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Which, if you are going to the elsan every few days anyway, seems to negate all the effort of separation in the first place. Mind you, "tree huggers" do seem to occasionally struggle with logic !!

I remember doing Atherstone back in the mists of time, without vollies turning up and interfering with my peaceful and unhurried boating. Those were the days.....

This morning, lock 13 W&B. There's just a higher quality of graffiti near Worcester!

Good for you, another rare land owning separating toilet user... but it's notable that you and others extolling the virtues of separating toilets still avoid addressing the wee issue unless pressed and don't have an acceptable practical answer. Or do you transport 3 months of festering urine to your land too? I suggest the vast majority of liveaboards are not land owners or they wouldn't live on a boat. IMO it's irresponsible to encourage people to install toilets with no acceptable means of disposing their waste products.

That’s sadly what’s now wrong with the world… “you’ve got insurance so why worry”….. much the same as I was told by plod after having £40k worth of kit nicked from a site…. Somehow it’s always someone else that pays….in reality we all pay through higher premiums.

Every time you mention ceramic bowls an pump out tanks and £1,000+ and £100's on maintenance you sound more and more desperate. You are over egging it. e.g. I'm a liveaboard and have a cassette toilet and spare cassette that was on the boat when I bought it 5 years ago. So far it's cost £0 to maintain and £0 to empty it. Your £100 home made bog seems expensive to me. I suspect anyone with a cassette toilet is laughing at your attempts to justify your choice on cost. You tip your pee god knows where, put your poo in dog bins? Street waste bins? because there is no "green" way for you to deal with it and your toilet cost you a comparative fortune. Cassettes, even flushing ones use almost zero water so you can't win there either. You're loosing the argument on all fronts, in fact I suggest you get a cassette toilet so at least you'll be able to stop dumping your piss and shit in the local environment. No need to thank me.

I always get given a box of various real ales at Christmas by several people, none of whom have noticed I hate the stuff. Luckily my wife likes it, and whisky, which was my tipple of choice until it struck me that I was up to two or three bottles a day and it possibly wasn't too healthy. I haven't touched the stuff since. If we get invited to a party I make sure I'm driving as it saves bothering with explanations. I was never an alcoholic, I just could never see the point of stopping drinking until the bottle was empty.

Alcohol eh? The government approved heavy drug of choice. Rather a lot of people equate how much fun they're having with how drunk they are, it's a fact! Then some of them find they can't enjoy themselves without being drunk. Then some of those become alcoholics who can't even function without it. A slippery slope for some. I used to love getting completely fall down drunk when I was a youngster, in the pub every night for 5-6 pints of real ale was just normal and even at college I had a couple every lunchtime. Got bored of it eventually.. or maybe it was when I had kids... or maybe it was when the weekend hangover lasted all week. Don't drink at all these days or go to the pub to be bored stupid by drunk people who think they are amusing. Sober people should probably be banned from pubs, we ruin the atmosphere.

The magnets would be better employed stuck on your oil filter can. They are doing nothing on a fire extinguisher. Needle in the green? Just give them a good shaking every month or so.

Give 'em a shake now and again and they are fine. Just a handy place to store magnets which "like" to be stuck on something known as a keep to stop them loosing their power. ?

Maybe it’s because of my day job but I have a rule of no alcohol till moored up & finished for the day. ….friends I’ve taken on day trips don’t see why but if the worst happens and I end up being called to a coroners court Id rather say that I wasn’t impaired by alcohol…if that’s boating or running a show.

Do you think any composter will take their liquid waste to the elsan?

You appear to be forgetting that whilst the solid waste cannot be disposed down an Elsan point, liquid waste can.

It ceased to float.

Now now don't go spoiling the fun for grumbling grumpy old men. They are never happy till they are miserable. I've just accelerated my compost bin btw.

I’m sure I read in an old gardening book that ‘old men’s urine’ is particularly good for fruit trees. I used to use it as my excuse when I went out in the back garden. We had apple and plum trees. I wasn’t old then though, but thought it good practice, saves flushing a loo.

A friend of mine is a retired copper who if prompted after a pint or three, will happily regale you with tales of how few real coppers there are nowadays. There were weekend shifts sometimes when he was just one of three on duty, expected to police the whole of Berkshire from Slough to Hungerford. And how making just one arrest would result in the arresting officer spending a day or more in the office filling in paperwork so they were always reluctant to arrest anyone, as it was such a ball-ache for them. Really quite disturbing and the reason he was delighted to get out when he did.

One really must go a bit further when taking the piss. Some drivers speed etc etc, that doesn't mean we stop all driving.

I'm happy to address the wee issue for me as a yachtie, it goes into the sea. Far better than our sea toilet where the whole lot goes into the sea! It's worth remembering, that even if you pump-out you can't afford to feel too smug, because in 2020, raw sewage was released into UK rivers on more than 400,000 occasions from sewage 'treatment' plants, amounting to 3 million hours of sewage release according to the BBC news website. That puts into perspective the tipping of a few litres of sterile wee into the undergrowth well back from the waterside.

