Brian asked:
> Where is Roger when you want him??
Right, well this isn't going to make me popular with Neil (or many
others I suspect) but I agree with Adrian.
Our boat in France has only done parts of the Bourgogne and the
Nivernais so I can't say that I have extensive experience but, using
the experience that I have, I wouldn't use a narrowboat in France.
Yes, it can be done and there are several that we have met who have
done it/are doing it, but we (certainly my wife) wouldn't feel
comfortable about handling a narrowboat on the French system. Our
French boat has wide decks and suitable bollards so that the ropes
can be handled from the boat, as opposed to the land as is the norm
with UK canals and narrowboats. Neil has had to add cross-bars to his
nb stern dollies to form something that the rope will not slip off in
deeper locks and this is essential in France. Also you have to be
constantly alert and carry knives to cut your ropes when you get hung
up. Dashing around on the restricted stern deck of a nb trying to
slash ropes when you get caught up isn't a nice thought. I've even
added a second set of bollards to all our existing ones so that we
can have the rope loop on one and the controlling bight of rope on
another to prevent hang-ups and even then there are plenty of cracks
in teh lockside stonework that will grab your rope if you aren't
concentrating. It's no good saying that it won't happen to you, it
happened to an experienced skipper taking our boat two days down the
canal, and so it can happen to anyone. I've found that you have to be
even more alert in locks over there than you do here. This is our
experience so far but I'm very glad I've got the boat that I've got
over there. It is, as Adrian says, horses for courses.
I do agree with Neil though that the longer boats are not so welcome
now in parts of the French system. For example, my port has just
banned boats over 20m from over-wintering there. My choice would be
up to 15m and no more, although there are many longer boats doing the
system but they are not as welcome as they were. You can remove hotel
barges from this observation as they generally have their own
reserved mooring spots with the heavy current electricity supply and
skippers who are experienced with the best spots to moor.
There Mr Napier, is that a posting that avoids your problems, or
not? ;-))
Roger
