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A snotty shiny boater just gave me and my boat the right stink eye, then came over with a look on his face like someone was holding a turd under his nose and asked if I was staying long. I told him I'll stay as long as I like. If you're one of these types, I hope your area gets invaded by a horde of real hardcore water gyppos from London who are A LOT less polite and quiet than I am! Thanks for reading. Isobel.

I don't think I have - I don't even know where she lives.

After years of hearing about all these unlicensed boats.....on our trip North along the Leicester Line and River Soar, taking in the Market Harborough Arm as well, we just enjoyed our boating, laughed at lots, said hello to lots, and had a jolly good time. CRT have licence checkers, License Support Officers, Waterways Chaplains...and probably Free Licence Giver-Outer Managers to deal with the 4% nationally that dont have one for whatever reason.

Years ago I was riding my old 650 Triumph Thunderbird along a country lane, a lane I knew well, summer, shirt sleaves, no helmet, breezing along, approaching at high speed a very sharp left hand bend which I'd forgotten about. No chance of braking for it in time. luckily there was only a ditch between the road and a cabbage field, so I braced myself, kept straight on, jumped the ditch and crashed in amongst the cabbages, a cabbage amongst the cabbages. No injury, bike had a bent clutch lever, rode it home taking a nice cabbage for mum.

I guess it depends on where you are moored. It would be interesting what he has to say about you and your attitude.

Its to stop the captive electrons running out, because then they will be non conducting and useless. If you take only one end off they will be semiconductors.

Or pootle down river from Hawford a short distance and moor overnight on the lock mooring above Bevere Lock. From there it is a short walk to the Camp House Inn below the lock.

How arrogant that you think you can dictate how other people should use the canals. May I remind you that canals were built for rapid transport of goods and that not everyone wants to waste their life away doing everything as slowly as possible. There is no virtue in sluggishness. How arrogant to presume that no-one may be on a deadline, especially when the majority of canal users, except perhaps those using the canals for cheap housing, are probably on some sort of deadline. End of hire period, end of holiday, booked public transport, meeting up with other people, getting to a shop or business before closing. In fact the only people not on some sort of deadline are people with absolutely nothing of interest in their lives except waiting for death. All that rant said, yes it is normal practice to slow down for fishermen, for the reasons explained.

imagine all the fun you could have had with that time you wasted pointlessly checking licenses? if we guesstimate at 5mins per boat, to note number, fire up the webpage & check details = 1490 minutes thats just shy of 25 hours. you wasted an entire day of your trip

I hung around Gas St in the 60s, helping out with the newly formed Birmingham & Midland carrying Co. One evening I was in the cabin of Ash with Eddie Hambridge and Dave Hogg. Things were not always going well for the company and consequently their boatmen. We put the following together, a parody of “ Bloody Orkney “ a song composed by a disgruntled soldier from WW2. I’ve just discovered it in an old notebook... The bloody pay is bloody bad The bloody boss is bloody mad It makes the brightest bloody sad In bloody Gas Street. The bloody folks are bloody poor They throw their crap out on the shore We’ll slide about for evermore In bloody Gas Street. The bloody water’s full of muck And Waterways don’t give a fuck There ain’t enough to float a duck In bloody Gas Street. The bloody gaffer’s on the drink Goes down him like a bloody sink Bank statements they are all dark pink In bloody Gas Street No bloody cash, they’ve stopped the dole We’ll starve to death in this dark hole We’ve burnt up all our bloody coal In bloody Gas Street. No bloody sun, no bloody sky The stench is getting somewhat high We’ll rot here till we bloody die In bloody Gas Street.

After many years of seeing an increasing number of unlicenced boats we decided to do a survey on our trip in September up the Macclesfield, Upper Peak Forest & Caldon canals. These are the findings :- No. of boats checked not showing a valid licence was 298, running these through Cart's licence checker 90 were unlicenced. A lot were showing licences that were 3 to 5 years out of date. 90 unlicenced boats in 50 miles of canal seems an awful lot to me. As CaRT is short of funds they need to get out and about more and catch these licence evaders or all the legitimate licence holders will soon be paying a lot more in the future.

