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Anyone done one, ive booked a 68ft barge from Devizes to cruise to Bath and back, stopping at a few pubs in between. How difficult are the locks to operate?

How long is the holiday for Foggy?  Never done it myself, been on the Broads a few times, no locks there though!

lucien sanchez is your man for this!

The locks are operated by lock keepers until about 8pm in the summer... all you have to do is master pulling up prior to th lock, waiting your turn, steering it in, and exiting it without hitting too much wall. It's pretty simple after the first one.

After 8, you're on your own, and 6 fairly stupid drunk lads in their mid-twenties, with no lock experience managed it pretty easily... was a proud moment.

5 days mate, hoping for plenty of sunshine so i can sit up top and watch the world go by at 3mph..lovely

I did the Stourport ring years back, and you do your own there, pretty easy really, one even pretty weedy person can operate them. Make sure you do your desired distances in lock miles though, as some can get busy and you can hang around for ages, particularly as you are only about 6 foot under maximum, so doubt if there will be any doubling up in the locks.

Fogster, Are you starting In Devizes itself ? Going up and down Caen hill locks will take ages !

http://www.waterscape.com/in-your-area/wiltshire/places-to-go/86/caen-hill-locks

Plenty of good canalside pubs though. The only advice I would give is to get a boat with more berths than is needed, as space can be limited.

Going from Devizes to Bath so we miss the Caen Hill system, The boat is a 9 berth and we have  5 people going so there should be plenty of room. The first stop is the Barge at Seend.

Only if you start at the bottom of Caen Hill, I think you'll find. I don't know where the holiday rentals start from, but I kind of assumed it was Devizes Wharf. Apologies if that's wrong.

Always fancied a weeks piss up on the water. Canal seems ideal as you shouldn't need to do much navigating.
As fot the locks, don't worry. Use the time to get pissed, then some nice people might help you (if they are in the queue behind you

Just got back from a weekend on the river Wey between Guildford and Weybridge. The locks are fairly simple it's the parking the boat in the lock which is the tricky part.

Sounds good, when we did it on the broads we had about 10 people on a 5 berth boat, that was about 10 years ago and a couple of the lads are still not talking after that - it got a bit heated!!

Locks are simple enough although be careful to not let the water in too quickly and watch out for the cills, generally its a very pleasant way to spend a week just dont't try to rush anywhere - but then again I would have to say that as I work for British Waterways!!

when my youngest is a bit older i'm deffo gonna do this type of holiday

Been on a few of these, 72' is the max length, and then make sure you are against the front (lower end) of the lock as there is a sill at the back you can ground out on.

Locks are easy - only open one set of paddles at a time and you can't really go wrong.

Sounds like an ace holiday

Is it legal to operate a boat whilst intoxicated? I guess a stretch barge has a pretty limited top speed

I think that it is around 4 mph - we were overtaken by a bit of a chase in the broads when a police boat overtook us and stoped someone for speeding!

No, and about 7mph.

4mph is the limit, tend to create a wash otherwise, which destroys the banks.

Absolute bloody heaven Cookie. I have done about 8 weekend/week narrow boat trips on the River Wey. It is incredibly rural for a canal so close to London and is in fact the oldest canalised river in the country. If the weather is fine there is no better place to be on the planet. 4mph forces you to calm down and look around you.

Highly recommended, try Godalming Narrow Boats. Pricey but worth it. Oh and you can schedule a weekend break with overnight pub stops every evening  :)

I did a day trip from Devizes last October.  It's pritty easy, fun, but going against the wind on the way back, took double the time.
Watching out for old couples, shouting ''your going to fast''. ''Yeah right''.

Were you sailing?  :boat:

A tip for Fogster. When you are in a lock that is losing water make sure the back of the boat is clear of the lock gate / wall. If it catches then you could have a problem.

Wind on a canal is a bitch, it blows the boat sideways across the canal and there is pretty much fuck all you can do about it.

We went for a week on the Wey Navigation/Thames last May when the weather went bonkers. Do you remember all that rain? We had the last boat back through Teddington lock before the Thames was closed for two days due to storm force currents. I navigated the narrow boat past the weir to the Wey entrance, I have never been so bloody frightened, it was like pushing a pencil up a waterfall. White water rafting upstream powered by a Lister engine.

When we got to the Thames lock the Wey had been closed for two days because of high water levels and luckily it was on the verge of reopening. The six boats in front had been stuck for 48 hours.

You wouldn't coco it in gentle Britain.

I did Tardebigge in high winds. interesting times.

boat weekends are awesome

bring on end of july!

I'm trying to organise a canal boat weekend for my stag do at the end of august, what companies have you guys used, and what canals would you recommend (as it's a stag do lots of pubs would be benefical)?