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The desire of many people on here to discuss general (not directly boat or waterway related) politics has always baffled me. Do they also discuss battery charging, canal history etc on political forums? I personally choose not read these topics, for two reasons: Firstly, as above, it's the wrong place and secondly because I don't want to discover that the person who was so helpful over a previous boating query is, in fact, deeply unpleasant. This has happened in the past.

Yes, that's cyclists for you.

How about mooring with a notice in each window saying: Please respect our right to moor against the towpath.

What work? The work to bring your boat up and let it out of the lock? I don't see any other work the crew has done - I don't suppose they've even done the normal full complement of work required to use a lock. As for the latter, I'd be more than happy to share words with somebody who thought I should wait several minutes to use a lock which isn't currently in use. As already expressed on this thread, the instant your boat has left the lock it's no longer your lock no matter what your intentions are or where your crew are. Meanwhile you seem to think it perfectly reasonable to obstruct the passage of other boats for your own convenience. There's a word for that sort of attitude. edit: though I note we're talking a GU lock, in which case if I was the only boat waiting to go up and assuming you have a NB I would of course wait for you to turn and come back in, because not to wait would be... hmm, let me think of an appropriate word... selfish

Does that mean they can move their sign to other houses from time to time so long as they don’t exceed 14days??

I think I was moored and iced in outside that house for 11 weeks in 2009.?

I turn cars in driveways with no turning notices.

Maybe a sign on the boat saying ‘battery charging with noisy generator- just so you know’

Composting bogs on a boat are really dessicating bogs and fairly simple to use as I understand it What's more difficult is actually composting the product, I know some who actually manage it on the boat but it does take some time and a certain amount of dedication. If you have access to a land base it is fairly easy to have a compost bin again it takes a bit of effort to get a proper hot compost going but it is fairly straightforward. It's disposing of the end product that is the issue, access to a veg garden makes that easy but going to all that effort to just dump it in a bin seems pointless and in my opinion antisocial.

My composting toilet was installed in February, I promised at the time to report on it and will when it's a year old. Meanwhile I am keeping good records of my experiences. I will just say that to date nothing whatsoever has gone into a waste bin (of any sort). I don't live aboard but do spend six months of the year out and about on the boat.

Compost bogs are great if you have the time and space to actually compost and use the waste for all of the reasons previously posted... If you have none of the space or time and are dumping in a bin all you are doing is helping to fill fairly limited landfill space.

You don't put your rubbish into the C&RT bins in a plastic bag then; messy! One additional plastic toilet bag even two or three months inside the plastic bag that you anyway dump every few days is hardly a major issue. Why not use a proper toilet indeed? Because: They can be very expensive to buy, install and maintain. Their production consumes valuable resources and energy - ceramic bowl, electric motors, plastic tank etc. They will eventually become unpleasantly smelly. They unnecessarily waste the world's most valuable resource, drinking water. Pump outs are expensive and not always available, especially in the winter. Cassette toilets are very heavy to lug any distance and very unpleasant to empty; a relentlessly frequent process. The need to store hundreds of litres of human slurry on board. Blockages and jams at the most inconvenient times.

Thanks all. Bit the bullet and bought a valve from a convenient B and Q.

I'm not surprised, you only ate takeaways and had a BBQ. We all think you're lovely even though

What a cracking and very tiring weekend we had. Myself and my brother who came down to give me a hand got the boat from Hyde in Piccadilly Manchester ( 8 hr trip ) to Boothstown ( 5hr trip ) where we have left it for a week ready for the next run to Parbold. Weather wasnt to bad, first day was a bit moist but that busy with the bloomin locks i didnt notice much. It was interesting to visit Manchester from a different view point. I have been driving for years all over Manchester and it look so different from the canal. Bit rough, well very rough in areas and all kinds of `things` going on, morso under the city near Canal Street. Some of the locks in Manchester were flooded really bad and taken a good time to empty them. We got he first 19 done from Hyde to Piccadilly in the first day then Sunday got from Piccadilly to Boothstown in good time. It didnt start of to well as when as when we did the prep of the Friday night the engine would not start at all and in the end found it to be air in the fuel lines,and what a pig it is to get out. In the end we came back Saturday with a primer bulb to see if we can help push fuel through which did the trick while cracking the injectors a few times. The engine lift pump has failed i think and not a bad thing as i would like to fit an electric lift/fuel pump. So good weekend to get half way under the circumstances to the Ribble Link which is tidal, we are booked in for the 14th September to get to the Lancaster canal, around a 3hr trip give or take. The 6hrs to the mooring near my other boat. https://youtu.be/M1pYHPImWXI https://youtu.be/0ORmySvrI7s This was a quick blast to see ho it goes full wack. I feel happy as it will cope with ease on the Ribble https://youtu.be/ph_q-3J_8rQ I chained up the leg to give better draught which all went well and level the leg more, i need to sort the pin out yet though as the leg kicks up when in reverse. A few very close bridges, infact my brother was sure the canopy would be ok up to keep us dry from he rain on the first day. That did not last long. And a few locks had a little seepage lol.

