Canal Boat — November 2017

canalboat.co.uk Canal Boat November 2017 11

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SHEFFIELD SAFETY PLEA

The family of a 19-year-old man who

drowned in the Sheffield Canal at the city’s

Victoria Quays have urged the Canal &

River Trust to introduce safety measures

including fencing to prevent further deaths

• and are supported by two petitions.
  However CRT said that it has carried out a
  review of the site since the 2015 drowning
  and installed an extra lifering, that there
  are already bollards and chains marking
  the waterside area and escape ladders,
  and that it was necessary to maintain safe
  access to the water for boaters.

LONDON FESTIVAL REPRIEVE

The future of London’s Angel Canal

Festival, which had been in doubt as a

result of the retirement of the long-serving

organisers, has been secured for the next

year at least. The Canal & River Trust and

Islington Borough Council have agreed to

run the 2018 event, and were due to meet

with the current organisers in September.

BEDFORD-MK GRANT

The Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway

Trust’s plan to create a link from the Grand

Union to the Great Ouse has been boosted

by a grant from Central Bedfordshire

Council’s Green Infrastructure Planning

Obligations Fund. The £8,300 will pay for

benches, information points and carved

marker posts by a local artist indicating the

waterway’s route through the Millennium

Country Park in Marston Vale. Meanwhile

a planning application to be considered in

October will, if agreed, approve

construction of a marina and junction for

the new canal in Milton Keynes.

SLOUGH NEEDS FRIENDS

The Friends of Slough Canal is appealing

for more volunteers following its adoption

of a length of canal under the Canal &

River Trust’s community adoptions

scheme. The group would like to see more

support for its litter pick on the first Sunday

of each month on the length of the Slough

Arm between Middle Green and Mansion

Lane bridges near Langley.

WITH THE ONSET of the winter stoppage programme

and the days getting shorter, boaters are again being

offered the opportunity to take a break from cruising by

booking winter moorings at sites around the network.

The Canal & River Trust has now published its list of

sites, which go on sale online at 6am on 2 October on a

‘first come, first served’ basis. The main changes from

last year are:

ȼ Moorings will only be in operation for four and a half

months (1 Nov to 16 Mar) instead of five because

Easter falls early. They will be bookable for one, two,

three, four or four and a half months.

ȼ The top rate for moorings with the best facilities and

services increases from £15 per metre length per

month to £15.50. The other prices stay at £6.50,

£10 and £13.50.

ȼ A small number of sites have moved up or down

between price bands.

The moorings, mostly against the towpath, are primarily

aimed at continuous cruisers without home moorings

who would otherwise have to move every fortnight, but

are open to all boaters “meeting their licence

requirements”. See CRT’s licensing website https://

licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk for the list of sites.

Log-on now to get the perfect winter mooring

MANY BOAT OWNERS are at risk of incurring ‘crippling’

expense because their insurance doesn’t cover all their

costs in the event of their vessel sinking, River Canal

Rescue has warned.

Having already dealt with almost 150 sinkings and

other major incidents in the first half of 2017, the inland

waterways breakdown and recovery specialists report

that a typical claim for ‘immediate assistance’ is some

£900 to £1200. But the long-term repairs could run to

much more – and whether the insurer will pay out

depends on the company and policy.

Stephanie Horton, head of RCR which is authorised

to handle claims for most UK boat insurers, says that

her company comes across many boaters with either

no insurance at all or with only third-party cover – and

don’t appreciate its limitations. “If you hit another boat,

cause damage to someone else’s property or injure

someone, the insurer will only cover the cost of the

claim against you”, she explained. “It might or might

not cover raising a boat, personal accident and medical

expenses, or damage as a result of sinking. Even if it

does cover these items, a claim could still be rejected

on the grounds that of ‘preventable’ causes such as

poor maintenance, a failed bilge pump, or failure to

check a vessel on a river in flood.”

RCR’s advice is that “an all-risks policy is the safer

option”, and that boaters should first check details and

be prepared to quiz insurers on the cover offered.

Be fully covered, warns rescue chief

WANT TO SHOWCASE your boat

and its beautiful interior on TV?

A documentary series is being

made for Netflix about people’s

homes and they’re looking for a

Canal Boat reader and their boat

to star in an episode.

Called Amazing on the Inside,

the programmes will show how

people change their

environments to bring greater

happiness, and use their living

space to mirror their passions,

dreams and identity.

“This will be a real celebration

of British narrowboats and the

hard work and dedication that

goes into them,” said a spokesman

for Barcroft Productions.

“We are interested in tapping

into people’s creativity, ingenuity,

engineering prowess, expertise

in a particular area and

determination to create the

perfect living space.”

So if you’d like a chance to be

the one to celebrate your boat’s

design and interior, pop us an

email at [email protected]

and we’ll do the rest.

Get your boat on TV and show your perfect space

The wonderful
Sgùr Urain sadly sank
in Bray marina recently but was
refloated with a delicate touch from RCR