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Showing content with the highest reputation on 26/02/19 in all areas

  1. Is it just curmudgeonly me or are there others around who are a bit tired of hearing the bleat of folk who just don't want to pay their way and think that the canal and river system is a free to all funfair? I think I am not alone.
    10 points
  2. Wide beam narrowboats are shyte if you want a boat with width get something decent like a copy if a L&L shortboat or a decent copy of an English barge. Not something that handles like a pig and isn't suitable to move down any canal. IMO anyone selling a house to move onto a big boat in their late 50's early 60's needs their head examining as its a daft thing to do. I started moving back onto land at 60 as I realised that one day I would not be able handle 61'x11'6" 35ton barge on my own, 60ft narrowboat yes but not Parglena. Seven years later I'm still on and off the narrow boat and I can still deal with it, but then I have for the last 25 years had a home mooring so don't have to move every 14 days I also have a lifetime of boating experience behind me. Starting as a CC liveaboard late in life is stupid! Yes I'm being harsh but I'm telling the truth.
    4 points
  3. Absolute horseshite, I managed to do it for 5 years, both in the Midlands and also based in London. I then became self employed and CC-'d(for 4 years), only this year having to take a mooring due to various family issues. My London range was Leighton Buzzard to Hertford/Bishop Stortford and my Midlands range was Fradley/Leicester Ring/GU down to Dayton and up to Stockton. Sometimes challenging, always rewarding.
    4 points
  4. That's an interesting point. However I am not sure it is directly relevant here because the question wasn't whether the OP should move into a boat or not. It implied he had already done that or at least had already made that decision. There is only one absolute requirement on any boater and that it is to comply with the law. I note three early constructive responses to this thread from people I know to be active, long standing boaters and genuine advocates of the canals. Between them they also cover off most of the stereotypes we assign to various groups on here and outside of canals may have little in common. So forget about keeping CRT happy, let's put the OP in the pub with those three folk and see if he can convince them he can objectively read and apply the law regarding mooring and movement to their satisfaction. That would be a far better test. I guarantee if he can do that they won't give a stuff about what he does outside of that requirement. It really doesn't matter if you are retired and have a highly polished non-traditionally signwritten £100k boat on a marina mooring that only comes out on sunny bank holidays, or if you have a £20k Springer in grey undercoat tied to the bank in the middle of nowhere and have a job to go to. Neither has much basis in history but both are part of the fabric of today's canals. JP
    4 points
  5. Just a note to the OP. Referring to those getting involved in the discussion, even if they seem to be getting frustrated, as the "angry mob" doesn't actually help in making you look like someone wanting to uncover facts rather than just looking to stir up a fight.
    4 points
  6. CC'ing and having a permanent job are really mutually exclusive. You need to find a home mooring. You will mess it up for the rest of us. Home moorings are easy to find but will cost you. Living on a boat is not cheap.
    4 points
  7. Surely the big question (and this applies to many people) is - Are you interested in canals and boats, or are you just looking for a cheap home? If the latter then you could buy an old bus and forget the waterways.
    3 points
  8. This is the strangest thread so far this year. They can buy a low maintenance flat: I have one for sale. It will cost less than a boat per annum. "Universal Credit" is not something I can "claim", nor would I want to, nor would I sell a house and trot down to a food bank, I occasionally contribute to the food bank, it's not for people who are just a bit tired of living in a house. The government want folks to work till they are sixty-eight, that is 'cos they consider there are too many people scrounging off the state rather than working for a living. I think they have a point.
    3 points
  9. And if you are successful in proving that mooring providers do not have the right to charge for moorings, and therefore the implied right to enforce those charges, what will it acheive? Prudent riparian landowners/ councils included, will not provide any sort of facilities to incur the capital costs, the costs of maintaining, insuring and inspecting a facility up to public use standards, and potential HS & E liabilities. Prudent land owners will just errect Trespassers Prosecuted or similar signs to mitigate any liability issues in case of misadventure. Is that really the outcome you want? If so I think you will be doing the majority of boaters, who don't mind paying a fair charge for using a facility, a huge disservice.
    3 points
  10. I mostly live on the L&L, and I think a 60x12 is the perfect size for this canal and the rivers. The canal from Wigan to Leeds was built for 62x14 short boats, but lock gates sticking make that size hard work ... Ask @DRP how hard work it can be. It's too wide for the narrow bit of the Rochdale and it's too long for a widebeam to do the Calder & Hebble.
