Chairman’s Corner

Chairman’s Corner

In the autumn edition I stated that we intended to make a couple of 3-day trips taking our boat to have the hull inspected and blacked. Well, we didn’t make it! We duly drove 120 miles to Ventnor Marina, loaded up the boat, drove to Heyford Fields Marina and spent £35 on a taxi fare back to Ventnor.

Then storm Arwen arrived with 40/50 mph winds tossing our 17 tonne narrowboat about on its moorings as if it was a fibreglass cruiser. There was a brief respite from the storm during the night when I peeped out of the bedroom window to see the adjacent boat and pontoons covered in a layer of snow. We made the sensible decision to go back to bed and review the situation in the morning. However, by that time, the storm had regained its strength, making it far too dangerous to attempt to start our planned 18lock journey that day. The following morning the wind had dropped but there was snow on the walkways and ice around the edges of the marina. Again, we decided that it would be unsafe to travel and abandoned the project until the spring. All we had to do then was to winterise the boat, spend another £35 on a taxi to retrieve our car and drive the 120 miles home.

However, as always, we enjoyed our stay on Watermist; ignoring the storm outside, snuggled up warm with the solid-fuel stove belting away, complete with a ready supply of whisky and playing endless rounds of Rummikub. The moral of this story is, ‘don’t be daft and ignore a yellow weather warning and attempt to go boating at the end of November, even if it means cancelling complex arrangements’.

Many members will have no doubt been pleased to note that the Environment Agency has taken into account the strong views expressed by navigation licence holders regarding the proposed changes to the way fees are calculated. As a result, area-based charges will not now be introduced and the proposed 10% increase will be spread more evenly over a 3-year period.

I am pleased to report that our second autumn general meeting was able to go ahead in physical form in November. Long-standing branch committee member Stephen Foote provided an interesting insight into the way the Fenland river system changed and developed long before the massive civil engineering work undertaken by Cornelius Vermuyden in the 17th Century. Some rivers ceased to exist whilst others completely reversed their orientation by flowing South to North rather than North to South. This proved to be a fascinating subject worthy of further investigation.

At the time of writing, we are experiencing yet another bout of Covid, but hope to go ahead with our February general meeting and Annual General Meeting without having to resort to Zoom once again! In February, Simon Judge will (or may well have done by the time you read this) given an illustrated presentation entitled ‘From Oxford to Cambridge by boat’.

You will note that we have adopted our usual practice of issuing members with advance copies of all of the documents relating to the forthcoming AGM. Hopefully, this will enable you to study the information provided at your leisure, allowing the formal proceedings to be completed in a timely manner and maximising the time available for the presentation by the Environment Agency. Please do make an effort to attend as this will give you the opportunity to raise any concerns you may have with the EA staff responsible for our local rivers.

Keith Alderton

News & Views

Do you have an article, comment or photo you w o u l d l i k e t o s h a r e ? W e w o u l d b e v e r y pleased to receive it! Contact the editor: carole.alderton@waterways.org.uk