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So yesterday I bought a steel Dutch cruiser, its a boaty boat rather than a corridor 🤣 I currently have a widebeam but I have lusted after this boat for a few years, it has a Sole 44 diesel engine with 146 hours on it. The previous to last owners can only be described as the artful Bodger! He didn't fix anything correctly ever!!!! The list of bodges he did are endless, as I sort them I will list them, i have fixed the water leak on the front hatch already. I only have until the end of may to do it as that's when the BSS runs out, pictures for perusal

This rubbish about dividing boaters has been going on for thirty years , and it was rubbish then and it's rubbish now. There was bs about shiny boaters being hated by scruffy ones, and liveaboards by them what didn't, and tin boats versus yoghurt pots, and how we all hate cyclists and fishermen and dog walkers. It's a civilised discussion as to the rights and wrongs, or the effectiveness, or the law or whatever, that's all. I've never met a moorer who said he despised CCers, and plenty of the latter come up and chat when I'm out and about. I've shared locks with all of them. Several of my friends are CCers, some have been both at times. Who cares? Strangely, we all get on. Especially, as you seem to forget, when you're out on a boat, there is absolutely no way of telling whether someone's got a mooring, or a share, or just cruising. None of us really give a toss, in the real world. This is social media, and a discussion forum. It's not real.

You're assuming the OP knows what they're doing with a hammer. There's quite a knack to it and average canal boater wouldn't have a clue how to test their hull with a hammer, even those with years of boat ownership experience. But you're expecting a complete newby to do it? The other problem is whether the boat is high enough off the ground to get a proper swing at the baseplate and even if it is, suppose the OP hit a thin patch of steel and put the hammer through. Yes at least they'd have found out, but they'd be in for some costly repairs that they might not be able to afford at this present time. I think it's a bad suggestion all round.

It’s not about you.

You probably could drive a train after training. Not a hope otherwise. And don’t be blasé about suicide. It renders some properly hard characters unable to carry on with the job that provides their livelihood.

4. Handle removed and tap wrapped in copious amounts of yellow & black tape from the back of the van and then left in never-to-be-fixed limbo.

Your a non stopping train, approaching a platform at 60 mph, you see a person at the end of the platform, on the edge, not a hope of stopping on the emergency brakes..... This is the reality of train driving, as told by my son in law, who drives Kings Cross- Kings Lynn, via Cambridge. This not in anyway, shape or form, a go at Tracy D, I'm just using her words, to illustrate there is a catch to every good thing. Bod

If they are overpaid, why is there a shortage of drivers?

Next week’s Countryfile will explore the heritage and value of our canals and rivers, as well as the threat from inadequate Government funding. https://x.com/IWA_UK/status/1761817500935762237?s=20

Are you sure he wasn't just re-inventing the wheel?

Dutch Lady Built by Altena - Length : 10.5 metres ( 34 feet 5 inches ) - Beam : 3.1 metres ( 10 feet 2 inches ) - Draft : 1 metre ( 3 feet 3 inches ). Metal hull N/A power of 50 HP. Registered with Canal & River Trust number 517101 as a Powered Motor Boat. ( Last updated on Wednesday 22nd May 2013 )

I am not an expert on HS2 (although I suspect people in 10 - 20 years will rue the planning of the past year) but a quick Google look indicates that there will be an additional station on the Elizabeth Line, which is adjacent to Old Oak Common) which will give good links out both west and east (tough if you insist on living in Dulwich!) Also there is a strong possibility of re-connecting to the Acton-Northolt line with further connectivity for the suburbs out towards the Chilterns. In any case, North Acton is only 500 m away, if a proper pedestrian link is provided. It looks like it will be much the same distance as the HS2 - Moor Street walk. Whilst the whole situation is a mess, it does not help to over-state the case.

