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Unfortunately, I see this more and more. One weekend out on our own boat this year... Waiting mid channel at Stoke Bruerne top as trip boat on towpath and the boat in front moored across the bollards - the bloke shouts "Oy, you gonna come and help my missus, shes on her own" - being 140 feet away from lock and the lock being surrounded by a multitude of tourists and boaters, we aren't even sure that no-one is coming up the lock, never mind being in a position to assist. Waiting at bottom lock for two boats to go up, Kathy goes up to help. As the boats leave, some woman with a walky talky round neck tells Kathy to close the gates. Kathy points out that theres a boat coming down. "well you have to shut the gates anyway - and I cant see that far" - Kathy leaves the gates open for boat to enter...Woman with Walkytalky walks off in disgust. coming through tunnel, Trip boat behind, the boat in front is going tickover even when the oncoming boat has passed. Reaches the end of the tunnel and the boat in front continues to do tickover after a swift look behind and a discussion with his wifey. He swings across the navigation channel, blocking the few passing chances. This is a boat known for going quite fast past moored boats locally(he has previous!!). Still thwarting progress up to Blisworth, having to take the boat out of gear every few yards, the trip boat and me are arms in the air - whatatwat kind of feeling. thought we had a chance after the winding hole, but moored boats..up to the sluice and bridge50, yes, chance....but he slews across in front of us- in the whole distance from the tunnel, he has refused to glance back once. So, coming along to the end of the straight after bridge 50, moored boat (the container boat) just after corner, I do a Michael Schumacher move, take the inside left, after I am halfway past he realises that I havnt lost momentum like he has, ....and he sticks full throttle on!! Fatal mistake, he joins his front end to my middle and a subtle right steer of the boat ensures his front ends up on the towpath whilst Kathy explains the stupidity of his actions in quite fruity but polite English. Narrowboat Kala, Gardner 2LW, well done, arse of the weekend.

Walked around to the New Inn for a beer. Just watched a guy put both paddles up at the top lock at Buckby. I shouted and pointed out that the gate was fully open and there was a boat coming, leaving the paddles up he shrugged walked back and pulled the gate which slammed closed with a hell of a bang. He shrugged and said he couldn’t be bothered to wait while the guy on the helm looked the other way. Meanwhile the boat they could have gone down was now at the lock. . Gates potentially damaged and 7 locks of water Lost, not to mention unnecessary hard work for the following boat. is this the modern boater? no respect for the infrastructure or loss of water. It’s not always CRTs fault.

No such thing here. Normality fosters this "it was so much better in my day." mentality. I remember my grandad telling this to my dad and my dad telling it to me. I break with tradition by telling my kids that life is what you make of it not how crap old folk might tell you it is inevitably going to be. People have been shouting "slow down!" since I started boating in the early 80s and the modern age has no monopoly on selfish gits. Smile and wave at them and remember that it is them who are missing out and the world will be a happier place. Getting grumpy about grumpy people just creates one more grumpy person.

I’m convinced it’s the training that’s at fault, having experienced it at first hand while I was “worked” through Atherstone top lock by a team of new volunteers and their CRT gaffer. The gates slammed behind me then he immediately whipped a top paddle up without even looking in my direction for any sign from me. As soon as the boat stopped banging around I shot up the ladder and explained as politely as possible that he wasn’t teaching people the correct way of working a lock. The trainees actually seemed keen to hear what I was saying but unfortunately their boss didn’t, and wouldn’t even make eye contact. Part of a volunteers training should be a passage through a lock that’s been worked badly, so they get an idea how easy it is for things to go wrong.

Hey! The number of times I've threatened to turn his monkey nads into earrings... I need a new threat. Or maybe just to follow through on the previous one 🤔 Trouble is I've got 14 earring holes and only one pair of monkey nads... 🐒

this is my community I would like to be able to discuss current issues within it.

That's one of our favourite games, with a photo to prove it. We are not trying for the Silver Propeller list, because it misses out too many great bits! To stay a bit on-topic, we have photos of us grounded in the shallows in the basin at Froghall, touching the stop planks on the next (disused) lock on the Uttoxeter canal, and also going up past the cafe until we grounded at the end of the arm. Someone came out of the cafe to tell us we were going the wrong way ... Going the other way up the Caldon we went right up to the feeder at Leek, well past the sign saying "Not navigable to boats over 45 feet." We were quite amused by this. It was blindingly obvious that nothing longer than a canoe has winded in the feeder pool for years! It took us about two hours to wind, because I didn't fancy reversing half a mile down a 5' wide channel with reeds both sides ...

At the moment and until March 2020, you can renew your boat licence through your club either using a paper based process or, if they have access to it, the new online system for boat clubs. For the 'old' paper based system, if you receive your invitation to renew by email you will first need to call CRT and ask for a paper renewal invitation to be sent to you in the post. You then complete and take it to your boat club, they will issue an acknowledgement form then send it off to CRT in the post. You can either pay by cheque or tick a card payment box. In the latter case, CRT subsequently telephone you for the card number. You will receive your 5% PPD and the club will receive their 5% commission. From April 2020, current information suggests that only boat clubs with access to the online system will be able to help you retain the 2 1/2% electronic payment discount. You will have to be present during the process to enter your card number to pay at the appropriate moment. This will get you the 2 1/2% PPD plus the 2 1/2% electronic payment discount, and the club will get their commission too. I have been told that the paper based process will still be available for clubs to use and I wonder if some boat club members will prefer to sacrifice their 2 1/2% to enable their club to continue to receive the 5%. Of course, in some cases loss of licence commission is going to hit boat clubs quite hard. CRT are currently organising training sessions for boat clubs on the new online system. In looking for suitable training locations, they found that some clubs do not have WIFI. I hope this advice is helpful for you and possibly others.

Don't let it get to you. There are people about who will yell at you to slow down whatever speed you are doing. They just like yelling at passing boaters, a bit like the way some dogs bark at anything. If you slam the boat into full astern, reverse back up to them and say 'sorry, what were you saying? I couldn't quite hear', they tend to say something else I have found on a couple of occasions.

If you are going to give advice, make sure it's comprehensive... You missed out "paint over any brasswork"!