Leaderboard

Yes. But then you're not looking at a woman who is bothered about points. I'm looking forward to a paddle round my favourite bit of the BCN and a chat with my mates and anyone else who is friendly. Who really cares if the starting point is miles away and we score very few points? Nobody remembers the points, just what a blast we had, mucking about on the water.

I dont quite understand all this crap about, ooh he's a hire boater, ooh he's a private boater, ooh he's a liveaboard, ooh he's a CCer, ooh he's a marina dweller. Loads of people are too quick with their labels. An arsehole is an arsehole, simple as that.

We gently cruise pass moored boats so as not to disturb or disrupt. But, sitting here in the middle of the countryside, the boats are hammering by, no sign of slowing down at all! All private boats. I have just yelled at one as we were catapulted back and forward. They were most indignant, so am I!

If everyone who gets passed by a speeding boat this summer starts a thread on the forum this is going to get very tedius.... Perhaps we could have one thread and everyone who thinks they are going to achieve something by moaning on the forum about speeding boats could post in one place?

Slowing down is important and I do, but a HUGE number of people don't tie up properly. As I pass them 20 tons of water has to go from in front of me to behind me. If they are secured to the tops of two knitting pins pushed half into the bank and the ropes are slack then their boat WILL move forwards, backwards, and forwards again as I pass and yank at the pins as the ropes come tight. Unsurprisingly that can only happen a few time before the pins lose what little grip they had and come loose. N

I'm a hire boater as well as borrowing friend's boats occasionally and I'm happy to say we've only come across that sort of attitude on a very few occasions. I've also done a couple of seasons working for a hire boat company doing handovers for new guests, so I've seen both sides. Apart from one occasion with a crew who just didn't want to listen, nearly all our guests were well prepared, well read and bursting with enthusiasm. They soaked up all the information, asked questions constantly and it was a pleasure to meet them. I rather miss my handover job! It's the only job I've had that never felt like work! So sad when someone treats hire boaters like that. As Water Rat said...they've been hiring for thirty years...they've probably travelled more than most owner boaters. We've only been hiring for twelve years or so, but we've put an awful lot of miles under our belt in that time, including a month long cruise from the Midlands to the Thames and back and a fabulous trip on the Ribble Link from the Lancaster Canal to the Leeds and Liverpool. In my opinion and experience, hire boaters are desperate to get it right. They've paid a small fortune for their week or two and they want to get the most out of it without appearing like amateurs. They are also usually willing to listen and take advice - a far cry from some boat owners I've come across! Luckily the crotchety types are few and far between...most boaters simply want to enjoy the waterways and pass on their knowledge and enthusiasm. I'm proud to be a hire boater...I doubt we would have covered half the mileage we have if we'd had our own boat! Lovely to hear about the day at Foxton, but it begs the question why did they have zero knowledge? Did they not have some tuition before they took the boat? Saying that, I wouldn't like to tackle Foxton without a bit of knowledge! Janet

Had a quick google for you on 1/2inch unf bolt, liverpool and ended up on a forum where a likely local source of bolts was given. so as your in Merseyside hope its local to you and able to get what you need. Express Tool & Fasteners Ltd 20-30 Derby Road Liverpool Merseyside L20 1AB

You've got the right idea Wrigglefingers!! Well done. The whole point of this Challenge is exactly that ...... to enjoy yourselves travelling around as much of the BCN as you can. I hope you have a great time and I wish you not much rubbish on your prop!!

Its not Whiworth or UNC. I very much doubt its metric so that leaves BSF of UNF. Now, this may well be complete ollox but if you look at the head and it has a sort of indented disk shape in the middle I seem to remember it identified it as a UNF thread. Edited to add - or is it a little raised lines at the outside of three radii? Stop messing about with online, go to your long established local garaged that deals with all makes and ask them to try a known nut for you. You may even get the bolt for 50p. Many hardware shops would do the same for you. I think the female thread may well also be damaged so how long a new bolt will hold is open to question.

Hi, Imranino, I asked just about every silly question it was possible to ask here: http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=60921&page=1 And here: http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=63670&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1 And here: http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=63572&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1 This was also useful: http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=59046&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1 And of course, as Smiley Pete mentioned, his links are an excellent resource! Good luck!

