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But this is the whole point. CRT’s aim in all this is to get the government to continue the £50 million a year grant, by making the case that the money produces ‘wellbeing’ worth a lot more. It’s not about getting individual walkers or runners to pay anything. It is possible to do two different things at the same time — focus on wellbeing for the general population, and do all the boaty things as well. I haven’t seen any suggestion that spending on things like winter works or dredging will be reduced.

I have a much better idea for a new logo. Simple and attractive. They wouldn't even have to replace all the signs.

Two narrow boats have the option to move as a breasted pair or not, and the general congestion on the canal down here now, coupled with lack of dredging and often low pounds mean that most of the time we travel as two separate narrow boats. However we can elect to breast up at appropriate places, typically where two or more locks are close together, and you can see what you will be needing to pass. A 12' 6" wide brick has no such option and can only travel as a 12' 6" wide brick, wherever it goes. A problem now is that 12'6 wide bricks are regularly coming to places where another 12' 6" wide brick is coming the other way, and maybe where another 12' 6" wide brick has elected to tie up on a stretch of tow-path where there are masses of trees on the overhanging side. I'm pretty certain you know very little about the GU South of Tring summit, but (other than amongst wide beam owners of course) the non stop march of more and more wide-beams is now considered one of the major problems affecting a canal that rarely hosted wide boats, and, when it did, they would not have been tied up at random places all along it. And 95% of the time we will be.

That is the new CRT Head of Complaints

I have just seen a photo on facebook of CaRT taking down a large sign outside a boaters service block and replacing it with an almost identical sign in Blue and White rather than black and white. This makes me so sad and angry. I see many things wrong with this This is a reckless waste of money, some of which comes from taxation and donations. This rebranding is going to cost a fortune which should be spent on better things. CaRT are obviously not telling the truth about its true cost, and when they say the new logo will only appear when things need changing. The canals have a very strong black and white "brand" so changing it is just daft, I assume (and desperately hope) that they do do not plan to paint the locks blue. How on earth can changing a sign outside a boaters facility help more people donate money to the canals or even visit them. This is plain corporate madness. Not sure if I am allowed to re-post photos from facebook. ..................Dave

No it's got teeth.

OK folks - scrap that I just got an offer I can't refuse - these are now sold

That's true, rather like 'chalk 'n' cheese' - boaters tend to be practical (I wanted to say 'grounded' but thought this might get misconstrued ?) while marketing bods (aka 'flower arrangers') tend to live in a world that can seemingly be surreal. I wish CRT success with their rebranding for all our sake, just wish within their 'marketing hype' they'd have mentioned boaters more, not least because boaters are over 20% of their revenue (can't remember the exact percentage). Boats are an attraction for walkers, we get waved at, photographed, and pointed at. Perhaps it would have been better (somehow) to have involved boaters more, getting boaters on the side of CRT.

To be fair, the notion that waterways engender wellbeing is pretty much disproven by this current episode. Given that a simple circle logo has led to so many of the canals' most avid users frothing at the mouth, I think you could make a strong case that waterways are bad for your mental health...

We hired from them, so proof your statement is false ?

Lime Kiln Lock (#23W) is one challenging baby! Plus we had about 50 Gongoozlers watching us trying to 'bend' our boat to enter the lock. The lock was created first, and the Saddleworth viaduct built after. Beautiful scenery!

There are plenty moorings on the right hand side travelling upstream above County lock. It is an urban area with a bit of flow, so if you do use them, then chain the boat to the rings.

Maybe it’s on its way to Reading to sort out anyone trying to moor outside Tesco’s.

The people CRT are really talking to with all this are the government. When CRT was established, the funding settlement was for ten years. The most important thing on CRT’s agenda, in my view, is getting that extended. Without the £50million a year grant, things will look very bleak. If you’re trying to convince the government to continue to put £50million a year into the canals, you could make the argument that it’s needed to subsidise the 30,000 or so people who have boats. Or you could say that x million people make use of the canals, and that the ‘well-being’ that results is worth x million (or billion, even). The first argument has no chance; the second argument has some chance. I really think that people who want the sole focus of CRT to be on boaters, and who don’t want more people using the towpaths, are being very shortsighted and are shooting themselves in the foot. Without that grant, we’ll either have to pay several times more or there will be huge cuts in maintenance. The one who was at Foxton this morning came over to chat — and in the course of conversation said that most boaters he encounters are just rude. He was a pleasant guy, just doing his job, who said he’d signed up 360 friends — and yet boaters are rude to him.

How is your sense of wellbeing getting on????

Surely the stem post would have been worth saving complete? Looks drastic.

Firefly is still on the North Stratford, I am going to load supplies shortly and we will be heading into Birmingham tomorrow morning. Will anyone be around the centre of Birmingham tomorrow evening? As I mentioned before it is just the two of us as crew this year, and Sally is a bit broken as of last week, so mostly will just be making tea, leaving me to deal with the boat. Consequently we are not going to be doing our planned competitive route, and will be just doing it for fun (not that it is not always fun!) this year.

I'm not sure that doing locks before the start is a good tactic. Surely you get to the start point on Friday, have a bit of a lie-in, then get up and go with breakfast on the move?

Thanks. So £150-200 as a day rate should cover it for me then. Given the size difference in boats and less flooring space to cover in mine, I don't know whether ballast will have to be removed. I'll take advice from whoever I get to fit it.

that That ? What's the salary? Oops too late - story of my life (in case you would accept auto-biographer in residence instead.

You are so right! Sadly, the British Dyslexia Association is less well known than CRT, and doesn't get any government funding. Dyslexia has a significant negative impact on the lives of 4% of the population and to a lesser degree up to 20%. One might have expected hoped that, in seeking to promote 'wellness', the design company would have thought about the needs of people who are likely to experience more stress than others in every day life. It's not as if that information is hard to find - the BDA has a special guidance leaflet about how to design in an inclusive way. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/21-27-may-2018/designing-dyslexia-style-guide-make-reading-easy-everyone/ And I have formatted the text above to show how simple changes make reading easier.

You don't get any bonus points for that route.

Its taken me a few weeks to remember the old adage - 'any publicity is good publicity'. So given that there are very very few positive comments about the new logo on any of the 4 or 5 threads so far started on here, then perhaps the marketing bods had this conversation - 'Flipping Ada, its just hit me' 'I'm listening' 'All we need do is upset as many people who actually know who CRT are as possible, then they'll tell all their friends how rubbish we are, and they'll pass this on..... PRETTY SOON EVERYONE IN THE COUNTRY WILL KNOW WHO WE ARE' 'Didn't we try that when we bought that massive consignment of spikes and red netting from China?' 'Nah, that was location specific - we need something that's really gonna rile them all the time' 'Like a new Logo?' 'Brilliant! Any ideas? ' well something based on ying and yang so definitely needs to be black and white' 'OK print off a black circle with a thick line' 'Done - oh crikey my weekly b/w printing allowance has run out - I'll go for blue..... oh S***, blues running out too, halfway through' Sometime later.... important head office guy reaches for a scrap of paper ....... 'HEY GUYS - LOVING YOUR WORK!!!!'

He was trying to get ahead of his personal rain shower

Is it our very own Athy?

It’s a Tug-ranosaurus Rex.

Bukh at least I tried! ?

Quite right, my mistake!?

Nick Norman admits he's wrong bout something?