Liverpool Link is nearly ready

The Liverpool Link, extending the Stanley Dock Branch past the pier head is nearly ready.  There’s a time lapse video of the journey from a British Waterways test boat posted on the Liverpool Daily Post website.

Our own Leeds and Liverpool DVD traces the planned route for the link, following as much of it as possible on foot.

One day we’ll take our own Waterway Routes narrowboat along the link to update the DVD.

Posted on Saturday, February 28, 2009 at 16:37        Comments (0)
Category(s): Leeds and Liverpool

National Boat Caravan & Outdoor Show

On Wednesday I took a quick trip out to the NEC in Birmingham to the 2009 National Boat Caravan & Outdoor Show.  It was the first time I had been to this show, after being disappointed by previous shows at Excel in London.

One of the five halls was dedicated to boats, although less than 20% of that was specific to canals.

There were plenty of stands selling things that could be used on canals, and some of the camping equipment sellers were just as interesting and relevant for boaters.

I came home with a lot of leaflets to read - many simply thrust into my hand as I walked round so that’s lots of reading to do.

Posted on Friday, February 20, 2009 at 13:00        Comments (0)
Category(s): News

Susan’s Graduation

It tried to rain a little on Tuesday morning but we hardly noticed as we took Waterway Routes on one of its shortest cruises ever.  From Sherborne Wharf to Brindley Place in the centre of Birmingham.

We moored almost outside the Symphony Hall for our daughter Susan’s graduation ceremony.

We arrived in style on our boat and had only a few steps to walk to the ceremony.

Afterwards there was plenty of time for photos outside, when we met Charlotte again (who has previously cruised with us) who was also graduating in the same ceremony (and whose mother and sister are in the background).

Staff Nurse Susan now has the official certificate and the badge to wear on her uniform.

A short cruise in the afternoon saw us safely returned to our home moorings at Sherborne Wharf.

Posted on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 20:29        Comments (2)
Category(s): News

Opportunities for new sales outlets

Would you like to increase your profits?

Do you run one of these?

• Canal side shop
• Hire base
• Chandlery
• Hotel boat
• Canal trust or society
• Mail order business
• Anyone else

Could your outlet sell our DVDs?

Then check out our offers, now.

Are you a blogger, boater or someone who could introduce us to new outlets?  Then we’ll pay you commission on any introductory sales.  Email us for details of how to do this.

Posted on Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 11:47        Comments (0)
Category(s): Recent

Cruising with Sherborne Wharf DVD is released

We have now released our Cruising with Sherborne Wharf DVD.

This is just one week after releasing the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) DVDs.

Sherborne Wharf are the “premier boat operator in the heart of Birmingham” and based on the Oozells Street Loop of the BCN.

They operate trip boats and other canal based facilities including:

• City Heritage Cruises (from outside the International Convention Centre (ICC) every weekend and daily during the summer and school holidays.
• Rural Heritage Cruises (charters to Edgbaston or Selly Oak)
• Waterbus service (Arial, the distinctive pink waterbus shuttles around the centre of Birmingham
• George, the Floating Coffee Company, moored in Brindley Place for a drink or light snack
• Search for Santa, the December cruises for children of all ages

Our DVD follows these activities, shadowing the cruise boats on their trips, even following a search for Santa to see if it was successful.  We include views from the front of the boats during the trips using our unique Bowcam system.

This is an unusual style of DVD for us, working with Sherborne Wharf, who will be selling these DVDs at their base and on their trip boats.

They will make great souvenirs to show Mum, Uncle Harry, or whoever, just where you’ve been

We enjoyed working with Sherborne Wharf to produce this DVD and we would be very happy to work with other operators to deliver a similar product for them.  Whether you operate trip boats, hotel boats, hire bases, or any other canal based activity then I’m sure we can work with you to produce a DVD to show off your business at its best.

Posted on Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 11:01        Comments (0)
Category(s): BCN

What a difference a day makes

Tony Blews has done a great job producing his Site Ranking table for UK waterways and it’s settling down nicely.

There’s no great surprises and most sites wander slowly up and down the list by a few places as their seven day average varies.

I was getting about 550 hits which was a plausible figure and I was quite happy to be around 19-20 in the list.

Then the unexpected happened.

Last Saturday I added pages to our web site to show the newly released Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) DVDs and produced a Blog post about them.  I hoped for a few extra hits.

What I didn’t expect is the level of interest in a BCN DVD taking the hits from around 550 to over 950 and putting us 10th in the table.  That’s nearly 300 extra hits on Saturday alone.

My own ISPs web stats show there was almost twice the level of interest in the BCN DVD compared to our last release of the Four Counties Ring DVD - and I’ve no idea why - although I’m sure the excellent sales pitch from Sue on No Problem has helped a lot.

Unfortunately the ratio of sales to visits is the worst for all our DVDs.

Please can someone leave me a comment to explain the exceptionally high interest in the BCN - and, perhaps, the unusually poor sales from those visits.

The Birmingham Canal Navigations are a great place to visit now - and we’ve got the DVDs to prove that.  It may have been best to avoid them years ago, but not now.  Don’t live on past stories, come and see for yourself what they are like now.

Our high level of hits will fall out of the 7-day average this Saturday and I expect to be back around position 20 by the end of the weekend - so all the other entrants can relax and regain their higher ranking - unless I can produce another exciting DVD to release by then.

Posted on Wednesday, February 4, 2009 at 22:05        Comments (0)
Category(s): BCN

Tardebigge Locks - Summer & Winter

We had more snow yesterday than we’ve had for a long time and I took the opportunity to do a little filming.  One of our forthcoming DVDs will now have a few snow scenes added for variety.

I caught the train to Bromsgrove and walked to Tardebigge Locks on the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.  I was prepared with prints of key photos of stills and videos I had taken during the summer so that I could match the views.

Standing high on the embankment of Tardebigge Reservoir I was clutching the prints in the howling gale and peering in the gloom at the small picture on the camera screen and shuffling the tripod around a little to try and get it right.

Fortunately it seems to have worked, as these matched pairs of stills show.  It’s a good job as the snow is melting fast and I might not get another chance to repeat the exercise for years.

Posted on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 14:38        Comments (2)
Category(s): Worcester & Birmingham