Alan de Enfield

Are you sure you have a calorifier in the bow, and another in the 'engine room'?

That's pathetic - a Dog poo sign is bigger than that, I'd have expected something like .....................

I'd suggest that in the circumstances (working at a fixed location and Teenage daughter school/work/ friends) you may be better to start off based in a marina with transport connections. You can still go out cruising for weekends and the odd weeks holidays. As you 1st boat you really want to have as few problems in adjusting to living in a sewer-tube as possible, the continuous-cruising rules are just another potential headache on top of managing a boat. Get a 60 footer and spend your 1st year (an get winter out of the way) in a marina with all the extra facilities they offer.

A 57' boat with a mooring licence fee is over £400 per annum cheaper than a 72 foot boat without a mooring. Yes - a mooring will cost you a lot more than the £400 you save but, the benefits are additional security, water and electricity 'on tap', normally washing machines, showers, car parking, & maybe even cafe or bar. No need to double shuffle fetching cars and trying to find car parking after each 'move'. If it is not too late - maybe have a look at some smaller boats - we went looking for 57-60 footers and ended up with a 45 footer the boat layout makes a huge difference to the usable space, the 45 gave us more space than the 57s we looked at. We were not full time liveaboards but used the boat as a liveaboard from May to September, and often extended the season either April or October if the weather was good. (Being retired makes life good !) On a different subject - the River network is not somewhere you want to be in the Winter. Partcularly the likes of the Soar (to the West of Nottingham) which can go into flood if someone empties their toilet - you can be stuck for weeks on end - not ideal if you have to go to work.

In addition to finding moorings (even in a row of moored boats on the bankside, you'll rarely find gaps suitable) everything on a boat is charged by 'the foot' so a longer boat pays more for moorings, more for the licence fee, more for painting etc.

The pain in the rectum comes when you have moved the boat (say) 10 miles, you then have to tie up and get back to where you started from to go and get your vehicles and find somewhere suitable (and safe) to leave them, then repeat next time you move. Insurance companies tend to not like it when you cannot get them an address and 'type' of parking area where your car is normally kept. (in a field gateway somewhere alongside the canal is generally frowned upon).

I don't know, you could take over the river 'beat'

But you said you get a container with a handle - if you discard the top you lose the handle ? Cutting (say) a couple of inches off the BOTTOM and then discarding that gives you a scoop complete with handle.

Probably installed by some ejut on a youth experience scheme who had no idea, and no interest in what he was doing. Its a good job our roadsigns are not installed by such people. Warning signs about entering an area are installed so you can read them as you approach ............................. (A village just North of Lincoln - not a street full of spit !)

Will you have a vehicle to get you from where you are to work, or will you be relying on public transport. C&RT require you to have a MINIMUM 'range' of 20 miles from your central point - note, that is range not a total of miles travelled. So, if (for example) you work at Nottingham Castle Marina at various times throughout the year you will be more than 20 miles away from work (the marina) You cannot do : 3 miles from point A, to Point B, and them a week or two later return the 3 miles to Point A, repeat, repeat. It is particularly 'risky' in busy areas such as the area you propose to operate in, as enforcement is more active. The result of non-compliance is the loss of your licence. The C&RT rules are few, and simple to work within, but, as a Newbie, unless you have researched the rules you will be unaware of what is required. When you apply for your licence you are conforming that you have read, undestood and will comply with the regulatons and rules. London Enforcement Manager Simon Cadek sent an email to a boater who was warned that they were on course for failing their six month restricted licence, telling them what they would need to do to pass. The email is on public record as part of advice to boaters in the London Boaters Facebook group. “When we are looking at boat movements we are looking for characteristics of bona fide navigation, Range: by range we mean the furthest points a boat has travelled on the network, not merely the total distance travelled. While the BW act does not stipulate what that distance is the Trust has previously said that anyone travelling a range of less than say 20 miles (32km) would struggle to satisfy the Trust that they are engaged in bona fide navigation and that normally we would expect a greater range. For the avoidance of doubt, a small number of long journeys over a short period of time, followed or preceded by cruising in a small are of the network would not generally satisfy the Trust that you are engaged in bona fide navigation. Alternatively you could take a mooring and the rules become much simpler (and the licence is cheaper)

Surely, if you can read the sign you are 'entering' if you are approaching the 'back of the sign' you are exiting.

Then, I'd have thought its command of English grammar and punctuation would be better.

But, you'd only know that if you had actually read the post.