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  1. Sorry to be harsh but this proposal is utterly selfish, I would have thought better from the OP. Lots of us would love to go cruising but we aren't. Non-essential travel has been ruled out by the government - this is quite clearly non-essential travel. This is a classic case of entitlement and 'the rules don't apply to me'. And you say you're an expert in disease control??? So let presume you already have the virus but don't know it - how do you propose to get yourself from Goole to Ripon without touching anything on the way or once you get there? Using the excuse that we've been told to stay at home and therefore you can move about like this because your boat is your home is appaling pedantry. You know damn well that's not what the advice means and you're using a technicality to try and dodge round the rules. The 14 day rule has been relaxed for a reason - it's to try and prevent all non-essential boat movements, but allow boaters to still access vital services. People are dying because of selfish attitudes like yours. I'm frankly disgusted.
    31 points
  2. The dominant group will always feel victimised by minorities doing things that don’t include them. Being pro gay isn’t anti straight. Just like being pro Black isn’t anti white. They feel left out. I call this a taste of their own medicine. A group of gays is seen as a slight to them in some way hence the need to say “why can’t you just do what the rest of us do” (aka conform and submit). We aren’t the rest of you. It is types like this who make us make a point of our differences. I recall once someone saying to me, as though I should take it as a compliment that “you’re not really super gay” as though being gay were a bad thing. I’d be happy never to mention who I sleep with or what I do behind closed doors ever again. I agree, I don’t think we are special. I have heterosexual friends and mix with them and never does who we sleep with come up in discussion (probably how many heterosexuals prefer it). But they understand and empathise with why I need to find others who are gay. Because guess what? Most people aren’t. I could misinterpret a situation with a man and end up in hospital or worse, dead. Attacks on gays are on the rise. I don’t attend Pride or get involved in the politics of the LGBT. But I don’t, continually, proclaim my lack of understanding of such things as though it contributes any value to the discussion which is being done in this very thread. Calls of “I don’t understand X, Y or Z” just highlights your ignorance. It is 2023. You have all the information at your finger tips. How about we drop the “I don’t understand why they congregate” façade and say what you really mean? Gays want to meet other gays and have sex, surprise surprise. Clutch your pearls elsewhere. It’s so bloody tiring. I hope OP does find other boat folk who are gay and gets a chance to connect with them. I know I’ve thought about it on my travels as a solo gay vagabond boater. Seeing a rainbow flag sticker in a boat window makes me relaxed because it signals to me they’re my sort. I know this may be novel to other people who dONt UnDeRstANd but it’s small gestures and signs like this that make me feel comfortable in a world that wants to shut me up, hide me away or, worse, blend in.
    26 points
  3. It is very sad that this chap lost his life and I think it shows up the forum in a bad light that the thread has degenerated into a discussion on his status and pension income . The guy has lost his life let's show some respect Haggis
    25 points
  4. If you are travelling down to Uxbridge, I would recommend that you forget about using marinas to refuel and instead make use of the excellent fuel boats. These are operated by real enthusiasts, the majority of them on that stretch trading under the umbrella of "Jules Fuels" after Julia Cooke who started the business but is herself I gather Semi-retired, (not that that stopped Jules from refuelling our two boats at Braunston recently!) Different boats ply different stretches, but whether you encounter Ryan, Nick, Andrew or anybody else you wll get first rate service, and a decent price. Keep them trading - they can often get to you in poor conditions, when you would not ant to be venturing out yourself. They deserve our support!
    24 points
  5. Poster A: I'm thinking about getting a narrowboat, and I was wondering- will it be ok if I do <X> thing? Poster B: What? You want to do <X>?? What a ridiculous idea! Ridiculous and stupid. You're such a newb that you dont even know how stupid and ridiculous you are. Bah. Poster C: Well we've been doing <X> for the last 5 years, and we saved a fortune on llama food- we wouldn't do it any other way. Poster B: Then you're as ridiculous and stupid as him, and its literally a miracle that you're even alive. Bah. Poster D: Now look here, I've been boating since 1825, and my old skipper made us do <X> twice every day- never did us any harm, I can tell you. Poster E: What nonsense. We've been boating since before they invented boats. We only thought about trying <X>, and the boat sank immediately. Poster F: I can guarantee if you dont do X twice a day, you will be kidnapped by aliens and probed in all sorts of places. It definitely happened to an old mate of mine on his way back from a New Years party. Poster B: Bah. Poster G: Look at the typical entitled newbie, coming here telling us he wants to do <X>. How bloody dare he. Poster H: OMG, he only wants to go and do <X>. Poster G: Look here sonny, I've been living on narrowboats since the Cretaceous period, and I never heard of anyone who did X without having major problems afterwards. But no, you know better dont you? Well you just go ahead. You do <X>. Go on. I dare you Poster I: <X> is for losers. You should try doing <Y> instead, it will be much cheaper and easier, and you wont end up on an alien mothership. Poster L : I think you'll find <X> is no longer permitted under the Official Regulatory Regulations Act, section 75 para 403 (Oct 2021 edition), since the precedent set by Squiff vs Terrapin in 1707, thus: Any boater who does <X> will be liable for a fine of twenty squillion pounds and horrible painful death by alien torture. Poster M : Well I'm not stopping doing <X>, sod what the rules say. Poster N: Well then you're no better than the rule breaking newbie, coming here posting your fancy posts, thinking you can flout the rules that we've all followed since the birth of the Universe. Poster A: Did you say Llamas? <End of thread>
    24 points
  6. In case anyone is interested... Just over a week after leaving hospital with 7 days of antibiotics I am still not 100%, don't get me wrong I am not ill as such just tired and not quite right, at least I am able to do a the normal day to day stuff as long as I take my time, anyway I've been signed off for another week and hopefully that should see me right. I have been spectacularly unlucky considering how many people live, work and play around canals but it's certainly worth keeping in mind if you get a fever after contact with the water
    21 points
  7. As many of you know my 7 year old rescue GSD died unexpectedly early last month. Having tried unsuccessfully to get another rescue dog from various rehoming centres, always because they are unhappy that my garden backs onto a canal without a 6 foot plus high fence, we bought a 9 week old red fox Labrador pup. Welcome to the wonderful world of boating Sam, you have BIG pawprints to fill.
