The Bata-Canal is the used waterway important for transport, class 0.
Without licence, it is possible to drive small vessels up to the engine output of 20 kW, which are designed only for buoyancy navigation with the maximum speed of 20 km/h. That means that a person above 18 years of age is allowed to drive the vessel without a special licence; the hire-office staff will only provide training to handle the watercraft.
Slide navigation is forbidden. The maximum speed of 5 km/h is allowed on the canal sections.
The Bata-Canal is about 60 km long now (from Otrokovice to Sudoměřice). It goes either on the Morava River, or on artificially excavated canal sections. The Canal is navigable from the town of Kroměříž to the town of Hodonín, but here are some “obstacles”:
- on the Bata-Canal’s northern side, there is missing a lock at the Bělovský weir nearby Otrokovice, i.e. the section from this weir to Kroměříž is independent and not connected to the rest of the waterway;
- on the Bata-Canal’s southern side, there is missing a lock in Sudoměřice, which makes the navigation from the water-gate in the direction of Hodonín impossible – there is an independent navigable section. The construction of this lock should start in 2008.
The height difference on this waterway (18,6 m) is equalized by 13 locks with the dimensions 5,3 x 38 (50) m. 11 lock chambers fully automatic and can be remote-controlled.
The navigable level is maintained by 13 weirs. It is strictly prohibited to float the weirs!
The Bata-Canal is 1,5 m deep in average. It is highly recommended the watercraft draught not to exceed 80 cm. The watercraft size should be adapted to the lock sizes – watercrafts should thus not be wider than 5 metres.
The Canal is 12 metres wide in average.
There are 50 bridges on the waterway, many of them are unique technical monuments. The vertical clearance varies according to the actual flow rates, exceptionally 2,1 m, usually 2,4 m. The most frequent vertical clearance is 3,3 m, but the lowest bridge at the village of Huštěnovice has 2,2 m.
There are 9 fixed slipways on the waterway with various parameters. The slipways on the river may not be maintained (silt clearing). We recommend using the slipways in the ports, which are kept in good repair. Your car can be watched here as well.
At present, the Bata-Canal is used just as a tourist waterway. The freight shipping does not work more. People spend their holidays, weekends here or they come to sail and to see other natural sights from the board. They can borrow a vessel in one of eight hire-offices working along the waterway. Very popular are also the regular cruises of large ships, or stays on houseboats.