Archive Photos Down at Three Mills

We were looking at some photos the other day of Charles and Camilla who came down to the River Lee to name one of the new boats for Water Chariots.

 

We know from the national press and a multitude of websites that this venture, which was supposed to provide a riverboat service for the next 15 years was forced to go into receivership half way through the Olympic Games.
 

Charles & Camilla officially naming a Water Chariot Taxi

Look carefully at the top right of the photo and you will see the bridge supports for the District Line where it crosses the River Lee and Bow Creek

It was exactly 27 years that Princess Michael of Kent was in exactly the same spot at Three Mills to commission Challenge.



Princess Michael of Kent commissions Challenge in June 1985



The only thing that has changed over the past 27 is that the bridge is now green and there is a brand new floating pontoon for the water taxis. As they now don't exist and won't be using the pontoon, we feel that we have a duty to ensure that this resource is put to good use.

Anyway, the bank at Three Mills is always been a problem because of its sheer height. The new pontoon now opens up many opportunities in that area.

Challenge on the new Three Mills pontoon

A September Weekend On Challenge

This weekend was a real mixed bag of weather. On Saturday we had glorious sunshine, which was followed by torrential downpours on Sunday.

With the sun shining on Saturday it wasn’t long before the river came alive with rowers and canoeists. Now then, we have a written rule on the waterways that you keep to the right when passing other boats. That’s not always possible when you are sculling or rowing backwards, so these guys normally stick to the middle of the river. Unfortunately this can lean to near misses when you go round a bend and the river is full of canoeists straddling the whole river.

 

More of a problem can be inconsiderate boater who not only speed down the centre of the river, but go round bends without tooting their hooter. As you can see in the photo this can lead to disasters whereby a team of scullers were cut in half.

 

Fortunately nobody was injured on this occasion, even though the narrowboat responsible failed to stop and offer assistance to the crew in the water. We understand the narrowboat owner was tracked down several days later. We hope they throw the book at him!

 

As Sunday dawned and the heavens opened up the temperature started to fall. One of our projects last year was to install central heating in the boat. This was quickly switched on to warm up the boat.

 

As we couldn't work outside we decided to disconnect the Webasto heater that had been left in situe. This heater has been a right pain in the neck since we took over the boat 4 years ago. The unit was purchased new to replace an old Eberspächer heater. We could never get the Webasto to fire up, so our resident Mr Fix-It concluded that the pump was faulty. Now everything apart from the starter batteries is 24v on Challenge. Needless to say we bought a 24v pump for the unit but even this wouldn't work.

 

As I'm renowned for thinking outside of the box I sat there with the old pump and the instruction book in my hands just contemplating the problem. I then asked if anybody had run a test on the pump to see if it really was faulty? A few blank stares later I jury rigged the pump to a 12v battery and it sprang into life. I then asked Mr Fixit (who has the smallest head) to get his head in the bilges with a torch and check the voltage on the back of the Webasto. Yeah you've guessed it, this was 12v also and the whole unit was wired into a 24v system! Once we pulled in a 12v supply and put back the 12v pump the whole system fired up and blew hot air around the boat.

 

I won't talk about the Webasto being undersized for a 70' boat as that's a story for another day. All you need to know is that our new gas fired heating works a treat and we are ready for anything winter wants to throw at us.

 

 

 

 

Back on the Lee but not the Bow Back Rivers

Now that the River Lee is fully open we can finally get the boat down to the Olympic Park and Limehouse Basin. Last Saturday was a beautiful day on the river, albeit a bit slow. We managed to get down to Bow Locks before we had to turn and return home to base.

Now that all the athletes have gone from the Olympic Park it’s starting to fill up with contractors pulling down all the temporary buildings and hospitality tents.

Along the way we met a number of people who were glad the Olympics had finished as it had curtailed their activities and businesses. One restaurateur told us he had spent over £300k without any return on the investment, a lot less than the £3m lost on the water Chariots disaster, (see posting below). http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19618187

Also good to see were the tour guides who can now access the tow path again and bring visitors back to the River Lee. All we need to do now is get the bits that are still shut open to the public.

Bow Back Rivers

The history of this are well documented elsewhere, but effectively they were shut in 2007 as part of the Olympic Park developments. Over the last five years the following has been invested in the river system:

• £2.1m for dredging
• £770k on waterway enhancements, including soft bank habitat, bridge fenders and moorings
• £1m for widening and resurfacing the tow path
• £200k for a pontoon for larger vessels outside the Aquatics Centre
• Probably a lot more hidden in other accounts!

That’s just a tad over £4m, but the benefits should be priceless. First off this area was once an open cesspit full of shopping trolleys, bikes old cars and mud clogged with rubbish. It is now a clean and pleasant environment and haven for wildlife. Secondly we now have the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which starts to open to the public in 2013. This should bring in numerous visitors and valuable revenue for the area.

Now then, my gripe is with the timetable for the opening of the Bow Back Rivers. Since 2007 British Waterways (now CRT) has said on their stoppages page that the area remains closed until after the Olympics. Well the Olympics are over so it’s time to get the rivers open again after five years closure. Hang on a minute, CRT are now saying that the area will remain closed until 2016. Now that is either a typo or they are having a laugh at the tax payers expense. Remember all that money spent was yours and not theirs.

https://www.waterscape.com/things-to-do/boating/stoppage/detail/6490/Bow+Back+Rivers+Advice

Although we emailed them last week for an explanation we have not yet had a response. we will keep you informed.

Back to Business

So here we are, just a couple of days to the end of the Olympics 2012 and the end of restrictions on the river.

Down at DCBT we have had a great time over the Olympics. For three weeks we played host to trainers from the New South Wales Institute of Sport, (NSWIS). During the games we shared their frustrations and they shared our joys as Team GB stormed ahead. One of the former Hockeyroos admitted that it was difficult not to get emotional when Jessica Ennis stepped on the podium to collect her gold medal. We always knew they were closet pommes!

We are now back on track with our core work and 'Learning on the Lee' with our client base.

One of the big stories of the Olympics is the possible demise of Water Chariots. They were set up with a mass of publicity and invested over £3m in the construction of boats to provide the official water taxi service to the games. They were also awarded a 15 year contract by BW to provide water taxi services as part of the Lea Valley/Olympic Park legacy.

When we heard about the numbers they were supposed to carry on the river – 1,000 per hour, we wondered at the time where they were going to get these people from. When they finally announced their prices we knew immediately they were on a looser. After operating on the River Lee for 28 years we knew how difficult it is to attract custom.

We understand that soon after the games started the company readjusted their numbers down to 1,000 per day. In reality we don’t think they did more than a hundred per day. Certainly on the Tottenham to Old Ford route there we no more than 30 per day. On some days we never even saw the boats. Once the main Olympics were over we never saw the boats again.

Needless to say this will have caused a serious cash flow problem. We now understand the receivers were called in on Tuesday 4^th September.

When the dust settles on this one it will be interesting to see where the funding came from for this fiasco. Some of the blogs and discussion boards talk about funding from BW, TFL and ODA. Other blogs have discussed the possibility of funding being diverted from the redevelopment of Stonebridge to construct a quay at Tottenham Lock. Although none of these rumours have been confirmed, it will be interesting to see what the fall out is

The link to this story can be found below:

http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/news-flash/4820-warningtwo-chariots