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That is when we had a proper Navigation Authority, not a bunch of incompetents more interested in what the next colour of signage should be. Glad I'm out of it.

Must have left out ignorant. I apologise for the omission, fella. I remember back in ancient times on the old pre-web newsgroup when the school holidays had started we used to get all the twelve year olds having fun pretending to be grown up, making up stories about themselves and trying to get a rise out of the old codgers. Didn't realise it still happened.

Christmas Greetings 2020 Please click here for your personalised greeting ? Here's to Something Better in 2021 Peter and @ElaineMary

Instead of crowd funding a court case, why dont the NBTA crowd fund a pontoon repair. Probably achieve far more, far quicker, and mean that money doesnt get wasted on the legal people who have far too much money anyway.

As above, plus: Make sure you have some waders. In case you cannot get ashore: Make sure you have laid in plenty of essential supplies, Top up your heating fuel and water tanks. In case you should involuntarily go boatabout: Have a watertight grab bag with your vital paperwork (passport, driving licence, credit cards, phone etc.) handy. Know where your lifejacket is. N

You should be on a rising pontoon, or have rising mooring rings on scaffolding poles. Do not tie centre line, and have long loose lines front and rear(the more the better). Always try to tie back to the boat in case the mooring point goes underwater and you need to loosen/untie for some reason.

Yes it is Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut. Its fine as long as it does not drop into float before the batteries are all but fully charged and as I said before I suspect the smart chargers and the controllers probably use similar logic in their chips so they are likely to. However even so I don't see why, apart from in a very few specific cases, an alternator needs a float charge setting because why waste fuel and engine wear charging after then batteries are full. I can see it would be an advantage on ocean going boats though that run 24/7, especially if they have 12.7/25.4 volt regulators. However as far as I can tell from the OP he thinks, until he cares to clarify what he intends to do, he will get a longer battery life if he ruins his start battery by discharging it through a battery to battery charger presumably running 24/7. In that case it is probably a good idea to have afloat setting. The only thing he will not have is an enhanced absorption voltage in the case of a 13.8 to 14.2V alternator regulator but in most cases I suspect a new regulator would go a long way to solving that at less cost. Still its his money and hos boat so he can do as he wishes. Edited to add, I still don't understand why someone who claims technical knowledge thinks any form of multistage charging will look after his batteries better than ensuring they are as fully charged as possible for as much of the time as is possible and avoiding deep discharging where possible.

FTFY Seasons greetings to one and all - may your 2021 cruising be continuous, lock gates be leak free and closures (whether breach, flood or vandalism) unheard of. And let's all try and be nice to each other - whatever the size and condition of our boat (or even if we own one), we share a common interest in waterways.

That's far too intelligent for me, I haven't a clue what you're talking about. It does strike me that you might need a trick cyclist rather than a sofa, though. Anyway, Happy Christmas, and may your fat boat never get wedged under its bridge. Fella? They come over here, you expect them to at least learn the damn language.

As we approach one of the oddest Christmas seasons we have ever had, I would like to wish all the CWDF members a happy and peaceful day tomorrow. Let's all hope that 2021 is a more "normal" boating year when we can enjoy cruising our waterways again and that the dreaded Covid recedes and allows us all to meet family and friends again. Stay safe, folks ! Haggis

It wouldn't hurt to run one out if you can, it may help keep you off the bank

Preparation means doing things in advance of when you actually need it. If you're moored on the Gt Ouse but you haven't had the foresight to prepare for flooding then I'm afraid it's too late.

Showing the reconstructed wing wall, site of the 1971 breach, that nearly closed the Bridgewater Canal for good.

More and more people have more and more electrics on their boats, which means you get more and more generator noise. In summer it may be moderated a bit by solar, but there's plenty without still. It's one of the changes that add together to make the waterways less pleasant and more like real life! And, in fact, the one which is moving me more and more towards packing in boating. Like many others, I do it because I love the peace and quiet - only, because there are many others, there's less of it. There again, as I get deafer...

Yes Apsley is a good example, and view 1 was looking from Cobbs Engine House to Windmill End Junction. Here is a view looking up Farmers Bridge Locks, with Whitmore's Arm Bridge on the right and a towpath not maintained to todays standards, but fortunately not plagued by the cyclists who now race down here oblivious to the CRT code. This an area transformed by the developer, when this photograph was taken, it was more a secret world known to the boaters and those interested in waterways history.

I belong to a couple of car clubs that used to hold rallies at billing.....they ended up being mucked about so much by billing management that they told them where to shove it and found new sites.....Billing do seem to think they can do as they please and seem to forget customers can move on

Its a shame for the residents, as Billing are fully aware that people live there permanently, and charge accordingly until it goes wrong at which point they ask them to "return to their residential addresses" which is more a paper pushing exercise which covers them against this sort of issue, which is happening more and more. Obviously residents know the risks but they should really look to invest in flood defences for their site, or at least flood mitigation measures. It would be interesting to know whether the management or council foot the bill for emergency accommodation.

Or one I made up." Cast adrift featuring Veronica Lake and George Raft."

Just ending here but Merry Xmas from the warmer side of the world (still doesn’t feel ‘right’ even after 15 years).

Merry Christmas from a cold, getting snowy Limousin.

I think he’s a CRT sock puppet come on here to derail this thread lest it gains any traction.

Thank you for that, my experience has always had the latrines near the sett, I know what you mean by not going into detail on texture. Its good to hear the experience of others. EDIT to add sadly we as yet haven't smellyvison

What is obvious is that you are an obnoxious gobshite.

