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Very pleased with that result. Thanks to @Rob-M for organising and captaining the team, to first officer Andrew for his expertise and our other crew member Steve. We completed a circular route to and from Icknield Port which required us to boat 13 hours on Friday to get to Walsall via Wolverhampton. As it turned out we had all our problems on the Friday and had a good run on the Challenge itself. Our Challenge route starting at Walsall Junction was;- Walsall Town Arm and return - Grove Colliery Basins - Anglesey Basin - Manor Arms (1 hour stop) - Perry Barr (5 hour stop) - Salford Jn - Old Turn Jn. We arrived with an hour to spare. Nice to only have a half hour cruise back to base following the Challenge for a change. Some photos I took below.

Try via the weed hatch first, if no joy, give me a call and I will pop over with dry suit and jump in the oggin for you. i will pm my number. simon.

The Noodle was finally delivered last night. I would like to say The Biscuits was really happy about receiving his noodle but he told me he has tried one before and doesn't like them very much so we were unsure what he might do with such a famous and well traveled noodle He certainly doesn't look too happy in the presentation photo but perhaps The Duck is nagging in his ear about not being into bondage? Then some beer was consumed and little Bob (aged 2) wanted to play with The Duck but The Duck didn't want to be played with and so Little Bob decided to play with a noodle and in the swiftest moment you could ever comprehend little Bob had whipped off the top of the noodle and tipped the contents on the picnic bench We threw some noodles to a pigeon that came close by and it promptly flew off never to be seen again!

most hire boaters have been doing this for years, and most are more able then we live aboards .

The collective noun is "a marina" of kingfishers, surely?

Visitor Moorings at Weymouth

This is true. Many boat owners polish the Brass and go out for our five weekends and a couple of weeks at best each year. There are also some who dont even visit their boat each year, others of course do use them more often. In my not limited experience, without any shadow of a doubt there are far more private boat owners who tear on past my mooring than hire boaters do.

Well we spent an inordinate amount of time late Saturday 'cause we got lost, in Ma Pardoes. Without the duck it was impossible to know which way to go when we got back to the boat, so we had a sleep and woke up late morning. We thought the duck may have returned to Ma Pardoes to meet us but he wasn't there. We waited a while and got confused again. Mrs Bob really liked the Black Country Gin. Number 3 was also a good pint. We've now just got back to the boat. Did Mrs May win? Is the duck coming home?

Tut, tut - to some extent 'we're' all responsible as prudent users to use antique equipment sensible. I do find it extremely irritating that these monuments of the 1930s poo works technology are not maintained properly / reasonably. All it needs is to maintain the grease reservoirs.. In the meantime I have invested in stout pair(s) of welding gloves, so that I can grip the oversized spindles as the paddles descend slowly into the Depth of Hades on the Hatton (and other lock flights). I commend this technique to The House.

Antifoul is toxic, not to much problem in the open sea but not the best idea for still enclosed waters

No this isn't a thread on moaning about hire boaters - probably just the opposite ? Looks like we've fallen into a sort of game as we cruise along, where hire boaters are loosely being scored on how well they're doing - sorry can't help it. There are happy boaters who look to be having a fabulous time, and there are other boaters who are scared stiff of doing something wrong, they don't seem to be enjoying their experience too much. So far, it looks like the Ashby Boat Co, Roses, Napton and Black Prince holiday makers are having the 'better' time. Which leads us to think, is it the training they are given? Do their customers receive a good MP3 video (or something) on how to approach different tasks? It looks like they are being prepared better, ie slowing down while passing moored boats, not leaving paddles up on locks, etc - all which stops them being moaned at. An example, we were approaching a bridge, but just before we came to the bridge there's a winding hole. A hire boat came through bridge towards us, and decided to turn their boat in the winding hole. There were no hand signals, but that didn't matter much to us, we were far enough away not to cause a mishap. Problem was the boater stuck his stern into the winding hole, digging his rudder into the mud (in his instructions did he miss the bit about winding a boat?). He was stuck, except for 'shuffling a few feet back and forwards. We couldn't get off to help (shallow bank), and there was no point in shouting instructions to them, so we just had to sit it out in sympathy. Luckily 3 men came over the bridge, they watched for a while, before descending onto the towpath, grabbing the bow rope, and hauling the boat round. We followed them through the bridge, and followed them for a while, until they got stuck in the mud on the bank when moving out of the way for a boat passing in the opposite direction. They were struggling again, so a shout from us for them to stay put, while we passed and pulled them out. As we passed, the three men looked terrified. Until they were reminded they should be enjoying themselves.? If any first time narrowboat hirers are reading this, absorb as much advice before your holiday as you can, you'll have a much better time. Plus don't forget to enjoy yourselves! It's great and it really is a relaxing holiday! Sunday sermon over ? (Hope it's clear this isn't a moan)

No, I don't allow such things to annoy me. Your assumption is based on a written communication on a forum, lacking tone of voice and body language. If we were face to face in a pub you'd see me laughing and buying you a drink.

