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Well, since they changed to the new cameras I've been awarded 9 points for getting to my various destinations in record time. So now I don't hurry! FYI: 81 Back on topic. I can't see any new legislation actually forcing boats to go electric. They may introduce smog tests or something mad. But it's highly unlikely to have a big impact I bet. the key is that they are at least seen to be doing something. I wouldn't really agree with PeterB fairly conceited electrification mantra though. The usage doesn't make sense for what the public requires. The technology just isnt there yet. Nor should the use of Li be touted as the environmentally friendly option. Though I do love engines, I would personally much prefer a silent e-motor to cruise about with, just can't see it being forced upon the population. I'd cite the recent crack down on diesel emissions at MOT as evidence; it hasn't been enforced upon my 1999 van. On a personal (off topic) note: I really don't enjoy people being on their high horse about how "green" they are, with the implied superiority. The biggest thing you can do to limit your impact on this earth is to not breed and help develop and educated the 3rd world to reduce their ever increasing numbers. If you're not on this horse, your horse ain't so big imo.

This is the transcript of a radio conversation of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. Radio conversation released by the Chief of Naval Operations 10-10-95.Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a Collision. Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision. Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course. Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course. Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship. Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call

CRT are introducing a series of ever narrowing bridges onto the GU. The idea is that you start by trying to go through the widest, then the next narrower one, (and so on). The licence fee is on a sliding scale - the more bridges you can get through the less you pay, (although you are not allowed to remove coping stones to get yourself onto a lower cost licence!).

To paraphrase Justice Lord Halibut (I think), the difference between a CMer and a CCer is temporal, not geographical. If your intention is to move as little as possible to comply with the law, then temporally you are a CMer no matter how far you cruise. This is the answer to your question.

I wouldn't worry about that, we won't be eating fish for much longer; but panic not they're gonna take seaweed and mould it in to little fish shapes and call it vegan fish - we'll all be none the wiser so it'll be fine. ------- Which turbines are these? Are they the ones that are permanent structures and feed into the grid?

I have one of those "heavy garden trolleys" and it is fantastic. It really is brilliant on different terrain, it's really easy to handle and steer, it's really stable, it doesn't have any breaks but if you think it might roll when left unattended then you face it in the right direction and swivel its wheels and it usually sits just fine, you can remove the sides so you just have a flatbed which is still really stable but it's also really easy to add bungie too. I love mine and it copes with so much abuse poor thing, I bought mine in a garden centre in Devon over 10 years ago, it's had a paint touch up but apart from that she good. I thought about mentioning it before but I wondered if it might be a bit bulky for a narrowboat, the only down side is that it might be a bit difficult to store. You can get several different sizes so it's worth checking the dimensions of them before you hit buy. It did come in more than handy when my dog took very ill quite suddenly, she had to be rushed to the vets and couldn't move around under her own steam nor was she ok with being lifted so I dismantled the trolley and placed a mat on it then gently got her onto the trolley, she could then by wheeled in stead of carried and the trolley could be lifted meaning she remained stable. From the time she left home to having her examination to returning home she didn't need to be removed from the trolley once. She was a medium sized dog. With her medication she became her usual perky self but her skin was very tender so walking on anything but the softest ground would be painful for her we solved this by using the trolley to wheel her from one soft bit to ground to the next, she was quite the sensation in our village. She's long past now but she is still something of a local celebrity with her trolley.

Agree with Alan. 13kg gas, cassette, coal x3 bags, crates of kit (car to boat), compost (at home) and others with judicious use of bungee cords. One on board, one at home. Folds virtually flat so lives in a cupboard. Customised with hand grip and foot board. Light enough to carry to/around supermarket then steal empty box to carry groceries. Comes around periodically at around £15. Worth its weight.......

Good job you did. You wouldn't have discovered it otherwise and it would just have got worse.