No.. Merely interested in the facts!! Think we often can judge people/situations from first appearances.. I would not automatically assume anything about another boater from how shiny or not their boat is.. Very sad if you fall into that trap!

I'd like to know a bit more before conclusion jumping. Where this happened, and why some bloke thought they had the right to ask how long someone was staying somewhere - assuming that person A is on an ordinary mooring and within the usual time limits. If you're on a water point, or a service station, then it's a valid question, though there are ways of asking... same on a short shopping mooring. I've asked a few at full visitor moorings who looked as if they might be moving on, in case it was worth waiting. I've also been asked to move a ring or two to make space, though I usually notice and offer first. I've certainly been sneered at a few times by shiny boats and one or two have refused to share locks (my boats about 60 years old and a bit bruised). Can't say it bothers me, but ivnever been spoken to particularly unpleasantly. The original post looks like someone whose been pissed off by someone's attitude and is venting, and most of us have done that one time or another and a fair few of the comments are imo uncalled for. ETA I also do wonder if some of the responses would have been quite so extreme if the OP had been male....

Snotty. Judgmental opinion. Shiny boater. Judgmental opinion ”right stink eye”. Judgemental opinion ”Look on his face (etc)”. Judgemental opinion ”I told him I’ll stay as long as I like”. Rude and obnoxious ”hope your area gets invaded (etc etc). Plain nasty.

I was logged four times in an hour one day. A harassed spotter fighting his way through Skipton towpath carnage on a sunny summer day. He logged me where I was moored, then the other side of the junction as he'd been up the branch while I was moving, then again on the water point and finally after I'd winded and was coming back the other way. I asked him if he wanted to go for five sightings and he laughed.

Perhaps Higgs should get a mooring like this one, probably no need for a licence then.

I was clocked on the move Just the once as far as I’m aware Probably going so slow I looked static

I've sunk, been burgled, been shouted at... didn't spend tons originally but made up for it later. Thirty years later, still love the old tub, the sound of rain on the roof and those odd days sitting on the back in the sun with a good book...

Love the idea that in a crisis someone doesnt help but just waves a phone filming the crisis rather than being useful.

Whilst I have a bit of sympathy with this, there are many good anglers who love fish and take great care with them. Sadly, there are also plenty of muppets - that comes with it being the biggest participation sport in the country, I suppose. However, again to maintain a balanced view, it is worth bearing I'm mind that, if it wasn't for the angling lobby raising the issue, there'd have been no fish left in our ever more polluted rivers and canals a few years ago. The environmental lobby is a much more recent force for fishy goodness.

Good luck with it, very difficult to see what is happening as it happens so quickly, I would suggest putting the carboard under the 2nd contact trick first to see what happens, then try without, you really need a slow motion video to see when it starts turning 'vigorously'

Thankfully I cannot see anything when I click on the pix.

That's what we do as well although would add that we never move to left or right when requested but stay in mid canal. On the Trent a couple of years ago the anglers were out in force. Many of them have really long lines stretching far into the river. OK when they stay by their rods but when they sit in their cars up on the bank and suddenly see you appear round the corner, boy can they run!

And some want you to pass close to them, others further away. They have to take "misery pills" to get them in the mood for fishing. Best to pass at a slowish speed, bang in the centre of the cut , say "hello" to them and enjoy being ignored.

When working a swim to catch fish most anglers will bait 2 or 3 areas with either ground bait (fine ground bread) bits of the hook bait or a combination of both, this has the effect of keeping the fish feeding in a localised area and encouraging competition amongst the fish, which makes them less skittish of the hook. All of this can take time and careful attention to build the swim to enable a good catch, boats moving through can/will disturbe these baited areas and can bugger up some hours work, so the request for slow and steady. Obviously fishing on the canal brings boats as part of the challenge and this should be taken into account by the fishermen, it's just courtesy on the behalf of boaters. Saying all that some people are just shouty arses and are best ignored when encounterd

I'm going absolutely nowhere and certainly not rushing - covering miles is not vital or even an aim. We only ever do a few miles and a few hours a day (I'd wager much fewer than most). We did four miles in four hours today - in effect a mile and an hour are about the same thing, considering locks and passing moored boats. I'd consider 1mph a rather leisurely pace on a motorway. Less than that and you start blurring the lines between cruising and mooring!

