Leaderboard

I am thrilled to say that as of today I am the very proud owner (next custodian really) of Tycho! A boat that I have very fond memories of from the late 80s and 90s. The first boatman's cabin i ever stayed in aged 10 and then lucky enough to do bits of towing wirh her as a teenager. More to come... but so as to allay any fears or rumours, the ram stays, as do the blue tops, certainly for now. And of course the reinstatement of the back cabin. Bear with me, I've not had a boat with rivets for 16 years! Thank you @Derek R. for your recent help in filling in the gaps of the last 20 years.

Clearly not you, given your self-professed target of 100 hours a year, or your disbelief that someone might have done 25 hours over 4 days on a canal. Indeed, given your rather unremarkable sailing CV, you clearly never have been an active boater. You appear to have picked up just enough knowledge to sound authentic to a non-sailor, but when you start talking about "Travel Hoists", and one of the top 4 highlights of your sailing career is getting the masthead wet, your true experience (or lack of) is clear for all to see. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with being inexperienced. There's nothing wrong with not knowing much. Almost the only important thing in life is to try to be nice to other people. No-one cares if you don't know much about something, you just need enough humility not to pretend otherwise. If you can find a way to wind things back a little, stop insulting people, stop telling people they're wrong, and only offer opinions where you have experience, you might not get wound up quite so much; you might also stop winding up other contributors. Have a bit of courage to post some details on your new boat, share some of the issues (we all have boat issues, don't pretend you're different), some of your boating screw-ups (again, we all have them), and people might see you as a fellow boater rather than just a ranty forum poster on the Internet. Edit: I also agree with you on the sketchy implementation of that pontoon, but as Francis alluded you can make a point without being unkind.

I phoned CRT this morning to report a bust paddle on lock 64 on the Wheelock flight. The paired lock had already been chained off and the one remaining top paddle looked decidedly dicey. Couple of locks later I met a workboat chugging towards me and mentioned it to them, to which they replied they knew and were on their way to fix it. I thought that was pretty good...

I'll just leave this here for a bit...... this is so exciting!!!! also the top bends have been templated so hopefully will be on soon. also fore end guards on one side and a bit more painting!

I would normally stick a plastic bag over a boat prop going back into the water. Not only will this keep it clean, it will also allow you to practice your weed hatch moves for when you finally cruise your boat to its brokerage for sale.

Being pedantic, we (The Mods) didn't block your first post. Every new member of the forum automatically has their first few posts placed in a queue requiring approval, once you've posted a few times the situation reverses - posts are posted and require hiding (if appropriate) if they have been reported to us. Usually, first posts are approved pretty quickly, but there are some instances where The Mods confer behind the scenes whether to approve or not. Your first post was one. There are not that many Mods, we are unpaid volunteers who squeeze moderating around Day Jobs, family, sleeping, eating etc. Sometimes it takes longer than we would like to reach a consensus decision. We do the best we can, honest! Best Wishes (on behalf of the Moderation Team)

Thank you to the lovely couple that just towed me to hawksbury canal folk are the best of people

I can't believe its 8 years ago today since we acquired the ironwork to Norway from the Ashton Packet Boat company after conversations with @billh.... 8 years on, we got one side two packed up to the middle of the hold, and glosswork on both cabin sides. hopefully today, a 2nd coat on the port side and further welding on the starboard, weather dependent!

That sounds serious! Something like the boat in the recent Wallace and Gromit film?

I think that's very much a minority view. Most say that you can overcoat old epoxy with new epoxy providing you abrade the surface first to provide a mechanical key.

I do not understand why anyone would wish to destroy a piece of waterways history by chopping off the ice breaking ram. It's been there for 63 [corrected] 83 years. A magnificent beast. - And, NO, it doesn't get you bridge'ole precedence. Few see the blade until it's on top of them. Once seen - never forgotten.

The past week has been a spin. Well two weeks. The crane had issues so we had to reschedule the surveyor. He was okay about it. Apparently it’s a boating mindset where everyone takes everything on their stride. Being at Stanstead Abbots for a few days I rather fell in love with the lifeboats they have there. My great grandad being a coastguard who died at sea. So after a volume of calls juggling, no phone charger. We got everything in order tucked away in a little spot where narrow boats hide between Abbots and Roydon Managed to get a berth at Roydon marina and a van on Sunday to move in. Im not planning to take her out much if not at all. This is going to be, hopefully, home for me. Photos later. Thank you to everyone who gave me advice.

