Boat insurance article - Maintaining UK inland waterways

This boat insurance article about maintaining UK inland waterways to canals is provided by Mercia Marine Insurance who can insure the vast majority of inland water vessels, why not get a quote today?

The UKs inland Waterway navigations source and maintain their levels of water through a cleverly evolved array of pump-houses, reservoirs, overflows and river tributaries. Whilst navigable sections of river have the potential to no longer be navigable at times of drought, this is not the case with canals however as you might guess there is the problem of trying to maintain water-levels for man-made waterway navigations which particularly at times of drought (but also at flood) becomes very difficult. As a result the provision of systems to collect, store and supply water upon demand (and in very significant quantity!) into canals was therefore an imperative consideration for those marine engineers designing canals right from their very inception in the 1750s.

Unless there were convenient natural river or stream waterways running nearby, reservoirs normally as big or bigger than many lakes were and still are the key method to collect and store the vast amounts of water required to maintain canal levels (if you consider an average lock empties 20 tonnes of water each time it is opened)! Pump houses or sluice systems were then built, many still fully operational today, to pump water up or allow water to run down through feeder tributaries from the manmade reservoir water (or natural water source where luckily enough to have one). In other areas, such as the Llangollen canal, the canal begins as the continuance of natural Welsh streams that have been tapped and diverted to fed the canal. As a result those navigating to Llangollen find the going slow getting there running against the flow and much faster upon return!

Equally important to the provision of fresh water supply though, as remains today, is the preservation of water within the canals as far as possible to reduce the requirement for fresh supply. This inevitably involves regular maintenance of canal locks and the canals themselves to reduce leakage. To support this besides the canal locks themselves which block water flow as much as allowing boats navigation up or down hillsides, the provision of emergency shut-off points (where there are few canal locks this usually a series of heavy beams that can be used to form a slated wall to block the canal at equidistant points) is also useful. Fundamentally though, if you ever wonder why narrow-boats were built instead of wider boats that could have carried a greater load, the answer is largely that for reasons of water conservation canal locks needed to be as narrow as possible to minimise water loss each time gates are opened and closed. Hence canals users should always be cautious not to leave lock paddles open any longer than necessary.

Reviewed: 20/10/2011

Back to boat insurance articles