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Of the house, not the boat. This is in Arts and Crafts not because it's Art, but because the dog is crafty - she got her modelling fee.

What we do is to pull a loop of rope through the eye-splice, then put the loop we've just made over the bollard on the stern, and then give it a sharp tug before throwing the rope onto the lock-landing for someone to loop over the bollard there. works for us.

Berrichon Sirdar again, in the lower chamber at Le Guetin. Also the tractor, on which I have no further information, except that the group of Dutch and Belgian mariniers around were gnashing their teeth at the way the staircase was adminstered (uphill travellers would not not allowed to progress the following morning, even when there were no downhill boats left, because that was not their specified time of day) Peter Zivy, who started Saint Line, had previously based his fleet of six on the Marne, but moved to Baye on the Nivernais having discovered the canal and been appalled that it was up for closure. He spent a good deal of money in doing so and subsquently moved to Englnad, but by then others were getting established. Prominent amongst them was Michael Street, who became the first hire boat operator on the Midi (encountering concerted hostility from the French tax authorities, to whom anything new must be suspect. Michael did win through in the end, but the process exhausted him;he subsequently sold out to Guinness, who weredeciding on "leisure" at the time).

More on the berrichons. In 1968 I travelled with a group of friends on a hire cruiser from Saint Line on the Nivernais. Even then, this was the only hire company in France, and by being based at Baye, on the summit, and lobbying hard, it thereby saved the Nivernais from closure. On an ambitious circuit we passed, at Marseilles-les-Aubigny, the blocked-off entrance to the Canal de Berry, with several of its tradional craft moored out in the main canal. Then, at Le Guetin, there had been a stoppage of some kind, and in thequeue, was the berrichon Sirdar, the family on board certainly eating under an awning at the stern, though possibly sleeping somewhere underneath. The mule/horse combination that towed the vessel was stabled centrally on board, that being the regulation (the animals were not allowed to graze on shore either, though some surely did). I shall post a couple of further photos on a following entry, asap.

Its the bit on the end of its leg. Or if you want to be clever :

As a professional boat signwriter and decorator, I recycle and re-use white spirit constantly. Left overnight in small tins, the pigment sinks to the bottom and the amber coloured spirit is ready to go again once decanted off, perfectly adequate for washing brushes and wiping palettes etc.

The simplest things that anglers can do to be helpful to boaters are to be visible (to boats, even if not to fish!), and to acknowledge your approach in some way. Then both parties know that the rod will be lifted out of the way at the last minute, and perhaps a few friendly words exchanged. It avoids the uncertainty that can lead to horns / emergency slowing down / lines being caught etc.

I thought he was going through his Dame Edna phase and was expecting the next avatar change to be to a muppet carrying a bunch of gladioli...

A chap I used to moor next to got one, after about the 3rd time he rang me to bring a hammer and chisel to help open his door, worked well until he used the spare emergency key and didn't replace it

'Cause some bright spark (who cant be mentioned but their name starts with Jen i* *** ) couldnt see the black mask so didnt get the joke with my strap line. Thought I better change it so it was a bit more visible.

The Peniche in Athy’s photo looks like it should be a automotor so it suggest that it is being towed into a tunnel. So not the St Quentin or Marne Rhin as these have electric tugs. The summit tunnel on the Marne Saone canal has a towpath which I believe was used by tractors but I have in my mind that the entrance canal was narrow for some distance.

Very unlikely that your boat was painted with cellulose. New cellulose will react with almost every other paint. Boat paints are oil based enamels or 2 pack curing paints. Who told you to buy cellulose, there is not a lot of it around these days, cars use other paints now?

Have you actually gone onto the map and 'told it where you are' ? I'm sure its not clever enough to link to your avatar location.

That's a massive step up from a BMC 1.5. I think you can expect to look forward to water cooling problems

I know! Tell me about it! If Jen hadnt posted, I would have been none the wiser. I always view it on a laptop where the black mask was perfectly clear....if you knew to look at it. Prolly best to go back to fish jokes.

If you have to explain the joke...

Ahhh as I can't see strap lines it still makes no sense

Too late for you now Ange, but it might help someone else. You can buy magnetic car key boxes, and leave a spare key attached but hidden on tne car. https://www.amazon.co.uk/MASTER-LOCK-Magnetic-key-box/ They work on steel boats too, handy if you lose your key.

