Britishwaterway news

British Waterways handed over two of its historic heritage working boats
Filed under: Britishwaterway News — Tags: Boating, waterway, waterways — Boats To Go @ 12:13 pm
Historic Working Boats

On 5th December, British Waterways handed over two of its historic heritage working boats, ‘Atlas’ and ‘Malus’ to the Birmingham Canal Navigations Society and Coombeswood Canal Trust. The two societies have jointly leased the boats from BW with the aim of using them for the future promotion of the waterways. The boats formed part of the British Waterways ‘Heritage Working Boats Project’, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project began in 1999 with a fleet of 10 boats that were restored to their original appearance. With the agreement of the Heritage Lottery Fund, BW recently decided to rationalise the fleet of boats to ensure the project’s future sustainability, and consequently ‘Atlas’ and ‘Malus’ were offered to waterway-related organisations who could continue to care and use the boats in a similar fashion. The societies are to maintain both the engine-powered ‘Atlas’ and the butty boat ‘Malus’ at Coombeswood Canal Trust’s base at Hawne Basin, Halesowen.

UK National Boat Count

UK National Boat Count
Filed under: Britishwaterway News — Boats To Go @ 2:18 am
British Waterways has announced that, following its annual National Boat Count took, which place over two weeks during November, the number of unidentified or unlicensed boats on the waterways it manages has reduced from 10.4% to 6.8%. During 2008, more than 140 unlicenced boats have been seized and Section 8 enforcement proceedings are currently underway on more than 300 craft. The biggest falls in evasion rates were in the West Midlands, London and the South West, although there were also reductions in evasion rates in seven out of BW’s eight BW administrative areas in England and Wales. The lowest evasion rate is in BW’s Yorkshire area, which saw a small increase in the rate to 5.2%. The full table of evasion rates is as follows

Evasion rate by region
2007
2008
Change
East Midlands
10.3%
6.4%
-3.9%
London
12.0%*
7.6%
-4.4%
North West
11.8%
7.6%
-4.2%
South East
12.3%
8.4%
-3.9%
South West
11.5%
7.1%
-4.4%
Wales and Border Counties
9.3%
6.3%
-3.0%
West Midlands
10.6%
6.1%
-4.5%
Yorkshire
5.0%
5.2%
+0.2%
Overall
10.4%
6.8%
-3.6%

From the beginning of April, boat owners who have an unlicensed boat by more one month out of date, including all those identified as part of the National Boat Count, are to face an additional charge of £150 surcharge on their overdue licence fees. The charge is intended to reflect BW’s extra cost incurred in chasing up overdue payments.

Google not publishing blogs

Google not publishing blogs,
Has anyone else noticed that within the past few months Google is not adhering to their guidelines?

They say write good content in your blog, update regulary, check all our guidelines to ensure your blog meets are requirements, register with Google webmaster tools and enter sitemap and RSS feed for your blog.
Now you do all this and there are no breaches to what Google expects of your blog, you ping Google and NOTHING, your blog article never gets indexed by Google even though your sitemap and RSS feed in Google webmaster tools shows it was spidered successfully, and no problems incurred.

So why is Google not indexing your blog, who knows because if you try to contact them they never answer, so your left in limbo never knowing if your IP address or similar has been banned.

If anyone knows how to check why Google is not indexing some blogs at present I would to hear from them.

My blogs are contructive, well written updated daily and are of emmense value to the UK boating community as a whole, they can be viewed here www.boatstogo.info/press

Standedge Tunnel & Visitor Centre Record Year

Boating - Yachting - Sailing - Marine News
Boating,Sailing,Yachting and Marine news. Boating events and Boating News update
Standedge Tunnel & Visitor Centre Record Year

RECORD NUMBERS FLOCK TO STANDEDGE
Standedge Tunnel & Visitor Centre has just closed it’s gates for 2008 and what a fantastic year it has been for the West Yorkshire attraction with just over 11,000 people taking a trip into the highest, longest and deepest canal tunnel in the country.Fresh from picking up it’s second nomination in the Yorkshire Tourist Board’s ‘Tourism Oscars’* the site has gone from strength to strength with a record number of visitors flocking to explore the fascinating tunnel, the information packed visitor centre and the beautiful Pennine landscapes.Standedge was also heavily commended in VisitBritain’s Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Service (VAQAS) for the quality of its customer offer and in particular praised the staff for their knowledge and customer care. The report noted: ‘Standedge visitor centre and boat trip is an excellent visitor experience; enthusiastic staff share their pride in the attraction for the benefit of the visitors.’James Dean, visitor services manager at Standedge said: “Our visitor numbers are increasing year on year and we’ve all been working hard to ensure that our visitors have a great time when they come to Standedge. Visitors can have a great family day out with a trip into the famous tunnel with one of our expert guides, have a picnic or bite to eat in the café and take a look round the visitor centre which charts the construction of the canal and tunnel.“We’ve got some exciting plans in the pipeline for next year with a return of some of our favourite events like the Ashley Jackson Painting Day, Marsden Jazz Festival and Artsfest as well as a whole host of exciting new ones including a Kids Art Week on the opening weekend in April and a Teddy Bear’s picnic in May – events that all the family will enjoy.”Standedge also came top in British Waterways’ regional award for Waterways Excellence for it’s superb level of customer care. James continues: “The team here are a real credit to Standedge and visitors are always full of praise for my team. The knowledge and expertise we have are fantastic – none more so than one of our pilots, Fred Carter, who has just celebrated 40 years working along the Huddersfield Narrow Canal!”More information about Standedge can be found at www.standedge.co.uk.
* Standedge was one of five shortlisted nominations in the Yorkshire Tourist Board’s Awards’ Visitor Attraction of the Year award (under 50,000 visitors), alongside Captain Cook Memorial Museum, DIG - An Archaeological Adventure, Filey Museum, Wentworth Castle Gardens & Stainborough Park in Barnsley.

Traditional Narrowboat hire 2009

UK Traditional Narrowboat hire

Traditional Narrowboat hire.
We can now offer a ‘tailor-made Narrowboat holiday for the true Narrowboat Enthusiast’
Unlike other Narrowboat hire companies we offer a truly traditional quality boat, something more than some of the floating caravans and chalets that are out there!
At a VERY competitive price you can now hire ‘Florence’.
She’s a 70ft Northwich Trader Class Tug, a replica of a Working Boat.
She was built by R.W Davis in 2003. ( a sought after name in the Boating world ).
This is a rare opportunity to experience one of the best Narrowboats on the canal system. You won’t find another holiday hire boat like this one!
She’s very traditional yet modern and comfortable. She has a traditional shell with portholes throughout, an engine room with a Lister HRW3 engine.
Please visit our website for further information
http://www.narrowboatforhire.co.uk/

Boating, sailing, yachting daily news updates

Subscribe to our daily updated boating, sailing, yachting and marine news.
Complete up to date news about boating and events.
http://feeds.feedburner.com/BoatingMarineNews