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That's alright, she will just run a crowdfunder if it sinks and buy a 5000 berth cruise liner.

I thought it was relevant to most boaters, ie general interest to general boaters, which is why I put it in General. I wish some people would stop nitpicking at every opportunity. Mind you, I accept Peterboats heading was more informative and if we can get the threads merged, do it with his title.

General boating seems a reasonable place to me.

Very commendable lad. Set us all an example and get your cheque to CRT in the post.

Thought I would put a video of my boat with it's little engine. Can't remember if I ever did after not being on here for a while.

If you compare the mechanical properties of HDPE with steel you can get some idea of the relative strength and how resistant to damage it will be -- bearing in mind that the sides are 15mm thick compared to typically 6mm for steel. Anyone who doesn't like maths, look away now... 😉 The Young's modulus (stiffness) and tensile strength of steel are both about 140x higher than HDPE, the elongation at yield is similar (about 15%) -- if you stretch either by more than this (e.g. bashing into a concrete lock corner in between the beams) it will stay stretched, so you'll get a dent. The fact that the HDPE is 2.5x thicker increases panel stiffness by 6.25x, so this means a 6mm steel hull is 23x stiffer in between the I-beams than HDPE, and has 56x more tensile strength. So if you bash the boat into something hard the HDPE will bend a lot more than steel (about 5x) but will spring back if you don't hit too hard; if you do hit too hard it will first bend permanently and then break. If you crunch the numbers and compare them to steel and work out how fast you can ram the concrete, the boat speed to cause a permanent dent for HDPE is 1/5 that of of steel and to make a hole the figure is 1/7, which are *huge* differences. I've seen a fair number of steel boats with dents in them, so presumably with HDPE the number would be a lot higher since they would happen at a much slower speed. I don't think many steel canal boats have been holed by impacts (though I bet some have...) but the difference here is even bigger, so the risk of holing an HDPE boat in a collision must be *much* higher. GRP is *much* stiffer than HDPE but also can't stretch as much, so boats built from this are less robust than steel (hence why their owners don't like them hitting things or being hit by them e.g. steel boats) -- but nowhere near as bad as HDPE. I hope Shaun has taken all this into account, because it suggests that HDPE in these thicknesses isn't a good choice for big heavy boats in the rough-and-tumble canal environment -- and may be difficult or impossible to get insurance for, given how much more fragile it would be than steel, or even GRP... 😞 To be as robust against impacts as 6mm steel (which is probably thicker than needed...) HDPE would need to be about 70mm thick, which would make it about 50% heavier -- and presumably a *lot* more expensive... 😞

I explained two things. 1 - some boaters do use and have used mobile phone hotspots for many years quite happily. 2 - I explained how the comparisons between using them in similar locations to where we site the 'van and where boaters boat can work too. A lot of course depends on how critical internet access is. If needed for things like work/team meetings then clearly the 'full fat' all singing all dancing router and external aerial solution would be better. But for more casual use where internet access is not critical then I re state what I said previously. Try the hotspot route, and if it works for someone don't bother buying additional kit, if it doesn't its easy enough to add stuff at a later date.

Oh no, not another one. I fit the general demographic myself - in my 20s, fairly recent CC liveaboard - but: * Financial motivation not the main thing; I've wanted to live on a boat ever since I said "mummy I want to live on one of those" aged single figures and jumped at the chance when working practices changed due to Covid. The costs of a 30ft boat aren't less than renting a similarly-sized room somewhere, and I could afford more than that if I wanted to live on land. * Remote working and not tied to a specific location, so I can actually cruise and not just shuffle around a 20-mile radius of some fixed point. * I have some woodworking and electrical skills, and am willing to wield a spanner given a manual, so I can at least try to look after it myself. These articles always seem to understate the costs and the enforced differences in lifestyle, and encourage people with no knowledge or particular interest in boats to jump into it. I've met some people who've been seduced that way who clearly have no idea what they're getting into.

I expect the government wouldn't know the difference between a river and a canal.

Our two. No problems with them living onboard.

That might be useful. Actually, borrowing quite a lot from wooden canal boat design might be a good idea in general (the ribs already are for example) as there are some similarities in properties between wood and HDPE. Other potentially useful things to borrow would be the use of a thin, sacrificial steel shoe plate where the sides and base meet and possibly steel rubbing strips and ice plates at the bow. With regard to the question of how to attach ribs/frames - that one is relatively straightforward. HDPE does weld easily so you can add either a full HDPE rib or a low attachment rib/series of lugs to which you can mechanically fasten a steel rib. One direction which has been alluded to above which might be a useful halfway house is the use of HDPE for cabins. Wooden cabins do have quite a few advantages, e.g. keeping the centre of gravity lower and reducing condensation. They are also better for sound deadening. However, they are quite difficult to keep sealed between the boards, fairly high maintenance and do rot through easily if damage goes unnoticed or is not rapidly repaired. HDPE might add the advantages of wood without the drawbacks. It does need a proper upstand lip all the way around just inside the gunwhales for attachment but if that was done I can imagine this could be quite a useful approach. It might, for example, have been a good option for Oates if it was reasonably cost-effective. Oates had its wooden cabin replaced with steel, but to keep it stable the weight had to be kept down. That has meant thin steel and I can't add any high level storage. I would have had more options with welded HDPE panels. There are still a few 1970s boats about with wooden tops which now need replacement so I can imagine there are some good opportunities to try this if it is reasonably cost-effective. Alec

A much smaller railway swing bridge is located on the Tat Bank (or Rood End) branch of the BCN. First is 1937 photo, from the "Britain from Above" collection via Duncan Moore's excellent website https://lostbcnimages.blogspot.com/2022/05/oldbury-and-titford-area.html Other two are mine. The bridge still exists, with swing mechanism intact if rusted solid, but can't be reached by narrowboat. You can visit it by canoe. There's no access by land as it's within the BIP site.

Yep, I'll certainly try. Enjoy your evening.

To be fair plastics are good for signage and we will be needing more of that. Things like "warning. Shallow water". "Water is wet". "Do not swim here" etc. There will be a lot of plastics. Some of it will be green. Maybe the towpath could be decked with green plastics to avoid the mowing issue. Someone will have already suggested this. One could even incorporate signage into the surface. Bark..grrr..woof.

Of course they don't *have* to act on polls which are not legally binding either, just like in 2016... 😉

I doubt anyone will get a vote on this.

TBH I think both are fine. To be clear I wasnt criticising your choice. I would be inclined to think of news as being about news items relating to boats and waterways though. But that is just an ooinion. I come to the forum via. 'the view new content' button and rarely notice where stuff is posted anyway. (Though when I start a new thread I do try to ensure its in a relavent section).

Would rather go there then Crick, as I can see Narrowboats every day, but can’t hear the sound and see a steam organ or working steam tractor☹️

I stuck it in General Boating. Maybe the mods could merge them into whichever bit thry think most relevant?

Yet some people find it works for them on boats too. We often pitch in very remote countryside locations (where there are guess what? Yes trees) and find it still works fine. We rarely use big caravan sites preferring to pitch on 5 'van sites on farms or in rural villages, and it still works. One place it didn't work for us was ironically on a site very close to the A1 where surprisingly the signal for all mobile co's was poor to non existent. My advice for what it's worth is to try this before buying other stuff (if somebody wants a cheap solution), they might (will probably) find it works. They can always go out later and buy additional stuff later on if it does not.

Had it in the lounge when I first married about 100 years ago.