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Having read through the 698 responses to the question "Can we cruise again?" I would like to answer. Yes, a bit, but don't stay out.

A forum is like a virtual conversation in the pub. They wander around a bit and get waylaid according to who else is listening. I doubt you would be so dictatorial down the snug of the Red Oak because someone interjected. Take the rough with the smooth, just because you think others' comments aren't relative or off topic it doesn't mean that's how they are to others, nor does it preclude their being a raw diamond or a nugget of value stashed away in it. It should take 28" easily and improves the exhaust note when she's wound on.

And this reminds me of an apocryphal quote attributed to Einstein: "Does Crewe stop at this train".

Well, concerning the thread topic... provided the world doesn't go to hell in a handcart again in the next few days and provided the remedial work done on my boat is cleared by the surveyor, I'll be onboard next week. Thanks for the moral support and helpful comments.

On this day in 2001 Diggle Flight Huddersfield Narrow Canal Please close all paddles before leaving lock to conserve water

1943 Hardy and Willis semi diesel with supercharged flaggelators , swinging a 26" axiom prop, stops like an old fart.

A suitably sized changeover relay, driven from a switched output from a battery management system could potentially do this. Most relays are changeover ones anyway. Double pole to switch both positive and negative rails. Rated to switch the max voltage and current from the solar panels. You would need a back up of some sort to cope with the relay sticking so it fails to safe from the Lithium batts point of view. Jen

As time moves on a number of heroes are in danger of being forgotten. When the Rochdale Canal though Manchester was about to be closed, the absence of boat movement over a three year period was a major factor (The Right to Navigate still existed then). Enter Bev Portman and Peter Froud, who got a contract to remove spoil from a construction site. It took them 11 days to get two boats there, travelling about a mile but removing on the way several hundred cobblestones from the locks, a rubbish cart and a milk float. Bev then ran a tripping boat through the city. He is the guy in glasses in the first photo. Civic attitudes stayed equivocal for some time afterwards. Hence the creation of play areas on the Rochdale Canal farther on.

That huge chip on your shoulder is clearly weighing you down. You make the assertion and then ask everyone else 'why'. You are the only one one here who has suggested that it is 'racist' so answer your own assertion if you can. The purpose of calling it Chinese Flu, Wuhan Flu,etc.etc isn't racism it is straightforward Trump propaganda that you have clearly bought into. He has royally cocked-up in the US and is in dire need of a scapegoat (as most people of his political persuasion are in need of). In January/February he was praising the actions on his 'friend' Xi, lauding how well they were doing really well with the infection (despite evidence to the contrary, even I remember the news clips of a deserted Wuhan, perhaps Fox News didn't show it),then when it all went tits up in the US suddenly he (and apparently you) forgot all about what a splendid job his 'friend' Xi was supposedly doing and oddly enough he isn't a 'friend' any more. If Trump listened to anyone, other than himself, he would have got a better picture of what was happening in China, but since he has no brains, he doesn't like to approach his intelligence services for any advice since he already 'knows' everything.

Would it be possible to have a forum where if people take over a thread with gripes at each other they can move onto? It's getting difficult to get info as I subscribe to lots of useful threads, or started off useful but they degenerated into 'mines bigger than yours' threads and I don't really want to get notifications about when they post their next rant? I love these forums to bits as they are so useful but some conversations at the moment are of no interest to anyone other than those having a go at each other, losing the thread entirely? Hope that makes sense?? failing that can mods lock threads that go waaaay off topic?

There is another excellent thread of beautiful canal pictures which I can't add to because my pics are not that good, so I've created this thread with the request that lots of people share their shots of just this one place as per picture below, ideally with a boat in the pic. Everybody but everybody has a shot of this place, surely?

That was me!. Hey ,I thought I wasn't talking to you. ? Life's too short

Having a short Sea Otter I wasn't aware of the condensation problem in winter months but we have only had the boat for about 20 years so we may not have found out about it yet ? . Is it because of your perception of winter condensation that you say that aluminium is not the best material for a year round boat or is there another reason? I agree that if being used in winter a better form of heating than a gas blown air system is essential. haggis

switch the wires round?

You cant stick an engine like that on a Freeman silly. It would put the back end through the pointy bit.

What happened to Freeman?? (F-H-W)

For the one in Yorkshire they were too tight to pay for the telegraph pole in the first place, but it's handier for the pub.

While I sort of like the idea, there wouldn't be anything outside of it I suspect. I have found that after about 10 or so replies nearly all go off the rails so I just stop reading it.

