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I notice there is an advert in "Towpath" for Barry Hawkins. It looks like he is building boats again. Have a care if you are planning on having a boat built by this company. I had a contract with them to build a hull for my boat "Hasty" but a few months before the build was due to start I discovered that they had gone into liquidation. After 1/2 hour of ringing the bell at their premises Tim Hawkins answered the door to tell me the bad news. He told me that he would return my £500 deposit with his usual reassuring manner but in fact that was the last I ever heard from him. A subsiquent investigation by an insolvency lawyer revealed that during the period from when he had accepted my contract and deposit, and the promised build date, he had in fact liquidated the company twice but in neither liquidation had he disclosed our contract to his insolvency practitioners. To be fair, now I look back on it and knowing what I know now, he was doing me a favour because, in the end my boat was built by a real boat builder who was not only competant but honest and trustworthy unlike Barry Hawkins. It's difficult in a narrowboat but you should give him a wide birth

I came out of the shower once on Warrior while we were in the Blisworth tunnel and just went and stood in the front hatches. The air felt lovely and soft, cool but not chilly, velvety... For the first time I could understand why naturists do what they do. We do get terribly hung up about bodies, and it's so deeply ingrained - but almost totally arbitrary - what can be shown and what must be covered up varies so much between different cultures. I don't have the nerve to do it myself but I certainly don't find nudity offensive; explicitly sexual ways of dressing are far more disturbing/threatening.

...says a man posting on Canal World Discussion Forum

Its a bit chicken and egg I think. If we weren't so hung up about the naked form then our kids would grow up with less hang ups and so on. Personally I would challenge the mind that constantly confuses nudity with sex.

Indeed, bathing in the canal sounds like a vile idea! I don't know why people get so hung up about nudity, it's a very Victorian view. It's just a body! But then from a completely opposite angle, there's a fine line between personal nudity, and exhibitionism. I tend to feel that in UK culture where being dressed in public is generally considered to be the way to go, people going about nude in any place where there is a reasonable expectation of them coming across other people in public are possibly more exhibitionistic than naturalistic.

Have I have never felt that BW saw CCers as the enemy in fact I have always found BW very helpful whenever I have contacted them with a CCing related question such as "is it ok if I overstay for a few days because I have a problem" I think a bigger problem is that boaters see BW as the enemy............ not quite sure how unions have ruined this country but can leave that for another day.

Just as a matter of interest, Tom, you say you registered the US Domain name "canalandrivertrust.org", in order to make BW/CART look stupid. As I have just registered the UK domain name "narrowboatworld.org.uk"....How stupid does that make you?

Some effort has just been expended putting up "Winter Mooring" signs on a stretch of Grand Union towpath in Berkhamsted. I know they only need to stay there until march, but I'm not optimistic of their longevity..... Whilst someone has at least decided to laminate them, they have also then decided to punch holes through the lamination to let the water get to the paper inside.....