Double/treble or whatever will make no difference until such time as firstly the enforcement officers fully understand the law/guidance and are then consistent throughout the system. CRT as has been said need to start seeing boaters as customers and not the enemy. As for do CRT want to engage with boaters? I think the answer is yes if they can get some good PR but no if it actually means they have to act on what their customers are requesting. We have here an organisation that loves to have meetings the more meetings the better. Hate to bring up the subject of RMP again but it is such a classic example. 18 months of meetings with CRT at senior level including one Trustee (I have lost count of the number of meetings) at every stage we were assured that they were perfectly legal so one would assume lots of meetings in Milton Keynes with the legal department then about 3 weeks before they are due to be introduced it turns out they are not legal, Ok fine so be it but 18 months to decide they are not legal??? Even a simple meeting that a group of boaters without a home mooring on the G&S requested with enforcement to discuss the guidance was turned down on the basis that it would be illegal for CRT to give advice direct to boaters on their own guidance. As some might know I was very excited when CRT took over from BW I really thought it was the start of a new era and threw myself into a process of engaging with CRT working with them in the spirit of partnership I now sit back and realise that I wasted my time and the organisation just does not want or is unable to change. Boaters have not engaged with CRT on becoming "Friends" because who wants to be "Friends" with an organisation that does not want to be their "Friend"

Sinks should always be gravity drained IMO. Those sump boxes are horrible things that end up filling with debris and need regular cleaning.

In a lock like that, how do you ensure that your fenders are against the sticky-out bits of wall, and not where the sticky-in bits are?

Doesn't look like a pillock whilst cruising? MtB

Sadly we are full to bursting (I'm sleeping on the roof, but I have put a shout out for you on the BCN Challenge Twitter feed for you and a few people have re-Tweeted it. Fingers crossed for you.

. But you are not me and I am not you and this is a public forum were our different opinions make it worth logging on ,as you are a lady I won't resort to calling you names like knob head so if you have something of worth to say please try not to get into playground name calling it,s not at all ladylike . I am referring to the person having never had any dealings with the boat it would be hard to fall out with it, but having witnessed the persons nasty attitude towards anyone he deems inferior to himself on this forum I find it very easy to dislike the person

People are much the same everywhere, individual Wigan kids are no more evil than kids anywhere. Apart from a few psychopaths, kids don't wake up in the morning thinking "I'm going to make someone's life a misery today", they just want to hang around with their mates and do what their mates do. To them, they are acting normally. The problem is that in some areas it has become 'normal' to mess about with lock gear and to see narrowboaters as outsiders. In other areas, boats are seen all the time, and are just part of the neighbourhood. Changing a culture is not easy, but we should all try. Leicester has a bad rep. Going through a lock we felt a bit worried by three 'dodgy' looky older teenagers hanging around. At first we were studiously ignoring them, and they us. But I took an opportunity to nod and say "howdo". Straight away they were asking all sorts of questions and seemed genuinely interested. No doubt up to that point they'd been as suspicious of us ('them snobby gets on boats', probably) as we'd been of them. I think there's just a chance that if those lads were with other mates who were talking about 'snobby boaters', they might just stick up for us in a small way ('they're not all bad') and just make it a bit less likely that the gang would decide to spend the day chucking stones at boats, or whatever.

I saw the boat involved this morning there was nothing on the roof, it was an extremely tidy and well cared for boat. Perhaps we should wait for the inevitable investigation to be completed and an official announcement made.

Well i can almost certainly Guarantee, if I was anywhere near a Lightning Strike for real, There would be an almost simultaneous Lightening of my Bowel !

It may be a hire boat but I would of thought a hire company would want to make a better impression of its fleet. After all you only get one chance to make a first impression. Many years ago before Chugalong took over Middlewhich boats we hired Willow for two weeks and it was an absolute shambles both inside and out so much so we curtailed our holiday after 24 hours, but never got any recompense. (Another thread a long time ago if anyone cares to search). So from my perspective if a boat has been neglected outside the chances are it will be on the inside as well. I don't know if any of the nay sayers have ever hired a boat but at over £1,000 a week in many cases now, I would expect something reasonable.

Absolutely Correct, But if you read Posts like I think 2, 17and 38 I've used SPo when Harbour Navigation Restrictions have been in place,or Bad weather forces me to stay put. These Pumpout Vs Cassette Arguments/Debates are completely new to me, I've never come across such a devide before. If someone misuses a facility,penalize that individual, not everyone else. If a person drives off from a garage without paying for his Petrol,you don't tar all the other Petrol vehicle users with the same brush, & then only cater for Diesel vehicles !. And just a note, In this Very Marina about 6 month ago there was a Cassette user that dropped his cassette whilst emptying one evening,breaking off the nozzle,spilling it's contents all over the floor, just like the pictures posted earlier, luckily this event was captured on the marinas CCTV and was delt with the following day. So should they now ban all cassette users.

weve had people fishing today..long daft poles that reach rite accross the canal to our boat....i suggested today that the fella oposite us came round and sat on our deck with a very short rod and id make him a brew..he was less than polite with his response.....to my serprise he was even less greatful when i ran my engine in gear to help push the fish toward his hook.........