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My name isn't Judith but I will forgive it. 🙄

You will be absolutely fine. I would imagine you will be on your way somewhere between 3:30 and 4:00, leaving plenty of time for a pleasant trip up into Birmingham. If you are looking to eat on board then I suggest it is well worth heading beyond the first moorings - there is a sharp left turn when you get into Birmingham (Mailbox Turn) and then the moorings start on your left. Beyond that first set of moorings is a narrows (it used to be a stop lock), then a long bridge (Broad Street Tunnel) and shortly afterwards a roundabout (yes, really, but you don't have to treat it is such in terms of which side you pass). Beyond there are nice moorings on both sides and if you go on a few hundred feet it gets a bit quieter as there are nightclubs and pubs near the roundabout. It is worth walking back to have a look at it lit up at night as it's quite a good atmosphere but mooring down nearer Vincent Street Bridge is much quieter. You will need to turn round in the morning and go back to the roundabout and turn left. There are various arms along the main line so turning in one of those is the easy option. You will probably find this a bit tricky, and may well make a mess of it, but don't worry about it, everyone does at first! One trick is to put someone on the bank on the side opposite the entrance, with the stern rope. Point the bow down the entrance and have the person on the bank pull the stern round. This is -way- easier than trying to get the boat to do it through a combination of forward and reverse, although assisting the person pulling by using the engine can help, and can also give you a sense of how the boat is going to behave. Locks. You are best off working out your own system, but here is a starter for ten to give you an idea. You are starting off going downhill. Person A steers - they stay on the boat. Person B goes up to the lock, unlocks any handcuffs which stop the paddles opening (you will have a handcuff key - make sure you have two on the boat!), if the lock is with you (level is the same as the boat going in) they just open the gate. If it is against you, they check nobody is about to come in from the other direction and assuming not, they open first paddle, then cross over and open the other paddle. Once the lock is level they close the paddle on the offside, then cross back to the gate side, open the gate and lower the paddle (do it that way round as there is time to lower the paddle while the boat comes in, and it is also less hard work to push the gate when the paddle is open as it decreases the water resistance). The lock is now ready for the boat to come in. Person B then walks to the other end of the lock, towpath side, and waits, ready to open the paddle when the boat comes in. Person C then turns up, having walked down, arriving before the boat. They stand by the open gate, ready to close it when the boat comes in. Person D arrives around the same time as the boat, walks down to the offside gate at the lower end and stands ready to open the paddle. The boat comes in, C closes the gate, B and D open the paddles. As soon as their paddle is open, B heads on to the next lock and sets it up as before; C goes and stands by the paddle that B opened. When the level matches, C and D open the gates and the boat starts moving out while C and D lower the paddles and re-lock any handcuff locks. Once the boat is clear, C and D close the gates and C walks on. D walks to the other end of the lock and locks up the handcuff locks at the top end, then walks on to the next lock. Repeat. Not sure if the above makes any sense whatsoever, and if not it doesn't matter - there are millions of different ways of doing this and you will work it out, but the aim is to give an idea of an efficient way of working through a flight of locks. Key points to note in the above - not all locks have handcuff locks on but some do; not all of them work so sometimes you can't unlock it and have to work with only one paddle which is a bit slower and sometimes you can't re-lock it, so just leave it unlocked. When there are handcuff keys in place, the above working pattern has all of them unlocked while the boat is in the lock. It is very unlikely that anything will go wrong if you take care and watch what is happening, but if it does, the ability to open and close paddles quickly can be important so I prefer to leave them unlocked until the gates are open. It does not require tremendous strength, although some gates can be a bit awkward. My daughters (13 and 15) working Brades bottom lock on the BCN earlier this year. Alec p.s. but you have five people - what about Person E - Tea!!!

It's a cracker, will be snapped up by a proper boater who is not bothered about useless bits of paper.

At gnosall festival what a great organised event free parking,no drama organised boating festival,take not especially Tim Braunston........

Today Bows to bows in Gnosal.

No, it's the one where you had a broken rudder. I seem to recall you were there for a little bit longer than half an hour! 😁

Or have a mirror with you, and blast their headlight back at them. Then when they complain about your headlamp you can explain what they were actually experiencing!

There are other companies which now use the same model but I went with Hobbyweld because they have a branch a couple of miles away and they will supply me with acetylene. Others may be a bit cheaper but the above outweighs this for me. Alec

These are caused by condensation from the cold bridge formed by roof stiffeners and the fastening battens for the linings. To cure the problem you will need to drop the roof lining and improve the insulation between the batten and the lining. Thinsulate strips or thin polystyrene strips should work. As a short term fix, wipe over with mould remover or neat Patio Magic or similar. Allow to dry. Wash with clean water. after about 6 weeks. Try to avoid making lots of steam inside. N

You are constantly trying to re invent the wheel and could easily spend £160K on a boat owner fitout with bells and whistles for no good reason. Remember that boats depreciate fast in the first few years and that money will never be recovered, particularly if it is quirky. As for relying on good fitters to do the difficult bits, you will find they are not queing up to Implement your ideas at a time and place to suit you. The good ones are busy, the others take your money and are never seen again. Research for good builders, and keep an eye on Apollo Duck, you are just as likely to find a decent boat with a good fitout that way, and save yourself £80K. You will find this is the fastest way to get afloat.

Oil lamp? We used to dream of having an oil lamp. Only posh boaters on shiny boats had oil lamps. When I were a lass, the canal company would allow us one geriatric glow worm to see'us way through 'tunnels and we were glad to have it too. The new LED lamps have the advantage of being so bright they will blast the Harecastle boggart to ectoplasm fragments. They'll vaporise a swimming cow, or other hazard to navigation in the Foulridge Tunnel at a distance of 100 yards. They can be too powerful though. At some point the extra light from the red glowing incandescent brick work of the tunnel lining is counteracted by the rising steam from the boiling water.