    21 points
  8. Woke is a term used in an attempt to denigrate anyone who has any empathy or sympathy with those in less favourable circumstances than oneself. It had to be invented after the term "political correctness" became correctly understood to be an attempt to slander anyone who tried to speak or behave with concern for others, rather than behaving as if the only worth any person had was equivalent to their economic function, or the advantage that could be gained from using them as a thing, rather than a person.. Such mealy mouthed euphemisms are used by those who are so ashamed of their own attitudes that they need to find incomprehensible language to cloak them in, realising that should they actually voice these views, they would be correctly subject to universal condemnation. You normally find them used on the internet by those hiding, quite understandably, behind pseudonyms.
    21 points
  9. Welcome to the forum. I can say this without knowing you as everyone is welcome to the forum! If you are asking about a problem, the following thoughts may be useful: There are some very good technical experts on here who are usually happy to offer advice, but they do need sufficient information to work on. After you have typed in the basic details, sit back and ask yourself, "what have I assumed they know?". For example, if you are describing an engine problem, have you said what type of engine it is? Our experts not unreasonably get tired of saying please give us the whole picture not just the crisis element, over and over again to each newcomer. Pictures are usually helpful where possible. Ok, you've communicated the problem. You will get a variety of responses. Some will just be welcoming you. Some will offer simple suggestions of the obvious - they are keen to help because they feel for you, but they don't have the technical knowledge. Some will be experts and will offer precise advice. And, rarely, somebody will respond who is technically au fait but wrong. The other experts will usually help to identify these. And some will make fun of your problem, or the solutions offered, or anything really. This is likely if you accidently drop an amusing typo into your text. This is an attempt to lighten up the forum and not aimed at you personally. Don't take it to heart, just ignore it. You will probably take some action in response to the suggestions, which doesn't completely resolve the problem. Now is the important bit. The temptation is to relay lots of new information about the problem without answering the questions raised by your helpers. This hacks off the helpers who get tired of saying "tell us about the …" repeatedly to the same poster. Don't get offended, many newcomers do and then leave the forum. Just provide the information or explain why you can't. If you are working on getting the info, say so. Finally, you will solve the problem, possibly with the help provided on the forum, possibly with 3rd party help. Please come back to the forum and let us know how you did it. We do like to know the outcomes, and sometimes the forum learns from the result. The forum is not overly judgemental and will not jump on you if it was something silly you did. We have all committed that sin on our boats at one time or another. Happy boating!
    20 points
  10. Yesterday we handed over our beautiful boat to her new owners. A very sad day as I am not ready to accept that I am no longer a boater. Regretfully, busy jobs and increasingly frail, unwell and dependent parents meant that we were not going to be able to get away on the boat much (or for long periods as we have been), and we could not justify hanging on to such an expensive luxury if we weren't going to be able to make use of it. It is not an exaggeration to say that I have had the happiest times of my life on the boat and it has renewed my love and appreciation for the UK. I know the network is not perfect, and is in need of quite a bit of TLC, but I have enjoyed every single day of my boating life - have seen the most extraordinarily beautiful scenery and made some wonderful friends. Boating has enriched my soul like nothing else ever could and I am so grateful that I had the chance to experience it. Last month I celebrated the 10th anniversary of my bowel cancer diagnosis and I hope the next decade will see me back in my true home on the water. Hubby is giving the new owners a day of cruising/helming training today and if you see NB Aventine out and about with her new owners please make them feel welcome. I just wanted to say a big thank you to all on here for everything I have learnt about boats and boating.
    20 points
  11. There seems to be a growing number of people who contribute to this site who express the view that certain canals should be closed, and maybe are a waterways equivalent of Doctor Richard Beeching. All those people who campaigned for waterways restoration schemes are having their combined voices drowned out by those who say "why bother?" as well as "close down the expensive waterways and return them to the decaying world of the disused navigation." The latter option may suit ecologists whose primary concern is the preservation of the habitats of endangered creatures. The modern reality of keeping open navigations, where repair of the infrastructure is part of the problem. Costs for staff, materials, and maintenance have been part of these equations since the time of the navigations being built. however. It is now part of the challenge to find sufficient funds to keep. the network in order. The growing interest in getting more miles of waterway back into use has been a goal of many enthusiasts. Those that gave their time to restore waterways such as the Ashton and the Caldon were part of a generation that cared and there is now another generation of those that care giving their time to help restore the Lichfield and the Montgomery. So there a battalion of those that DO bother and hopefully will continue to do so!
    20 points
  12. Corruption is a serious allegation, and on the basis of what you have said here you don't appear to be able to substantiate it. On the first point, the parking of the van in apparent breach of lease conditions is not a matter for CRT, neither is the verbal assault by a CRT employee in his own time. The former you should take up with whoever manages the roads and parking round your apartment, and the latter is a police matter. On your second point you have no idea what action CRT may (or may not) be taking against the owner of the now sunken boat. It may have been abandoned, in which case CRT could be having difficulty tracing the owner. In any event they have procedures to follow, and if the owner does not reclaim it, CRT will eventually remove it from the water. An admin charge to refund the balance of your licence is normal, and no way fraudulent. CRT incur admin costs in refunding which they wouldn't have incurred if your licence had run its term, and it is reasonable for them to recover these. If you had bought a shorter duration licence in the first place, knowing you were going to sell the boat, you would have paid a higher unit cost anyway.