It had been an excellent day. The weather was calm and sunny. The views of Liverpool from the Mersey were stunning and, to cap it all, it was my 60th birthday

All sorted folks, thanks for the help. Just got it in at Hesford marina down Lymm so its a few days cruise down as soon as i can well going to get it running big job ahead.,, needs atleast the wooden / GRP top replacing. Captain Faffer

This day 2016. Burgundy canal at Vandenesse en Auxois. Only 8 more locks to the summit and a 3.5 km tunnel. The canal was closed in Aug 2015 due to lack of water so we moored in an expensive marina on the R. Saone for that winter and were returning to our usual base on the Burgundy canal. There are 72 locks to the summit from the Saone and 113 down to the R.Yonne so not a popular canal apart from the hotel boats between Dijon and this place. In Vandenesse church yard there are the graves of a Lancaster crew who came down near the village after the big raid on the Nevers marshaling yards.

Crane at Dog in Doublet. Nice warm day

Melting wires and magic smoke from 12 volt appliances and lights etc.

Loading an entire warehouse onto a narrowboat takes haulage to a whole new level...

Your political agenda is showing again. Have you forgotten that this thread is in General boating and about if we can cruise again? Quite but I would just add but not in Wales or Scotland.

Just on same rules as before if I had to empty holding tank its other side of Doncaster 12 hours return which I have always been allowed to do, so lets of locks which would have been manned in some cases as they are broken to users. Although next month things will change for livaboards not so for pleasure boaters really

I'm not certain about that from an insurance point of view. It's definitely a bit complicated due to the sinking happening during the red boards conditions which were followed almost immediately by social distancing laws from the government due to the Covid 19 outbreak. These social distancing obligations may well have made it technically impossible for the EA to send a gang out to mark the wreck once the red boards were down. Of course the main point is that nobody should have been navigating a boat at the time due to the "lock down" which despite its name does not indicate moving a vessel down hill.

As a grumpy old boater who is deeply suspicious of things with wires, digital anything and 'systems' I would always keep things simple. Gas is simple and relatively cheap. Its not hard to keep a couple of lead acid batts charged with solar and engine (usually!) and there's enough important things to fix on a boat without adding a whole world of grief trying to prove its possible to make toast with a toaster. (Anyway toasters are rubbish, straw coloured toast after 10 minutes toasting - proper toast is black with a soft middle) Sorry, will be more positive after I've walked the dog.

The EA also has responsibilities as an employer to keep its workforce safe. The Agency should do whatever it thinks best to that end.

I really can't see the point of that setup. If you've got gas why would you need an electric hob? I'm not the most electrically knowledgeable but I've never heard of the concept of "excess amp hours" on boats before. Anyway I live aboard, cook everyday and use a 13kg gas bottle about every six months. I really don't think it's worth trying to save gas.

There's going to be a stampede. Best to continue to treat everyone and everything as a biological disaster area - methinks.

"Many would choose to stay away." Really? If you take this forum as a sample of boaters I would say that people are champing at the bit to get back aboard. I am certain that if boating were suddenly allowed it would be like a bank holiday weekend out there. Who accepts that the risk of transmission from outside surfaces is quite low? Surfaces that have been touched on a handrail for instance are going to be touched again immediately after. It's not enough to look for ways to make it possible however much we may wish it to be so, it's about making a rational common sense judgement of whether it's SAFE. You have to make that judgement on the basis of hundreds of people, and let's be honest, a lot of people are not taking the virus seriously or taking any precautions at all, not on the basis of one boat's crew using an otherwise deserted waterway.

Doesn't look like advice to me, looks pretty clear that cruising is not permitted. Only CC can move and only to access services.

An analogy: Your battery bank is a water barrel. Your inverter is a bucket for getting water out of the barrel. Your solar is a small pipe feeding water into the barrel, fitfully. Your immersion heater is a camel that can take enormous quantities of water. The bigger your bucket (the inverter), the faster you can empty the barrel into the camel, but the quantity of water is the same whether the bucket is big or small. The first essential is to get enough water into the barrel, before you worry about the size of the bucket. 900W solar is nominal max and you won't get near that a lot of the time. And your barrel is quite small, 550Ah when new and significantly less as they age. Another point is that you can only take out of the barrel (battery bank) down to half full, so that there is only half as much to use as first appears, even if the barrel is full. The moral is that you can't realistically use camels on canal boats.

Apologies for posting on topic.

Back to the original topic. People go on too much about the privileged background of politicians, but actually Matt Hancock had a very humble upbringing in an Italian workshop, owned by a woodworker named Geppetto, who turned him into a human boy.