England Canal Boat

[beejaybee]

Have any Tuggers traded for one of these via RCI? If so, please share as much as possible about your experience! My DH and I are thinking of trying a trip on an English canal boat!
Thanks!

 

[Carolinian]

I have traded three times into canal boats and it was great! Very scenic and lots of fun. I traded in once with RCI and twice with DAE Europe. I was also offered an exchange to canal boat from UKRE but it was at a time my schedule was really uncertain so I had to turn it down. The first trade was when I was single and I took a date along. The last two times were after I was married, and my wife I think loved it even more than I did. She wants to go back and do a different canal to see a different area. I am awaiting the final go-ahead on a six month project in eastern Europe, and after I get the word on that, we will probably put in a request using one of our two remaining UKRE exchange credits.

They train you on operating the boats, which is not difficult. The one thing that takes a bit of getting used to is steering with a tiller instead of a wheel. At first, it feels you ought to be turning the tiller the opposite way than you should, but you get over that quickly. On the English canals, you also have to operate the locks yourself (unlike the French canals that have lockkeepers). The canal boat staff also trains you on that and it is not really difficult, although it does seem a bit intimidatiing the first time or two. Other boaters at the locks are also very open to helping those for whom it is their first time.

There are canalside pubs where you can stop and eat meals, and also a galley onboard where you can prepare meals. They give you a guide to things to see and do along the particular canal.

This is an exchange I very highly recommend.

 

[beejaybee]

Thanks, Carolinian!
I read on one of the canalboat websites that the boat must be moving at least 5 hours/day. Are you the sole boatswain? DH is concerned that he will be more occupied with navigating and not have time to soak in the scenery. I would be happy to steer the boat half the time, but worry about oncoming vessels on the other side of the canal if passage is starboard/starboard.

 

[Carolinian]

Thanks, Carolinian!
I read on one of the canalboat websites that the boat must be moving at least 5 hours/day. Are you the sole boatswain? DH is concerned that he will be more occupied with navigating and not have time to soak in the scenery. I would be happy to steer the boat half the time, but worry about oncoming vessels on the other side of the canal if passage is starboard/starboard.

We exchanged to three different marinas, and never had a 5 hour rule. Two of them were when the organization was called Canaltime, and the last time it was called Canal Boat Club, but the same organization under a new name. That may be a new overall rule, or it may be for a specific canal where moorings are limited.

I did most of the steering and felt I was able to soak up the scenery just fine. The trick is to get used to steering with a tiller. I always had cabin cruisers or runabouts in the states and was used to steering with a wheel, and the tiller definitely takes a bit of getting used to, but in half a day it was like old hat. The first time my wife was at the tiller, in five minutes we had a boat coming the other way to pass, and she wanted to get closer to the canal bank, but turned the tiller the wrong way toward the oncoming boat. I grabbed the tiller and got us clear, but it took a couple of days to get her to want to steer again.

 

[Laurie]

I'd kinda always wanted to try this, but wasn't sure I wouldn't get bored by the slow speed, and maybe restless in the small space, so never did. We'd visited Llangollen, Wales, and for awhile we watched them float by on the canal there. Now I do wish we'd tried it when we were a bit younger. A couple of years ago I read and enjoyed the novel "The Narrowboat Summer" and recommend it for some background and description of the activity and the whole culture -- there is one, they aren't just vacationers on the canals.

 

[JudyH]

So I did this also about 10 years ago as a RCI. We went from Chester to Llangollen Wales. Just the two of us. We are long time RVers. The longboat was comfortable inside like my trailer. However there was no seating outside so all the navigation was done standing.
Learning how to run it was simple. I thought my husband would be able to do all the navigation but the “driver” has to be able to see far ahead for very tight turns and passing by other boats and he has significant vision problems, doesn’t drive at home, and it was left up to me to do all the driving. He got out to do locks, walked up ahead on blind turns, there were lots of blind turns.
We stopped at pubs for the night, ate there and tied up.
We had hopes of going to the International Music Festival in Wales. The last two miles into Wales were one way only. I dreaded another longboat coming at me. I had five in line behind me. At the last minute one headed towards us, the man’s didn’t know how to back up. My DH had to jump off ours and jump on his to help in and then the skies opened up and it poured. For two days it poured. Luckily there were spots available to hook up with electricity so we had lights and heat and we could walk into town for dinner.
Returning to Chester we had to go through a long dark tunnel without knowing if a boat was coming at us. Then over an extremely high viaduct to return. Also one way at a time.

Yes it was all very slow paced. Just not as relaxing as I watched on YouTube videos. If I had been on a larger boat with outside seating and someone else driving, like on the privately owned longboats we saw it would have been more fun. Once was enough for us.

 

[Carolinian]

So I did this also about 10 years ago as a RCI. We went from Chester to Llangollen Wales. Just the two of us. We are long time RVers. The longboat was comfortable inside like my trailer. However there was no seating outside so all the navigation was done standing.
Learning how to run it was simple. I thought my husband would be able to do all the navigation but the “driver” has to be able to see far ahead for very tight turns and passing by other boats and he has significant vision problems, doesn’t drive at home, and it was left up to me to do all the driving. He got out to do locks, walked up ahead on blind turns, there were lots of blind turns.
We stopped at pubs for the night, ate there and tied up.
We had hopes of going to the International Music Festival in Wales. The last two miles into Wales were one way only. I dreaded another longboat coming at me. I had five in line behind me. At the last minute one headed towards us, the man’s didn’t know how to back up. My DH had to jump off ours and jump on his to help in and then the skies opened up and it poured. For two days it poured. Luckily there were spots available to hook up with electricity so we had lights and heat and we could walk into town for dinner.
Returning to Chester we had to go through a long dark tunnel without knowing if a boat was coming at us. Then over an extremely high viaduct to return. Also one way at a time.

Yes it was all very slow paced. Just not as relaxing as I watched on YouTube videos. If I had been on a larger boat with outside seating and someone else driving, like on the privately owned longboats we saw it would have been more fun. Once was enough for us.

That is a canal I really wanted to do and UKRE had an exchange for me there, but my work schedule during that period was so subject to change, that I did not take the exchange. That high viaduct is something I have seen in pictures and one of the reasons I wanted to do that canal.

The three canals I have done had no one way sections except a few rather short tunnels which had green and red lights as to who was supposed to go or not. A set of stair step locks was the only thing that slowed us down much and we only had one of those on the first canal we did. I also do not recall any blind curves on those canals.

 

[JudyH]

 

[Laurie]

Returning to Chester we had to go through a long dark tunnel without knowing if a boat was coming at us.

Eek. That novel I mentioned, "Narrowboat Summer," had one or two hair-raising accounts of the characters having to navigate thru long dark tunnels -- scary and extremely claustrophobic-sounding to me, I'd have to find out in advance whether any of those would be on our expected itinerary. OTOH I'd probably love the high viaduct.