    20 points
  13. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  14. I totally agree, Balloon. I rarely recommend the forum to newbies anymore., I'm am sad to say. I joined in 2006. I hate hearing myself say to people not to take it personally when (not if) one or two grumpy people on CWDF come across as arrogant, dismissive or unkind. It's a handful of people, but of course they're the most vocal, and it makes the whole forum seem unapproachable. I don't understand why anyone would want to give advice to a newbie by cutting them down cruelly. That's not advising, sometimes it seems like bullying, or "you're not in my club" belittling. Utterly unhelpful, and makes all boaters seem like arseh*les. I think that If the forum had been like that when I first researched boat-buying, and i frequently came here to ask questions about everything from technical problems to boating etiquette, I would have gained the impression that a lot of canal boaters must be unpleasant people, must hate outsiders, and act superior. I could easily have decided not to want to be part of all that pomposity, not to buy a boat, and not to become part of the canal boating community. Fortunately, 15 years ago this forum felt much more welcoming and was much more representative of the open, friendly attitude of most people on the canals. And i soon met many of the old skool forum contributors in real life on my travels and at banters, and have remained firm friends ever since. In fact, i actively wanted to meet the new friends I had made online at CWDF. I wonder how many newbies don't get to experience that, because of dismissive or patronising responses to their first posts making them think: "what a bunch of tw*t's," turn around and never come back. When the forum became more politicised and so comparatively less boaty a few years ago, there was a lot of online unpleasantness and bullying publicly and in private across here. We lost a lot of previous members (especially women) who added some balance, and several of those who remained on the books, just stopped posting. (I didn't post on the forum for a long, long time. It's still a fairly rare thing for me these days). Those people will never come back. They've moved to Facebook, in all sorts of groups, fracturing the rather special CWDF mixing-pot community that once it was. And CWDF has a negative and unapproachable reputation among some Facebook groups, which is a shame. We made our bed, now we lay in it. But I do think it does this place good when someone relatively new holds a mirror up to our faults, and reminds us that we can do better for the next generation of boaters, as well as for our existing canal friends and colleagues. (Nice one, Balloon) 👏 Let's think before we speak unkindly on someone's post, especially to newbies going out on a limb to try and educate themselves. It is possible to give honest advice while still being supportive; to at least sign-post specifically to where they can find out what they need to know if it seems like a naive question; and to resist the urge to act like a keyboard warrior or, to put it plainly: to not be a scornful nobhead. 🤔
    19 points
  15. “…looking for boaters to share money saving tips” “Don’t buy a boat”
    19 points
  16. To be honest if someone can't afford a mooring and are staying in one place then they shouldn't be on a boat. We all have to comply with the very few very relaxed easy rules, I have managed full time for over 30 years. I can't afford a bugatti vayron so I don't have one. Having children has been happening since day one but today is sometimes used as some sort of specialist excuse to flout the rules. No I am not having a go but as Matty says at present we are faced with too many new liveaboards flouting too many rules rather than playing the game and staying under the radar, this in the fullness of time will ruin many peoples way of life as further rules will be weeded in. ?
    19 points
  17. Just to make you aware that starting in October there will be a joint IWA & CRT offside vegetation cutting programme (all volunteers) on the T&M between Fradley Junction and Great Haywood, then down the S&W as far as Gailey. There will be another operation starting in Coventry and heading north to Hawkesbury, then to Fazeley then on the B&F to Curdworth. Obviously neither will require a stoppage (although there is one at the Great Haywood end of the S&W in January for weir maintenance), nor will there be any formal navigation restrictions in place. However if any of you are moored in those sections and hear the cutting being carried out approaching your boat, it would help a great deal if you would move forward or back briefly if asked to do so. Many of the spots with encroaching vegetation are opposite popular moorings so it’s in everyone’s interest if we can pay particular attention to dealing with those. As you all know, the encroaching vegetation on many parts of the system has been neglected and is probably the worst it’s been for years. Unfortunately in order to help catch up we need to make enough progress to complete the whole of those sections if possible, before we have to stop in early March when the wildlife begins nesting. We will be working Monday to Friday. We will therefore have to just concentrate on the significant places such as on bends, sightlines, opposite popular moorings, bridge and lock approaches, narrow sections etc, and on the straighter sections we will have to leave sporadic tree encroachments on the basis that if two boats meet, one will have to hold back briefly, and on some sections just create passing places. I also ask for you patience if you come across us and we are unable to move out of your way straight away. We are usually pretty good at doing this, but occasionally it may take a few minutes for us to tuck in out of your way. Afterwards you will no doubt see some places and wonder why we haven’t addressed them, but I’m afraid that in the circumstances this will be the best we can hope for, at least in the short term anyway. And it will certainly be much better than it is at the moment!
    18 points
  18. Interesting reading all the speculation, Unfortunately the article in the Bridgwater and Taunton Mercury is very misleading and the "unnamed man" is a disgruntled boat owner who has caused nothing but trouble for himself through his own behaviour, Also not an original bw docks boat owner... Thought he could buy a boat on the B&T and freeload from the situation, 1. The reality of the situation is. CRT gave up 28 marina's the same year as the bw docks, Somerset County Council were the only council to insist on all the boats having to leave (not crt's choice) 2. CRT worked with the boaters as yes some lived there had job's and families so lifting out and causing upheaval leaving there home was something crt recognised and helped by allowing the boats to move out onto the 14 miles of waterway, 3. As some on here have stated you can't meet Cc requirements moving over 20 miles a year as it obviously isn't that long a waterway, there were also no suitable identified mooring locations for the particular size of boats in question. 4. the docks future at that point was uncertain, potential leveling up funds for refurbishment but no timescale or guarantee so crt gave the boaters an agreement to bide by and it was reviewed every 6 months. 5. The time came where the town’s fund was secured and a date set for refurbishment was place to be the summer of 2025. 6. Once crt had this information they (last year) spoke with the boaters and indicated if the boats didn't have home moorings by January of this year they would have to be removed from the b&t. 7. Three locations were identified for moorings (pretty much where the boats had found homes over the past two years and local businesses approached with offers to lease and manage the locations, 8 (here's your new paper misinformation) all the original boat owners who left the docks have identified locations there is some finalising to be done with 4 but heading in the right direction. One original boat sadly the owner passed away and the family are removing the boat to be sold. Two of the original boats but not original owners are being removed, And a third that just showed up on the system thinking they could be clever and play the system these 3 boats received eviction notices, Two of the three have done nothing but try to play the system claiming squatting rights cause fights and upsetting the local areas,ect, the 3rd was recently sold and the new owner is lifting it for a refit. So 10 people loosing there homes/boats? Not true. There has been nothing but support for the boaters from crt and the local bridgwater town council, yes some difficult pills to swallow at times loosing the facilities at the docks for example (the county council again insisting they had to be closed) and life adjustments to make but everyone is still local to there families and job's. The Bridgwater mercury didn't fact check before publication.
