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Kyme Eau


Kendorr

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Going to take a trip along the River Witham in a week or two and fancy turning along the Kyme Eau and up to South Kyme. Collins shows that this stretch has a headroom of 5' 6" and a draught of 2' 0". I have seen pictures of narrowboats at South Kyme, but don't think I'll be able to take Halcyon up there as my draught is 2' 4".

 

Has anyone attempted this in a narrowboat and is it worth attempting?

 

Thanks, Kevin

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By the time you get there you will be ready to try anything, we have just been to Boston and back and the Witham bellow the lock, the name escapes me, is a bit dull as the backed arr high and you can't see anything.  Worth getting to the end though.

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Managed to get to the current end of navigation at Cobblers lock with a draught of 20" in 2013. Increasingly shallow beyond Kyme Eau and the boat was in tickover from Ferry Bridge on. Couldn't wind at all at Cobblers Lock due to silting up of the drain. Had to reverse the six miles back to Loswer Kyme lock. Took all day!  My boat is 57' and there are a couple of places where a shorter boat may wind. If there isn't a more up to date info here then contacting the Sleaford Navigation Trust may help. After I went there was some dredging at lower Kyme lock that made getting past a lot easier.

Jen

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3 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

 Had to reverse the six miles back to Loswer Kyme lock. snipped

 

Is that what they call character building?  ;)

Edited by mark99
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29 minutes ago, john6767 said:

By the time you get there you will be ready to try anything, we have just been to Boston and back and the Witham bellow the lock, the name escapes me, is a bit dull as the backed arr high and you can't see anything.  Worth getting to the end though.

Would that be the north forty foot ?

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27 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Managed to get to the current end of navigation at Cobblers lock with a draught of 20" in 2013. Increasingly shallow beyond Kyme Eau and the boat was in tickover from Ferry Bridge on. Couldn't wind at all at Cobblers Lock due to silting up of the drain. Had to reverse the six miles back to Loswer Kyme lock. Took all day!  My boat is 57' and there are a couple of places where a shorter boat may wind. If there isn't a more up to date info here then contacting the Sleaford Navigation Trust may help. After I went there was some dredging at lower Kyme lock that made getting past a lot easier.

Jen

It may have changed, but in 2011 we reached Cobbler's lock and winded in a 57ft narrowboat with a 28" or so draught

http://narrowboattacet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/down-drains.html

It was slow and winding needed a bit of effort - but it wasn't ridiculous.  There are tougher places to reach.

 

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25 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

. Certainly lost the desire to go on to the navigable drains around Boston later in the trip.

Our last experience of the "navigable drains" was that they weren't that navigable. 

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10 minutes ago, Tacet said:

It may have changed, but in 2011 we reached Cobbler's lock and winded in a 57ft narrowboat with a 28" or so draught

http://narrowboattacet.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/down-drains.html

It was slow and winding needed a bit of effort - but it wasn't ridiculous.  There are tougher places to reach.

 

All depends on the water leve!s. The EA were keeping them very low in 2013 by all accounts and winding was completely impossible. Had lines taken to the bank and tried to haul the boat round from there after the engine wasn't enough, but just not enough water and too much mud!

It is an interesting waterway. Once you go through the one lock you can see across the countryside, rather than just the flood defence bank to either side as on the Witham. The village is delightful.

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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I turned back after half a mile of Kyme Eau on June 14 this year, then spent half an hour getting the weed off my prop. I was told that there was no prospect of weed removal this year.

The navigable drains, on the other hand, were relatively clear, after the first stretch below Anton's Gowt, (Frith Bank Drain)  although a boat behind me didn't think so, and turned back.  Between Cowbridge lock and Boston was fine, right down to Maud Foster mill, where there is a rather difficult mooring where I didn't stay the night.  Generally speaking there are no moorings in the drains, but I did overnight north of Cowbridge before going up to West Fen drain and finally giving up beyond Frithville as it got narrower and weedier.  Newnham drain looked OK, though (left from Anton's Gowt).

By now I should think it should be weedier.  The boat gathering at South Kyme is held in May before the weed takes over.

A low bridge on West Fen Drain:

 

Low bridge.jpg

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9 hours ago, mark99 said:

Scholar Gypsy is your man. ;)

Sorry, can't help with this one. Others comments are more useful! We didn't have time to explore Kyme Eau in 2015. However the Witham Navigable drains were a lot of fun.

There was an article about Kyme Eau in a recent Waterways World.

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