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Sharpness to Bristol


Carol Hayhurst

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We are planning to take our Narrowboat from Sharpness to Bristol at some point from the middle to end of June 2014.Our insurance has stipulated that as well as having a pilot we also have to have an accompanying boat. Are you planning the same trip & would like to team up? If so please get in touch!!

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Do any insurers offer a special one day cover for specific journeys so you can remain with your original insurer but just pay for the extra cover you'd need? Our insurer doesn't require me to team up with another boat for the Bristol trip but does require it for the tidal Thames so I would be interested in that as an option too.

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We are planning to take our Narrowboat from Sharpness to Bristol at some point from the middle to end of June 2014.Our insurance has stipulated that as well as having a pilot we also have to have an accompanying boat. Are you planning the same trip & would like to team up? If so please get in touch!!

Every insurance I've had has included cover in tidal waters, provided you are using them to travel between sections of the inland waterways - I just asked for it to be added to the schedule, and it has always been included foc. Never any stipulation about an accompanying boat. In the past four years we've cruised the tidal Trent, tidal Thames, Ribble Link, and Bristol Channel (the latter with a pilot). Shop around!

Edited by homer2911
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Be careful to read the small print. Ours covers tidal waters for access to inland waterways, but in the small print at the back it says there may be additional conditions. You are supposed to realise from this that it is your responsibility to contact the insurance company and ask them for the latest set of conditions. They sent me a printed list which includes a pilot on the Severn from Sharpness, an accompanying boat on the tidal Thames below Brentford, both of these across the Wash, various requirements about lights anchors and VHF radios, and the condition "never through Wisbech under any circumstances". I tried asking for some flexibility if I paid extra for the day but they wouldn't budge at all.

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  • 5 months later...

Be careful to read the small print. Ours covers tidal waters for access to inland waterways, but in the small print at the back it says there may be additional conditions. You are supposed to realise from this that it is your responsibility to contact the insurance company and ask them for the latest set of conditions. They sent me a printed list which includes a pilot on the Severn from Sharpness, an accompanying boat on the tidal Thames below Brentford, both of these across the Wash, various requirements about lights anchors and VHF radios, and the condition "never through Wisbech under any circumstances". I tried asking for some flexibility if I paid extra for the day but they wouldn't budge at all.

Yes, although my Craftinsure policy includes interconnected tidal waterways, they consider the Bristol channel to be coastal, so I had to pay for additional cover. I think it was about 30 quid.

 

After done discussion with them they agreed I didn't need a pilot from Bristol to Portishead, and there was no mention of an accompanying boat.

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Yes cross with Carol (the OP) save yourself half the price of a pilot and do he a favour

That's a possibility, but the pilots don't like it, and not just for the obvious financial reasons. If a boat following the lead boat gets into trouble or can't keep up, then it puts the pilot in a difficult situation. They were only commissioned to take one boat across, but now they have additional responsibility for another boat of which they have no control..

Edited by blackrose
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That's a possibility, but the pilots don't like it, and not just for the obvious financial reasons. If a boat following the lead boat gets into trouble or can't keep up, then it puts the pilot in a difficult situation. They're only being paid to take one boat across but now they have responsibility for another.

Well when I did it Stan followed on his boat and pilot made it clear he is only responsible for one boat and that was fine with us Stan stayed about 50 yards behind

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Well when I did it Stan followed on his boat and pilot made it clear he is only responsible for one boat and that was fine with us Stan stayed about 50 yards behind

What would have happened if Stan had engine trouble or couldn't keep up?

Getting ready to plan next years trip from Sharpness to Bristol and was wondering what advice anybody could give me.

 

Regards

 

Andy

Yes, choose your day.the weather makes all the difference.

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What would have happened if Stan had engine trouble or couldn't keep up?

 

 

He has a life jacket!!! Keeping up was never a problem same when we crossed the Ribble he is like a speed boat we would have crossed that hurdle the same as when I broke down this year on the Severn in full flow
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What would have happened if Stan had engine trouble or couldn't keep up?