    18 points
  19. 18 points
  20. After 30 years as a Police officer he would have a decent pension, so more then likely doing it voluntary just to get out the house and keep active and not for the money as HMRC quickly take it off you when you make extra. I don’t know why people are going on about PAYE or Employee, does it make any difference to the senseless murder of a decant man?
    18 points
  21. I had a composting toilet fitted in January 2019 and at the time, promised to let the forum know, after the first year, how I had got on with it. There is a fair bit to say so I will copy Sir Nibble and post it in sections. (No I won't - it won't let me!) Views on toilets are very mixed and several bits of this will not meet with complete agreement. All I can say is that I did not go the composting route entirely by choice, it was a decision partly driven by circumstances. This is an honest description of my experience in the last twelve months. I have absolutely no axe to grind here and have no connection with Nature’s Head nor with any toilet supplier. Background I have a 70’ Orion tug, built in 2003 and which I have owned since 2013. My wife and I are retired, we don’t live aboard but spend about 7 months of each year on the boat. Our time aboard is split into roughly 6 week spells. When I bought the boat it had a macerating pump-out toilet and as there was space, I added a 365 Cube porta-potti for emergencies. This arrangement was OK for five years though I never really trusted the pump-out, for one thing, the ‘full’ indicator never worked properly. Late last year I had a lot of work done on the boat to re-position the engine. As a result I had to get rid of the pump-out toilet, as the holding tank was removed to accommodate the repositioned drive-shaft. I could have replaced it with a cassette but decided to experiment with composting instead. We bought a new Nature’s Head composting toilet at Crick, Debdale installed it for me as part of the engine move and other work which they did on the boat. The company from which I bought the toilet is no longer in business and I am not sure if Nature’s Head have a UK distributor at present. You can certainly view the toilet on the net and may have to if you want to completely follow what I have to say. Installation and use Installation was exactly as per the manufacturers instructions except that the ‘screw down brackets’ which fix the unit to the floor were not used by Debdale and I have not fitted them since. The old porta-potti was not fixed to the floor and I have found no reason to fix the Nature’s Head, in fact it’s simpler to use if not fixed. A small 12v computer fan extracts air from the toilet and pumps it out through a skin fitting. The fan runs 24/7 when we are on the boat and not at all when we are not. I had planned to use one of the old pump-out exits for this but Debdale preferred to cut a new hole and skin fitting instead. The manufacture says some substrate should be used and we selected coconut coir. This comes dehydrated in blocks (20cm x 10cm x 5cm) which I buy in bulk from Amazon. I also purchased a number of 30 litre clear polythene boxes from Wilko. These had lids and I cut a large hole in two of the lids, hot-gluing nylon fly screen over the holes. The boxes were intended to hold first the reconstituted coir and ultimately, the ‘product’ while it finished composting. The boat has an enormous (1700 litre) front deck locker which is of limited use (you can’t easily reach the bottom of it from the deck). It may have been constructed partly for a bow thruster which was never fitted (but who knows, Richard at Orion had some eccentric design ideas). Anyway, my original plan was that I could use part of this locker to stack some of the Wilko boxes - those with fly screen lids - while the ‘compost’ matured. The Nature’s Head has a horizontal stirring bar about half way up the solid waste container. The manufacturer’s guidance is to start by filling to this level with coir. I prepared the coir by placing two of the blocks in a Wilco box and adding 7 litres of very hot water, putting a (solid) lid on and leaving it for 24 hours. The next day the coir had expanded to about 10 litres and become crumbly, it was slightly moist but not wet. It takes about 70% of the prepared coir to fill the toilet to the recommended level, I left the remaining coir in the Wilko box which was stored in the engine room. In use the Nature’s Head requires a little practise, it is very important to keep liquid and solid “deposits” completely separate. So you need to be careful where you are seated on the toilet but it doesn’t take long to get the hang of it. Urine goes into a removable bottle which can be easily changed, we had 3 spare bottles and needed to change one every day. Obviously they are straightforward to empty in an Elsan or even in a public toilet, as there is no mess involved. The nitty gritty We find that with only two users we need to empty the solids box every three weeks. Not because the container is full (in fact the level does not change much) but the material becomes denser and the stirrer gets difficult to move. Here we depart from the manufacturer’s instructions. We decided to do this because the stuff does not smell unpleasant and does not look like a box of turds. The appearance is rather like garden leaf mould and the smell is similar. So we proceed as follows:- Move the toilet out into the centre of the bathroom Remove the liquid container Have an empty Wilco box ready Trowel out the material using two garden trowels and put it in the Wilco box (*1) Put new choir in the solids container plus a sprinkling over the solids in the Wilco box Put the liquids container back, close and replace the toilet Cover the Wilco box with a fly screen lid and put it in the engine room (*2) The whole operation takes 10 minutes. *1 Emptying after 3 weeks results in about 15 litres of waste so you can just fit 6 weeks worth into a single Wilco box. *2 The original plan was to put the box in the front locker but as there was no smell, we experimented with storing it in the engine room to see if the heat would speed composting. As we go home roughly every six weeks and only produce a single Wilco box of waste in that time, we just take it home with us and add it to our existing garden composting arrangements. This was a major departure from our original plan but I think we could have managed with the locker. The difficulty for anyone without ‘hands on’ experience is believing that the quantity of product is so small and that my claims about smell are true. I know, I was surprised myself. Also, of course the system might be unworkable for live-aboard’s with limited locker space - in that respect we have an advantage. But neither of us would go back to the old toilet arrangements and would recommend composting to anyone with the necessary space and an unfussy attitude to getting familiar with their waste.