A few years ago you could not make all male/all female bookings. I'm not sure when that changed, but it looks like most hire companies. permit it now. It all comes down to money. The 10 / 12 berth boats are nice little earners. Out of interest, I just checked online how much a 10 berth ABC boat would cost next weekend. £1550 for 3 nights. I wonder if the hire companies insurance covers them for the loss of a boat in circumstances like this? I mean, who in their right mind would hire out 3 boats to a stag do and not expect trouble?

Why is that farcical? Have you been the victim of a burglary or theft? Maybe if you had arrived at your parents house to find it ransacked as I have you might appreciate some effort to catch the culprits…or perhaps if that’s not going to happen we should be allowed to carry out our own justice…when my kit was stolen and we said to plod we and the local hells angels which one of my crew was a member would sort it then we were told we would be arrested…..

Maybe if the bins are low enough you could take a direct shit in one. You could carry your own two foot plank about, with hole in so you can put it across the top of the bin and sit without the worry of getting your arse stuck.

Sounds about right, but you're missing the efficiency generated by adding in private sector incentives (the NHS fires the rower before hiring him back via a newly-formed private contracting agency specialising in rowers with NHS experience that's run by the Director of Steering's old schoolfriend at twice the previous annual cost) "Creating a market for canal service innovation" consisting of paying inflated fees to contractors with good relations with government ministers might be the best hope of the CRT keeping its grant though...

Almost certainly 1 paid CRT employee and 5 volunteers, especially when you see the ages they look. Something similar to this appeared on Facebook a few years ago when a group of us (all volunteers) were cutting the offside vegetation. We'd moved to the towpath to stop for some lunch and a nearby moorer photographed us standing around. He wrote something derogatory like 'this is what we pay our licence fee for'. Some people seize every opportunity to have a go at CRT and I agree much of the time it's justified (especially with the erection of unnecessary signs). And I have to admit I did find this photo of the sign erection funny 🙂. But a lot of CRT haters take it seriously and really do think it's their licence fees being wasted.

Yes they do, but what they never mention is what happens if four people are using it. I can tell you.....you end up having to empty it every week! And with four you end up with a full urine container (2 gallons) every 24 hours. Which glugs and splashes all over the place.....no nice air vent valve like a Thetford cassette.

Sorry I am a bad boy and will gave a small glass of beer with my lunch when its warm

A long as they are in good condition, appropriately marked, and don’t have a marked expiry date, they’re fine. Looks the same as one of mine (sans magnets).

Makes sense, I was wondering if I was missing anything. I think I will just pole it to where its getting pulled out (only 50 meters) and investigate/ pull apart the lower engine when it's out of the water

Depends what you rate as smoother. It is only a rubber cushion so it will absorb some low frequency vibration. You still have to have the shafts perfectly aligned. If you have no fixed plumber block bearing to take the end thrust the rubber will absorb some of the shock from the propeller. Be careful with a PRM120 mechanical gearbox, they are good but have more take up shock than say a PRM150 hydraulic and can wear the cone clutch quite quickly if abused. Keep the engine tick over low and never go from forward to reverse or visa versa without pausing in neutral.

No doubt after the alcohol has passed through their system into the cut, they will turn up suitably chastened with so many stories between them that the truth will never appear. Any (financial) charges that are made above their deposit will be promised and immediately forgotten about. Legal follow up will be so fogged by time, memory and multiple stories the only winner will, as usual, be the lawyers. I much prefer, as mentioned above, the Hells Angels type response which is immediate and memorable. I know, I'm a bad boy for suggesting that. I'm really, really sorry.

The only cops I ever see "on the street" are community police, not proper ones. They are there just for show and to direct people to the nearest public convenience. Real cops wouldn't lower themselves, they are far to self-important and busy in the station one finger typing up reports on crime they failed to attend.

Leaving to one side your crude language and unfounded accusations. Actually, you couldn't be more wrong on all accounts. I have a yacht which I keep on the east coast and it, in common with almost every coastal sailing boat has a sea toilet. I have no prejudice or axe to grind. I do have a good friend who lives aboard and has 'composted' for some 6 years now, so I am very familiar with what he spent on it and how it works in practice and how keen he is on it having got rid of his old pump-out.

This afternoon 2022 around Woodend Lock T&M with its teapots

They may have done a Risk Assessment and (bearing in mind the unstable ground) concluded "can be used providing 'X' people supporting the ladder"... Which goes back to the original post Would I have climbed that ladder to the top with no one else around in the middle of a grassy towpath - no Would I have rung my union rep / company lawyer and demanded a Cherry Picker - no Would I have said "OK, provided a few of you add stability" - probably Which is probably why I've been "not suitable" for our Fire Warden, "get job done" rather than "crossing t's"