Leaderboard

Went up the newly 'open' two miles of the Pocklington Canal this morning. Andy, a chap on a boat in Melbourne Basin, had sold me a Head of Navigation plaque - I'm not a plaque person, but having got it I thought I should go, despite him informing me that the pub in Bielby had closed. Two locks, a swing bridge and lots of reeds. Walbut lock and the swing bridge have no landing stages. Best moor under the bridge when going up the lock (not like I did - see pic) - there's a bench to tie to. The swing bridge is difficult singlehanded, but possible (obviously). Rather bleak at the end, and no easy access to the village, as the Bielby Arm is not yet navigable (last pic), so I didn't stay (no pub). Two hours each way for the two miles.

I sell kindling....

Arrived at Stoke Bruerne top lock this afternoon, going up. These are our local locks, and we do them many times a year. We know that with a single boat going up, the calmest way is to open the ground paddle on the same side as the boat, and the gate paddle on the opposite side. That keeps the boat into the side of the lock. There was a volunteer lock keeper at the lock. As soon as the gate was shut, he lifted the paddle. He didn’t ask if we wanted help, and he didn’t check with me at the helm if I was ready. My crew went to the other side of the lock and lifted the gate paddle. He ordered him to close the paddle, pointing at the little sign which warns of turbulence. My crew said we knew what we were doing, and this would be fine. The volunteer became somewhat apoplectic, and eventually called my crew a stupid a***hole. My crew asked him to step away from the lock and leave us to it. He said he was in charge and it was his responsibility to make sure we used the locks properly, as he worked there. My crew pointed out that as it was our boat, it was our responsibility to work the lock, and he didn’t work there, he volunteered there. Eventually he did step away, but only to tell gongoozlers everything we were doing wrong. And he couldn’t resist repeatedly coming back to pick holes in each action. Apparently the paddles were even wound down incorrectly. He’s going to report us to CRT for using the lock incorrectly. An email of complaint has been sent to CRT, pointing out that he didn’t follow volunteer procedure, and that he was a really bad representative of the Trust. This was by far the worst example of a volunteer lock keeper we’ve ever encountered. He was in great contrast to the very nice volunteer who was helping a novice down the locks, that we’d met just an hour earlier.

I don't know if this is a mini tractor or a ride on mower but what it's pulling seems like barrels of fun

I suspect we will never agree but the difference is they were happy to dispose of the rig in a way that would contaminate an area of sea bed where there was another option. All the puff about only 2kgs or 5kgs of this or that is not the point. Shell were trying to save money that's all

Not much time in the car these days. Rarely walk through a wood - never been my cup of tea, to be honest. Dont have a daily commute any more, and none of the routes I take are through woods, never mind pine woods. No kids, never mind grandkids. If I had any, and asked them to collect enough to fill a green net bag, i'd feel obliged to give them more than 3 quid for their efforts Like I say..... I'm happy to hand over my 3 quid. You're happy to collect it yourself. Neither of us is wrong.

I'm glad you can laugh. Have you ever tried the Napton to Braunston stretch on a sunny weekend following a fat bote? When you're 20th in the queue behind it, it is not funny. A one hour trip can take three hours. Zenataoman is quite right. If he isn't why has this thread gone on so long? Many peeps see this as a serious problem. You laugh it off. We can't.

In the case of a tractor it's the turny bit at the back - the engine diverts power to the turny bit at the back which then powers the implements attached to it. But you get smaller ones too.

With appropriate guarding I hope, wouldn't want rustys important bits caught up, I imagine it would smart a tad. Any way this is a dead end, voles will be the answer

Frog in your throat? ?

Deere me, its a lawn mower.

So you too could earn £240 an hour. Sell them for £3 a bag! ? With the massive added bonus that your stove smells of BACON...!!!! YAY!!!!

Cooking oil works really well as a fire lighter. Catches easily, burns for a long time, but no explodey tendencies. Wipe the frying pan round after cooking with a paper towel and put in the stove ready for lighting. Saves the sink drain getting blocked with mini fatbergs and keeps the cholesterol levels in the canal fish down! Jen

The sooner CRT start putting some width restrictions in the better....and im not joking about this. This fat boat thing is getting out of hand rapidly.