    18 points
  22. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  23. About half past six this evening, my dog started barking madly, and my wife thought she had heard someone shouting loudly. I went into the garden and saw that a man was in the canal, directly under the bridge. I ran through the house and over the bridge and arrived under the bridge just as my neighbour from across the canal got there. We pulled the man from the canal, who was obviously suffering from shock. It turmed out he was a cyclist and had collided with the bridge and bounced into the canal. We checked him put and he had cut his head and nose, my first aid training from years ago came in handy! He was worrying about his bike, so I returned home to get the boat hook and successfully retrieved his bike from the canal. He then took a turn for the worse and slumped to the ground, occasionally drifting into unconsciousness. We called an ambulance, got blankets to make him as comfortable as possible. Tried to get details from him, he gave his name and date of birth but when asked were he lived he said "Bedworth" but couldnt remeber the rest of his address. When the ambulance arrived they checked him out and took him off to hospital. Just goes to show how easy it is to have an accident. If he had knocked himself out he would have drowned and in the evening very few people walk that stretch of canal.
    18 points
  24. I’ve been floating (pun not intended!) around this forum for years now. a post from @MtB stating “Despite the brutal nature of some of the posts in this thread everyone here has the basic intention to help. Take it on the chin and come back with questions. No matter how basic, banal or advanced your questions are you will gt good and constructive answers. Mostly lol!” prompted me to start this thread. I’ve received an invaluable amount of very knowledgeable information from this forum, both from passive reading and active posting. There are some incredibly knowledgeable members. I’ve also seen some incredibly frustrating newbies posting limited information and expecting endless help, as well as being rude. however, I do wonder why we’re accepting that for anyone new on this forum one must accept an element of unkindness to access any sort of help. We’ve all been new to this once. And I’m pretty sure if anyone actually came up to anyone on this forum and asked a question or for some advice, in real life, posters would be far more patient. So why is it acceptable to destroy posters on here with unkindness and intolerance? I say this because I’ve had the good fortune to meet in real life a number of posters from this forum, and several of these have been left enormously upset by the postings of some. I think some members forget these are real, fallible, flawed humans just like the rest of us. I’m interested to hear opinions on this. I completely understand some posters’ frustration at being taken advantage of for their substantial professional or amateur expertise. Perhaps there’s a way to work towards an increased kindness, which might in its own way perpetuate the success of this community for more than a mere handful of “acceptable” posters?
    17 points
  25. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  26. Point of Order.... Don't be too hard on these expensive local corner shops. They will be buying their stock at virtually the same price as the likes of Tesco et al flog it direct to the general public, and your perceived overprice will be their gross profit margin. If you begrudge them scratching a living by adding 10p to the price of their beans or 70p to a packet of bacon, then go directly to a Tesco superstore and buy it there. Yes I know that is inconvenient or impossible much of the time, and therein lies the value of overpriced corner shops. Rant over
    17 points
  27. Following an incensed outburst of mine last night which has rightly been removed by the moderators, I thought I'd post my reply in the hope that this might prompt a calmer discussion about what I feel is becoming an increasing problem on CWDF. This used to be a friendly place for boaters new and old to ask questions and get answers, and a mine of knowledge about the history of the canals and the boats on them. It's moving towards somewhere much less friendly, where anything that challenges the entrenched views of some results in a shower of criticism which often rapidly descends into schadenfreude and personal abuse -- playing the man, not the ball. And I'm not going to mince words here, it's also clear that most of this comes from a few people who are effectively poisoning the atmosphere on the forum. I'm not so concerned about myself -- I'm a big boy, I can normally take robust argument and even insults without throwing a hissy fit, though recent events explain why I finally blew my top this time. I can deal with this trend by blocking people I find obnoxious, and of course they can do the same to me if they want to. My worry is about the loss to CWDF of both experienced posters and new members due to the way that discussions and in particular personal comments on posts seem to be going. Am I the only one who thinks this is a problem? If not, it would be a shame to see CWDF go the way some other forums have done and die slowly while becoming an angry echo chamber ? Dear Athy I do apologise for this, I was just incensed at some of the personal comments on the thread and boiled over after a couple of beers. There seem to be more and more cases recently of people using personal abuse rather than reasoned discussion to try and "win" what they see as an argument (on many subjects) where they're in the right, and where anyone daring to disagree is obviously morally corrupt and therefore ripe for abuse -- and having spent some time looking back over various threads where this has happened, it's obvious that this mostly comes from a small number of people, I'm sure you know who they are as well as I do (because I've blocked many of them). I can't help feeling that this has not only driven some knowledgeable and experienced posters away from CWDF but is putting off new people joining when their first post is shot down on flames for one reason or another -- and there's even sometimes crowing on the lines of "hah, we taught them a lesson, we've had the last word", which I suspect sadly means they've given up in disgust and gone elsewhere. Which is a shame because there's still a huge amount of knowledge and experience which helpful people on the forum are happy to impart, and people leaving reduce this pool (if they're experienced) or lose access to it (if they're new). CWDF didn't use to be like this when I joined back in 2012, it was friendlier and less combative and abusive. Things seemed to take a turn for the worse before/during/after the Brexit referendum, and have done so again since Covid-19 hit -- maybe the first is a symptom of increased "us and them" division in the country, maybe the second is because some people have more time on their hands to angrily hammer away at a keyboard and tell other people how wrong they are. It would be a shame if this continues, because it could be the start of a long slippery slope with CWDF ending up as a small number of angry people shouting into an otherwise empty echo chamber, who think they've "won" because nobody answers back. I've seen this happen with other Internet forums and discussion groups over the years, and I really hope it doesn't happen to CWDF. Best wishes Ian
