Smallest cruiser in club on Caledonian Canal.

[Chriss]

Hi everyone
I've just got back from taking Cyrus from Fort William to Inverness along the Caledonian Canal. Cyrus is the 17 ft Lysander under the green cover near the gate on the dinghy side of the park. It was the first time Cyrus had been in the water since I holed it on Coniston in 1996. The repairs I did stood up to the 60 odd miles of waterways and a bit of a pounding on Loch Ness. It's a good little boat.

I launched the boat from a slip at Corpach and went in through the sea locks. I recovered Cyrus from the slip at Caley Marina in Inverness. The wind was behind us most of the way but was a bit fickle as is often the case on lakes. Often it was easier have just the genoa up rather than have the boom swinging about all the time.

Liz and I alternated between one night on board and one night in a B & B. I had made some modification to enable the cockpit to be used as a sleeping area - these worked but a couple of the nights were quite cold and we needed a B & B to recover.

Cyrus attracted some attention and a few compliments as it passed through the locks accompanied by much bigger, shinier, plastic boats. “All boats should be like this” one lock keeper said.

loch Lochy.jpg

Cyrus on Loch Lochy

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Cyrus on Loch Ness

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Genoa on Loch Ness.jpg

Genoa on Loch Ness

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[Michael]

Great

[Stan Chadwick]

Well Done great pictures
Stan

[dr.syn]

Small boats are best. What was the price for going on the canal?

[Chriss]

It was £80 for an 8 day licence which can be increased to eleven days for a few pounds per extra day. The cost is per meter of boat length. There are showers and toilets and laundries at most locks and lots of pontoons to moor up on.

[arnie]

Well done Chris,
I saw you leaving the club with with your boat in tow and wondered where you might be going. I just happened to be in Lancaster on the Saturday when you came round the corner by the Stonewell Tavern on your return.
Good times can be had in little packages!

[doug gorton]

Well done Chris
seems like quite an adventure
Doug