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Just completed the Curly Wurly and have to say I really didn't expect it to be that good. There's some really nice places and moorings. Hardly a linger-longer in sight which is quite puzzling considering the number of places they could spend a uninterrupted year or so. The two pubs we stopped at were also good. The 'Manor Arms' (thanks @beerbeerbeerbeerbeer ) and 'The United Kingtom' (HPA was top notch). Both pubs have good moorings. It is a bit weedy but a bit of reverse cleared the prop most times. The Perry Barr pounds were really low some empty. A call to C&RT and thanks to Mick the lockie for advice we managed to get both boats through. Mick even came out on his way home to make sure we were okay. If only the ground staff ran the show instead of the lightweight management.

Due to Tempus Fugit many of the last of the "proper" working boaters are no longer with us. In the past few years we have lost Ron and Brenda Withey, Joe Chattin, George Wain, Alice Lapworth, John Barret, John Saxon, Cecil Jackson, John Best and Mike Humphris to my knowledge. I don't know if they attended this year but I heard Maurice Peaseland and Jim Hambridge are not in the best of health. Were Eddie Hambridge, Ron Higgins and Janet Barret in attendance this year? When I took Mike, it was always wonderful to listen to the above relating their experience of working the boats, this I miss. Mike opened the door to an almost secret world for me, this I cherish. Braunston 2016

Smacks of greed and disenchantment. I've never been a fan of 'big' gatherings, favouring the Christmas and Easter 'do's' that were regular in the days in the eighties. The fun was in getting there; some impromptu music in a pub; a good breakfast - then off. Perhaps the Braunston experience is wearing thin. £20 for parking? A fiver would be too much. Blists Hill Victorian village charges £5 still (my daughter works there). It's £26.50 to enter, but you have an entire small town to wander round, shops from which items can be bought, fish & chips, bread and rolls all baked on the premises, cafe and restaurant and guides and shop-keepers in period costumes explaining the activities of many trades that once were, and the entrance auditorium tells the story of Coalbrookdale in sound and fury. History on show, history explained. For rallies, smaller is better. There is also the query that most of the attendees having never worked boats for a living (nor have I) are there as: 'would have beens', but having 'never been' were pretenders, often in almost clown like pseudo costume - dogs with neckerchieves. Those Braunston rallies I have been to, reminded me of how so many people were complete strangers to me, with barely a handful of faces I knew from forty years ago. And even then, I considered myself as a 'newby' - an imposter. Maybe I'm getting too cynical in my dotage. The working life experience has gone. The 'Circus' show is fading. The 'Big Top' is leaking. Such things were never 'traditions' amongst working boat people, it was graft, only broken by an evening in a pub, or a stoppage. Todays Brasso Brigade can only polish and paint. But still - I miss it.

How do you think changing the name on the door will help, when lack of money is the problem?

An update to this thread - I have now swapped the Smarty ("trial") sim for a Scancom Three version. Very good value and the banking/email pages seem to work as expected now suggesting that the Carrier-Grade Translation was pooling IPs and causing issues as suggested. Weirdly I have just noticed that eBay thinks I am on a phone when I use 5G data, and presents what I assume is a version of its page designed for a 2 inch screen - but only on Firefox. MS Edge presents it normally. For the cost saving (a hundred quid for 500GB/month for a year, compared to around three hundred quid for Talk Talk (the truly awful Talk Talk!)) I know that this is primarily a boating forum, but the broad spectrum of knowledge is an invaluable resource, so a big thanks from me to members who have contributed!

Have you steered the barge on open water such as the Thames before coming on to the canal? Indeed, have you any prior boating experience before you bought this barge? If it is a tjalk or similar converted ex-sailing craft they can always be a bit of a pig, especially if the stern has not been modified to get a good flow of water to the rudder. In addition, tjalk conversions seldom have sufficient ballast, which means side winds will have appreciable effect too. Also you don't mention the length, and a short relatively fat boat will have more issues than a longer vessel. If you have effectivey zero previous experience it may be that you are trying to go too slowly - try again with rather more power on. To eleborate on my comment re stern modification, the rudder of an ex-sailing vessel will be a flat blade pivoting soley on its leading edge, whereas the rudder of a motor vessel will have part of the blade in front of the pivot point. With the former style, when you move the rudder over to one side 50% of your power still pushes the boat forward - only 50% is acting to turn the boat. With the balanced rudder, when you put it over to one side far more than 50% deflects the thrust and acts to move the stern in the direction required. I hope that makes sense. 🤔

There is that, too.