It’s not about being challenged on a technical discussion, that I relish because it makes one think, and quite often something is learned, which is always good. It’s about avoiding the nause of interacting with someone who plays the “patronising” card on the first encounter. A cheap shot and tedious beyond belief. Life is too short to deal with such people. If you are any sort of engineer as you seem to be implying, you would know without even having to think about it that clear and concise communication, eg between design engineer and customer, is the vital first step in any project. Since your opening shot was classically unclear and somewhat rambling, I think it highly unlikely that you are any sort of design engineer, or if you are, you are not a naturally good one. Oh and I have been a professional electronic design engineer in my time, though I did change careers and so now electronics is only my hobby. I could have been more patient, open minded and inquisitive but why should I bother to exert that energy? Why do you think you are worth that? You are not paying any of us, we don’t owe you anything, it is you who is seeking free information. This is why I call you “entitled” - you seem to think that whilst you, who are seeking free information, have no duty to present your question clearly and politely, whereas apparently we have a duty to treat you with the utmost respect and go to great pains to avoid any possibility of failing to pitch our responses to you at the exactly correct level. Yup, that is pretty much the definition of “entitled”. I would have kept reading and perhaps understood what you were actually asking (though why should you make it so difficult, was it some sort of game?) but when you hit the sulky teenager button and whined that it was so unfair that we were patwonising you (aaah diddums) I lost interest.

Cratch Me If You Can Guardians Of The Galley Dinette The Tiller Girls

Maybe not racist but blasphemy laws are even tougher

I suspect the restarting of commercial traffic is a it of a red herring. The major problem they have is that they are dealing with a 200-year-old structure (190 in this case) for which there are few records. It is for that reason that locally-employed maintenance workers were important as they built up local knowledge about structures in their area. Unfortunately, modern business economics does not provide finance for such people, though earlier in the last century, the L&LC engineer thought that one man per mile was the minimum he could get away with in safety. Another problem with the area around the Knottingley & Goole Canal is that since the canal was built, there have been many improvements in land drainage. This could well have resulted in the land subsiding, leaving the canal on an embankment. The L&LC has had several breaches for this reason. If the piles, which could be thirty or forty year old, were not long enough to cope with the subsidence, they would be a weak spot, though identifying when they would fail because of water making its way underneath them would be difficult.

Using a general visual inspection isn’t a robust method of identifying potential earthwork failures which is the generic cause of breaches. As others have identified the best a general visual inspection could achieve is to alert to the imminent likelihood of a breach. The kinds of features that cause earthwork failures require the inspector to be on and about the earthwork itself and therefore it is a specific detailed inspection. This is how CRT’s contemporaries manage their earthworks - and other critical assets - and it may also be CRT’s method. General visual inspections are far from foolproof even with diligent and well trained inspectors. There is evidence that CRT’s inspection policies aren’t the problem. They are an organisation that has a large maintenance backlog. This is indicative that their inspection regimes are better are identifying work than their workbank management system is at effectively prioritising, scheduling and executing the work that the inspection processes identify. Similarly at Toddbrook reservoir dam there would have been a legally specified requirement for inspection on account of the risk profile of such a structure. That still didn’t prevent a failure. The suggested reason for the breach is entirely plausible - even without the effects of any lack of dredging - but it would require an inspection of the de-watered channel to identify the root cause. I suspect some of CRTs high criticality structures are subject to an inspection regime that requires inspection in the de-watered state to a specified frequency, but I’d hazard a guess that culverts in general are not in that category. I’d be surprised if CRT are at the same place as their asset management contemporaries - their risk profile is a lot lower after all - but even if they were the occasionally failure couldn’t be ruled out, it’s the nature of the beast to a degree. So I suspect they could improve their management of risk around breaches but my guess is that inspection isn’t the place to start. In this instance I’d also look at whether the risks associated with re-commencing a commercial flow with large vessels were properly identified and mitigated. That ought to be part of their own internal consideration. JP

I used to really like this programme when it was first showing, in its half hour format. It showed some remarkably talented people doing some exceptional repairs. However lately it has just become a maudlin tear-fest. Very little of the tricky restoration work is shown and it is all about extracting the maximum amount of tears and emotion. Not what I watched it for. However it is by all accounts now extremely popular so not much chance of getting back to the real restoration.

In my opinon, after a career designing and project managing critical power installations for telephone exchanges, data centres and hospitals, the method of interconnecting doesn't matter providing the cables and interconnects are adequately rated. UPSs often have several strings of 200 x 2 volt cells connected in series/parallel and the power takes offs are invariably on the first and last cells.

The boring vlogs seem to be popping up on every facebook group now....with such peril as "will my engine start?"...".we are going through a lock" etc....they are in the main a complete load of tripe....I have no idea why people watch them...they must have really dull lives themselves I guess. Edited to add They now seem to be putting up "outtakes" too....so the crappest of the crap production.....I just dont get it at all Im afraid

I must admit that as an ex-liveaboard and now leisure cruiser I did have a good look at the changes when they were published and couldn't see much to get aerated about. I don't much like the increase in regulations, nor the online booking systems, but waterway usage has changed considerably over the last fifty years and something needs to be done. There's no prospect of legislative change (Govt may have more important stuff on their minds) so this is possibly the right way to do it. I go along with SeaDog above - someone should please explain the nasty bits in simple terms. What are you being stopped doing that you have the right to do?

The Glenn Iffer Story

The Albanians loved him. Fact.

Research? Before buying a boat for the canal in London? Crikey, that's a minority sport!

It absolutely does matter.... if one is trying to visit every possible "shire" county by boat. It's almost as important as ticking off train numbers! The Llangollen gives you 4 shires.....