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Sorry but I just feel there is something not right with their whole situation.

well, that is certainly a truism .................... sorry, couldn't resist

Go and give them some money if you wish and support their lifestyle if your that bothered with my comments. These are the new generation of boaters that’s on the canal, don’t seam to of done a hard days work in their lives and want to be supported by donations. so they can live on the canal system.

Re the ownership question, if at all possible talk with any other boat owners / dwellers on site to verify the owner. How long known etc.

Not really. When I was a child most people didn’t have a car. Now they do, but it is a very recent thing in the great scheme of things. Bottom line is that with the population growth and increasing wealth, long term we cannot have private fossil-fuelled cars for everyone. Moving away from that to electric is more expensive. Traditionally when there is a limited resource, it is managed by pricing. So poor people won’t be able to afford it. It was always thus, even if it offends any socialist tendencies you might have. The socialists expect “they” will pay for poor people to have stuff they can’t afford, whilst not specifying where the money “they” will give them, comes from. Of course if our public transport wasn’t worse than most 3rd world countries, it would be better.

I've had family...and a friend's experience of a major broker selling boats complete with the broker's survey. Both times they encountered serious problems within weeks, that would have been thrown up if they had paid for their own survey. Both of them had the broker appearing kindly and pointing out faults during the buying process...which they then supposedly fixed ....to make them trusted. In one case the seller of the boat had left it with the broker with a brand new set of batteries. When my friend viewed it...it had old batteries , with the broker saying " we'll put new batteries in it as a service to you"...ensuring my friend felt they could be trusted. Phone calls within weeks.. when these other faults showed up brought the same response.." well..it is a secondhand boat". Throw away any seller survey...even from major brokers...and get your own !

Nothing inferior about a diesel stove. Most sea going trawlers, yachts and small ships will have them. Stay in for a month without having to clean, no dust, tend to be very economic and once heated provide a lovely steady heat. You also already have a diesel supply on board so no need for sacks of coal on roof or clogging the cratch up. Once our Morso Squirrel dies (installed 2001), we will be replacing with some oil fired unit.

And in my experience steering a Dutch style barge will generally require even more competence than steering a narrowboat-style widebeam of the same dimensions. Also with a draft of 3ft 3in that barge isn't not going to be suitable for some broadbeam canals and will be limited to ship canals and rivers.

Exactly, I would feel much more confident with the cheaper ones if they charged moor. Which is stupid but how I feel.

Apologies I misread your last sentence

Damn. I blame Brexit. MP.

BRUSH every time - rollers don't do the job properly (even big hairy ones ?) - you only do it every 3 years so its worth doing properly and using more product.

We have a gas fired Stockton 5 in our lounge, you cannot tell the difference between it and a Stockton 5 multi running on Phurnicite or similar apart from the fact that its clean and is controlled by a remote

Plenty of boaters complaining about cycles on towpaths, but it has done nothing to slow the march... Frankly, it seems a bit risky to add to the number of sub 15mph road users with no protection, but there we are - it seems the road is where these things will be ridden. Still, if it can be done safely, a fold up electric scooter would be a tempting "pop to the shop" machine to have on a narrowboat, wouldn't it? Anyway, what do I know - in my instructing days, I thought it was a stupid idea restricting motorcycles to speeds that meant they can't keep up with the traffic. Anything on the road that impatient drivers are tempted to push past is a daft idea in my view.

From the pollution/CO2 point of view there's little point forcing all ~30k UK canal boats to switch (expensively!) from diesel to electric, they contribute maybe 0.01% of the CO2 that ~30M cars do, the money would be far better spent pushing up EV use and efficiency. But logic doesn't come into it, I'm sure that they'll get caught in in the eliminate-diesel hysteria. Quiet vibration-free boats with no exhaust fumes though, that's a very good reason to do it. Yes charging points would be needed, but in reality this is a tiny problem compared to the car one which *will* be solved. Could even go through Dudley tunnel if the boat would fit...

If you're hoping to do this by private arrangement, its quite a big ask in the light of the worsening Covid situation and the imminent tightening of restrictions, particularly in your part of the world. The company mentioned above will, if currently running their courses, be geared up to dealing with the pandemic safety requirements, and the money you spend in learning to helm the beast will pay you back in spades if you go ahead. In addition, you should consider hiring a wide beam in the winter months. A life afloat looks rosy from the towpath on a sunny day, but reality has a habit of biting hard when less than ideal conditions are set for a long stretch ahead. Also, if you don't already have a deep love of boats and the canals, you're taking a leap of faith into an area where many with similar dreams and aspirations have come unstuck. I'm not trying to put you off, but do make sure that those rose tinted specs are firmly locked away when looking at this.