    3 points
  11. Why are they buying a boat? If it is to live on then a widebeam is good. If it is to navigate rivers and wide canals then a widebeam is good. If it is to navigate on normal canals and get from the south to the north then a widebeam is NOT the answer. They will not go north to south or south to north. It is too narrow. YOu will not get from London to the LL on a widebeam without coastal sailing. A lot of the so called wide canals are just not wide enough. I would advise them buying a proper boat first ...ie one that is fitted out. They will not be able to make decisions on the fit out as they will not know. I would advise buying a 2nd hand boat as it will have far less problems than a new boat. Yes, we bought a £140K new boat and the snagging list took 3 years to sort out, and that was never done properly. Buy a used boat then if your not happy buy a new one after a few years when you know what is needed.
    3 points
  12. What's wrong with getting yourself a mooring which gives you the the ability to travel to work that you require?
    3 points
  13. Generally anyone who asks "how can I do the minimum to keep C&RT happy" will end up in trouble.
    3 points
  14. A lovely cruise in glorious weather from torksey to Cromwell not a boat in sight
    2 points
  15. It was obviously a £5 full sesion
    2 points
  16. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  17. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  18. Agreed. There is however no pleasing some folk and they would never be happy whoever was in charge.
    2 points
  19. How would you ever know ??
    2 points
  20. What it will cost you to keep chasing your boat with public transport and your car would pay for a mooring. Having a permanent work location and CCing is not in the spirit of your licence to be on the canals. You will fall foul of the regulations at some point and it will serve you right for being such a .......................................
    2 points
  21. fixed place of work but want to 'continually cruise'. oh dear ......................
    2 points
  22. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  23. Self raising flour and water with a pinch of salt. Mix to any consistency and drop spoonfuls into hot fat in a frying pan. Turn once. Variations include adding herbs/tomato sauce or any other flavouring. Pufties fed many a canal camp
    1 point
  24. No one in their right mind would class a sewer-tube as a "proper boat".
    1 point
  25. Well, not quite. He was still Stephen back in 1975. He went to Westbury school (I think) but was mates with a group of lads in the year below me at Barking Abbey. The Britannia was our pub of choice on a Friday night. (You might think we were under age drinkers but I couldn't possibly comment) They formed a band called Riff Raff, releasing a single called 'Romford Girls'. Later they became Riff Raff and Billy Bragg. I lost touch when I went to university but seem to remember something about them moving to somewhere near Northampton and featuring on 'That's Life' when a farmer dumped a load of manure outside the cottage where they were all living. This was inthe bad old days when few pubs sold cask beer. The choice in Barking was Charrington's Crown and IPA in the Victoria or the Bull, or Young's Special in the Brit. I never really liked the Special. I know memory plays tricks over the years, and that it is no longer brewed at Wandsworth, but I'm convinced the Young's Special of today tastes nothing like the Young's Special of then.
    1 point
  26. No, but some reading this thread won't have that experience!
    1 point
  27. Does the dog pull the ropes in or hammer in the mooring Pins? However, Bow Thrusts are nothing to do with steering. Howard
    1 point
  28. Sign outside the Tom o' the Wood at Rowington on the GU: Dogs welcome. Children must be kept on a lead. People tolerated. (I would just add that the Tom o' the Wood is not a pub to be avoided)
    1 point
  29. I think he’s a bit happier across the road these days.
    1 point
  30. Ta, I looked twice and still missed it.
    1 point
  31. He may float yours but he doesn't float mine.
    1 point
  32. Please ensure your daughter does A LOT of research into living aboard a narrowboat. London is the last place on Earth to be moving to on a boat anyway and is so congested and getting worse that she has much to learn. It is an expensive way to live unless the intention is to be like a caveman. Please dont take this as deliberately negative it is meant to be helpful.
    1 point
  33. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  34. Yes I know they don't always get it right but to listen to some folk it sounds as if they always gets it wrong. Haggis
    1 point
  35. It did. I apologised politely and shuffled over to the towpath, which I had hoped to avoid as it was largely paved with evidence of dog.
    1 point
  36. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  37. You are not alone as the saying goes. This is a Grade A class 1 extracting the urine attitude displayed by the OP. I am not suprised as in life I have generaly found the minority spoil things for the majority of us.
    1 point
  38. No, No, and NO again. Unless the controller manual specifically says you can do this DO NOT. The basic rule is NEVER have the panels connected to the controller without the batteries. Connect the batteries first, then the controller. So by all means disconnect the panels (one wire will probably do) and then the batteries and replace battery cable first then controller but never just disconnect the panels. If you do you may find the controller decides that you are running a 24 volt system and then 12V batteries will get very upset.