Indeed, imagine the Commissions' recommendations if the Great & Good of this forum were running the Commission. From what I have read here in the past 6 months the findings would be: All CRT bins will be removed to discourage liveaboards and because the CRT is clearly too incompetent to implement new recycling legislation. Operation of the canal network should be handed over to local bodies who could then realize the full potential of the canals by filling them in for building land. Cruiser Stern boats should pay a 10% licence premium for the aesthetic distress they cause to trad stern boat owners. The minimum speed on the network will be 3.9 mph and 4.5 mph when passing CMers. The CRT CC annual license should be set to meet the principal that all renters in the UK must pay £12,000 per year for their accommodation with a small reduction to reflect the square footage of a narrow boat is smaller than a 1 bed flat. The maximum mooring duration should be 48 hours everywhere on the network to encourage proper high velocity cruising. CMer boats should be promptly crushed, preferably with their occupants entombed inside. Reform voters are clearly mentally deranged and should not be allowed on the network. London wood burning regulations should be applied to the whole network to make life more difficult for liveaboards. CCers should be banned from London because they are all freeloading skanky people who believe in laylines, crystals, paint rainbows on their boats and do not have proper painted tincan flower pots on their roofs. The National Bargee Travellers Association should be categorized as a proscribed terrorist organization because men or women who wear dungarees terrify Boomers. The wife of the CEO of the CRT should be kidnapped and held to ransom to ensure the CRT implement the above.

Duck hatches? What about the coot flaps? Side doors for me.

I'm sorry you feel that way. I don't agree that the forum is a tiny irrelevance. We travelled widely over our 4 years of boat ownership and met many people I recognised from the forum - normally by their boat names. Had lots of lovely chats and felt that the link with the forum added to the sense of community. Whether you like it or not, you will come across lots of people from the forum and how much nicer for you if meetings are convivial rather than combative. I wish you could be a bit more self-aware about how you are coming across on here. No doubt you are a smashing chap in real life and you are simply not doing yourself any favours. Wishing you well.

FUD is using either misinformation or selective quoting to induce negative views of something -- for example selecting the tiny number of (often discredited) articles which claim that climate change is not anthropogenic, or suggesting that LFP batteries are dangerous "because lithium batteries catch fire and are impossible to put out". Not all "professional websites" are truly impartial. The CPD website uses data from Greenectra, whose business is providing courses about "lithium-ion" batteries with a focus on safety precautions -- meaning, mainly for the most popular/dangerous chemistries like NMC, like this (because LFPs don't really suffer from thermal runaway etc, see below): "BattXcel Secure: A dedicated course addressing safety-critical aspects of Li-ion batteries. Learn about thermal runaway prevention, hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management in battery systems." If you were being cynical, you might think that it was in their interest to tell everyone how dangerous these batteries are, to maximise takeup of their (paid-for) courses...😉 If you look across scientific papers and the whole industry, the overwhelming opinion is that LFP batteries are many times safer than NMC and similar ones with free-oxygen chemistries -- which are the culprits in (pretty much?) all the "lithium battery fires" that are identified as a safety hazard, rightfully so for NMC but not for LFP. And when comparisons have been made the conclusion is usually that LFP are safer than LA, so there's no real justification for saying "We should stick with LA because it's safer". More familiar, yes, Safer, no. What is really needed is proper education about this, for both insurance companies and CWDF posters... 🙂 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/09/26/not-all-lithium-ion-batteries-are-dangerous/

Some years ago, when we lived in very rural Wales, the nearby village seemed to be a target for developers, there always seemed to be planning applications being submitted - these came to a halt when it turned out that there had been Otter footprints seen alongside the brook. An otter expert was called in and it turned out that the Otter appeared to have only one leg/foot, (the right fore leg). Further investigation led to a local who had carved an otter foot and was using it to make tracks wherever a planning application was being submitted. Unfortunately he only made the one-foot.

I always wondered when I first got onto Boats what would happen if public opinion swayed from 'oh what a nice alternative lifestyle' to 'what a load of filthy squatters'. Some of the Elmbridge land is in a terrible state and will be very expensive to clear up. Add to this the fact that at least half a dozen vessels (I heard it was closer to ten) went onto or through Sunbury weir in the January 2024 major floods and this problem needs to be dealt with. It is not just moored and sunk Boats there is also junk and rubbish on the land alongside the River. It really is quite bad in some bits. Also there is a flood management question if weirs are getting blocked. Public opinion may now be moving towards viewing those living on Boats as a problem which is very sad. It's no use pissing off the locals because they will always win if you get into a fight. There are a lot more of them and they have a vested interest in their neighbourhood... It is obvious. NBTA is an anti establishment political group. Nothing to do with Boats it's just that one can live on them then try to claim rights which don't exist then when the rights get clarified one can moan against the draconian authorities. Persecution complex.

Sometimes you don't want to "fine tune" what you do in order to appeal to the largest number. Occasionally, intelligence is better than going for the lowest common denominator, and is certainly more satisfying to the artist concerned, who may be more interested in their integrity than just plugging the latest popular codswallop to get hits - as is done in most of the YouTube vids I suspect you watch. I'm constantly amazed by the responses mine get; some I consider the best get double figures at most while others churned out to be topical for a week are still getting thousands of hits years later. You're better off satisfying yourself than pandering to the public, who, if you ask me, are pretty weird.