Tag: Stoke Prior

Posted on

Summer 2024 Cruise Part 8 – Last few locks to home

Bit of a lay in this morning no need to get away early as we have just about 4 miles and just 15 locks, 3 of which we will have welcome help from the CRT volunteers at Hanbury locks 1,2 & 3.

Lock one of the day is Stoke Top Lock, which is the first one of six lock in this flight.

Stoke Top Lock
Stoke Top Lock

The last lock in the Stoke Locks which FYI drops the canal 40ft (12.8m), is where we first hired a canal boat from Black Prince Holidays, which is also where we purchased our boat a few years ago.

Black Prince Holidays - Stoke Bottom Lock
Black Prince Holidays – Stoke Bottom Lock

We have done this trip a few time, and depending on timing we have moored up outside The Boat and Railway Pub where you can sit and watch the boats go by.

The Boat and Railway Pub
The Boat and Railway Pub
Astwood Top Lock

Next we have the Astwood locks, just 5 this time and they drop the canal 42 feet (12.8m), we met a family group who Sonia showed how the locks worked while getting the kids involved, once a teacher always a teacher.

These are our last locks before we turn onto the Droitwich Canal and we get to the Hanbury locks, where we meet 3 very helpful CRT volunteers. They are there to make sure the locks are operated correctly as they are more complicated than most with side pounds.

Then we are at our home base Droitwich Spa Marina for a Pump-out and fuel. We had used approx ¼ of a tank in the past 3 weeks, of not non-stop chugging.

Droitwich Spa Marina - Refuel
Droitwich Spa Marina – Refuel

This has been a good test for our up and coming gap year plans, with just the two of us most of the time. We have found that we need to plan what we are trying to achieve so that we are not overdoing it too often.

Next we have to clean the boat touch up a few scratches from earlier trips. We have lent the boat out a few time this year, and it is starting to show.

Posted on

Returning back to Black Prince

If you have been reading our blog you will know we had a little problem with the paint on the roof, we purchased the boat from Black Prince only a few weeks ago, they have looked at the peeling paint and are going to repair it.

Paint Problems on roof
Paint Problems on roof

It is an odd problem, looks to me, a non-expert, like some surface contamination under the primer as caused it to lose adhesion, I have seen similar problems this caused by the oil used to lubricate the air tools used when removing the old paint.

 

Worcester to Stoke Prior

We have been on a trip to Worcester and are going to drop the boat off at their base in Stoke Prior before we set off home.

We broke the trip up this time, turning around at Diglis Basin just in front of the Diglis Lock, we had decided to try and get past all the locks and then rest up  for the night just after the M5 bridge at Tibberton, we would then have a simple trip to our mooring at Droitwich Spa Marina the next day, before heading off on the Saturday to the Black Prince Base at Stoke Prior.

Sonia and Obi the dog collected the car from the marina and drove to Stoke Prior while Mary and I moved the boat. Once Sonia had arrived at Stoke Prior, she let them know we were coming and check where they would like us to moor before walking down the canal to meet us.

The trip took us just under 3 hours at a leisurely pace,  with just the 3 locks at the top of the Droitwich Canal and then 7 on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. We finally arrived and moored up next to another Black Prince customer boat, “Pub Trawler II” which was known as Ava when she was a hire boat.

We have since heard that they will completely strip the roof and repaint it, should be ready in a couple of weeks. Furthermore, we are hoping to get a battery monitor fitted while she is with them. I have selected the Victron BMV-712 as I can talk to this via the onboard monitoring system I am developing (More on this later).

Posted on

Picking up Floydtilla

We were all very excited as we set off from Somerset to go and pick up Floydtilla from the Black Prince base in Stoke Prior. We aimed to get there for around 11:30 am so the rush of the hire customers getting underway would mostly be over.

Inspection and payment

When we arrived at Stoke Prior we could see Floydtilla in her new bright paint work, and we parked up in the yard. We had had the roof painted yellow and in the bright sun it will probably need sunglasses while we get used to it.  Hopefully this will keep the roof cooler, as the normal Black Prince dark blue can become a little hot to the touch.

They were all ready for us so we had a tour around and an in depth explanation of what we needed to know as an owner not a hire customer.

Black Prince Owners manual
Black Prince Owners manual

We got presented with what will become the Bible for Floydtilla which was a folder with all the manuals for the Engine, Gearbox, Heater etc, as well as 37 pages of general information and diagrams of all the systems. This was a gold mine of information and covered all the questions I had in my notes and I am sure many more to come.

In one of the cupboards they had also included two spare engine belts an air filter, fuel filter and oil filter, it is the little extras that make life simple.

Next came the fun with the bank: We had transferred all the money into our current account ready to make payment and informed the bank what was going to happen. They said that we would probably have to call to make such a large transfer as it could trigger the anti fraud limits. Once we were happy, Sonia tried to call the bank. The message on the automated response  let us know that “they have a high level of traffic at the moment” we did start to wonder when they didn’t! After 40 minutes hanging on we got to talk to a person and then a few minutes later we owned a boat.

Off to Droitwich Spa Marina

The Black Prince team had prepared everything, the diesel tank was full, all the beds made up, the boat had all it’s equipment just as we had used it in the summer.

I checked the engine hours (11,588) and then we asked them to help us turn her around and we set off down the Worcester and Birmingham canal towards Droitwich Spa Marina. What a great feeling, it was all finally ours.

We had a lot to learn as we found out a few hours later once we arrived at the marina. We had never moored in a marina before, and while we tried to find our allocated space the weather rained, hailed and blew us about.

Joining the queue at the Hanbury top lock

In a simple mistake we had been given the wrong berth number and when we found it, it was already in use, so we headed in to the next available berth. This took us many attempts and finally after a few four letter words we managed to get the bow in and finally tied up for the night. The office was now closed so we would sort out the correct berth in the morning.

Posted on

Back in the water

Back in the water
Back in the water at Stoke Prior

Floydtilla is now back in the water at Stoke Prior, she has been blacked and all the outside work is now complete, just the kitchen to complete and we will be ready for the big pick up – we cannot wait.

Posted on

Lift Out

We had planned to be at the lift, but it was delayed by a few weeks and we ended up in the national lock down. The lift still went ahead and Leighton Jones at Black Prince took some pictures so we could see the process.

Floydtilla being lifted
Floydtilla cabin paintwork complete

Floydtilla being lifted
Getting the sling in position

Floydtilla being lifted
Sling is now central ready to lift

Floydtilla being lifted
She is out of the water

Floydtilla being lifted
That is a lot of boat

Floydtilla being lifted
Over the crane

Floydtilla being lifted
Floydtilla has landed

Now Floydtilla is on the hard standing she is ready for her survey by Tom Keeling of Small Craft Services Ltd

Then any external work will be completed before she has the old blacking removed and some new coats applied. They will also be working on the interior modifications.

Back to top