I've not heard any more on this in recent years. Personally I think the PLA harbourmasters work really hard to allow the smallest thing that will float, and the biggest container ships in the world, to safely co-exist. Supported by the Chief Executive who is (or was!) a tideway rower. I suspect SUPs are more of a nuisance than narrowboats. (see the idiot in the link below) So for example they come down hard on anyone creating excessive wash. For our part, proper preparation and equipment is key, which is why I always react quite volubly when I see people posting on social media saying "a mobile phone is fine, you don't need a VHF radio". That sort of attitude will increase the risk of further regulatory action. It is fair to note that (following an unfortunate incident at Hammersmith a few years ago) the regulations for hire boats on the tideway cannot realistically be complied with by narrowboats - so there aren't any any more. https://scholargypsy.org.uk/2023/07/13/sup-training/

Thanks for drawing this thread to my attention. Three representatives (from SPCC, IWA and the DBA/Limehouse residents) had a useful meeting with CRT a few days ago. They have accepted that the current slots offered on the website are not right, and in particular don't allow for the various options for arriving and departing. Watch this space! A few other points I would add: I strongly agree with @Peugeot 106 that the skipper needs to do their own passage planning and understand the tides. One certainly should not rely on a website to tell you when to depart. The winter hours (0800-1600) only apply from November to February inclusive. The other 8 months are 0700-1900. We are still discussing these hours with CRT. It's not going to be easy to persuade them to change - this is a national policy and one that makes sense in many contexts (but the moon does not cooperate so far as tidal locks are concerned). These new hours will mean there are quite a few days, even in summer, where Brentford to Limehouse (and vv) transits are not possible. And some days when Limehouse to/from Teddington is not possible (unless you fancy bashing against the tide) CRT have started training people to operate the lock (and the bridge, which is temperamental). I have volunteered myself. Ditto Brentford Thames lock (which is simpler). We have been trying to engage the PLA on all this, but no luck yet. I will have another go at their open meeting (they are normally excellent events) in Putney on Monday week.

Hopefully her neighbour isn’t this guy😂

Of course it's quite legitimate, and so is spending twenty years dawdling between the bottom of Bosley and the bottom of the Macc, but what it isn't, by any definition, is a cruise, or what the original act imagined was one. Whatever CRT's supposed justification for the surcharge, usage of the system doesn't have much to do with it . I use the infrastructure ten times as much as one of the bunch you describe, and so does a hire boater in a week. The surcharge is being introduced because CRT needs money, and it needs it because the original calculation of the proportion of CCers to home moorers has been put right out of kilter by the sheer quantity of the former who are taking advantage of an interpretation of the law which was never intended. It's as much BW and CRT's fault as anything by simply not providing moorings where people want them, and then never having the bottle to define what they mean by a cruise. Prior to whenever, there was just a licence and we were all treated the same, though some of us paid for a mooring and some didn't. BW charged the mooring providers a fee, same as CRT usually does now, which the landlord factored into the rent, so all home moorers contributed that bit extra to the authority for the right to stay put. I still think the split into the two categories of boater was a mistake, complicating the whole business unnecessarily. The surcharge is just heaping more mess on to it.

If it was about improving the rail infrastructure they would have built a new goods-only line from Harwich to the Midlands initially, with extensions to Liverpool, Southampton, and even that corruption centre of the NE, Teesport. The line would be similar to the one built between Rotterdam and the Ruhr, so high speed for freight, but nothing like HS standards, and thus much cheaper. The initial phase would cut across an area of low population, through fairly level ground, and relieve the congestion at Harwich, particularly noticeable during Covid. It would prove of benefit to the whole country, with the existing passenger network continuing to serve smaller towns which will be bypassed by HS2. HS2 is for the suits who want to rush around appearing to do something useful, while the general population will not be able to afford tickets if they are priced to pay for the infrastructure.

Yep, sums it up well

It seems that the posters complaining about the changes to the license fees "dividing boaters" are mostly those who will end up paying more as a result, meaning CCers and widebeam owners. The other boaters who won't pay more -- the vast majority, looking at the actual numbers ( CCers and widebeams are outnumbered by about 4:1) -- don't seem to be quite as concerned about such division. This rather suggests that the reason for the protests is all to do with self-interest and nothing to do with division... 😉

Most people travelling from London to Birmingham don't start out within walking distance of Euston Station, they travel by other means from their home or wherever. So whether HS2 is more convenient than the existing route will be dependent on the transport options from the journey origin to Old Oak Common. For many people that will be easier than flogging all the way into Euston.

