Canal Boating including narrowboats
I am
writing this article as a land locked person. Located just about directly in
the Middle of the UK. This eliminates the North Sea and
the Irish Sea. However, we have a perfectly good and well used
canal system in my area of West Yorkshire.
In my
youth days this was a perfect place to go fishing. So, we could find a place on
a quiet canal and fish all day without seeing a single person. There is nothing
like sitting on the canal bank fishing on a beautiful summer’s day.
That’s
when I was young! Nowadays the canal system is used for many things. Including
walking, cycling and yes of course boating.
Especially narrowboats
Narrowboats have
always been a visible feature in the big cities such as London and Birmingham.
These craft provided people with cheap places to live. Although not cheap to me
they were compared to the expensive housing of the big cities.
Marinas started to pop up everywhere. Including a
small one in my hometown of Mirfield. TV programmes made this way of life look feasible
and many sold their homes and bought a narrow boat to live in. Some boaters
lived in the same mooring and some took trips and investigated the local
canal network.
Britain has a
fantastic network of canals. Boaters can travel to most places using the river
and canal network. Holiday companies were set up renting out the narrowboats
for a week’s holiday or more.
Repair yards cropped up on canal sides and marinas
Most boats are
powered by a diesel engine. Because these engines could breakdown then some
marinas had canal side workshops. Sort of a garage on the water for boats.
These yards are often equipped with a crane for lifting the boats out of the
water.
These can be used for
many things including insurance inspections of the boats hull.
A friend of mine bought a narrowboat for what he thought was a good price.
However when it came to insurance the company had the boat lifted out of the
water for inspection.
The complete
underside of the boat was rotten and ready to collapse in on itself. The boat
was scrap and the guy he bought it off vanished. A complete waste of
money.
These yards also carry
out repairs to boats and often carry spare parts and even starter batteries and
storage batteries.
Batteries are the life blood of these vessels.
Consequently they
supply power to start the boats engine and usually have a bank of batteries to run the
electric items when moored off grid so to speak.
In my
experience most boat owners use leisure batteries for this purpose or deep cycle semi traction batteries. The “jury is out” on which are the
best as every boat owner uses different battery type from different battery
manufacturers.