    1 point
  39. Ther is no point in arguing with Athy. He does what he does well, well.
    1 point
  40. I agree. If any of us mere mortals make a mistake in a post, and it gets quoted, we have to live with it, (as indeed we do in the original post, if we don't notice it within an hour of making it). A mod should't use their privilege to change somebody's posts to correct their own error IMO. In your world maybe, but I agree with Dr Bob, and I suspect others would as well.
    1 point
  41. This thread is now over 24 hrs old with only 5 responses. That's almost a record for some one asking a sensible question. Actually I think it represents the view that there are very few bad pubs. I love most pubs as living in Scotland for twenty years really taught me how bad pubs can be (apart from the Bothy in Fort Augustus and the Bothy in Kirkwall).
    1 point
  42. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  43. A but more traditional decoration by Dave
    1 point
  44. Its been a naff week or so here on and off the boat. Myself had serious toothache and had it ripped out and still suffering a week after. Off a few days last week with it and as it was nice annoyed me as i couldnt concentrate to do work on the boat. Feel a bit better today and back to work this morning . What has been done over the last few weeks, well got the engine fitted and working, but i bought remote to short by a foot so waste of £40 , what a plonker, the steering cable is good as i had to soak it in air tool oil to loosen it up. well fine again. when i could was a cock up with the canopy patterns. I first used thick 800grm polythene sheet for the pattern material, as seen on the trailer, for that a it was ok but on the boat, not so good as to stiff so i got some 350grm, good thickness but it stretches to much easily. So i have ordered some proper pattern material, Fibretex and all the Lift The Dot fittings. Well think i have . Also some more basting tape as near ran out faffing with it. What else, oh yes and i think i will be getting more zips to remove all the sides so then i can have just the top section inplace if we want. Still on the canopy i mentioned that the rear section i wanted to be fixed to a vertical surface, and if you look back it was at around 45 deg. Now it is 90 deg after i laminated inplace the sections i made a few week back. Filled the ends with a filler i made from chopped up CSM and poly resin. Just mix the resin as normal and then add the CSM cuttings and mix in, it will show how fast the binder breaks down. So just slap it in the hole let set then sand back. In above pic you can see i filled it with expanding foam to get a back to fill to. Now for now that is that untill the Fibretex arrives, tomorrow i hope form what they charge for postage., dam shocking. One job i just could not decide on was what to do with he hatch opening. This weekend i decided to just try this idea instead of trimming it with hardwood. One thing i did wrong is forget to wet the inside of the tunnels that i made from polythene and masking tape to help it set, not easy though if i did to get water to stay on polythene. But it worked out just about as in the end i cut a few slashes in the polythene to let air get in. I need to trim it more as just did it tonight when i got home to see if it had all set. few large air pockets but no problem, this is with filling to much and not dampening the `mould` Fill with expanding foam. not to much as you can see i got carried away. Trimmed back a little, need to do a lot more as the hatch bolt need access points and then laminating up. So plan is to get the canopy made and get the boat sanded and painted is the priority along with fitting the linings and upholstery. If all that is done with a few other little bits like outboard mount and this and that it will be launched May 18th..............dont hold your breath. Captain Faffer :):)
    1 point
  45. Cant be.... MrSmelly tells it like it is....or perhaps thats just a Yorkshire thing...
    1 point
  46. My total 'tankage' is 2800 litres, so a 'half-fill' is about £1000. When we had the Fairline we would often have to get road tankers to come down to the harbour wall as the local 'sailing club' didn't have enough to 'spare' us 1000 litres. At 1.25 miles to the gallon we got thru a fair bit of diesel when we were touring around the Irish Sea & the West Coast of Scotland. We used to 'pop-over' to Dublin for the weekend (60 miles each way) - it would actually have been cheaper on the Ferry but not so much fun.
    1 point
  47. I am well aware of your interest in what you consider to be the legal situation which is why I asked the question you are unprepared/unable to answer. The council have the legal right to charge, in the absence of a water equivalent to the DVLA how do you propose they get the information required for enforcement. Being so keen on everything being done legally you will of course have considered how they can do this. Unless of course your nit picking attitude to doing things within the law only surfaces as a vehicle to try to knock CRT. So go on prove you aren't only trying to knock CRT and make a suggestion.
    1 point
  48. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  49. Thats what Michael Fish thought!!
    1 point
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