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Montgomery canal booking


rowland al

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For some reason the booking system prevents any boat drawing more than 0.69m (2ft 3ins) from booking transit onto the Monty. 

We draw 2ft 6ins. I understand working boats have made it down there. The Waterways.org website quotes 1.2m max draft, so something isn't quite right here. 

I wonder how many people have failed to book due to this draft restriction? Needless to say we just asked the lockie and got on fine with the trip.

Makes you wonder if it's a ploy to reduce the stats to justify closing it to boaters. 

 

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21 minutes ago, rowland al said:

For some reason the booking system prevents any boat drawing more than 0.69m (2ft 3ins) from booking transit onto the Monty. 

We draw 2ft 6ins. I understand working boats have made it down there. The Waterways.org website quotes 1.2m max draft, so something isn't quite right here. 

I wonder how many people have failed to book due to this draft restriction? Needless to say we just asked the lockie and got on fine with the trip.

Makes you wonder if it's a ploy to reduce the stats to justify closing it to boaters. 

 

Cobblers!

There is NO ploy to close it to boaters, in fact, quite the opposite.

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11 minutes ago, rowland al said:

No need to be rude is there? 

So why the draft restriction then? 

Because you made an unfounded, unwarranted, unresearched comment.

The Monty has always been reported as being slightly shallow and most people ignore that and go and enjoy it anyway.

Edited by Graham Davis
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Just now, john6767 said:

If the web page stops you booking then just put in a lower draft and move on.  I don't remember it being that shallow.

Tried phoning first but they use the same booking system. I couldn't update my draft on the form so I guess they have sussed people would try that.

Could well just be a genuine cock up and I have reported it. Strangely the official PDF dimensions file has max draft missing in the table for the Montgomery. Maybe nobody really knows the limit.

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Between the locks it was shallow. About a month ago, just when it reopened, we got stuck in the pound going down the locks.  Lockie went down to the bottom lock to tell the boaters waiting to come up, to stay put until called to enter the bottom lock.  Unfortunately, one hire boat didn't listen, or didn't understand, and took all the water out of the pound.  

The lockies were really helpful, but I expect some of the hire boats are a chellenge

Edited by Jennifer McM
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3 minutes ago, Graham Davis said:

Because you made an unfounded, unwarranted, unresearched comment.

The Monty has always been reported as being slightly shallow and most people ignore that and go and enjoy it anyway.

Sounds like you are just trying to start an argument to me. I didn't realise speculative comments and opinions were banned here. 

So again, do you know why the C&RT system is turning away boats with more than 0.69m draft?

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I have a feeling Jenny above is right about the draft issue. Last year when we went in boats were passing in the pound and the whole transit was done in no time. Coming out was a different matter when the lockie got all inbound boats through before allowing outbound boats to commence their exit. We waited 2 hours in a thunderstorm in an area where we couldn't put in to the bank (we couldn't go back due to the queue behind and because we had no indication that we would be there more than a few minutes).  The reason he gave was the lack of depth in the pound due to severe silting, some didn't want to risk boats passing each other running aground.  We certainly noticed no lack of depth anywhere else (but we draw 2'2" when in that area now, obviously)! ;)

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7 minutes ago, rowland al said:

Sounds like you are just trying to start an argument to me. I didn't realise speculative comments and opinions were banned here. 

So again, do you know why the C&RT system is turning away boats with more than 0.69m draft?

Isn't that the maximum draft that CRT says can transit the canal above the Ellesmere, so its not possible for a boat deeper than that to get as far as the top of the Mont.

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15 minutes ago, rowland al said:

Tried phoning first but they use the same booking system. I couldn't update my draft on the form so I guess they have sussed people would try that.

Could well just be a genuine cock up and I have reported it. Strangely the official PDF dimensions file has max draft missing in the table for the Montgomery. Maybe nobody really knows the limit.

I thought it was all just online now for booking these things, but where does the draft come from then?  When we did it was when it was phone booking and I don't remember them asking what the draft of the boat was, and let's face it most of the bookings are for hire boats and the hirer is not going to know the draft, and I suspect many owners have never measured theirs either.

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

Isn't that the maximum draft that CRT says can transit the canal above the Ellesmere, so its not possible for a boat deeper than that to get as far as the top of the Mont.

Lol. I didn't realise there was a restriction above Ellesmere too. Good job we don't have to book all trips! Yet. 

We have made it up to the top of the Llangollen twice now with no problems. 

Personally I don't think these booking systems are doing us any favours. It was much better when you could just phone up the locals or speak to them face to face. 

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Odd. We got up past Trevor to the basin at 2ft8 without any real issues, one slightly bit of shallow entering one of the lat locks but nothing more, at all so its certainly not that shallow there.

Have your taken it up with CRT? They are quite easy to contact and it could well just be a mistake on their system they are unaware of.

 

Daniel

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2 minutes ago, DHutch said:

Odd. We got up past Trevor to the basin at 2ft8 without any real issues, one slightly bit of shallow entering one of the lat locks but nothing more, at all so its certainly not that shallow there.

Have your taken it up with CRT? They are quite easy to contact and it could well just be a mistake on their system they are unaware of.

 

Daniel

If you had read my earlier post you'd see I have already.

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6 minutes ago, rowland al said:

If you had read my earlier post you'd see I have already.

Sorry, your are right. Let us know when you get a reply. Typically when I report issues with lock gear, bridges etc to regional offices I get a reply within a few hours.

Daniel

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13 minutes ago, DHutch said:

Odd. We got up past Trevor to the basin at 2ft8 without any real issues, one slightly bit of shallow entering one of the lat locks but nothing more, at all so its certainly not that shallow there.

Have your taken it up with CRT? They are quite easy to contact and it could well just be a mistake on their system they are unaware of.

 

Daniel

So does everyone, its just CRTs get out of jail card if you get stuck

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4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

So does everyone, its just CRTs get out of jail card if you get stuck

If they won't let you on in the first place that's not going to happen anyway.

To be fair they did allow me on after querying it. I was just wondering if anyone else here had been refused on the same grounds.

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10 minutes ago, rowland al said:

If they won't let you on in the first place that's not going to happen anyway.

To be fair they did allow me on after querying it. I was just wondering if anyone else here had been refused on the same grounds.

I was talking about the Llangollen above Ellesmere 

 

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Last time I went on the Monty I just rang the lock keeper the day before and booked directly with her.  What's this online system then?  I have a look on the CRT website and couldn't see anything.

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34 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

Last time I went on the Monty I just rang the lock keeper the day before and booked directly with her.  What's this online system then?  I have a look on the CRT website and couldn't see anything.

It is on the CRT licencing site, same place where you licence the boat

https://licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/PassageBooking/

Just tried it and it fills in the boat length/beam and draft from the boat database, which you can not edit.  So if that is incorrect, or a least a large value, that could be the route of the issue. Perhaps calling up and getting the boat database updated with the correct figure (or a suitably small draft!) would be worthwhile as it seems it is actually being used.  

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ooh!  Never been on there before.  I suppose I'll finally have get round to properly measuring my draught before using it then.  I'd wager that there's plenty of boater who don't know their draught or air draught.

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5 hours ago, Dave_P said:

ooh!  Never been on there before.  I suppose I'll finally have get round to properly measuring my draught before using it then.  I'd wager that there's plenty of boater who don't know their draught or air draught.

The great thing about having a higher draft is that you end up with a lower air draft so you can get under low bridges easier.

So does everyone think that these booking systems are a good idea? Or do you think it would be better to just talk directly to the local C&RT guys? (or maybe you just think it's cobblers) ;)

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