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And most profuse apologies to the person who retied the grey/red/black boat near Brinklow, presumably after it came adrift while I was away last week, leaving one of their own pins to cross-pin my bow line. It's a fairly new boat to me and I hadn't got round to buying another couple of pins to supplement the mooring hardware that it was sold with. No excuses, I knew it was iffy mooring on such a shit bit of towpath, and I shouldn't have on just two lines and two pins. It was stupid of me to chance it. If you're on here and read this, can I: Give you your pin back? Offer you a beer/whisky by way of apology? Little things like these are one of the things which make the boating community so special, in my humble opinion. Thanks again.

Do the householders being irritated by your engine running know all this? Have you explained it to each and every one of them? I'm staggered that you think your excuses make it ok to ignore the requests not to run engines on the service point.

Blimey, if you think this is bullying, for goodness sake don't accept a job working with Pretti Patel!

Yes you are! Do your washing on the move or even moored up with the engine on, when its finished go fill with water. If you haven't got enough water fill up move away then when washing is over refill with water. Failing that there is a good laundrette in Berko Its not difficult to show consideration for others.

So why not do your washing while boating towards the water point?

I would find it a shame if Tracy has taken umbrage and decided not to continue as a member, but on the other hand for a newish member to offer boating advice on a forum like this I do think it would be informative to know what the boating experience is so I can make a judgement as to what credence it has to any issue I may have. I do wonder, however, why it is necessary to mention formal qualifications on what is, after all, a recreational boating forum. Like many things in life, a varied boating background goes a long way to reassuring people that the advice is relevant and useful rather than waffle. Howard

One cannot help noticing a touch of irony!

I would buy an old heap but ONLY if it was what I wanted, of historical interest, a definite bargain or something quite unique. Apart from that it would be a new shell, no bulkheads, tanks, engine bearers, or somebody else's bright ideas to sort out. I've fitted out on the towpath before, its awkward but keep it tidy and a small genny (even if it can just charge cordless tools) is needed. Also it will take at the very least 12 months so it gives you time to get stuff from E Bay , boat jumbles and other places to avoid the expensive places. You need doors and windows ready to fit at once otherwise stuff will vanish and the boat will fill up with rainwater. You also need to be ruthlessly organised. Pretend you are doing it for a customer so no short cuts or bodges or days off. Every spare minute you need to be sourcing stuff, making stuff at home in the shed if you have one or thinking of ways of getting everything from ballast to paint. Its hard work and all consuming. In fact I've no idea why I have spent big chunks of my life doing it when I could have been having fun with sex n' drugs n' rock and roll. What a waste.

Yep I agree. Some people poo poo the cash in a carrier bag method but I have done it twice and on other occasions done bank transfer in minutes of arriving. Cash still speaks volumes as it is real, instant tangible money. You must of course not be averse to taking a risk without survey. My present boat was well priced anyway but I first saw it at 11am and paid by bank transfer at 1120. This move got me 13k off the asking price, much more than paying for a survey and hoping to get money off after the usual silly argy bargy nonsense.

Well. it is only in exchange for the boat keys. It has worked for me on a number of occasions, an Aldi (other brands available) carrier bag with a load of notes inside is a powerful negotiating tool. I was looking down the NB listings on Apollo Duck when a 'new one 'popped up' which looked a good buy so gave the guy a call and arranged to meet up in 3 hours time (that was the time to drive to Preston Brook from home. We (SWMBO & I) jumped in the car and off we set, got there, looked, negotiated the price and did the deal. The boat still had all his 'stuff' on board so gave him an hour to clear it off whilst we went to the pub for lunch. Went back, handed over the cash, wife took the car home and I set off in the boat. Took me 10 days to get home. Sold it 2 years later for more than I paid for it. Sold it two days (over Christmas) Young couple bought it and when the weather allowed set off down to London with plans to liveaboard.

??????? ???? ????? ?????? ?? ???????? ???? ????....or h҉a҉p҉p҉e҉n҉ using this...

Well, it could be from a film reference - The Wizard of Oz. To be somewhere unfamiliar or new, in general. ??

Hi everyone. Someone mentioned that I may have disappeared so I apologize for my silence but I'm still here and have been quite busy with many things. I have even managed to register for NHS and a doctor (always handy!). Tomorrow I am having solar fitted on my boat by Tom Malone with thanks for the recommendation to a valued member on here "Dyertribe". I have also been painting (half of the boat) but will have to wait for the other side until I turn the boat around. I also ordered and received a great vinyl letters boat sign with my new name "huami" (lower case lettering) from "Funkymonkey" Boat-names and I am very pleased with it. At the moment I don't have a decent camera on my phone but I am hoping to get the Samsung Galaxy 10+ very soon, in the meantime I will (try!) to post a photo with this post (if I can find out how to do it!). 12th and 13th (OMG it's a Friday!) (I'm not superstitious!) I will be taking the Helmsman's Course from "Willow Wren" and after that I look forward to passing and saying hello to anyone who would like to give me a wave .... or come and have a coffee! Now, before anyone says this is a duplicate post, I have reposted because I unfortunately posted in someone else’s thread and I do apologize. Now to try and post a photo (????) Thank you to everyone so far and I look forward to taking to the water, neil

Its dark and cold outside so a good time for a willy-waving competition - you never know the OP may return ……………………...