Don't worry - most boaters secretly enjoy offering advice to newbies. The River Nene locks are unusual - see some photos (link 1 below) from a recent trip Peterborough to Northampton. What follows relates to the guillotines locks - the majority: The good news is that going uphill the guillotine should be up. Just cruise in, and get off up the ladder on the right side of the lock (normally!), at the lower end. The control panel is normally on the right side of the lock going uphill, but there are a couple of exceptions. I would normally throw a stern line up, and also take a bow line ashore. I do this via a long thin line that lies on the roof and which I use to get the bowline ashore. Some people use a centre line but it's a bit harder to control the boat. Tie off stern and bow lines. It's safe to do this going uphill. NEVER do it when going downhill. Only use one of the top gate paddles, on the same side as the boat. Open them gently - they are very powerful. Take in the bow rope as the boat rises. You may be able to exit using just one gate. At some locks you need to make a sharp turn on exit, or there may be a crosswind, and so there it's a good idea to open both. The bad news is that you then need to moor up on the upstream landing stage, and go back and shut the top gates and raise the guillotine fully. Failing to do this is a surefire way to annoy other boaters. Mooring needs planning ahead. Link 2 is a good source. I would join Friends of the River Nene - only £10 a year I think and they have some lovely wild moorings, see link 3. Oh and link 4 below is a handly guide to the peculiarities of the Middle Level. There are some very nice wild moorings, just before the junction with the twenty foot, to east of March, and just south of Angle Corner on Beavills leam. PS I assume you have, as a moorer on the Great Ouse, an Environment Agency Abloy key, to operate the Ouse and Nene locks? https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2019/05/05/easter-cruise-2-river-nene-peterborough-to-northampton/ https://noproblem.org.uk/blog/nene/ http://www.friendsoftherivernene.co.uk/index.html https://middlelevel.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Navigation-Notes-2019-Web-Version.docx

I use a Resmed Escape S8 with humidifier on my narrowboat. I was concerned about battery capacity when buying the boat but in the end the boat we bought only had 3 110Ahr batteries. I'm running it off AC via a Victron inverter. In practice it has not been a problem. The humidifer is the main issue as it effectively is warming water, but I only run it at a fairly low level. If you are not using a humidifier I don't think you will have any issues. I was being fairly careful with power use and reckoned that the CPAP machine and fridge used about 15% of my battery capacity overnight. However the batteries seemed to start deteriorating quite quickly after 2 years. I have replaced with 3 100Ah (@C10) Leoch Lead Carbon batteries. These seem to be standng up better to my usage and charge much quicker than the previous batteries. I think the ResMed AirSense 10 is a more sophisticated machine than mine and will 'throttle back' and use less air pressure and hence energy when it can. (For those doing the calculations, I don't doubt it but in practice those consumptions have not been my experience.) May I add that if anyone has a partner that says 'you snore really bad and stop breathing at times' do get it checked out. Under tests I stopped breathing ON AVERAGE 59 times per hour over one night (that is not breath for at least 10 seconds). This was linked to optic nerve damage in one eye which thankfully was recovered but I count myself lucky. The other risks of sleep apnoea are stroke and heart attack!

Aqueduct marina Church Minshul do grit and epoxy.

Well Creek was to have been filled and replaced with a pipe, so to allow the A1101 and the A1122 to be widened. Middle Level Commissioners had deem that Well Creek was not needed for drainage or water supply. The locals did not wish to lose their riverside views hence the battle for Well Creek.

Where can I get a Nichollson's Guide to the Canals of Mars? ?

4/5ths must be imperial. Otherwise it would be 0.8 naff-alls or 8 centi-naff-alls

I'm not entirely sure I have understood the problem. But my general approach in a cross current (eg on tidal waters, or with a strong crosswind, or I think in the case you describe) is as follows. For the sake of illustration assume the cross current is to the left, and that there is nothing coming the other way. [Sound your horn, and hope that the boat coming the other way knows you have priority.] 1) Work out the course that you want the boat to take over the ground 2) Adjust the direction the boat is pointing, and engine speed, to achieve this result. 3) Don't worry too much where the boat is pointing. Focus on where it is going. You will be pointing to the right of where you want to go. 4) If the boat is drifting to the left of your intended course then steer more to the right, or increase power, or both. 5) If the boat is drifting to the right a bit then steer a bit less to the right, or reduce power, or both. 6) At the last minute you will need to straighten up to get the bows through the lock gates. You may need to increase power at the same time. Don't straighten up too early (or too late!). 7) It's best to go at a reasonable speed, but with some power in reserve. Being tentative doesn't usually end well. If you need to stop (eg if someone is coming the other way and not stopping) then do a 180 turn (to the right in this case, ie into the current) and then hold position by pointing the boat directly into the current. If there is room to turn. This video of going into West Stockwith might help. (the current is left to right here, so the opposite scenario to what I have just written).

They are very few, not in any particular place, and very rare so stop worrying about it and get out there and actually use your boat!

One-off or rare unfortunate occurrences don't make for "vandalism hot-spots". There are undoubtedly bored and malicious yoof in many places on the country, some of which canals run through, but vandalism is pretty rare if you look at the number of boats out there -- it's just that when it happens the news now travels much faster and further than it used to and people get more wound up about it. I'm not saying some places aren't dodgier than others, just that people shouldn't panic about it. I've been through most of the places mentioned several times and never been vandalised once, so that must prove vandalism doesn't exist ?