I’ve used it and it was good. It needs some air to keep it going but it stays in overnight ok once you get the hang of it. If you let it die down too much it might not come back tho. Think this is due to a high anthracite content. But the upside is fairly low ash content. Found Housefuel a good company to deal with...they once sent me a tonne instead of half a tonne...I was honest and told them but they said thanks for letting us know but have it on us!

You say that like it's a bad thing. ?

Alternatively moor up next to Blackrose when he is painting his boat. That way you won't get any insects sticking to your paint. ??

The outside diameter of most of the common pipe makes is fairly consistent. Not so at all the internal diameters though, to the extent that inserts that are sloppy fit into some of the thinner walled types simply cannot be forced into some of the thicker wall types. I quickly discovered it is best to use inserts supplied by the same manufacturer as the pipe.

I removed the second one! Ooops! Never mind.

Had that shouted to me in crowded pub once.....??

Which of course isn't how waste handling works now and with dedicated bins, that risk vanishes.

I have tracked down the original article published by the C&RT and it confirms their impression that 'composting' toilets are becoming increasingly popular and that in response they are thinking of introducing 'poo' bins. In the mean time however, they require that the solids from composting toilets, composted or otherwise are double bagged and put in their domestic waste bins. This is the extract as written: "As the waste from a composting toilet may not have enough time to decompose sufficiently on board the boat before it needs emptying, this waste will still need to be disposed at anElsan/sanitary station. With the increasing popularity of composting toilets, we are hoping to pilot a facility for solid waste from composting loos as part of the London Mooring Strategy but in the meantime liquids go into the Elsan unit and solids should be bagged in a nappy bag and placed in the domestic waste bins." There are so many advantages to composting/dessicating toilets both to the boat owner and to the C&RT and of course to the Environment Agency, that of course it will catch on. We conserve water by locking lock gates at 4pm and sharing locks where possible, but we are happy to flush hundreds of litres of precious drinking water down the toilet every week.

Mmmmm...Mrs TNC is impressed!

The Isis in the photo is a share boat. One of the former owners told me they paid for a mooring on the Thames using a credit card, and following the instructions on the sign put Isis as their reference. A couple of days later they were contacted by the credit card company because the US authorities had been on, asking why they were funding terrorists. They pointed out that Isis was a boat, the money wasn’t going to Isis it was going to the local council in Marlow, and you can’t buy many weapons for £6.

As a newish member I have to totally agree.. We are nearing retirement and planning on buying a boat and spending 6-9 months a year in the UK CC'ing. We learned of the Canals from other sources and started doing serious research into them. While I have learned a lot from reading past posts on here, if I had found this forum first, I would have probably decided against it. It would have lead me to believe that people on the canals were not people I wanted to be around.

Jeez, are you for real? This is exactly the sort of mean-spirited comment that drives people away!!

It's a very different forum to the one I joined that enabled me to meet in person so many people who I count as friends for life now. We've lost a disproportionate number of female posters as well which is skewing the demographic and making it a very uncomfortable place to be at times, not just in political threads. It is a great shame.

I usually push a cyclist over one or both of them, it warns other cyclists off, but does mean you have to move on after a couple of days when the carcasses start to rot, the lycra wont hold for ever you know.....

IIRC There is a felt ring and bronze spiral oil seal at the back of the crank, behind the flywheel. If that leaks or spins the oil comes out of the bottom of the flywheel housing. If you can afford the oil, I would be inclined to work your way back to home, checking the oil regularly and looking hard to see how it is getting into the bilge. If you can, mop out the bilge and wipe off the accessible bits of the underside of the engine. Then put a good thick layer of clean newspaper in the bilge. Any Sunday paper will have enough newsprint for the job! Check after about half an hour and see where the drip is. That will give you a start and maybe a trail of oil to follow. N

Are they also banning disposable nappies? Does that mean no small children are allowed in BWML marinas?