HR denotes the gearbox-so its got a Hurth (250?) That being the case the engine sits approx 7 1/2 in below the bearers and approx 28 in above Bearers are set 1 inch above the hieght of the prop shaft (centre) From front of flywheel to gearbox flange is about 1 metre. Max width of engine about 20 inch with the bearer centres needing to be about 13.5 inch. Lovely sounding grunty engines. I am biased though as have one myself...

New Series is on Channel 5 this Friday 19th July at 9pm: TRAVEL: Celebrity 5 Go Barging On: Channel 5 (5) Date: Friday 19th July 2019 (starting in 4 days) Time: 21:00 to 22:00 (1 hour long) Journalist Michael Buerk, actors Shaun Williamson and Amanda Barrie, singer Anita Harris and politician John Prescott unite for the gentlest of jaunts along Britain's most beautiful waterways, heading for the heart of Shakespeare country. After meeting and moving into twin narrowboats, the quintet discovers that there is a lot to learn about life on Caldon Canal in Staffordshire. Not only must they adjust to life in cramped conditions, but they must also learn how to steer a 60-foot hunk of floating metal. Despite both having Navy experience, John and Shaun keep crashing the barges and getting stuck. (Subtitles, Premiere, Series 2, Episode 1) Starring: Michael Buerk, Shaun Williamson, Amanda Barrie, Anita Harris, John Prescott, Nicky Taylor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Excerpt taken from DigiGuide - the world's best TV guide available from http://www.getdigiguide.tv/?p=1&r=5166 Copyright (c) GipsyMedia Limited.

You may like this version. There are many others! Howard

Dont ask for residential. No need, and vastly more " Non Residential " moorings available. Go PERSONALY to wherever you want to moor and talk to the owner and see the difference in responses.

Not surprising, really, and something which has been suggested many times in recent years that at times of tension this scenario could happen, so hopefully a timely lesson for many people who have relied totally on GPS. Possibly now is the time to dig out the old Hambone methinks, and for people to learn, (or relearn) how to navigate properly? Howard

It looks OK to do this, as others have said. As a belt and braces approach, I'd have some epoxy putty handy just in case you hit a really thin spot. This is a remarkable fix/bodge material. When I went through the hull while descaling rust (on a surveyor's advice, I might add!) it set so hard that it had to be chipped off with a chisel.

I've seen worse and these sort of rust issues generally look a lot worse than they actually are. If you're really scared of blowing a puncture, get it onto some hardstanding or a dry dock first. Then get a hull survey before doing anything else. It shouldn't be too hard to get it out of the water, surveyed and back in the same day. My guess is that if you started with 10mm, you'l still have plenty left. Then you can scrape it back and vactan it with confidence. All narrowboats should be built with large inspection hatches at the back of the cabin so you can easily look down into the bilge. Most don't though.

How many politicians have you heard of that run electric cars? How many car maker bosses run electric cars? The answer is none I reckon.

Leeds Lock too.

Regular blocks along the edge of a roof of a wooden top under restoration On a boat that currently has no handrail... Richard

Ah no, I thought you meant the three rolls of roofing felt.... The row of tuna tins are air vents I reckon, given the absence of mushrooms.

No need to hope. It says it is.

So Peter claiming banning diesels from 35,000 boats on the waterways is actually gonna help, really is virtue signalling at its worst. "Every little helps" really is twaddle. It doesn't help. I bet if truth were known, the road 'fleet' of diesels is expanding by many more than 35,000 diesel engines per year so any reduction in pollution from banning boat diesels will be almost instantly overwhelmed by the road diesel production. Never mind shipping and aviation expansion too. Fiddling at the margins while Rome burns springs to mind.

Oh I see, thank you

The first casualties will be new build boats that are built to float vintage engines and of course solid fuel heating. Next stage will be new diesel engines have to be Euro, or is Britto 7? emission standard or better for boats. Engine age related attrition will take care of most of the transition required. There are much more significant polluters nationaly and internationally to concentrate on as a priority.

