Owners' meeting

Newbury Waterways Festival

This afternoon, we paid a visit to the Newbury Waterways Festival.  It's organised by the K&A Canal Trust.  The boats were moored upto five abreast, and included the Narrowboat Trust pair Nuneaton and Brighton in their new livery.

Victoria Park, next to the canal, was full of stalls all around the boating lake.  It was like a traditional fair, with attractions like a coconut shy.  We bought three ducks for the duck race.

Dragon boats

In my late break at work this evening, I hopped on the Hmmersmith and City line to Paddington, to watch some of the dragon boat racing on a stretch of the Paddington Arm.

There were numerous teams taking part, many in fancy dress or team outfits.  The course itself was very short, taking between 30 and 40 seconds for each race, and everyone seemed to enjoy being yelled at by the instructors from the company organising it.

Poyntz Bridge

Today, the Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society was swinging Poyntz Bridge on the Chichester Canal.  This bridge is usually left open, so it's not often you can walk across.  There are school playing fields on the other side.

The Chichester Canal Trust trip boat was making its regular excursions down the canal, so the bridge had to be swung out of the way.

In spite of being a canal which is only a couple of miles long and not connected to anything, the water was quite busy.  In addition to the trip boat, there were half a dozen rowing boats, and later a load of canoes and kayaks too.

Oakapple on test

The August issue of Canal Boat is out, and includes my review of the Barn Owl boat, Oakapple, which won Best in Show at the Crick Boat Show at the end of May.  This test was carried out at Shirley on the North Stratford Canal, as the owners made their way back home to Worcester.