Me neither ssssshhh!

Have you actually read the thread? All these objections answered multiple times. It takes a while, in between the posts about voles. No one is forcing you to go boating this way. It makes no change to the canals, other than restoring the tow paths to their proper condition as tow paths, rather than muddy tracks. I am merely offering it as something to be tried. How about a pleasant days cruising in complete silence without the hammer of a diesel engine and the whirl of a propeller in your ear? Being able to hear the bird song around you. Self driving tractors a distinct possibility, or walking behind one and guiding it as you go, as you would a 'orse. Does that sound like it could be fun? It does to me. Jen

Or shut down completely, its getting really boring with all the moaning about people who are trying to help and doing it for absolutely nothing in return

It sounds good to me. I am not sure how the Phantom of The Opera comes into it though.

http://ecochargerquads.com For your perusal fun zoomy quad bikes.

Can all lockie,s swim ???

So when you say lend it might be a little more accurate to say sacrifice for a greater cause ?

Alternatively, I've had a springy branch trapped against the rudder and the swim do this. It was out of the way of the prop and gave the symptoms you describe. Could be hard to spot through the weed hatch if the water is murky. Most likely it has been lifted out of the cup as others have described, but this is also a possibility. Jen

2000 sounds way off the mark. Thats a months rent. Try 10000

Ah, memories! I well remember the kists we had in the farmhouse where I was brought up. Some had blankets but the one I particularly remember was the one where all the Scalextric and Meccano stuff was stored. I had lots of brothers and was never a "doll" child ? haggis

We have a slow cooker and use it often. The orange lead that goes from the boat to a box on the bank seems to stop the combi making the batteries go flat.

The thing to beware of is their track record of amorality in business. The boat might be fine but inspect it carefully, they are NOT gonna tell you about any negatives about it. Then make sure your money is well protected. FInd out exactly who the owner is and pay them for the boat, not the marina. If Pillings take your money, hand over the boat but don't pay the owner, you will end up in an unholy legal mess and in all likelihood lose the boat and your money.

It is your dream boat you are buying, not the marina. Make sure you have an independent survey. If the boat needs work, have it done elsewhere if possible. If something looks or smells wrong, walk away and look for another dream boat.

If they are the same physical size with the same terminal layout then as long as you are on top of your charging regime (which you are if you got 7 years out of the lasts set) I can't see that you will notice much difference at all. 7 years life tells me you keep them well charged and never deeply discharge them so you probably had more capacity than you needed.

Physical size is important. Length, width and height. For the boat safety scheme they need to be restrained from moving around and depending on how this is done on your boat, buying the wrong size may require some alterations. Better.to measure and check before buying. It may be the extra capacity in the 135Ahr batts are gained by more efficient use internal construction, or just in the height, but how do you know without measuring the originals? Jen

When I get home from the pub after bellringing the last thing I want to do is go out looking in pine woods to gather pine cones to light the stove. More than happy to pay about the six quid a bag costs locally for a decent bag of kindling like that. I can earn six quid in about 90 seconds.

They are technically fair game to wipe out!

Not good to hear, Sickle deserves to be looked at in its present uniform. Knowing Mike the Boilerman and his bote , he could be 6 feet in front and 18 inches lower than you in the morning....

Indeed, and thanks too for the warning.

I wonder at what point ventnor calcutt and wigrams turn marina will loose moorers like yourself who heavily use their boats to go boating, because of the issue on that stretch. Used to be nice mooring and living in this part of the world, starting to regret coming back here, when the world was our lobster on retirement.

As with all extra low voltage installs the cable size is driven by voltage drop, not the current capacity of the cable. You might expect the MPPT to sort it out, but if it is seeing a significantly different voltage to that at the panel it will be offset from the MPP, and mistracking. Or, if there is voltage loss between the controller and the battery the battery will get less charge than it could/should. Or both in some set ups. So to choose a cable you need to know how long it is as well as the expected curent. There are then several on line volt drop calculators, or someone here will advise. N

Whilst looking we always preferred Semi-Trads - more social than Trads but look more traditional than cruisers - happy midway. There seem to be far more Trads for sale than others, not sure if this means anything other than there are more Trads about?