We have just completed the Cheshire ring and were close to packing in boating because of the experience. We started off from Stoke on Trent and decided to do the Ring clockwise instead of the usual anti-clockwise which seems the norm.Through Middlewich and upto the Anderton boat lift was very pleasureable. While we were there we decided to do the lift trip, again a different experience and one the kids loved. Everything still enjoyable until we reached the Gay centre in Manchester. The canals from there until Hyde are an absolute sh** hole and BW should be ashamed of calling them canals. We had our prop on the Z Drive fouled 15 times between these 2 places. Sometimes we only travelled 100 yards before something else stopped us dead in the water. The first was a bed sheet with stones and part bricks used to weigh it down. Garden pea nets with 10mm earth wire, a bulk bag from a builders merchant, again weighed down, someone's coat and numerous polythene and hesian sacks. A mountain bike was pulled from the canal as well as a length of road work railings from out of a lock. (what a lovely place) The rudder clamping bracket was cracked with the builders bag and made steering eventful from Manchester onwards, the rudder was eventually snapped off completely after spinning the coat a few times. Steering was then manageable but a little wandery. Marple junction was a god send and brought us back to reality. The Harecastle tunnel without a rudder was looming but proved to be not so bad in a steady 32 minutes from end to end. Sitting back in the marina with the sun belting down we decided not to sell the 23 but to avoid Manchester in future or at least early in the season. We did not see one boat moored up from Picadilly Manchester to Hyde ? I wonder why. Anyone have a spare rudder for a Z Drive for sale please contact me.
We are planning to do the Cheshire Ring in our Norman 22 "Greyling". Last year launched from Preston Brook and detoured into Manchester without problem but hope matters have improved from when you visited that area.
Would love to hear if your 23 had any problems with the headroom in the tunnels, our air draught is a minimum of 75" (6ft 3") (sorry don't do metric!) to the top of the windscreen frame. I'm sure it must be similar to that of your 23? Any other suggestions ideas gratefully received.
I too have a 23 and have always been wary of headroom in the Harecastle. Up to now i`ve avoided that stretch. What type of screen have you got fitted? Also was the headroom O.K. or was it a bit tight? Manchester sounds like my trip up the Tame Valley canal a few years back, I mangled the rudder on that trip. Lovely to look at but there were more items lurking just beneath the water than I could imagine. My last Birmingham trip a couple of months back cost me two props. I seem to destroy a prop every time I go down the Coventry arm too. Must be a city thing, maybe they don`t have conventional bins, just a big watery one.
Cheshire Ring
Posted - 08 Apr 2007 : 11:04:00