It's all coming out now! If we're not careful we'll end up in a "my dad can beat your dad" contest! I'd better keep quiet about my own Associate Fellowship for the time being. Howard

If its former owner of a few years back reads that I think they might weep. It really wasn't in bad shape at all when they let it go. What a shame!

I'd admire the skill and patience a lot more if it had been accompanied by research. To use your. analogy, I suggest the design of the free lance model would have to be as follows: Fitted with a brass safety valve and bonnet and painted maroon, but with sunshine style "N E" lettering, have Walchaerts valve gear on one side, Stephenson on the other, and Gresley for the middle cylinder, be a 4-6-4 (numbered 111 of course) with square box pok wheels and a diesel filler instead of safety valves. Not to mention the brake van for a tender, buckeye coupler and cow catcher to finish of this charming british model from the WW2 era - and it would be ripped to bits on any model railway forum I know of, but they'd probably like the boat! Right, off to do a spot of scratch building ? Anyone know where I can buy a copper capped triple chimney in 4mm scale?

Apologies if it was not clear - I was referring to the 'real world' of boating. I would rather have someone do a job who knows how to do it rather than one who has 'read about it', or even written a thesis on it.

That’s actually probably the most useful thing for a BMV’s SoC display to show... at least it’s not lying

I guess what nibbles at my ankles is when somebody steps up as an expert (as the woman on the program did) telling us the history of Butty Boats and Steamers and praising its accuracy in all matters of decoration and shape. Suggesting it would be interesting to research the lettering and knowledgeably telling us that the reason its a bit short is because the "Boatman" who made it wouldn't have had much room in his cabin to put it is in my mind twaddle of the highest degree. ?

The problem with giant letters is that most of us read this on tablets or phones, and it's quite nice to see several posts without having to scroll all the time. Yours nearly filled my screen by itself, which means in a discussion you lose all context. Colour etc is good in life, but we use it on here specifically to highlight bits of a post we're commenting on, so bunging big chunks in colour for the fun of it is just irritating, I'm afraid. There's historic reasons for most of it too - in old days, using big fonts or too many caps was regarded as shouting and it's a bit impolite. Generally, when joining a working forum it's best to tread a bit carefully as folk can get upset if a newcomer tries to "improve" it without trying to understand why we like it the way it is.

That sounds quite sensible!

Blame Christopher Wood

60' is a struggle to 'go anywhere'. 58' is about the maximum for comfortable cruising. Apart from a couple of locations in the Fens (Lode End and Brandon locks) a 70 ft narrow boat can go anywhere in the South and Midlands, but you won't be able to do the Leeds and Liverpool east of Wigan, the Rufford Branch and Ribble Link, the Calder & Hebble, Huddersfield Broad or up to Sheffield. A few other bits of Yorkshire also.

You'll need to ask the Wizard (or Toto)

Thanks for your advice and offer. The Thames through London is something I'd like to do and in a way would be a shame not to do it while the boat is there, but will only have two weeks max to get from near enough central London to Nantwich, so leaning towards Harefield Marina as the 'launch pad'...at the moment!

Hi Lady G, (and everyone else), I apologize for my silence but I'm still here and have been quite busy with many things. I have even managed to register for NHS and a doctor (always handy!). Tomorrow I am having solar fitted on my boat by Tom Malone with thanks for the recommendation to a valued member on here "Dyertribe". I have also been painting (half of the boat) but will have to wait for the other side until I turn the boat around. I also ordered and received a great vinyl letters boat sign with my new name "huami" (lower case lettering) from "Funkymonkey" Boat-names and I am very pleased with it. At the moment I don't have a decent camera on my phone but I am hoping to get the Samsung Galaxy 10+ very soon, in the meantime I will (try!) to post a photo with this post (if I can find out how to do it!). 12th and 13th (OMG it's a Friday!) (I'm not superstitious!) I will be taking the Helmsman's Course from "Willow Wren" and after that I look forward to passing and saying hello to anyone who would like to give me a wave .... or come and have a coffee! Now to try and post a photo (????) Thank you to everyone so far and I look forward to taking to the water, neil

I can't find any Springer's Museum, or even a Springers Musem. I did see the program, and I thought I was being generous at saying £300 -£400. Mind you I wouldn't have paid even that much, it's the kind of thing that would taint history in another 200 years. I can't help whistling the Thomas the Tank Engine theme when looking at it.

