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I didn’t want to stir it up again though. I just wanted to say that I’ve only just read this lot and wanted to say thank you for the support and validating my belief that we didn’t do anything wrong. Just hope I don’t bump into the angry little man again! (Or vice versa!)

All this could have been avoided if, when asked his name, Mr Haywood had replied "Timothy West".

Yep. That guy whose best insult he could muster is “you shitbag”. How embarrassing. I should have done better.

I posted it within a few weeks of it happening, essentially because I told Steve afterwards in a “conversation” when I found him moored downstream later that afternoon, that he would be able to find the evidence on YouTube. I got the feeling he thought I was bluffing and that I didn’t have any footage of the actual ram. He was so belligerent and pretty much dared me to post it. I’d have filmed that conversation too however he demanded I switch my phone completely off before he said anything so I couldn’t record him. It would have made great listening! The video sat largely unnoticed with a couple of hundred hits until this week when all hell broke loose, and as of this morning it was up to around 14,000! I don’t regret posting it after all that has happened. I think that he needed exposing as the hypocrite and bully that he is. I’m just glad we were filming. It was only done to be part of a holiday video. Always try to film us mooring just in case we nail a perfect one! Lol. And we’ve all been in that position eh? Looking for a mooring and you see that someone else has their eye on it. In his shoes I would have shrugged and moved on. You can hear that we slow down to approach it, not speed up as he asserts at the end, so I really don’t see how we could be seen to do anything wrong. He just got the hump because a lowly hire boat slipped in there first and decided to administer his own type of retribution. Film doesn’t lie tho (and it wasn’t a wide angle lens!)

Again I am thankful for the genuine responses. I can assure you this was never intended as a wind up. I have been a boat owner in the UK and Europe for well over 10 years. I have found the boating scene to be very friendly. I have absolutely no canal or Thames experience other then doing my inland RYA many years ago on the tidal Thames. Based on the responses here it would seem most of the canal users hate the widebeams. I have still not been deterred by some of the negativity on here. Having read some of the canal magazines it would appear that people use widebeams on some of the canals. Waterwaysworld did a 25 page article about them. I didn’t pick up any of this negativity from the article. http://www.waterwaysworld.com/downloads/widebeam_guide.pdf I have sufficient funds to build whatever I fancy. I will not be using it as a houseboat in London. I live in a 6 bedroom house. I would like it as a fixed chill pad, and the ability to occasionally take it out of London, leave it moored up close to the quaint villages I have yet to visit for a few days at a time. When I am away from my home birth I am aware that finding a visitor mooring for a 70 foot will not be easy, hence I want my luxuries and gennie to make it a more pleasant experience and negate the need to be plugged into power. Actual cruising will be very minimal. A google search for Widebeam rental will reveal a company called Moonboats renting widebeams on the K&A. They will rent to anyone without any prior experience (with restricted cruising grounds). According to their website they have 6 plus boats available. If they and the people renting from them can make it work why can’t I? @Alan. Yes It will have a steering wheel with a rudder display and full zeus joystick control linked with both the engine and bow and stern thrusters. Yes I know you don’t need them, however they are incredible pieces of kit. If all the widebeams on the canals had joystick controls the narrowboat users might not hate them as much. Seeing pictures of the inside of the best the narrowboat has to offer vs the widebeams I understand why some of you sound pi**ed off! I have read up fairly extensively on widebeams and it seems some of the newer boat have chimes in the hull to enable them to move through the water with a much reduced wake at cruising speeds. I live in North West London and would meet up for a pint with anyone on here who thinks I am a troll taking the piss. It was a genuine question and the genuine responses are appreciated. Regards Joseph

Just out of curiosity, was there any noticeable damage to your boat? it seemed to be a fair old clatter he hit you with. I don't know about anyone else but it was the ramming that was so totally unacceptable to me. I can accept that the 'red mist' may have come down for whatever reason and even a bit of irritated shouting (even though you'd done nothing wrong) would even pass without too much controversy, but to deliberately ram another boat? nah, that crosses the line. Some have tried to mitigate his actions with something along the lines of, 'Who hasn't made a mistake?' giving examples of almost running over canoes and sailing dinghies, but what happened there wasn't an 'accident' it was a 'deliberate' and has rightly received general condemnation.