From the CaRT boaters handbook :- "If you’re passing an angler, keep to the centre of the channel unless they ask otherwise. Reduce your wash, but keep a steady pace".

I love that sound and the feeling I get, fire on, good book and brew, simple things in life

I haven't got it turned on at the moment. The battery runs down.

There is some narrowing of the cabin front on the Canal Slime boats which probably prevents too many impacts with the bridges. Either that or the silly names on the bow flanks frighten the masonry away!

I don't think it's right to start criticism here because to have been involved in that must have been pretty scary. Thank god nobody was hurt and that the boats have all been recovered now. But...do my eyes deceive me or did they have 2 widebeams tied to one mooring pin in a soft bank in a flood? I've watched it a few times thinking what would i have done. I'd have been on the bank with my long shaft trying to push that floating tree out beyond the boat, rather than standing on tbe back of the boat with the shaft waiting for it. Easy to say when watching the video though, those poor folk had seconds to think.

That's a great idea! Only 5-10 minutes each way.

That is very similar to the one I have. For many years it resided in the shed where the supply is and was fine in its metal case, the case is earthed to the incoming supply as it should be. When I moved it onto the boat (where it shouldn't really be) I had to re-case it as you cannot have a metal cased IT on a boat. Victron made this mistake and tried to rectify it by grounding the case and screen to the boat which provides no protection in the case of an incoming supply fault to ground. If you intend to put the IT on the boat the best thing would be to put it in an HDPE box and get rid of the metal case. Putting it in a wooden box will not do as wood is a conductor especially when damp. Also bin the thermistor that they supply as a soft start and fit something similar to the one I linked to earlier.

Wow, that must have been an interesting trip! All the time effort to check 298 boats not displaying a licence......I'd rather enjoy my trip and worry about where my next beer is coming from, not who has or hasn't licenced their boat!

The paper disc had an expiry date on it. When it disappeared the reminder in the windscreen disappeared. The renewal letter ends up in the pile of rubbish that Royal Mail like to stuff through the letter box and it gets missed. My sister did exactly this, she is disorganised, not a tax evader. They come round and clamp cars and stick massive public shaming notices on them - you must have seen it.

There's about 8 or 10 marinas that are fed by non CART waters. I'm on a tiny river while in the marina...but canal when I leave. They are like..gold dust ?

if they’re sat there with poles and all the gear ill slow to tick and if possible avoid where i think they’ve lobbed their groundbait. and say hello as i pass. if they’re walking along spinning for pike or zander i just go by as normal. and say hello as i pass. i reckon reciprocation of greeting is about 75%, i’ve not yet been shouted at.

Get one in the Fountain then...

On the lock landing for lock 1E,there is a metal grill on the canal wall.That I think is where the water returns. You are right about it going into the pound below lock 1E. However,as a regular user of the HNC, the pound is now so low as to be unusable.I have always been able to get through in the past,but now only a paddleboard would get through the first pound. I frequently go up a few locks up the narrow for a lunchtime pint,but having to book to use lock 1 so that water can be run down,and ring again a few hours later to come back,I am sure will make me lose my popularity. It has spoilt the pleasure of going for a cruise when the mood takes me.

99.9% of all youtube vloggers (not just boating) are pretty bad. They all seem to copy the same approach, staring at the camera while telling you things from a highly personal perspective, interspersed with shots of them doing things, sometimes taken from a drone. All highly unimaginative. It all seems rather pointless and aimless to me. I'd like to see a boating vlog which borrowed the tv idea of a series. Each year could have some kind of overarching narrative. I'd like to see a bit more background thinking, maybe do a bit of proper research and try to inform the viewer a bit about what you're filming. A vague 'I think this canal was built by Telford', doesn't really cut it for me. Most of the canal vlogs I've seen seem to work on the premise of trying to find their own angle. The problem is that this angle is usually pretty thin, along the lines of: "we have a cat", "we are gay", or "I'm obsessed with batteries". Maybe I'm being a bit harsh but these people are trying to make a living doing it. What do I know though? Lots of people follow the popular ones. I suspect viewers are mostly non-boaters who are dreaming... similar to most readers of waterways magazines.

Not to mention the English blonde buffoon and his puppet master