and a planned 30 mile trip became 19 miles

the first lock in Loughborough with views of the 3M factories

A glorious day

It's the last Saturday before the big trip and Jonathan is happy to do a final long trip with me on the grand union canal. I pick him up 7am. The weather is blue sky with a few clouds and a breezy south-westerly wind. the air-temperature is about 15degC and the water feels warmer.

A return trip from Barrow to Loughborough is 9.5 miles, so the plan is to do this 3 times; thus nearly 30 miles.

Reminder to self - don't drill a hole and forget to plug it

We are in the water at 8am from our regular start at Barrow-on-Soar and get going. After about 30 minutes it feels very wet in the bottom of the kayak, and I complain to Jonathan that he should not splash so much. But the depth of the water seems to be more than should be in the boat just by splashing. So I lift up my splash deck to see what is going on below-deck, and see a decent puddle. There is water leaking into the kayak. I look around and realise that one hole I drilled to fit the new runner in a slightly position, but was not needed, had not been sealed off. Silly mistake #1. The next mistake is that I left all the spares and repair stuff in the car. So a twig of haw-thorn with the bark stripped, and of the right diameter was pushed into the hole. This stopped the leakage such that we could continue the trip.

and 30 becomes 20

It is clear that we are both tired and the trip is going slightly slower than planned. After 10 miles we stop off at the pub for a bite to eat, and Keith, Jonathan's dad has kindly brought some coffee, which goes down nicely. We repair the hole properly with a little bolt and washers, and set off for the next round trip. When we get to the end of Loughborough, we have a can of belgium's finest and make an assessment of the time it has taken thusfar. We are averaging with all the breaks and repair stops 10 miles in 3 hours. Thus that would mean 20 miles in 6 hours. This is slower than anticipated, so we decide, to get back to the start point and finish this trip. So we do 19 miles in the end.

The final back-up solution tested - strings around the feet to move the pedals.

In case the ball-bearing runners break, a back-up solution is tested. Simple bits of plastic tube to rest your feet on, connected by a nylon string to the steel rudder cables. The system works alright. It is not as nice to operate as the plastic footholds, but does the job well. The only thing required is to wear your shoes as the nylon string was digging into my feet.

I will think about a slightly mode ergonomic back-up solution..

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struggling without a rudder - one of the pedals breaks - time for some improvements

all nuts are nylon lock nuts to avoid loosening by themselves

a mini clam cleat to fix the rudder adjustment cord

heavy-duty kitchen drawer runners for the pedals

Lost my bearings

last Monday Becs and I planned another test-session in the Coventry Canal basin. Whilst preparing the canoe, and adjusting the pedals for Becs, by shortening the ropes connecting the pedals to the rudder, the left hand kitchen drawer runner had bent such that the little ball bearings came out. Oops.

Design flaw?

I knew that kitchen drawer runners were not designed to bear an un-balanced load, i.e. just a single runner with an angled bracket, so part of all the sessions I have done was to test how well they would stand up to this type of use.

The external part of the runner had bent open under the lateral forces, thus the inner runner part was able to shoot out and all the little ball-bearings fell out.

Trying to peddle without a rudder

We tried for about half an hour to peddle without a rudder, but it proofed to be too hard. The canoe went all over the place, and the slightest change in direction was had to correct for. We first tried to fix the rudder in place so it would act as a stationary kiel, but this did not improve the ability to go straight. We then unscrewed the rudder but that did not improve it either.

So for us, as relative amateurs in canoeing, trying to go straight without a rudder in this particular canoe, was too hard. So we returned to the basin.

Improvements - heavy duty runners

The same evening I stopped off at a Homebase and got a pair of heavy-duty runners.

40cm long, supports weight upto 45kg. But, of course, that is a weight supported by 2 runners on each side as the picture shows.

Improvement 2 - original foot bracket

Not only have I installed these runners, but also, instead of the single angled brackets, I have put the original footholds back in. These have 4 foot positions, so this means that, theoretically, less cable length adjustments have to be made for different height canoeists, or if I fancy putting my feet/legs in a more or less stretched position.

Improvement 3 - easier adjustable cables

Another simple adjustment. The steel cables that are attached to the rudder, and a knotted rope is attached to the foot bracket. These are connected with small karabiners, so small adjustments in bracket adjustment are now quickly made.

Improvement 4 - mini clam cleat

The rudder can be lifted out of the water by pulling an orange cord on the left-hand side by the rear-canoeist. The mini clam cleat is great at clamping the rope quickly and reliably. This means that each time the canoe has to be lifted out or into the water the risk of bending the rudder is greatly reduced.

Improvement 5 - standardising all the nuts and bolts

The final improvement I have made is ensuring that all the nuts and bolts are either M5 or M6. and all the nuts are nylon lock-nuts, so as to avoid the nuts undoing themselves under stress.

There were a couple of M4 nuts and bolts which have now been replaced by M5. Each bolt now has a washer on the outside.

Improvement 6 - fixed the front hand hold strap

The nylon strap that holds the front hand hold was nearly worn through. And for once, something I had for nearly 20 years in a little bag in the garage came to use. When my university rugsack had final worn out, but the straps were still fine. So I cut these off and put them in a bag, because one day they would be of use. And that day had come! I had the right length of 15mm wide nylon strap to replace the worn one. All I had to do is melt 2 holes through the strap where the M10 bolts would fit through. So a philips screw driver and the gas hob were the right tool to melt two holes to take the bolts.