I tried to send this by PM but I got the system response “IanD cannot receive messages”. Presumably there is an option to turn off receiving PMs which you have selected. So I’ll have to make it public. This is what I said in my PM: On the one hand you seem quite intelligent and knowledgeable. But on the other hand, sometimes incredibly childish. “Pot, kettle etc” is just so playground along with a total inability to recognise your own behaviour. I am going to stop interacting with you because you turn everything into an argument, even when we basically agree. Which is a shame because we both share a lot of knowledge and expertise and could have some interesting discussions. But I really can’t be bothered with the petty playground bickering. So you win, I’m out.

Are you expecting our government to make a sensible choice having considered the ramifications? You must be new here ...

And that proves you know beggar all about train driving.

Bad health especially breathing problems are with a great many folk caused by obesity, gorging on mountains of crap grub, one only has to note what some folk in front of you at the supermarket checkout sre buying ie, huge bottles of fizzy pop, burgers, sausage rolls, enormous bags of frozen chips, huge hunks of meat, massive bumper bags of crisps ect, big stacks of toilet rolls. Probably driven only half a mile to get there with the seat shoved right back and the steering wheel jambed in their fat tummy instead of walking and very likely go back home to gorge on big greasy fry ups and doughnuts whilst goggling at the telly or playing on laptops and phones. No excersize !!!. just heavy puffing and blowing when lurching about. As Harold Mc Millan once said,''We've never had it so good''. 🍿🥨🍨🥔🥩🥵

As ever, CRT's left- and right- hands are entirely unconnected. Limehouse now needs booking through the licensing website - https://licensing.canalrivertrust.org.uk/PassageBooking - only open for tidal windows within 0800-1600 until Easter and then 0700-1900 (I think). Brentford needs to be booked separately if you're doing that passage through the same site. If you want, I've done myself a spreadsheet that shows the available passage timings for this rather than having to paw through their pathetic user interface....

Coal burning in town was rare before industrialisation got going. People burned mostly wood instead for heat and cooking. The particulates from wood burning were no doubt as bad for health as they are now, but all the other perils of urban living, plague, cholera, assorted STD's, murder, would get you long before your lungs gave out. An odd little footnote. Cooking pots used to be very expensive, before cheap iron was smelted from coal. Cooking pots used on wood lasted many decades and were passed down the family. Cast iron cooking pots used on coal corroded out in a few years, so coal only became practical to cook on when coal also made iron cheap enough to make cooking pots a consumable.

How well do you know Birmingham? The fact is that Curzon Street is over a kilometre (by road, not as the crow flies) from New Street Station so let us say a 15 minute walk, and all that you've saved in time from London on the new line is supposedly 20 minutes, which you are going to pretty much lose walking to New Street to catch your connection to go further north. The 'gains' are entirely illusory.

Not sure that we ever had a "green image" after the invention of the diesel engine.

The Humber bridge was signed off by Barbara Castle when Harold Wilson put pressure on the project due to the Kingston on Hull by election in 1966. Surprisingly it was all agreed just by chance just before by election took place. Politics seldom changes sadly. TBH it is widely used these days, and has probably saved some semblance of employment for the surrounding areas. I don’t understand why we can’t or didn’t invest on an HS2 project from Liverpool to connect to HS1. Wouldn’t that reduce the throughput of trade to the Dutch and Belgian ports and greatly increase trade via the UK West coast ports. Brexit has probably killed that one but it never seemed to be voiced as an option?

But who is going to be travelling on it? I'm a regular rail passenger (don't have a car) but unless the fares are ridiculously cheap I can't envisage any occasions I'll travel on it. Why would anyone want to go from not the centre of Birmingham to not the centre of London on a line that is mostly in tunnels anyway. I'd sooner take 20 minutes longer and have a more interesting trip. Yes, we need improved infrastructure but this isn't it.

According to CRT's newsletter, the landslip was caused by climate change. Funny that, some of us thought it was due to lack of maintenance.

A metal cage filled with stone or similar

A nice read: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/feb/17/after-five-years-on-a-narrowboat-ive-finally-reached-the-end-of-the-canal-network-lancaster-canal