Would it stand a knock from Steve Heywood?

When the boat moves forward an equal volume of water has to move in the opposite direction from in front of the boat to behind it. The wider the boat, the more water has to be moved, and in a narrow channel, a significantly lesser cross sectional area of channel is available to carry that water. So the result is that the resistance to movement is higher, and the resulting waves are geater, both of which will result in a lower cruising speed. The same issue will not arise on the wider channel of the Thames.

Mrsmelly would say not. We'll discuss it for 3 years or so, and then extend that some more ...

Indeed, monkeys, goats, bogles, dogs, cats, ghosts and muppets, plus any other entities, living for otherwise, that I may have forgotten. What with that little lot how can some people say there is not enough diversity on the forum? ?

It's also a community With the best will in the world I've read many posts almost exactly like this over the last few years, they are more often than not written by people who are more than happy to take a thread off topic when they do it they just don't like it when other people do it, they think they're really funny they just don't think other people are. That just life I'm afraid. I don't think this forum is at it's best in the current affairs section and I'm rather sad that people I once respected have turned out to be less than I though they were, unfortunately that is also just life. I think this forum does have some very serious problems when it comes to diversity, others obviously disagree with me. What you suggest might sound like a solution when you run it through your head as a theory but just how do you see it working in real life. Being grumpy and going off topic is just what people and their pesky personalities do, that's what makes this a forum and not a text book.

This is good. VMs being taken away from CCers for five months of the year was ridiculous. There is quite a strong case for reducing them to Dec, Jan and Feb only in my opinion.

I wouldnt say that exactly. After all you were in a " Plastic " boat

Just dont make a habit of it.

Look, I’m not going to be critical of your post, or pass judgement on your intentions. However asking this boating forum for advice on what extensively is a floating house, is a bit like asking a monastery full of monks for dating advice!

“Shit bag” was perfect.

That was an excellent response, suitably British and restrained, I hope you had a good strong cup of tea and a digestive after to calm your nerves

Luckily, nobody has invented a 70'X 14' printer yet......

Will they be able to print an unoccupied mooring space?

I demand a pole and a detailed on topic discussion on the pros and cons of h̶i̶t̶c̶h̶h̶i̶k̶e̶r̶s̶ staying on topic. I furthermore demand a comfy chair to sit in whilst discussing this topic and whether all topics should remain on topic for the duration of that topic, even if, and not excluding the fact ,that that topic may, or may not have been discussed a thousand times before. Finally, I demand people use the forum search function to answer ALL questions they may have on a topic,so we can ALL bugger off and do something else instead.

Only 65% gormless are you... oh hang on GOMless, sorry carry on

Having read that article, two things really stand out. 1st I see where your ideas have come from. 2nd not one of the boats mentioned was "Road tested". The article authors, have no idea if the boats actually move! Let alone, do they go straight if no hand is on the tiller/wheel, how quickly or not, do they stop, from a normal cruising speed. Nor are any of the systems for heat/light/cooking, tested, either at the permanent mooring, or out for many days cruising. Or the raising and lowering of the wheel houses, a very common job due to the shape of many arched bridges, can one person do this quickly with out mooring up, or are two or more people and a mooring needed. You mention a hire company that does wide beam hire, I really suggest you do a weeks hire on one, between now and Easter, to better understand some of the points raised. The width of the water is normally given in canal dimensions, no allowance is made for over hanging trees, or under water obstructions. A 12 foot wide boat is not going to pass 6 feet of obstructions in a 16 foot wide canal. Canals may have been built to wide beam sizes, 200 years ago, or altered in the 1930s, but the maintenance to keep them that size has not been kept up. Barely to the size for 2 narrow boats to pass, so for a narrow to pass a wide, in a lot of places it may not be easy, one boat to be aground, the other to scrape passed trees/brambles. Two wide beams, one has to reverse...... Bod

