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An employee at Sainsbury's in Gloucester did take some convincing that I'd bring her trolley back! (the canal is right behind the supermarket) Didn't help that it was the canoe I was loading up, so invisible below the piling from any distance... got some odd looks from passers-by a few minutes later as I carefully dropped bag after bag of shopping into the canal. This was my record (35 - at least the less-squashed ones stacked!) for trolleys propelled by Lark Ascending. The most I've had actually on board was four and that got a bit cramped.

It isn't Tesco's fault. Their trolleys have an overpowering instinct to return to the canals to spawn. Most are caught by the brave man and women employed by Tesco to round them up in the car park, but a few escape and head for the nearest body of water. The wobbly wheels you'll find on some are the result of car park tussles as they are caught and returned to their life of servitude. Isn't nature wonderful.

One point that doesn't seem to have been queried so far in this thread is why the OP is going for a new build. He has no experience of canal boating, and admits that the discussion to date has identified all sorts of differences from his yachting knowledge, and that his design decisions are changing as a result. And so it is more than likely that as he develops his thinking, gets the boat built and then uses it for a bit, more things will emerge that he will wish he had done differently, but by then it will be too late and/or difficult and costly to change. New boats depreciate significantly, and probably more so if they are not of fairly standard design easy to sell on to the mainstream market. The bespoke boatbuilders all have a waiting list so it will be some time before the OP can actually get afloat. By contrast, second hand boats are half the price or less to buy, and can be resold for much the same as they cost, and are available at pretty short notice. The OP should seriously consider buying second hand first (and inevitably compromising some of his particular aspirations), get some experience of living aboard, of what works and what doesn't, and what in practice is important (probably rather different from what he currently thinks is important). And then he will be in a much better position to spec out his 'forever' craft. And if it turns out he finds life on the cut is not for him, he can sell up and move on with much less damage to his bank account.

Time to stop faffing with solar panels and fit some sonar perhaps?

Indeed. The whole trad stern thing makes a lot more sense if you don't have an "engine box". Put the engine in the engine room, forward of the back cabin. The other BIG advantage of this is you shut the engine room doors and get to cruise without the racket of a diesel engine roaring away immediately under your feet. Oh and you mend yer bike on the tug deck at the front!

Having a retail park near a canal is a recipe for trolleys i think....

And the OP has said he will be alone on the boat, so the social aspect of a cruiser stern is less important. And he also plans to be CCing most of the winter, so there is a strong case for being able to steer standing on the cabin step, with the doors closed behind you and the slide pulled up to your body - even in the cold and rain, at least your bottom half stays warm and dry. Replace the 8ft cruiser stern with a 3ft 6in trad stern and you reduce the overall length/increase the internal accommodation by 4ft 6in.

Think hard about this. Steering an 8ft cruiser stern is not a comfortable experience compared to leaning in the hatches of a trad stern boat. If only because in the trad you have a slide in front of you to put the map on, and yer tea or beer! Cruisers are especially not nice to steer in winter or bad weather as you are 6ft away from shelter and warmth, and especially not when the tiller bar is a bit low so you have to bend over slightly to keep your hand on it.

My boat has a 225 litre diesel tank, it lasts for about 25 days cruising at 6 hours per day with a Beta 43 engine. It has 400 litre fresh water and black water tanks. They last 2 of us about 2 weeks and 4 weeks respectively. One tip, macerator toilets come with a "tank full" light which is very conservative. I fitted an MCS waste tank gauge and found the light was coming on when the tank was just under 50% full. I empty the black water tank at not more than 90% full, so since fitting it have virtually halved my pump out costs.

My boat must be compliant - I built it myself and then filled the form in saying it was..........

The EA are responsible for flood control I think; on the Avon there are EA signs in various places around weirs, and there are a few movable weirs on the lower Avon and at Stratford, most other weirs are basically just piles of rocks but still I would think EA responsibility. That said ANT are currently clearing the winter debris from weirs, there is a massive pile of debris on the upper lock landing at Harvington lock that was all on the weir 3 weeks ago, no idea if the EA fund this work or if ANT does.

The more you go on with posts like this, the more you confirm my belief that you’re a total jobsworth. Please warn everyone of the consequences of buying a boat without an RCD even on 20 year old multi owner boats, if they all take your advice as gospel a lot will be missing out on good quality boats 👍 Anyway moving a qualifying boat up the Trent, just checked and no fixed anchor point on the bow😱 Luckily it hasn’t got a cheesy Leerdammer ‘T’ stud🧀😂😂

Which is remakedly uncommon, particularly from house dwellers playing boaters.

If you are going to cc for the rest of the year, why do you need a marina berth for 6 weeks? You may be lucky, but many marinas will either have no space or will have let 4-6 month winter moorings which will already be occupied. If you do find somewhere you will be paying a premium rate compared with a longer stay.

I remember that Elvis Presley used to be on the RCA record label.

Quite. And it was to have exactly this sort of pointless and interfering regulation got rid of that was promised as a benefit of leaving the EU. Thank God for Brexit, eh?

The Trent is a beautiful river. The Fossdyke is a little dull but you aren't on it for long. Lincoln is lovely, but then I'm biased because I live there! Going through the Glory Hole (under the oldest inhabited bridge in the country) is fun.