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If it happened to you, you would certainly describe it thus. How else can you describe the removal of an old wooden boat from Cheshire to Gloucestershire against the express wishes of the court where it was allowed to sink in 18' of water? Certainly seems to fit the Theft Act 1968 to me - 'intention to permanently deprive' (are you familiar with this Act?) If you would prefer 'contempt of court' then ask Geoff respectfully to change it. Either way it's an illegal act by CRT and the destruction of his home, Geoff is perfectly entitled to get exercised by it. That he doesn't have your superior powers of articulation is no reason for your bullying derision.

Volunteer lock keepers sometimes get a bad press. Last week we took our historic camping narrow boat William to the IWA Festival of Water at Northampton. We had a great run down the flight with a volunteer lock keeper at virtually every lock. They were all fantastic, it was busy and they had it running smoothly, many thanks to everyone involved that day. Generally speaking, since volunteer lock keepers were introduced, my experience with volunteer lock keepers has been good. They are here to stay and this could be a good thing. At a recent seminar on the subject of volunteering, it was made clear that recruiting volunteers is not easy and it's already known that CRT haven't managed to recruit as many as they were hoping. We need to look after the volunteers we have. I appreciate that you do get the odd dud and there have been some unacceptable incidences but the key is education and feedback to CRT which should, in theory, help improve the standard of volunteering as time goes on.

Yes very clever , but like mayalid you are another who will derail a thread for no other reason than you don't agree with what is being said ,faced with truth fxxx it I will try derail or take off topic ,tactics I suspect you both use.

As you're persisting in your mistaken belief that you didn't get any further downriver and into the Ouse simply because you were too late on the ebb, I'll make yet another attempt to explain. The top picture is looking downriver towards Burton Stather Wharf with Waterton Light visible to the left of the picture. The lower picture is looking upriver at the house and poplar trees at Mere Dyke with the drying ness in the foreground . . . . precisely the same view, but in close-up, as the photo I included in Post #43. This puts the boat that the pictures were taken from between Waddington Light and Waterton Light on a line from Waddington Light to Burton Stather Wharf, and therefore some 150 yards away from the deep channel which is no more than 20 to 25 yards out from the stones along the Western bank between the two lights, until about 200 yards topside of Waterton Light from where it then cuts across a bit more than threequarters the width of the river to Solitary House Light, which is just off the right hand side of the picture showing the crane at Burton Stather. Some 150 yards North West of where you grounded/anchored there would still have been 10' - 12' at Low Water and a least depth at Low Water of around 4'- 5' in the channel as far as Flats Light, increasing a little until you have South Trent and Trent Ness Lights roughly abeam, and from there on increasing rapidly, at Low Water to 20'+ and then 30'+ from North Trent to Apex Lights. No matter how late you were leaving Gainsborough, if you had kept to the deep channel from Keadby to Trent End you would not have grounded or had to stop between Mere Dyke and Burton Stather, and could have waited for the flood in the Ouse with 10' to 20' of water under you near Boundary Light. The enforced stop was due entirely to the fact that you were so far out of the deep water channel, and not an error of timing, as you have convinced yourself was the cause. You were able to continue on your way after the tide turned without any frights or mishaps solely because they weren't exceptionally big tides at the time (9.2m on the Fish Dock Sill - 8.0m above CD at Hull) and only just at the very bottom of the range above which small aegres can begin to form further upriver. Also in your favour was the fact that you floated off and swung round as the tide turned, well before it started flowing at any significant rate. Had you been perched toward the outer, or downriver, side of that bared out ness behind you in the second photograph, and floated off after the tide had picked up some speed, you wouldn't have enjoyed it all quite so much. Whether the situation arose because you don't know the river sufficiently well to navigate without charts, or the charts you had were no good, or it came about because you mis-read whatever charts you had, is no concern of mine and is irrelevant in any event. What does matter is that if you wish to help others to prepare better and avoid making the same mistakes, you should recognize and accept that it wasn't yourselves, or your preparation and equipment that kept you and your boat out of trouble that day, it was good fortune and the Gods of the river and tides. Rather than portraying it to others on this Forum as an inconsequential non event, you would be doing other inexperienced boaters who may be tempted by the last few miles of the Trent, a really good turn by recognizing it for what it was, . . . . a lucky escape from a situation that could have ended very differently if, for example, the tide had been well above predicated height. It cannot be emphasized too much, that no cruiser or narrowboat should attempt the lower Trent on anything but neap tides unless they're 100% sure that they won't ground anywhere. Nobody, however experienced, prepared or well equipped they are should ever be foolish enough to think they can cope with whatever the Trent, Ouse or Humber may unexpectedly throw at them. All three of these rivers have on occasion caught out, or even killed, professional bargemen and seamen who've spent their working lives on them.

