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Just wanted to make a public recommendation and huge thanks to the team at River Canal Rescue and Richard of Primrose Engineering who attended the sinking of our narrowboat/home this week. Incredible response saw Tom of RCR attend on the night of her sinking to help the fire service, then a team attend within 48hrs and had her up, minimising the damage. Meanwhile Richard of Primrose was there within 48hrs to first aid rescue the Lister SR2. Within just 3 hours of tender tinkering she was firing on all cylinders (well, two). More importantly was their advice and reassurance that we were doing the right things and that it wasnt as hopeless as it feels when you see everything you own and your home covered in sludge and soggy cat biscuits. I'll avoid discussing the detail as it's likely to become a legal matter, but our 43ft cruiser ended up on the bottom of a Thames stream here in Oxford, together with another boat. Some how the water levels dropped over 1.5m in an hour, tilting boats on their moorings and those unlucky to be over slanting river bed or air cooled vents like ours went down but didn't come up.... It's an horrendous situation but with a quality insurance policy in place and quality support companies such as RCR and Primrose at least these situations can be managed well. A huge thanks again, should they be on here. Tim

I think the Queen has done a marvellous job (and long may she continue to do so) these past 70 years and was happy to sound my horn for a minute here on the K&A.

Put a new radiator in. Its the best time of the year. Pin holes ALWAYS become much more and next winter is not the time to start messing.

Not at all, that kills the golden goose for the brewery. The business model is to suck in new a wet-behind-the-ears newly retired person with a big pension payout and no business experience, to replace the previous one. Relieve them of as much cash as you can persuade them to part with in order to 'realise their dream' of running a pub, and get them to sign a lease that ties the rent to the turnover rather than profits and locks thm into buying all their stock at overpriced rates direct from the brewery. This way the pub is guaranteed never to make a profit for the publican as no matter how hard they run, all the profit is mopped up by the brewery. selling the pub to a property developer would bring this gravy train to an abrupt halt. Anyone wanting a pub is best off buying themselves a freehouse, IMO.

Turned up at Burscough to discover an unannounced navigation closure - there's a duck race taking place at Burscough Wharf. This came a quite a surprise to the local trip boat full of paying passengers too! So, in go the ducks from the middle of the bridge ... And they all start drifting downstream with the wind and the water, much to the surprise of the "organisers" and the amusement of the spectators! I missed getting a photo of them grabbing the finishing line flags and running to the other side of the bridge because I was laughing too hard!

There is no practical way to repair a pinhole that has developed. You probably have a system-wide corrosion problem and lots more pinholes are close to breaking through.

Yes and a bloody nuisance they are too as you walk the towpath in the dark and they come on and blind you. I really don't get the point of them.

@RLWP

I think the technical term is crossed fingers.

Yep, a fifty-something with a long career at the same company taking redundancy or early retirement and consequently collecting a huge lump sum payout reflecting length of service seems to be the target victim, as they are likely to make the rookie business mistake of engaging with the amoral brewery commercial contracts department and underestimating the extent of its amorality. One who mildly regrets a long corporate career trying to climb the greasy pole and is pleased to get out at last to 'freedom', and has always fancied running a pub, or living on a narrowboat, or packing it all in and being a plumber. Then when the cards fell such that they can get the pub, they grab the opportunity not realising how ruthlessly they are going to be milked of all their hard-earned redundancy payout and then dumped, usually bankrupt, and the next victim sucked in. This is just what I observe seeming to happen again and again. Cynical? Moi?

Assorted points - £110k is at least a decent budget for a boat (brand new boats and massive Dutch barges excepted). It'll also buy a bricks and mortar place oop north in cash that isn't as small as the boat... - Bath isn't going to be easy to find moorings in. Other parts of the country more straightforward - How close are the kids to leaving home permanently? A narrowboat really isn't much space for them, even if it's only in between university terms or jobs. - Standard drawbacks of boats apart from lack of space are managing changes in temperature especially in winter since you're living in a lightly insulated steel box, weird toilet arrangements and lots of little things going wrong which require time and money to solve. Living in a boat might reduce some stress, but it can create other stress - Standard upsides is that they look cute, can go to a lot of unspoilt rural locations and are great fun to cruise around in, but is that what you're after? - The market for boats might have changed a bit in six years. It has in the last six

Didn’t I’m afraid, have visited before though. Took advantage of first winding point. Gutted to have to back down locks we’d already done on way up. Thought services under the pylons were excellent but I suppose they should be with so few visitors

Buy it direct from MCS, much cheaper than Midlands! https://www.mcsboatproducts.co.uk/our-products/freshwater We have there fresh water and pumpout tank gauges. Seem to do the job well enough.

It will be anything but simple inside that plastic case. Unless there have been developments since I was at college, there is probably an oscillator in there to change the 12v to AC, a transformer to step it up to 19Vac, and a rectifier to switch it back to DC.

You promised not to tell anyone about that!!

After seeing the performance (or rather lack of performance) of the cordless pressure washer in the video, I decided to stick to my KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid) and continue to use a bucket of soapy water with a soft brush to wash the boat. There's nothing I haven't been able to remove.......any stubborn bird poo that doesn't come off initially, does so when you come back to it after 10 minutes of soapy water soaking into it.

In an ideal world everyone would be able to have a wide range of contracts and jobs to pick and choose from and maybe you have never been in the situation where you have to take the job on offer but I suggest the great majority don't have either the choice of jobs or the power to negotiate Sorry to go all off topic I will back out, enjoy the celebrations

I wish you well, an admirable way to live. But a word of caution. If you think living aboard is cheaper and easier than on the land you are wrong. But compared with the Netherland it is possibly a little cheaper in the UK or it was till two months ago. You will be shocked at the price of boats now.