The point about biomass is that the emitted CO2 is, in geological terms, quickly recaptured. Oil and gas come from the carboniferous age and those pretty pictures of what the earth was like then, have convinced me that is not a good thing to release all THAT carbon..

I don't think that was built by a boatman - whilst the hull proportions were often awry they were sticklers for working details right and there's so much wrong with that - t stud on the bow, deckboard/cratch, mast in the wrong place, pigeon box on a butty, garish paintwork etc. Methinks it was built by someone who'd seen more Rosie & Jim than Jam 'ole.

Our farm (just North of Wrecsam) was on the site of the old Ffrwd canal, coal mine and iron and steel works (going back to the 1700's) I came across coal when digging out cross country jumps (for horses) so investigated what was needed to extract it. Looking at the old mine plans, it turned out that, that particular field was the old coal storage yard, we did not need a licence to extract the coal (as it had already been extracted), but we did need planning permission for change of use from agricultural to commercial. Wrecsam LA gave us a 30 day 'exploratory' planning permission so we got a company in to investigate it for us. They found a customer for the coal, provided excavators, buldozers and arranged a fleet of trucks to cart it to Chester, and we split the profits 50/50. We managed to clear most of the field in (approximately) the 30 days and selling just over 100,000 tonnes of coal. Whilst we had the big 21 tonne excavators on site I arranged for the driver to leave the key and used it in the evenings to finish the cross country course. It made it a lot easiert than my old JCB 3C. No2 Son got quite involved "in the hole" helping the digger drivers

If you use the drill @Thinkingallowed is playing with you can guarantee no scratches on the window frames ... https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/105115-easter-on-the-thames-from-windsor/&do=findComment&comment=2427943

Right! That should now be fixed. I never expected people to be printing that particular page, so when I made it change between small and big screen versions I didn't realise that it would affect printing. Adding a few @media print statements to the stylesheets was all that was needed, as I expected. I've now made it so that it expands all the sections when printing. I've also suppressed the menus and banners from the print-out, but added a simple title instead. I'll think about making the mini photos and maps optional in various places - I'm viewing that more as a feature request, while I viewed the inability to print as a bug that needed fixing. As a note for you all for the future: I don't visit here regularly. A kind user messaged me about it so I nipped in to follow the thread. Generally you're more likely to get action if you put something in one of CanalPlan's forums, or on the bug tracker for definite problems or requests for new features.

I recall Spain buying a Harrier VTOL during the early 70s During a naval review in front of Franco they landed it on their wooden decked WWII carrier. It didn't stop until it reached the bilges. Around that time they had a German U Boat they had confiscated 30 years previously after its crew scuttled it up a beach. It joined the Spanish Navy as its only submarine. During its new life it never once went back under, nobody was quite sure how it worked or was brave enough to give it a try. It just poddled around in circles on important days.

Has anyone on the Marsworth residential moorings tried asking CRT? They should explain why it's closed seeing as you are customers and will be inconvenienced. Otherwise you'll probably just get speculation.

Better than me then

We have a lavac sea toilet (on sail boat) with a whale henderson pump. When ever it has been used, it has worked very well, and has had little maintenance in 15 years (one valve in the pump).I wouldn't say it is effortless though, and wouldn't want to use it on a full time liveaboard basis. ETA.Come to think of it, I wouldn't want to make a daily habit of emptying my bog into an inland waterway at all, allowed or not. If you win the lotto, you could always buy a Baby blake.

The first canal I took the current Mrs T, when we were courting, was on was the Roachdale from Sowerby Bridge, to Summit and return. It will sort out "The men from the boys." You will learn much about boating and relationships. Survive that and you will manage any canal. Stunning scenery and Hebden Bridge is well worth spending a day or two in: http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/ Shire Cruisers: https://www.shirecruisers.co.uk/index.php Well appointed and turned out boats.

No surprise that many have suggested the South Oxford, it's a popular canal for good reasons just make sure you don't coincide your trip with the Cropredy festival. Forget the Shroppie/Llangollen, they are popular first timer choices but the locks, particularly going up, can be challenging, even for the experienced. But I'd throw in for consideration the Macclesfield and Upper Peak Forest canals. You can hire from Heritage Boats at Scholar Green and do the Macclesfield and the Peak Forest up to Whalley Bridge/Bugsworth Basin well within your 3-5 days. Both are lovely waterways, (even if Macclesfield itself does rather turn its back on the canal) as scenic as any and full of interest.

Lots of newbies on the Llangollen, and that has much more flow.