Some years ago Fulbourne was moored at Sowerby Bridge. We had arranged a trip with a load of my daughter's college friends on a Sunday afternoon from Sowerby Bridge to Hebden Bridge. But not wishing to miss an opportunity, my son and I decided we would like to head down to Salterhebble (which is as far as a full length narrow boat can go) and back in the morning. Being a Sunday morning the entire 2.5 miles was lined with fishermen. Yes - almost all men. This is the traditional North, where on a Sunday morning then men go out fishing, while the wives cook the Sunday lunch! On the way out we got mostly neutral reactions from the fishists, who just wanted us to get past as soon as possible. But on the way back we got more than a few tart comments for daring to disturb them twice on the same morning!

I would agree, beta over canaline. 43 would more than enough, diesels like to be worked hard, and it is a struggle to manage that even with 43, never mind 50.

Good stuff - which will accept paint, unlike silicone products.

In my limited experience of wide open bits of water its awfully easy to be somewhere where you didn't think you were - and that's in daylight. Entering harbours at night and looking for a little flashing buoy the size of a Christmas tree light against a lit up town is just awful. (Satellites and things weren't invented the last time I had the slightest responsibility for navigating a sailing boat)

I have always larks footed the eyesplice around the bollard. Pull it tight horizontally first, and it never slips off under a vertical pull. I do the same with the bow rope around the T stud stem. No need to pull the entire length of rope through the eye - you can just turn the eye inside out to create the loop (easier to demonstrate than to describe) which you then drop over the bollard and pull tight. It's easy to slacken off the larks foot when you want to remove the rope from the bollard, which is more than can be said for an eye which is a tight fit over the top of the bollard, especially if your fingers are cold and wet. And the larks foot can be done with any size of eye splice - which is helpful as I can never get an eyesplice to come out the exact length intended. I never know how people manage to get tight eye splices around thimbles - mine have always been loose.

Or Stixall from tool station, available in black, white and clear.

What you're saying is "...If it won't move, leave it, if it breaks it needed replacing anyway" Good detective work on the rope scarring by the way - never spotted this. B ut then that's why these forums are so brilliant!

It was widely known as Teeny Weeny - something, it is alleged, that might irk both Boris and Donald!

Shouldn't that be 'broken' rather than 'broke' ?

I am not normally one to make recommendations, been bit too many times, however, I can not recommend Justin Green enough, he did a fantastic job for me and picked up issues that other people over the years had clearly missed. True professional and very accommodating.

UNF is foreign. American.

This sounds familiar! The advice is good, it's nearly exactly what we do except we don't leave the car at the in-laws. The revised plan is to try and leave the car where you can easily (and cheaply) get back to it via public transport. A quick study of advance train fares helps with the cheap bit. The railway is preferred because so many lines were built to directly compete with the canals there is usually a station nearby, but that's not always possible. I haven't done the 20 mile cycle without the car keys (yet!) but I have managed a £20 taxi journey without the car keys because the next train wasn't for 2 hours ... I still get reminded about it when going to get the car.

Just take a turn around the rail post at deck level. The cross bar should keep the angle low enough.

It is a Sealine S41, S42 or S43 all were based on the same hull. Not sure of the name of it or where it was from. Certainly not. Our boat is well afloat in Lincoln at the minute.

Wouldn't it be great if there were a standard speed and side /middle of the cut fishers wanted. Most in my experience all want something different, faster, slower, middle, far side, near side etc.

Now this is going to open up a can of worms

We came all the way up Foxton Locks before finding out the boat behind us was also called Harnser, that was a Steve Hudson one. I will probably be in trouble posting this, but who cares A woman walks into a welfare office, trailed by 15 kids. "Wow," the social worker exclaims, "are they all yours?" "Yep, they are all mine," the flustered mother sighs, having heard that question a thousand times before. She says, "Sit down, Billy." All the children rush to find seats. "Well," says the social worker, "then you must be here to sign up. I'll need all your children's names." "Well, to keep it simple, the boys are all named Billy and the girls are all named Billie." In disbelief, the case worker says, "Are you serious? They're all named Billy?" Their mamma replied, "Well, yes, it makes it easier. When it's time to get them out of bed and ready for school, I yell, 'Billy'! And when it's time for dinner, I just yell 'Billy'! and they all come running, and if I need to stop the kid who's running into the street, I just yell 'Billy' and all of them stop. It's the smartest idea I ever had, naming them all Billy." The case worker thinks this over for a bit, then wrinkles her forehead and says tentatively, "But what if you just want one kid to come, and not the whole bunch?" .... "Then I call them by their last names..."

Is that why you have a boat on the canal?