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Well, it made me smile! - “ extensively restored by Brinklow Boats in 1990 with a full traditional back cabin by Simon and Rex Wain” Simon, Rex and I didn’t form Brinklow Boat Services until 1997, Kestrel was restored by the Warwickshire Flyboat Company, when the three of us still worked there. The steelwork was done by myself, and unless I am very much mistaken, the cabin was fitted out by Don Donnelly, subsequently grained and decorated by myself. The work was done for a chap called Mike Samson who actually bought the boat from Willow Wren, but did nothing with it for several years. Once we had done the work he bought the Hyperion and paired it with that. It was actually my first attempt at replacing a Northwich riveted cabin, the old one was way past restoring, but at least we had it for a pattern Here are a few pictures from the archive:-

We moved aboard full time in 1989. The old boat we bought was licensed, we have licensed every boat ever since. The only major change since then was the addition of the poxy BSS which we have also always complied with. There are always those in life that try to get round paying their way, evading paying for anything but still using resources/infrastructure. They are to be treated with the contempt they deserve.

UPDATE *** Thank you all for your help. The decompression levers were all in the decompression position!! Turned them all back and it started first time.

Just a small correction, dinghy sailors don't use lifejackets, we use buoyancy aids since the nature of the sport says that there is a possibility of capsize. You don't want an automated lifejacket to go off every time you fall in and then have to wear a 'Mae West' for the rest of your sail.

Amazing how 1 wind up merchant can spawn 90 odd posts!

I thought this would be useful to post here for future reference. From Harbury News Sept 1975, found online. HIDDEN INDUSTRY OF HARBURY In our midst just along the road from the Gamecock in Chapel Street there used to be a sign saying "Precision Metal Products Ltd" Although the sign was knocked down by the scrap lorry the firm flourishes in the heart of our village. They were joined about 6 months ago by "Willoughby Fabrications" with a welding shop further up the yard. Don Osborne, who runs Precision Metal Products is a Dorset born man now living in Leamington and has been in business in Harbury since 1951. With a friend he started a machine shop in the old Mill in Mill Lane at that time, and moved to the existing premises after 8 months, when he went out his own. He now employs up to 5 people, turning out parts up to 4'6" Diameter for Aircraft, Bombs, Naval use, Boatbuilding and Marine Engineering, supplying firms such as Rolls Royce and Bowman. Roy Willoughby, the man behind "Willoughby Fabrications" makes longboats for canal use. He lives in Stockton and started making longboats with Don Cole in Ladbroke 5 years ago. Roy moved to Harbury when Don Cole started 'Colecraft' at Southam. He employs 3 people at Harbury at present and constructs the metal hulls of the boats. They are then taken to his canalside base at Calcutt (between Stockton & Napton) where the boats are finished off. Boats up to 40' can be made in one piece but larger ones are made in 2 halves and then welded together when they reach Calcutt. The boats are Roy's own design and are made to last a long time. He keeps costs low by fitting reconditioned "marinised" diesel engines and having many of the fittings made by Precision Metal Products. The boats he will make in the future are likely to be smaller as he has a design for a 26ft aluminium hulled boat on the drawing board.

What do you mean by pretty recently? I've been living full time on the waterways since 1998 and I can assure you that everyone living on boats thought about their licenses 25 years ago, especially the minority of liveaboards who tried to evade them. There are people on this forum who've been living on boats for a lot longer than me. Clearly in asking whether a licence in necessary and whether there are people walking around checking you have demonstrated that it's you who is new or at least completely unaware of living on the canals. Yes there certainly are people walking around checking licences but not all of them are paid to do that job. Plenty of your fellow boaters will willingly report your boat if they see that you aren't contributing to the maintenance of waterways facilities which we all use.. There's nothing wrong with asking forthright questions, but in doing so please remember that's there's also nothing wrong with people posting equally forthright responses.

You are always right IanD so I suggest when you get your nice shiny new boat don't bother with an anchor and try a few trips up and down the tidal Ouse and tidal Trent. Keep an eye out for floating debris on the way. You probably will be okay but possibly you will encounter a problem with aforementioned debris when you do, you will likely need an anchor. I suggest in your case you will only need third party insurance too.

