "2" He had been up to the top and was back at Clayworth and had experienced no problems with weed anywhere on the canal.

 

I think the weed problems are gone for this year unless we suddenly get another heatwave Huge thank you to CRT for dealing with the weed so effectively and efficiently and allowing so many people the opportunity to experience one of the best canals on the whole system this summer

That will be me then!! Its actually Oasis Too the share boat that we used to be on The one that nearly got swept into the Pershore sluice stream on the Avon in 2007 and made the six O Clock news!

 

Anyway great to meet Cheshire Rose and we really enjoyed the Chesterfield.

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Whereabouts was that? In 2010 we got Fulbourne (drawing 3 ft) up as far as Stret Lock (then too narrow for us) and only got seriously stuck at one point. We then hitched a lift to the tunnel on a more modern boat, and I don't recall any particular depth issues at all.

 

Some dredging wouldn't go amiss, but the canal is certainly deep enough for most boats.

As I reported earlier we had no real problems with depth except below the Bracebridge lock under the bridge there, Rocking and a pull with a rope got us through there. The tight turn west of the A1 at Ranby where the cruising line is just too tight for us. The weed on the Forest Flight was just slow work. The channel is very narrow so its slow, really slow, in places, but there is plenty of depth. Wish thge lower peak was this good. Having a wider channel may be what is required, and one which goes round the outside of bends rather than the middle. Still well worth the trip.

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snip

 

The channel is very narrow so its slow, really slow, in places, but there is plenty of depth. Wish thge lower peak was this good. Having a wider channel may be what is required, and one which goes round the outside of bends rather than the middle. Still well worth the trip.

 

I think that may well be correct, the rate at which water flows back past the boat is much faster than I remember on any other narrow canal, let alone a wide beam one. One also has to concentrate hard to keep in the channel, not much room to wander to one side, but apparently lots of width.

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The reed harvester on the chesterfield was slipped a couple of weeks ago and joined the boat I'm working on, on the river Witham as the blanket weed was really bad. Conditions have improved here and the Chesterfield boat will be returning sometime this week.

Thats interesting as just last week CRT pretty much insisted we were talking bollocks when we emailed them saying that the weed on the Witham was getting bad again frusty.gif

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