I prefer Dave's asset map to CaRT's.

http://xkcd.com/1357/ Hah.

I'm not trying to derail anything. My posts are actually relevant to the subject of people who feel that they have been wronged by CRT and can't get people to see it. Yours appear to be about me, and nothing to do with the thread subject. Remind me who is derailing the thread. If I were truly the CRT lackey that Geoff seems to think I am, then I wouldn't engage with Geoff, because as things stand, he hasn't a hope in hell of being heard. He isn't putting his case over effectively. Rather, despite his belicose and dismissive attitude, I am trying to say to him that he needs to distinguish opinion and facts, and then filter to the pertinent facts. His big problem is that he has so much that he is angry about and feels that he needs to say, that he isn't managing to distill it into something that will convince the reader.

Well surely if MJG is number one culprit in your opinion he is also being open about it otherwise how could you form your opinion , you accuse five people of behaviour in a rude , aggressive and patronising tone , get a life ,join a knitting circle.

Times move on Tony. We are not in the 1980's anymore.

If you've got mackerel swimming inside your boat you might want to track down the leak and fix it...

The write up from that trip to Leeds is here: http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=46195 As we are still alive and veru much enjoying our boating and our boat is still very much alive and Kicking and in one piece, I'm still not sure what point Dippy Dunkley is trying to make. ETA: Some pictures of our more recent trips down the Trent and Humber. All very enjoyable and passing without incident. No doubt Dunks will find something amiss in the following pictures. Perhaps Dunks is missing his trips down the Trent, which is why he feels the need to pick holes in everyone elses?

Well, if you have better things to do, then please don't let me stop you! However, if you account your continuing ramblings on your "conspiracy theory" website are "better things to do", I can only say that if the website makes you happier then it has some value. It hasn't a hope of achieving anything else. I am not a CRT apologist, and I have made official complaints several times, all eventually resolved satisfactorily. Why do I get a good outcome and you don't. Tell me what the conspiracy theory is there! Neither am I in the camp that says that CRT is entirely bad and everything they do is wrong. I have offered no recent theory about why "people" in general complain about CRT. And finally, yes I am a "management type" (actually, I'm an IT analyst with additional management responsibilities) who doesn't live on a boat. It is interesting that your prejudice against me on these grounds seems so acceptable to you, yet if I were to dismiss the view of somebody just because he lived on a boat and was in a manual occupation, you would be screaming blue murder. Standards are such a wonderful thing that you decided to have them double?

We are moored at Castle Gardens Leicester. Each night at about the same time, just after midnight out they come. The intoxicated extended chested student male. Closely followed by the easily impressed gigglybird. Their call is on maximum to attract as much attention as possible. They have a preference to climb man made obstructions to allow them access to the quieter reaches of Castle Park Nature Reserve where they spend the next 80 minutes or so, performing a ritual similar to that of the juvenile lessedukatied thrush in mating season. Upon cessation of this behaviour off they go, once again conquering the obstructions, ensure maximum exposure of whereabouts. Peace returns to the nest of the marinerclan speices who hope they will find more suitable nesting areas when they migrate further north for the winter.

I prefer to leave the pawls off, to indicate that the paddle is fully dropped ( at least on the bottom gates of narrow locks, where possible ). Leaving windlasses on a part or fully raised paddle is folly...I recall a twelve year old lad with a few lost teeth and a bloody mouth when the paddle dropped unexpectedly on a lock on the Staffs and Worcs many years ago....those who taught me had a modicum of common sense, little to do with the current safety 'elf....neither do I regularly use the centre line to moor, an all too common feature of boating these days. The more I see of the modern mindset, the less bothered I am about being out and about on the water. Dave

Have a try on this post to test. Press the little 'up' arrow in the green square over there (and down a bit) --------------------------------------------------->>

I think the point is that pointless arguing, bickering and insults is engrossing and entertaining for those taking part. For those not taking part it is tedious, boring and any useful debate within a thread tends to get lost. Dan and the team of mods want to make the forum an interesting place to visit, not a place where one has to wade through interpersonal strife in order to find something one actually wants to read. That is their prerogative (it is their "train set") and so it's a case of like it or lump it.