    17 points
  28. It’s worth pointing out that not even 60 years ago—in my parents’ lifetime, in my lesbian aunts’ lifetime, maybe even in some of your lifetimes—heterosexuals put laws in place that would make me illegal. I could be punished, beaten and imprisoned. That isn’t ancient history. This still happens in some parts of the world. The reverberation of this regressive practice is still felt by people like me. It was your heterosexual police force who would entrap us like we were wild savages, they would raid our gathering spots, unable to leave us alone, veritably foaming at the mouth to oppress and subjugate. They would pretend to be like us so they could hurt us. Alan Turing helped Britain to win the Second World War and his reward from the heterosexual majority was castration. Truly and utterly shameful. It was this society where even popular homosexuals feared being themselves. Kenneth Williams, who the British public adored for his role in the Carry On films and Just a Minute, could never feel truly comfortable with himself because of the society he was born in, despite the deep public adoration for him and his talent. I posit his profound self-loathing was created by a society that hated who he really was and loved his created persona on stage and film. When we are told to just integrate, I dare say why don’t you lot make a society that is welcoming and caring for people like me so that this so-called integration is possible? Why is it incumbent upon me to do that? You create laws to criminalise me, you castrate me, you threaten and hurt me. What are you doing to help me integrate? Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
    16 points
  29. Regarding the original post and accident. Myself, sister and her husband were at the scene of the accident on Wednesday. We were the three people who jumped in and pulled the man out from beneath the boat. I did not witness him actually fall in as we were in the stop lock at the time. Many passers by and the staff at the marina were there and offered assistance. The paramedics were fantastic too. His wife was lovely and coped incredible well considering the ordeal. I hope very much the gentleman is recovering well in hospital. Please all, take care out there and safe boating. Can I recomend downloading an app called "what three words" which helps give your exact location to emergency services and also looking at some youtube videos on resuscitation and basic first aid. You never know when you might need it.
    16 points
  30. When I were a lad there were regular fights on the beach between the mods and rockers (both sides beat up the hippies). Not long before that there were signs in windows saying "No dogs, irish, blacks". When I was a teenager there was a trend in Leeds of pouring petrol on tramps and setting them alight, and Paki-bashing was a bit of good fun. When I worked Civil Service in Liverpool in the eighties the office lads had a great laugh throwing bananas at the black footballers. I'm not actually sure it's got a lot worse I think it's the opposite. What used to be normal, unremarked behaviour has been marginalised because most people behave well, so the plonkers stand out more. And, of course, there are more people on boats than there were, and the same proportion of pains in the backside just means there are more of them, too.
    16 points
  31. It’s because despite changing attitudes, there is still a not-small contingent of british people who are homophobic, and a smaller contingent who are quite happy to voice that and demonstrate it by physical attack. Why not have a heterosexual pride thingy?, part of the answer is that people don’t get verbally abused, beaten up, killed, thrown out of the family home etc because they are heterosexual, but all those things still happen because people are homosexual even in 2022. And that is just in the UK. In other parts of the world, these people can be unemployable, imprisoned or executed by the State. The gay pride thing is about normalising being gay, that it is nothing to be ashamed about, and is a normal subset of humanity, always was and always will be. The aim being to make it less socially acceptable to be ostentatiously homophobic.
    16 points
  32. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  33. Good luck with that then. I once gave a mate a hand to do the same (40 years ago) the mental scars are still evident. First he had it pumped out at a yard. Then we filled it up with water and a cocktail of chemicals that "Bloke in Pub" told him in an all knowing way would definitely dislodge any "ooh nasty" that was lingering. Returning to the yard we had it pumped out again. Convinced it must now be clean and empty, we now proceeded to a mate's mooring as he'd offered to buy it for his boat. On arrival the outlet pipe was opened and the buyer suggested we shove a dipstick down it as he wanted to confirm he was indeed buying it empty. We didn't get that far as the evil stench that visibly emerged from the opened pipe not only clashed badly with the yellow paintwork, but confirmed something potent still lingered inside. All three of us suffered physical wounds as well as blunt force trauma as we each battered the other two in an attempt to exit the bog at the same time. We retired to the pub where medicine was administered to calm our heaving stomachs. "Bloke" was there, so we updated him on the lack of efficacy we had encountered having embraced his suggestion as to which chemicals to shove in it. He accepted a drink in return for advising we needed to agitate it to slosh the cleaner around inside. With a knowing look we all said "Ah, that makes sense" And had another pint each. An hour later we had refilled it with water and emptied in what was left of " Blokes' " chemicals and everything else we found in the cleaning cupboard on board. Personally I was putting my money on the lavender Radox. Now we'd chucked 20 gallons in and shoved a tea towel down the spout it occurred to us that nearly 2cwt of liquid goo wasn't going to be easy to slosh about with gay abandon. It was at this point that one of us pointed out that due to the shape of the tank it wasn't going to exit the boat doors let alone allow itself to be contorted around bulkheads etc without being tipped up on end. Clearly it would have to be emptied again, properly this time, but sans agitation. Fed up with wasting money on pump outs our friend was determined this was to be the last attempt. "I wonder if pumping air into it would stir it all up enough?" He pondered. It was decided to give that a try until it transpired that the only electric pump on board was a bilge pump which was superb at pumping water, but hopeless at pumping air. Luckily it was at this point that one of us misremembered an experiment at school and became totally confused about the frothy results of mixing the kind of ingredients everybody has in their kitchen. "I'll be back in a minute ...." He confidently departed in the direction of the corner "Spar Shop". On return he proceeded to empty a 5lb box of Baking Powder down the toilet, closely followed by a gallon of Pickling Vinegar. "Well, that ought to d ......" was as far as he got. I won't go into all of the sordid details of what transpired or how long it took to clean everything off the ceiling and out of the bilges, and the engine or off the fenders. But suffice it to say we never found the tea towel. Like I said Good Luck!!!!