Your EV use is typical of *you* -- as you've said before, you have a small relatively short-range EV with a range extender, and you have enough free time to slow-charge (also free!) while shopping, and you don't make long journeys, and you can charge at home, and never use rapid chargers. But very few EV owners fall into all these categories, which is why an EV is so good for you but rather less good for many other people. Widebeams are indeed ideal for many things if you want lots of space and are on a suitable canal. But yet again you're in the minority, most boats on the canals are narrowboats, and electric is less attractive for them. Most hybrid boats are narrow beam, going by all the blogs from owners and builders -- just because *you* don't know any doesn't prove anything, maybe because you're on a wide canal where most of the boats are wide too? (you and your mates again...) I don't need to own either an EV or a wideboat (or indeed any boat...) to be able to see that your situation is nowhere near "normal" -- meaning, that of most people. So every time you eulogise about how great EV/EB are *for you* without admitting that your experience is not typical and wouldn't apply to many people, I point it out for you. If you don't like this, try making your posts more accurate and less misleading. If the ASA had control over your posts, they'd be repeatedly rapping you on the knuckles for misleading EV/EB advertising 😉

How do you know? You own neither I own both my charging is typical of EV owners and a widebeam is the ideal for electric plenty of room for fitting everything including the panels. The only other electric boats I know are widebeams, I don't know anyone with an electric narrowboat.

If the OP is genuine, I'd also suggest that asking on a public forum for advice on flouting the rules is not particularly sensible.

People who set out to avoid paying licences are like those who claimed benefits while working on the black market. The money is used to run the infrastructure, those who don't pay are subsidised by those who do. Its fraud.

To be honest though, you were on the Tidal Thames not 100 miles out in the Atlantic. With a mobile phone you could call London VTS, Teddington/Brentford Lock, a passing boat or if things get really hairy even the RNLI (Chiswick, Teddington and Tower). This idea that we must save ourselves without any outside assistance becomes a bit unrealistic on inland waterways. Many of the anecdotes on here are along the lines of, "...I went to help someone who would otherwise have gone over a weir..." whereas there don't seem that many anecdotes along the lines of "The anchor saved my life". I'm not arguing against anchors, I carry one myself, but I'm also realistic about what it can and cannot do. Have done a lot of offshore sailing involving the use of anchors, I can't think of any situations when the anchor was deployed in an emergency since normally anchoring involves finding suitable locations to anchor and carefully deploying the anchor. Lobbing one over the side and hoping for the best probably isn't the best approach. There was another similar thread to this recently and I pointed out on that one that trying to deploy an anchor whilst being swept through London on the flooding tide between Limehouse and Brentford probably wouldn't have a good outcome. Assuming that everything on your boat was strong enough to take the strain of stopping an 18 ton narrowboat barrelling through London at 9mph (the speed we passed under Tower Bridge according to GPS) you now have a relatively small stationary boat anchored in the middle of a very busy waterway, what could possibly go wrong. On other rivers deploying the anchor could easily make a situation worse, If you were cruising the Ouse to York (so going up on the flooding tide) and a problem arose so you flung the anchor over the side, you need to be sure that the river is going to be wide enough for your boat to pirouette around the anchor without getting caught up on the bank because if the bow was held by the anchor and the stern was caught on the riverbank, this may well put you across the river flow which really isn't what you want to be doing in a narrow boat.

Yes picked up on that. I suspect you know a whole lot more than me and from your posts most people. Happy to learn from anyone please keep posting.

Only 45 would be odd. The others are even, Shirley.

<sigh> so you know a few people in one small widebeam part of the country North... Go and look at the analysis of how most people actually use and charge EVs, you are in a small minority, as is your vehicle (and your boat). Of course you know other people doing what you do, because you don't know many salesman or younger people (or electric narrowboaters) who have very different lifestyles and requirements, including driving 20000-30000 miles a year, or commuting long distances to and from work which may be in varying locations. I don't need to personally know all these people or own an EV to know this, because there's plenty of data out there which you just ignore 😉 You seem to live in your own little bubble where all that matters is you and your mates, and then you extrapolate this to "the whole country" regardless of whether this is true or not (it isn't). And before you dig back at me with the same accusation -- I'm well aware that my situation is in no way typical of most people (and boaters), and that many other (most?) people have very different requirements to me, and their needs are not mine -- and I don't claim that what works for me is the best solution for them, or that they should adopt the same solutions that I do -- unless they *want* to... 😉

This is how my mate does it, uses his Zoe as a local run about but when he goes to visit family in France or Manchester its the diesel Skoda

I think it's possible to get a sort of dealer plate which will allow you or someone to move an unlicensed boat to a dock or hard standing, I suggest speaking to CRT

Yes, he hasn't departed but his role is temporarily being covered by Jon Horsfall.

Maybe some people have got their wish and Tony Dunkley has risen in a different form and member name, as I remember him having the same care free approach to licensing, until it cost him thousands in legal fees/court costs and the loss of his boats😂 if I remember right.

Sounds like a good description

I'm out of this one

I thought it was Nero who rebuit Rome