Agreed. Another fact is they tend to stay in their marina once they get there, so the objection voiced earlier that I was answering, that this monster might meet one the same coming the other way seems unlikely.

If the boat is setup for single handling and you have the know how then the length isn't going to be an issue.

And the rest, theres 11 in Funchurch (sp) alone.

When ours did this once,I put the boat in the shallows, jumped in and lifted the rudder from the bottom. On the second occasion (Mrs Rusty is very careless) ,I discovered it could be lifted from above and relocated in the cup without getting wet......maybe worth a try. Edited to add . Our cup is approx 25mm deep, I would guesstimate. It is possible yours is a different design, or perhaps something is bent out of shape if you caught it on a cill or hit something hard.

Correct. Standard Hudsons are squat and thus have only about 6’2” headroom even with 15mm baseplate. This is why we had ours specially built with taller cabin sides giving about 6’6” for my 6’5” (in shoes) body. The boat we used to borrow (Evans and son) had plenty of headroom for me but of course correspondingly large air draught.

Well done to everyone that took part and big thanks to Team Tawny Owl for ensuring the challenge went ahead.

Yay, thanks Sue, I don't envy you sorting that lot out. Many thanks to you and Richard for organising this. See you next year

Oh dear, I thought passing water tanks off as boats ended when Sam Springer openly admitted his design's origins. Although I do think the massive yellow jib on the front will come in handy … canal widening as you go … removing troublesome bridges … scooping other boats out of the way … etc

We have two aluminium chimney collars and I don't see any major corrosion issues but they do need some maintenance. The paint (powder coating?) started to fail after about 10 years and the gunge from the stove started to give some corrosion. I fixed this after a couple of years and it was only superficial and removed easily with a wire brush. My first repair/repaint used etch primer and failed after a year or two. My second attempt used surface tolerant epoxy primer and is doing fine. These are rather nice chimney collars with "Colecraft Engineering" in raised lettering and both have a cast aluminium wedge under them so that the chimneys are truly vertical. .................Dave

Many hire boaters do have far more cruising experience over many more years than a lot of the “experts” on this site.

Yes I got that too - if that's the faster server then I think they might be telling porkies.

One of them came roaring and yelling at us last year after Mrs S dropped a paddle at Hatton. Pretty abusive report blah blah blah. I offered to get the advert out of Arteries of commerce for Ham Baker paddle gear so she could read the proof and become informed which really annoyed her. its great when they are so black and white about the party line..

I did write base plate, something my phone likes to change just to wind me up many times a dog

So, this monstrosity has won a prize? For what exactly?

Always found them difficult to remove. Eta:I seem to remember.

Old wooden boats, aren't they beautiful. Apparently there are now men',s 'fragrances', there's something called Lynx that attracts women so I'm told. Now if they could bottle the smell of old wooden boats I just might buy some. I reckon that 'Old Boat' after shave would attract a damned useful woman,. Oops, I can hear my wife heading this way, better go I think.

CRT should be forced to change them to their historic, patented, state wherever they are not suitably damped. It is utterly ridiculous that that they can ignore such important parts of our historic heritage! I shall continue to drop them as their original design allows. Woe betide any locky or vollie who dares to suggest otherwise to me.

They can wear the mitre of broad lock gates going in with only one open, leading to more water loss, if they are not accurate with their steering. They can do this to narrow locks too of course, forcing the boat in to open mitre gates. Jen with a NB on a WB canal.

An Adder and a Grass Snake can look very similar, but a GS has its darker markings on the side and an Adder has its darker markings on the top. The head of a GS is more rounded, smoother. The GS can grow much longer, though I think English Adders grow longer than Scottish one. Adders are more grey/brown GS more green/brown. GS prefer more watery areas so I would hazard a guess that what you saw was a GS, Adders prefer Moors and Heaths. An Adder will prefer to avoid you but if disturbed it will bite, though it's not always fatal it absolutely can be; it can however kill your dog or a child. https://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/species/adder/

I used a kit to sprayfoam a boat, it was successful but I will never, ever do it again. I am still finding bits of the damned stuff in nooks and crannies. Anyway, its much the same if not identical to that Celotex stuff so if its a room with nice flat walls then use that. The only way we could find the cat after I'd done the boat was to prod lumps of the stuff till we found one that meiowed. Definitely Celotex or something like that.

Well done CRT indeed. Two lots of praise for the Trust in a single day!

Sunrise Barrow Upon Soar.