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And if it's a long tunnel don't put the thruster in the middle where it's difficult/impossible to reach to clear the prop -- offset it to one side, less than an arms length from the end of the tunnel...

Try to ensure they fit a bow thruster tunnel that is thick enough to withstand years of rusting, many are very thin. On a wide beam it may be difficult to get to the middle of the tube for blacking/painting. I think some tubes are GRP so don't need painting but goodness knows how they are attached to steel. Also, make sure any guard grids they fit can be easily removed from both ends to give you access.

Never mind, we all make mistakes once in a while....

Shakes head and walks away

We all make mistakes, it's only human...

Oh bugger this is just CRT speak for "we are going to reduce facilities and up yours boaters". £4m ?? wonder how much they spend on blue signs, Facebook ads, dog poo bags holders two-tone van livery, director's bonuses, middle managers and full stack developers.

Volockies wouldn't be an issue if they all checked first whether someone wanted assistance, then those that do can have help and those that don't can do their own thing. This doesn't mean that volockies can't be used to manage flow, they just don't need to touch paddles unless requested by the boater.

Yes but the thing is, before volockies were invented (very recently) incompetent people managed somehow. And even now, incompetent people manage when there is a lock with no volockie or it’s raining and they are in the tea hut, or it’s after 4pm etc etc. Either supervision at all times at locks is necessary, or it isn’t. Since most of the time there isn’t a volockie on, I suggest that such supervision is entirely superfluous.

This is not about constipation. I expect most of you already know that £20 and £50 notes are being taken out of circulation on the 30th of this month, bank or spend your hoards quick or better still send em by registered post to me.

Nice to see the grass immaculately cut in that lock....

Water still available, Sewage seeps out to the pond behind the building

I always get off the boat in locks. If something goes wrong, the last place you want to be is on the boat, you are totally helpless and unable to do anything about any problem developing.

Shush, don't give soft southern posh boaters ammunition. At least swmbo doesn't read this forum . Can't wait for you to pull my nose again. 💖 😉

The ones I have opened have plastic pipes connected with rubber pipe sections which may or may not be to any accepted standard for diesel fuel, and spring type hose clips. No flares on anything. I take it that you wish to replace the inferior plastic pipe sections with 3/16" metal brake pipe. Does this help?

Well it depends a bit on how hard they hit you and how easy it is to get in and out without hitting you. For example at our marina there are very long pontoons with maybe 8 boats along each side of each pontoon. Our boat is at the far end so we have to pass perhaps 6 boats. There is a couple of feet either side. Not a problem when exiting forwards, unless a boat is tied up really loosely and swings out to hit us. But reversing back in, from time to time we touch another boat with a "glancing blow" or slight scrape. If there is anybody on board we would mouth "sorry" but really, it is fairly inevitable and of course absolutely no damage is done, it is just mildly irritating for someone on board perhaps. But if someone is ramming you hard without reasonable excuse, then it is less forgivable. It's all a matter of degree and circumstance. And after all, boats are meant to be cruised, not parked permanently in a marina (in my opinion!)

Where can I get help and counselling? I have just given IanD a greeny 🤢

I am increasingly coming to the view that I would prefer guidance on passing moored boats to change. On our last trip out over the August bank holiday weekend, (Venetian-Chester-Market Drayton) we noticed at lot of boats moored during the day at widely spaced intervals, often in ones or twos, but apart from Chester to Beeston there was barely a stretch with no boats moored boats in sight. Realistically, to make a difference to speed, we are slowing down a couple of hundred yards in advance, and then it takes another couple of hundred yards after passing before we are up to cruising speed. The impact on overall journey time was about 2hrs, which makes a difference. I would like to see a definition of the canals as a transport network. If you want to moor up anywhere you like, that's great, but expect that other boats will be moving. We don't all slow to a crawl when passing a parked car, and the same applies if that's a motorhome parked in a layby. Perhaps there could be some reasonable exceptions to that - say the hours of 8pm to 8am it is expected that you will slow down, and maybe even create explicit 'slow down' zones for visitor moorings. Anywhere else and you could reasonably expect boats to be passing during the day at up to 4mph and if you are choosing not to move that day, you need to moor appropriately. If you really don't want the movement, perhaps you should take an offline mooring in a marina? Contentious - definitely. Will it happen, no. However, it's a thought. Alec

You'd have thought that if they were competent at doing their 'job they'd have noticed the boat 'stuck' in their lock. A prime example of volunteer incompetence.

Just how much knowledge and experience does one need to work a lock? First time hire boaters seem to manage with minimal training, maybe just a video. There are some lock gates top and bottom, and some paddles top and bottom. It is hardly akin to quantum physics! Which of course is why those hundreds of thousands of leisure boaters starting out between the 1960s (or whenever leisure boating significantly started) and about 5 years ago, have managed locks without the assistance of volunteers. And still have to at the many sites where mercifully volockies have yet to infest. We all know why CRT introduced volockies, and it wasn’t to assist boaters, it was to show involvement in volunteering and to help showcase the canals to the general public, to please the government. Only trouble is that at least 50% of volunteers are miserable old grey bearded taciturn types with no social skills and barely the power of speech, which doesn’t create a great public image.

Oh another one with a personality disorder! I have one too. MY doctor says I have paranoia, so there. Well ok, he didn't actually SAY I have it, but I could see that's what he was thinking....