    16 points
  34. Heavily raining. Started engine, fitted tiller extension, ran up to untie front end, ran back to let go back rope, pushed back end out before stepping onto counter. So far ok. About to select astern to reverse out from mooring when I spotted cat smiling at me from towpath. Swore, leapt ashore, scooped up cat, ran to the front end as back had drifted too far for further heroic straddling. Climbed onto gunnel and edged my way back with struggling cat. Employed one free hand to alternatively fumble for hand rail, and then wipe the blood out of my eyes inflicted by cat enthusiastically wind milling his razor sharp scythes at me. Due to restricted eye sight and concentrating on restricting the squirming cat who was displaying not only a deep hatred for me but also a remarkable similarity to a dozen eels, I reached the engine 'ole where the hand rail finishes. Imagine my blind (literally) panic when I realised I was holding on to nothing. I reached out frantically to clutch onto a handhold and with short lived glee encountered boat pole. Couple walking by on towpath applauded my skills at tightrope'ish, cat juggling and enquired if there would be an encore? Laughing heartily through gritted teeth I achieved the counter while alternatively waving cat and then boat pole above my head, thus equilibrium was maintained. I peeled the cat off me like Velcro and unceremoniously projected him towards his bed opposite the stove ......... in which was casually watching me, our own cat. Upon arrival of the doppelgänger levels of activity and noise were accelerated to levels mere imagination would never have anticipated. After about 2 minutes of identical cats screaming at each other and bouncing of hanging plates I stopped in a bridge hole and ordered one of them to go ashore toot sweet and without ceremony. I never knew which one it was that slinked off without a backward glance, but the one that remained glowered at me all the way to Hemel Hempstead.
    16 points
  35. Please put your dogs on a damn lead. As everyone is I'm sure aware a specific breed in in the news at the moment for attacking people. I don't think it's just a breed thing. My small boy (corgi) has been attacked 4 times in the past few months on the towpath or in a marina. He was just picked up and shaken by the back of the neck by a much larger dog, like a rabbit. Owner not in sight. If your dog is not extremely well trained, has poor recall or shows ANY aggression ever. Keep them on a damn lead when there is a chance to meet other dogs. Keep them in line of sight at all times. I keep mine on a lead because he does not always like other dogs. I can't do much if yours comes running over out of your control. I do not want to have to harm your dog to save mine. I have already had to kick several dogs in the head. These were not the stereotypical "aggressive" breeds. "He's usually friendly!" is not an excuse. I can't bear the thought on my lovely boy being seriously hurt by another dog: Edit: sorry if the wrong place to post this. Move it if needed!
    15 points
  36. 5. make it easier and cheaper for householders to dispose of their rubbish at the council "tips".
    15 points
  37. If it helps one person embarking on a sailaway project to avoid one bad decision then it will have been worth my while doing this "rant". I agree its not light reading, I'm no writer. If reading it was compulsory I would not write it but its not. And its not as bad as the personal invective in the Political section. I'm a little disappointed that it is Blackrose of all people choosing to cast solid round objects.
    15 points
  38. In a world of so much negativity I just wanted to share a lovely encounter I had yesterday. I was admiring a beautiful garden near Kinver and a charming elderly gentleman offered to show me around. We chatted for a while and he then kindly gifted me this beautiful vase from his wife's pottery shed. She is an no longer with him and he doesn't want to empty out her stuff, but is happy to gift it. Meeting him really made my day and I will always treasure this little act of kindness. People really can be wonderful and it's a joy meeting them when out and about on the waterways.
    15 points
  39. We had one try it on a couple of years ago on the boat in front of us. "Working boats have priority at locks ..." The boater they were telling it to accepted it, so I stole the lock from the ex-working boat. Furiously marched up to me and said "I know you heard me tell the other chap that working boats have priority" I smiled sweetly and agreed I'd heard him say that. Then I pointed out politely that he had a pleasure boat licence and I have a roving traders licence. By definition only one of us is a working boat ...
    15 points
  40. Waterworks seems to be gagging for battles with CRT. Normal people just pay CRT's reasonable changes and get on with their lives, rather than prattling on about how recovering them is civil matter and CRT can't add them to the license fee or withhold a license. Such an idea would not even occur to most boaters who are happy to comply with reasonable rules in order to get well controlled and available moorings.
    15 points
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  42. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  43. I've been a member for years now. I've had one callout when the bloke just shrugged and walked away, another who did his best but failed to sort a broken fuel pipe, one who replaced a bust starter, another who sorted out a gearbox problem in half an hour. On top of that, they've contributed £2000 to gearbox repairs and their service engineer had a fallout with the owner of my mooring site which got RCR banned from the farm and for which they never apologised. So a mixed bunch, but as a person of a certain age and inflexibility with no expertise in engines, I wouldn't be without them as a safety net. When disaster strikes, panic sets in and an expert on the end of a phone call is very reassuring. And to know they'll always get you to a boatyard if necessary is also handy. And to slag off a new poster, who in good faith put a useful report on here, as some members have done, is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves. Sadly, it's typical of some, but luckily not the majority.
    15 points
  44. Having to drop in and out of gear is ridiculous. Any boat should go fine at 2mph and I see no reason to go much slower past boats unless someone is actually in the process of tying up or, like here on the Caldon, the canal is barely two boats wide. Or it's six in the morning & I'm trying to be quiet, though I do wonder if they'd rather I went quicker and got further away faster... And if someone's permanently moored in the middle of a mile or two of linear moorings, tough. Set springs or buy a bungalow.