Tis a bogle I think you will find! There’s a bogle by the bour-tree at the lang loan heid, I canna thole the thocht o’ her, she fills ma he’rt wi’ dreid; She skirls like a hoolet, an’ she rattles a’ her banes, An’ gi’es hersel’ an unco fash to fricht wee weans. She’s never there by daylicht, but ance the gloamin’ fa’s, She creeps alang the heid-rig, an’ through the tattie-shaws, Syne splairges through the burn, an’ comes sprachlin’ ower the stanes, Then coories doun ahint the dyke to fricht wee weans. I canna say I’ve seen her, an’ it’s no’ that I am blin’, But, whene’er I pass the bour-tree, I steek ma een an’ rin; An’ though I get a tum’le whiles I’d raither thole sic pains, Than look upon the likes o’ yon that frichts wee weans. I daurna gang that gait ma lane by munelicht or by mirk, Oor Tam’s no feart, but then he’s big, an’ strang as ony stirk; He says the bogle’s juist the win’ that through the bour-tree maens. The muckle gowk! It’s no the win’ that frichts wee weans. W D Cocker. (though he was changed to she, by me)

Folks on here deride the current style of widebeams not only because of their viual aspect but also because they are awkward to 'drive' and not sutable for any of the southern canals. For your projected size both the GU and K&A wont give you much solitude as the former is now wall to wall boats at the south end and the K&A has poor bank access in some parts Given that if you accept that the Thames (for a starter) is more likely to give you a bolt hole, then might I suggest that you consider switching your allegiance to the 'dutch barge' style of boat, not only for its looks but practicality in use, whether for cruising or crashing out. A central wheelhouse is better for our usual English climate than driving from the stern as in a normal NB. With a 'proper boat shape' you have not only most of the non-tidal Thames, but the Medway and some East Coast locations as well. For all the 'essential' gizmos that you 'need' a DB hull shape has better storage room for the engine / Aircon / generator /w.h.y than a NB derivative. Have a look at the DBA website - there are several DBs on the Thames

^^^^ Exactly, going off topic occasionally proves that the forum is populated by human beans, not robots. Occasionally irrating but much more often informative or funny.

I wasn't completely sure, but as soon as the 150HP got a mention, I now agree. If the OP really is intending to bring a 150HP 70 foot by 12 foot monster onto the GU or K&A, Gawd help us. Please specify wheel steering, so you have absolutely no control of it as well - might as well go the full works!

The biggest problem with this forum is that it doesn't stay on topic. Whenever you want to read a thread on something BOAT related you have to sift through reams and reams of off topic comments, lame jokes and grumpy miserables. Personally I think that FAR too much time is devoted to "what should we do about the non boat stuff". It is a canal forum. There should be one and one only non boat forum (someone recommended it be called "the bilge" which I thought was apt). The mods should then ask, whenever a thread is created, "is this about canals or boating" and if not, dump it in the bilge. Then all those for whom this place is Facebook can fester in there and leave the rest of us to talk about boating.

The point is, the height in the boat of the ballast makes a noticeable difference to the tendency to rock about. The lower it is, the more stable the boat will be. Make sure all the new ballast is resting right on the baseplate under the floor, and remove all the old ballast which you say is still in the boat. It must presumably be out of the bilge now?

FFS

Welcome. Good forum name lol

Not really. You're not getting it. Its monster-sized boats being brought onto the narrow canals (as you are proposing to do) that most of us object to. Nothing wrong with a widebeam boat on a wide format canal, as peterboat says.

And Monkeys - we would never leave out Monkeys, or Beagles, or Puddings, or Muppets, or Ducks. Do we actually have any ducks? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And ducks.

Did she have a restaurant? You can get anything you want at ...

We like the Reindeer.

Jeez guys (and gals) 14 pages! It only takes 15 people to convict a murderer! The only opinion I am going to offer is that this thread is reminding me of scenes from 2 movies. "Airplane" where they are lining up to slap the panicking passenger and "Life of Brian" with the brilliant "stone him" scene.

Excellent, you have some cheap grainy video of the same incident? Do post it up so we can compare it with the good quality GoPro video posted on youtube. Much obliged.