Time is running out to ensure all these improvements will survive the 200km tour......Saturday and Monday are the final tests....watch this space...

A slalom canoe does not like going in a straight line

not good at going fast in a straight line; that's why its called a slalom canoe....

To get in some extra practise, without taking out the large double, which requires a crew of 2, I borrowed a lighter, smaller, and infinitely more unstable slalom canoe.

A slalom canoe - Perception Reflex Club

It has a complete flat and smooth bottom (dont know what the correct canoe-speak is).

At 12kg and 3.5m it has the advantages of being able to be carried by one person, but it is one of those things where it does what it says on the tin "it is a slalom canoe". It does not like going fast in a straight line, but it can spin on a sixpence.

It has been a good getting in a number of sessions trying to get to grips with the steering and stability.

For example, the moment you stop peddling, it does a 180degree turn, so a constant forward pulling force is required.

The impact of all of this instability is that a lot of effort is spent correcting it, so the straight line speed is affected, and I did not manage to go any faster than 4-7mph with lots of stops and starts, compared with a smooth 5-8mph in the double. Have a look at the profile and details of the trip here.

Getting wet for the first time

But trying getting out of it is another story. On the first trip I went from Newtown harcourt to Saddington tunnel, which means negotiating a total of 6 locks each way. All but one time getting out of the canoe was fine. Just about had my legs out of the canoe, ready to get onto the wall, and lost my balance. Fortunately the water was not cold, but they could have scooped out the mud on the bottom of the canal. Very mushy indeed.

Only a few more weeks until we do the big trip. Tomorrow I will do another practise in the double on the Coventry canal.

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And then there were three...

this is how Sam (G) feels....

Unfortunately due to other commitments one of the gang of 4 has had to drop out. He is feeling very guilty and sorry for creating an odd-numbered team to do the hard graft, but he has promised to do the Leicester Marathon later this year in under 4 hours.

So we will now be doing it with the 3 of us: Sam(antha), Rebecca and Dennis.

Transport-wise we will use my double kayak, and hire a single.

Friends & family in the area have been mobilised to provide a dry place to sleep, and we are in the process of confirming transport to and from the river each day.

If anybody has a single river canoe I can borrow, please let me know.

Distances between locks on the Thames and other cool stuff

is a picture of Cricklade bridge. The very start of our journey!

Some key websites for reference material

1. There is a fantastic resource by www.visitthames.co.uk. It tells you the distances and approximate travel time between locks. They are also below in this blog in a table.
2. canoeing the non-tidal thames website has got a great description of the journey. I will be printing this one out and stick it in laminate on the front of my canoe.

Cool interactive brochure

there is a very cool interactive brochure from visitthames, including a map of the river.

click here.

River conditions

Click here to find out about the latest river conditions. which is supported by the Environment Agency.

The table

Here is the table from the webs-site, click on the above link to see the latest version

The distances and times between each lock are shown below. The time is based on a 8kmh (approx 5mph) speed.

Location	Distance to next lock downstream - km	Distance to next lock downstream - miles	Time to lock downstream at 8 km/h
Cricklade Bridge	18.88	11.73
St John's Lock	1.85	1.15	15
Buscot Lock	5.37	3.34	41
Grafton Lock	2.98	1.85	23
Radcot Lock	4.23	2.63	32
Rushey Lock	6.92	4.30	52
Shifford Lock	7.63	4.74	58
Northmoor Lock	6.21	3.86	47
Pinkhill Lock	2.38	1.48	18
Eynsham Lock	4.37	2.71	33
King's Lock	1.81	1.13	14
Godstow Lock	3.87	2.40	30
Osney Lock	3.73	2.32	28
Iffley Lock	2.70	1.68	21
Sandford Lock	7.38	4.58	56
Abingdon Lock	4.15	2.58	32
Culham Lock	4.52	2.72	34
Clifton Lock	4.80	3.07	36
Day's Lock	6.37	3.96	48
Benson Lock	10.46	6.50	79
Cleeve Lock	1.00	0.62	8
Goring Lock	6.55	4.07	50
Whitchurch Lock	3.67	2.28	28
Mapledurham Lock	7.08	4.40	54
Caversham Lock	4.23	2.63	32
Sonning Lock	4.68	2.91	36
Shiplake Lock	4.80	2.59	36
Marsh Lock	4.59	3.24	35
Hambleden Lock	5.89	3.66	45
Hurley Lock	1.03	0.64	8
Temple Lock	2.7	1.68	22
Marlow Lock	6.44	4.00	49
Cookham Lock	3.35	2.08	26
Boulters Lock	3.43	2.13	26
Bray Lock	5.10	3.17	39
Boveney Lock	3.75	2.33	29
Romney Lock	4.83	3.00	37
Old Windsor Lock	4.94	2.92	36
Bell Weir Lock	4.33	2.84	35
Penton Hook Lock	3.13	1.95	24
Chertsey Lock	3.32	2.06	25
Shepperton Lock	4.75	2.95	36
Sunbury Lock	4.79	2.98	36
Molesey Lock	7.74	4.81	59
Teddington Lock	0.39	0.24