 

Yes, choose your day.the weather makes all the difference.

 

Agreed but I think it is the pilot that decides, It has been known for people to wait a week or more because of tides and weather.

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He has a life jacket!!! Keeping up was never a problem same when we crossed the Ribble he is like a speed boat we would have crossed that hurdle the same as when I broke down this year on the Severn in full flow

 

I assume the lifejacket comment was a joke. Nobody would want to be in the water in the Severn estuary even with a lifejacket.

 

I'm sure your friend's boat is very powerful, but that wouldn't prevent him from having engine problems, blocked fuel pipes, something caught around his prop, etc.

 

There's nothing to stop anyone from following a piloted boat, but to clear up any confusion this paragraph is from the Gloucester Pilots website.

 

We work by a first come first served basis so you may have to take your turn in the queue. As with commercial vessels our contract of employment is with the ‘master’ of the craft that employs us. It is very difficult to offer advice to a vessel which is more than a few metres away. On open water, such as the Severn, craft very quickly drift apart so we will not agree to take convoys of craft. Experience has shown that convoyed boats can stray into areas of water which are dangerous. We, as pilots are unable to assess the manoeuvrability of an individual boat or the competency of the skipper unless we are actually on board. There are sections of the passage where the boat navigates in fast moving water and requires the helmsman to respond immediately to a situation. Any craft following another with a pilot on board is not legally a ‘piloted vessel’ and thus we cannot take responsibility for its safety.

 

http://www.gloucesterpilots.co.uk/services/leisure/

 

Agreed but I think it is the pilot that decides, It has been known for people to wait a week or more because of tides and weather.

 

The pilot and the skipper/owner both decide. If the pilot had agreed to go but I hadn't wanted to because I thought it was too rough for my boat, I wouldn't have gone. The pilot can't force you to take your boat across!

Edited by blackrose
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Getting ready to plan next years trip from Sharpness to Bristol and was wondering what advice anybody could give me.

 

Regards

 

Andy

. If you have,nt got a specific date for your adventure try and time it to coincide with the bristol harbour festival as there are usually lots of boats making the journey the week before and although I don't know what the rules are regarding sharing the pilot there are always lots of boats waiting at sharpness with make shift signs on asking for people to share a pilot, he will only take you to portishead marina were you will have to spend a night before heading up the avon on the incoming tide, it's not cheap and getting busier so may be worth giving them a bell to book a mooring for the night and get a price, other than that good luck
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I assume the lifejacket comment was a joke. Nobody would want to be in the water in the Severn estuary even with a lifejacket.

 

I'm sure your friend's boat is very powerful, but that wouldn't prevent him from having engine problems, blocked fuel pipes, something caught around his prop, etc.

 

There's nothing to stop anyone from following a piloted boat, but to clear up any confusion this paragraph is from the Gloucester Pilots website.

 

We work by a first come first served basis so you may have to take your turn in the queue. As with commercial vessels our contract of employment is with the ‘master’ of the craft that employs us. It is very difficult to offer advice to a vessel which is more than a few metres away. On open water, such as the Severn, craft very quickly drift apart so we will not agree to take convoys of craft. Experience has shown that convoyed boats can stray into areas of water which are dangerous. We, as pilots are unable to assess the manoeuvrability of an individual boat or the competency of the skipper unless we are actually on board. There are sections of the passage where the boat navigates in fast moving water and requires the helmsman to respond immediately to a situation. Any craft following another with a pilot on board is not legally a ‘piloted vessel’ and thus we cannot take responsibility for its safety.

 

http://www.gloucesterpilots.co.uk/services/leisure/

 

 

The pilot and the skipper/owner both decide. If the pilot had agreed to go but I hadn't wanted to because I thought it was too rough for my boat, I wouldn't have gone. The pilot can't force you to take your boat across!

I was not confused (for once) I thought I had made it clear in my earlier post that the pilot made it clear he was only responsible for my boat.
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