Yes sadly the number of old working boat folk was v low this year .i have lost 11 of mine since last year most are well into their 80's some of mine even 90's still managed a gathering at the beer tent not as many as other years but it makes me happy to meet up with family Harrison,Monk, Lane, Humphries, Dell amongst others & i traveled up from Heathrow term 4/5 area .lots of close family & friends & boats missing for one reason or another lets hope for better a better order for the parade next year So miss these guys part of the history & heritage of the working bot folk

@Ray T Yes, it comes to us all. It was the little things that I remember from speaking with ex-boat folk. Inconsequential things like the chap who looked in the engin'ole at suttons and saw we had a 'chip fryer', tall stories from Arthur Bray, and the helpful way Joe Safe got us in off the Thames with a nifty bit of rope work, and top of Hatton when I set the engine speed and left it alone which drew a comment from the lockie who said words to the effect: 'That's more like it. Not like these hire boaters who can decide one way or t'other.' David Blagrove on a bend when our boats barely touched: - "Two Joshers kissing on a corner!" Good memories.

I think you need to see the units in terms of watt hours. They might be costing the same because of some error, but 1.1kW for 1 hour is 1.1kwh and 2.3kw for 4 mins is much less than that. I'll let somebody else do the maths.

I stopped there the other day to empty the elsan and I'm fairly sure the sign said reserved for work boats, no mention of CRT only.

I never tired of hearing some of the tales from David Blagrove. In the pub with the narrowboat crew at Braunston one year where linked to my family like the time he broke down on the Thames at Brentford & Mark Harrison broke the rules by going onto the Thames to tow him out of danger .Mark was called up before the company who had their office in a pub the next morning. David turned up with 4 bottles of good whisky plonked them on the table & said fine paid .

The pub? 🍻😃

You actually believe them???

@Derek R. If it was the lock keeper at Sutton's it may have been Mike? His last job before retirement was lock keeper there. The "chip frier" comment sounds like one of his, he always referred to Armstrong engines as "Battery chargers."

My wife met one of these boats at Braunston last week who had gone past the marina and intended to reverse using the Oxford canal junction. Going far to fast, didn't try to look around the corner and my wife who was going dead slow as that corner is awkward especially with the water point had to slam into reverse. I would hardly argue it was a sense of entitlement, just another case of someone not thinking or distracted. Hardly peculiar to heritage boats.

No thanks, I'm voting Reform!!

Not everyone plans each stop, Apart from the day we need to get back and the journeys aim we seldom do. We find it’s more fun that way for us. Others I appreciate like to plan every stop. The way we do it probably means we manage to get further but sometimes can’t stop at honeypots. Horses for courses I guess. Incidentally I believe where the second pair of historics are moored states reserved for CRT craft!

I do indeed sir- and I live on the thing 365 days of the year. I must stress that I was only joking around with all that nonsense about GRP liveaboards. I've met loads of GRP liveaboards, and often they are more pleasant to chat to than some of the posh narrowboaters. In fact I like them so much, I'm expecting to change to a GRP myself and about 5 years or so.

Welcome to the forum. Before you go too far down this road, especially if you intend to live on it full-time please ensure that you totally understand what CaRT expects of you. Basically that is to move on every 14 days or less if so signed and to travel an unspecified distance on a continuous cruise. Failing to observe these rules could and you in court, leading to the confiscation of your boat. Probably the best thing for now is to provide links to boats that you think may be suitable so we can tell you if they look a good buy and so on. In some cases, people here may know a lot about a particular boat and give more detailed advice. Don't spend your total budget, leave some for emergencies - as there always are with boats, especially new to you boats. Make sure you understand and account for the mandatory annual licensing & insurance costs, plus mooring fees if taking a mooring. At least, moorings in the Midlands should be a little cheaper than in London. Don't think that renting a mooring is the same as renting property. There is NO security of tenure, and often living there full-time is not allowed. Proper residential moorings with rights similar to properties are hard to find and likely to be expensive Good luck.

When I started boating towpath grass was never cut. It was sometimes like wandering through the Amazon jungle in the height of summer. And there were several lengths I can recall on the Grand Union, North Stratford and Oxford summit where there was no towpath at all, just a muddy bank up to the towpath hedge. All those lengths got piled and backfilled with dredgings in the mid 70s, and now you would never know the towpath had once been completely washed out.

Then instead of asking for more money maybe they would do better asking to be released from the KPIs which require Facebook sponsored ads, fun runs, fishing courses, art works, walks etc. The EA look after many waterways but don't seem to need to promote leisure use and judging from the highly accurate C&RT visitor numbers plently of people already think it's 'better by water'. Looks like 54% of boaters would like it 'better on water'