    15 points
  45. I had a small success today and thought I'd share it here in case it proves useful to others. When shutting down the boat before lockdown last month, I managed to snap the key of the front locker. For a month I have read about ways of extracting a broken key from its lock; the articles all dismissed my first thought of "How about using superglue" by observing that this usually ends up with you gluing the broken key section irrevocably into the lock. All recommended using some sort of a hook to pull it out, but the big question was "how?" My wife had left a packet of "TePe" interdental brushes on the bathroom shelf, and these caught my attention. In case you don't know what they are, they are small brushes for cleaning between your teeth (see here if you want full details) that look like this: The brush part is about 1.5 cm long, and has 2 stiff twisted wires about the thickness of a hair. I cut the wires at the very tip and then separated and untwisted them; the bristles simply fell out. After folding one of the two wires back out of the way, I flattened out the spiral of the other and bent the tip back by about 1mm as a hook. There was just enough room to insert this probe into the lock, next to the broken key, and then rotate it by 90 degrees. On my third attempt the end of the hook engaged in the key, and I was able to pull out the offending item and leave the lock clear. Even better, the key had its maker's name (Lowe and Fletcher) and a pattern number stamped into the side, and I was able to order a replacement key from them on line. SUCCESS!
    15 points
  46. CRT PRESS RELEASE 1st April 2022 IMPROVING LOCK BALANCE BEAMS ON THE CANALS Over the next 12 months, the waterways and wellbeing charity will worked with dozens of volunteers, community organisations and youth groups to deliver a major improvement to the canal and river infrastructure of our waterways. The biggest improvement in recent years that the Trust has made has been to change the many signs on its property from black and white to shades of blue. This has lead to increased wellbeing of all visitors to the waterways. The next phase of the project will take things still further and remove some inconsistent branding from the built environment of the waterways. Most lock balance beams are still either painted black and white, in the old British Waterways brand colours, or worse, in bare wood, with white ends. To maintain a consistent image across the Trusts environment, a major program will repaint all lock beams in the Trusts dark blue, with pale blue ends. The pale blue on the ends of the beams are an important health and safety feature, allowing visitors to spot them in reduced light conditions. To this end, we will be diverting all navigation staff from other maintenance tasks to working with volunteer groups on painting while the project is going on. We believe that consistent branding will be more beneficial to boaters and other users and visitors to our waterways. Considerable work has gone on by our engineers to select a paint for lock beams that will adhere well to rotting wood. A feature of many lock beams on our 200 year old canal system. Unfortunately, this paint is very expensive and we have decided to cancel next winters program of lock gate replacement as the best use of the Trusts funds. April Blague, community engagement coordinator at the Canal & River Trust, said: “We are really proud of this new plan to improve our Waterways. This continuation of our rebranding to a Wellbeing Charity will improve the waterways experience for all our customers." “Research shows that being by the water makes you happier, and it’s satisfying to make a difference. The volunteers are doing an amazing job and their hard work will pay dividends this spring and beyond as visitors appreciate all the newly repainted locks. They will rightly feel very proud with what they have achieved. For more information about how to volunteer or donate to the Canal & River Trust, please visit www.canalrivertrust.org.uk. -ends-
    14 points
  47. Easy, focus on canals, navigation, boats, wildlife and history like wot you should, forget about wellbeens and cycle racing. "there are 1000's of miles of roads for cycle racing, but only one canal system, and that was built for boats, look after it" Watching a boat going through a lock makes people feel well, jumping out of the way of an abusive cyclist does not.
    14 points
  48. We have a washing machine and a tumble drier. The washing machine doesn’t use a huge amount of power but the drier is 2kw. It runs from the Travelpower. Although the TravelPower will produce 2kw at idle, it is a known issue that running a Beta 43 at idle with a big electrical load rapidly accumulates damage the crankshaft. We therefore try to avoid it and, although we normally pass moored boats at idle (850rpm) with the drier on we slow down earlier but pass at 1000rpm which is still fairly slow but not that slow. Of course on the Shroppie, unless one is in a cutting or embankment there is a virtually continuous line of moored boats that never move and resent moving boats. After the first 20 miles of being at idle it one starts to lose patience with it. You don’t make it clear whether you were temporarily moored or a permanent moorer on the Shroppie. If the latter I suppose it isn’t surprising that you don’t understand the issues that moving boats have. Having cruised the Shroppie for the last few days and seen numerous permanently moored boats whose owners have no idea how to tie up their boats, I am starting to think that one should just pass these linear housing estates at normal speed. Those linear moorers (they aren’t boaters) who don’t like moving boats could either learn to tie their boats up properly, move into a marina or preferably buy a caravan.
    14 points
  49. 14 points
  50. For the record, we had five boats out prior to this weekend, all sent out before any boating restrictions or even pub closures were in place. Two of those have now returned. A third (out since the beginning of February) was at Cropredy this morning and will be back by Thursday evening. The remaining two are crewed by entirely unrelated couples from New Zealand who currently have nowhere else to go. As of this morning they are mulling over whether to return to base and live here for the next few months or hunker down where they are (one of which is a fair way north having already been out for a while), which will depend on the likelihood of continued availability of essential services where they are vs. how much grief they will get from people jumping to conclusions if they boat back. I note that here today there are still a number of private boats moving too but no one complaining about that, and forgive me if this sounds bitter, but I expect there'll be a thread on here soon complaining that all the boatyards are shut and how dare we as we're an essential service, probably started by the same people who normally post advice on avoiding boatyards at all costs as they're too expensive. Rant over Incidentally, if anyone needs fuel round here, I spoke with Rue at Armada Boat Hire this morning and he's going to stay open for fuel for the foreseeable, and if it gets to a point where he's unable to continue we'll pick up the baton.
    14 points
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