Boat 24: Oxford 1 They had been waiting all week to get their turn with the noodles, so decided to celebrate it in style. I'm pleased to report that the penguin didn't eat the noodles!

this is our little bit of heaven...

I cannot even get to my boat in an electric car. 320 miles - just over 5 1/2 hours non stop in the diesel engine car. Real life tests tend to show the majority of EVs have a range of 150 miles but I reckon we'd be struggling to get 5 adults and all the boat supplies / gear into something like a BMW I3. Add on lights, heaters, (or air-con) etc and the range drops. I would need to have 2 recharges on the journey - apparently you can only do one 'rapid-charge' and then you must do a normal 'slow' (overnight) charge or you damage the batteries. So now instead of taking 5 hours, it now takes 2 days and the cost of hotel accommodation for 5. I suppose I could pay £64,000 and get a Jaguar I pace and achieve 250 miles (real world testing) I really don't see EVs as a practical option until something makes a 'step-change' in battery technology.

Yes, like the four voltage readings I suggested 5 hours ago. Comparing the firsts et with the second set would show what was being charged and what was not. However I am not even sure you only have two battery banks, your replys suggest maybe three and if so we then need three pairs of voltage readings one for each bank. From what you say it sounds to me as if you have an engine start bank, a bank for bow thruster and fridge bank and another for the rest of the domestic electrics. If I am correct this is not a very bright way of doing it but before going into why and what may be better we need to sort out what is charging what. We also need to know how many alternators you have and if I am right about three banks what is splitting the alternator's charge. If there are no experienced members in London who are willing to look at it with you could you move it to say West Drayton or Uxbridge close to car parking and maybe I could pop over.

My little widebeam Aurora. Bought it in August of last year. Was able to snap a few lovely pictures in the recent sunny weather. Currently moving onto it.

If you have a widebeam it the the only place you are allowed to moor. Other than bang opposite any other width restriction you can find. You'll notice this as you get around more.

Good points. We can solve the ‘problem’ of widebeams on ‘unsuitable’ canals by rewinding to before our canal network was even built. ? Obviously I’m not serious about the GU Birmingham line but I do hold the narrow canal would have been a nicer waterway than the widened version. It all goes to show that history isn’t a good way of defining the future and that a formal line has to be drawn in the sand somewhere. That line is the current legal position and must be the starting point for any discussion on usage. Preservation of the dimensions of wide beam waterways is an important precedent in ensuring that the narrow beam network is never confined to 6’ 10”. I wonder if those who operate - or support the operation of - narrow craft in excess of 6’ 10” but argue against widebeams where they are within limits fail to recognise the issue or whether they just don’t believe it will happen? The precedent at Itchington is the same one as ensures the Llangollen will become passable again to 7’ 0.5” craft. Of course if we applied history as per the posts above that facility wouldn’t be afforded on the Llangollen. I contend that we should be supporting all boaters who operate within legal requirements, be encouraging CRT to regulate passage of atypical craft such that it is reasonable to other users, to restrict passage that flagrantly breaches the limits, while at the same time pushing them to demonstrate a transparent strategy of opening out pinch points to utilise the general dimensions of the as-built channel, locks and major structures. Individual bridges should not be a barrier to wider capability in the long term. JP

Point of Order M'Lud... Ducks don't 'swim', they float on the surface and paddle. Fish swim. Hope that clarifies things....

I salute your sense of humour! Lets see now. Yer average CCer around here moors for 13 days 23.5 hours a fortnight, then moves for half an hour. During that stationary period most of them run their engine for an hour or three a day to get hot water and charge the batteries. They are mostly too hard up to buy even a single solar panel let alone stump up £10k to have their diesels extracted and solar-powered electric drives and water heating installed. What's not to like??? You must be kidding! OH.... I geddit, is it a 'back door' method of cleansing the scruffy boats off the waterways. Is that what you mean?

Damn. All that practising pissing over the side whilst steering has been wasted?