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@Withywindle, beware. The Environment Agency was taken over by Signal Crayfish while many of the human employees were on furlough, or working from home. This is why they don't issue any licenses to catch signal crayfish, If you apply for one though, the crayfish now have your name and address. Don't answer the front door to any one showing an EA identity card. Especially if you can see visible antennae. Run out the back door and head for the wilds. It is your only chance.

We were moored on a canal section of the Kennet a few weeks ago along with my son's narrow boat and his mate's narrow boat. These days no-one bothers to slow down while passing it seems so I put out four lines to act as springs to counter any affect. The two lads never bothered to make any effort to secure their boats properly. Result, two lads shouting at almost everyone because their boats were travelling 2-3 feet while they passed while Petra hardly moved at all. I think that there is far too much shouting these days and ,when it is all boiled down, no great tragedy has occurred. As I said to the last person who shouted at me, try a taste of boating in Europe where 3000 tonne barges pass by every few minutes at 10 mph. You could scream at the top of your voice but even if they could hear you it would make no difference. So chill out, tie your boat up properly, expect some movement because water is slippery stuff, crack open a beer and give a friendly wave. It is so much better for your blood pressure. Keith

Upon purchase out of a hire fleet our boat had a ceramic filter to a special tap in the kitchen. Upon inspection, the filter was disgusting. Absolutely covered and full of foul slime, hairs and rust particles. I would never drink water from an onboard filter unless I was maintaining it and knew when the filter wad last charged.

OMG he's just turned up! 😟

The grey squirrel legislation is still sensible tbh they cause a massive amount of damage to our native and forestry plantations, they also predate birds nests to a small degree. The advantage the greys have is cuteness, kill a squirrel and people get upset, eat a crayfish and no one bats an eyelid

A timber wharf on one of the canals on the Solovki Islands in the White Sea. This section of canal was built, in part, to supply the hydro-electric station at the monastery on the island. The second photo shows a small steam boat, built in England, towing another boat on one of the canals. The islands are just below the Arctic Circle, so probably the most northerly canals in the world.

As the OP on the thread, I like many of us contacted CRT and Market Drayton council with the same suggestion. There’s no need to point score here, we surely all have the same aim.

But we only have one city that starts with Bristol? 🙂

Always happy to have people like you and Jen emphasising important points.

Just to point out I pointed to that plug in post 3 but it is always worth emphasising.

Since my post I've just bumped intio Richard Parry and Julie Sharman and made this point and a bag full of others most strongly. I think we're still speaking!

Early this morning on the Oxford Canal.

This is a tidal lock and absolutely no place for amateurs.

Moved my boat today, so I could recapture Peter's 1979 view: Today, 2021 Then someone put another boat in the way!

The licensing scheme is also there to prevent people turning up with nets under the guise of taking crayfish when other species are the real target.

Superglue, cyanoacrylate. Much better for talented artists trying to connect local people to their canal infrastructure than epoxy. Sets quicker, so you can connect more people in a days art creation in order to meet the grant success metrics. Stays connected for longer and is much harder to lever people off, so improves long term engagement.

If you have your boat tied tight to the mud weights you will find they drag. If you leave some slack they stay put and you shuffle forward and back before settling again... It surprises me how little you need to hold a boat on a river with minimal flow. A couple of days ago i stopped by a bank of water reeds, threw a large loop of rope fore and aft around them and that was enough to keep us sat for the day. I was going to drop the anchor and pop out a weight but didn't bother in the end.

Narrowboat just went past at about 3mph. Hardly any movement.

Aren't they sold by the ice-cream boat ?

On the one we were on a few weeks ago the kitchen had 2 taps, one normal filtered from the tank, the other had a double filter from the tank and was marked as drinking water. The only reason I don't regularly drink the tank water from my own boat is because I'm used to really soft water at home and the harder water around the Midlands tastes foul to me by comparison...and that's out of the mains tap!

This is a subject without an answer. There are so many moored boats in unsuitable places that a deep draughted boat will move them anyway. Speed is in the eye of the offended person. When we loaded on a canal like the Oxford fishermen were always shouting about speed. Some chance of even 3 miles an hour but we shifted a lot of water just going along. I used to drop out of gear and then reverse up to the complainant which took some time to ask him what he said, then getting under way again would stir the mud up. Learn to tie up or move.

Having to drop in and out of gear is ridiculous. Any boat should go fine at 2mph and I see no reason to go much slower past boats unless someone is actually in the process of tying up or, like here on the Caldon, the canal is barely two boats wide. Or it's six in the morning & I'm trying to be quiet, though I do wonder if they'd rather I went quicker and got further away faster... And if someone's permanently moored in the middle of a mile or two of linear moorings, tough. Set springs or buy a bungalow.

Obviously they would call in the specially trained squiz squad in their chaingun armed helicopter and sweep the area clean

The difference being that there is little to stop for at Great Haywood, and plenty of capacity below the lock or round in Tixall. Market Drayton on the other hand is the only place for miles where you can stock up with supplies or find somewhere to eat/drink.

I think when we hired we probably drank the water from the tank, Today I wouldn't consider it after seen a hose dragged from boat to boat on changeover day, the end going along the ground, through the grass and pulled from boat to boat through the canal its self. On our boat we drink straight from the tank because we take care what goes into it.

Today 2012 at Bar Le Duc. Drifting around waiting for the bridge to open.

Mmm.. but I'm not sure a rope around some reeds will stop you drifting if a big boat came past too fast or too close. It's not just a bit of current I was concerned about. Anyway, a couple more narrowboats have gone past, one quite fast and the mudweights have held firm.

And Liverpool gets theirs from Lake Vyrnwy in Powys [since 1880]!

We went with Wyvern and the kitchen tap on their boats has a filter. I’m fairly sure that any hire company that felt you shouldn’t drink from their tank would tell you that loud and clear - if only to make sure their own backside is covered!

Apparently they are ; "Ex" is a 'has-been' and "Spurt" is a drip under pressure.

I agree, my own Mastervolt 3LE needed new glow plugs and MV think they are gold plated! DD sold me a set for a third of the price! PM me with your email and I'll send you a copy of the parts list

Surely if they are too understaffed to grant a licence then they are also too understaffed to patrol the thousands of miles of waterways to check licences?

It’s also well worth the walk to the nearby Mad O’Rourkes Pie Factory. If you’ve not been before, it’s a very enjoyable experience.