In the case you mentioned where the Victron refused the out-of-limits shore power, surely that was a good thing? Excessive voltage could cause some appliances etc to fail prematurely over time, whereas the Victron highlighted the problem which was then fixed. If a Combi fails and takes out the “pass through” of shore power - which can happen - then it is a fairly trivial matter to connect the shore and the boat services together just by moving the wires or by removing the wires and connecting together via chocolate block. So it is hardly a catastrophic failure. But in reality these things don’t often fail, our Combi has been on continuously for the past 13 years… touch wood! For years we used a boat with no inverter. Mains only via shore power. And we have hired boats with an inverter. Now we have a boat with a Combi and for me, it is by far the best option not least because of the scope to mix generator/Travelpower with inverter power. Plus of course the seamless switching between the various sources of power. So my point is that I have tried them all. I think the talk of “one failure and you lose the lot” doesn’t bear technical scrutiny.

Companies who exhibit at Crick know their customer base, (craftsman built interiors, not scaffolding boards). Folks who post on YouTube about fitting out are probably one off owner fit out, and if they decide to have a "industrial look" ie cheapo, they will struggle to sell the boat when the novelty wears off. DAMHIK. Owner fitouts will never look as good as those done by a top professional.

Yes, another view of the a small area for possible leaks: has to be the lock walls or the floor/invert, all above the top gates. (16Jul2024, Lock 1E HNC) Whatever the cause of leaking, the restrictions of opening (11am Tuesday or 11am Thursday) when added to the current restrictions at Marsden and Standedge creates a major disincentive to through navigation. Boaters are a diverse bunch and seek to navigate at different rates with different priorities; we have covered the extra 8 miles and 41 locks (Huddersfield -> Standedge) in under ten hours' boating (in 2015, 2014, 2009), with overnight stops at Slaithwaite to give some contingency for meeting Standedge bookings: lunchtime Wednesday in Huddersfield would see us through Standedge two days later at lunchtime Friday. A similar arrival in 2024 could only arrive through Standedge the following Monday five full days later. Or a Friday lunchtime in Huddersfield could only be through Standedge the next Friday seven full days later. Our other nine through-navigation trips have been in the other direction (in 2024, 2016, 2014, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2008, 2006, 2001).

Next he will be quoting pump out prices in Shillings or Guineas.

Yep and filled from the toilet cassette even better. 😜

As to the location at Hawkesbury John Sinclair had been born in Scotland and moved to the Coventry Canal from Llangollen The 1861 census records him living at Hartshill with his wife-

Roughly every 250 operating hours or so. Alec

A Super Soaker would work, but that might be what they call water pistols.

Surely you just fill with water and move on ? It takes as long as it takes ... but simple courtesy suggests you don't take showers, or do laundry, or hose the boat down if someone is waiting. We have a rule never to pass a tap, so we're rarely longer than fifteen minutes anywhere. If waiting your turn for services is a problem you should get up earlier 😁 Rog

Thanks, Glenn....and literally everyone here. Finally got a chance to catch up and read every post here. We are a crew of 5, all novices, two parents and 3 teens. We're getting ramped with sites, videos on the routes and locks for next week, and feeling more informed and confident. This forum and this thread is especially valuable to get insights and hands-on tips from all of you. At ABC, call time is 2:30pm for day 1. Our plan will be to be in Alvechurch early in the day, and be in touch with the crew there beforehand about our plans. We likely need more than quick handover but ideally we get on the way some time before 5, and will aim to get to Birm before nightfall. Sounds like if we need a plan B we should plan to make a decision about stopping earlier at Bournville or Vale, but yes, it's a 4 night rental, so better plan is to get to Birm night 1 and than have the full day 2 to start at Farmers Locks and get to C de B for 2nd night. We are not too concerned about nightlife or pubs in particular. So in Birm, looking forward to it historically and to see the city from this perspective, but will be happy if we can get to a spot and feel ok for the night and cook for ourselves. ABC rental has clear rules about not sailing after sundown, so aside from the legal and insurance details either way, that's not really an option we would think about. So we'll start as early as we can, enjoy the run up to Birm without any locks to deal with day 1, and make sure we plan to do our first mooring in daylight somewhere reasonable and not toooo mysterious.

Well is was 2 in the afternoon!

The dipped filament of a traditional dual filament car headlamp bulb has an internal metal shield so that an approaching driver does not have a direct view of the dipped filament. Most modern LEDs I have encountered have no such anti-dazzle provision, possibly the reason why so many people (myself included) complain about being dazzled by modern car headlights.

Surely the point of the 30 minutes max rule is to make it obvious you can't leave the boat there and go shopping or have a leisurely lunch on board. Every rule will have ways in which people can wilfully misinterprete it. "Boat must not be left unattended" - crew has a five course dinner on board. "Water point only" - operate all those thirsty appliances whilst on the water point and stay six hours... "30 minutes" - time to give someone else a go

The youtubers are buying old boats and the quickest way to freshen up forty year old interiors is with a tin of white paint. These guys are not buying new boats, their prime motivation is cheap housing not boating. Unless you cannot smell gas there is no reason to avoid it on a NB. The cookers have flame failure devices. On a yacht there will be a gimballed stove and a cut off tap behind the stove, in fact one can often easily turn off gas in the locker. I never use my oven, except in dead of winter, as it barely heats a pizza. Instead I use a Durch oven on the hob, and if I had Lifepo batteries I'd probably have a small air fryer and a small electric kettle. Cooking on board, for me it's not a big thing. Obviously if I was buying a new boat, II'd have these upgrades. I'd need about £160K for a good boat, not something most youtubers have.

Few hundred yards is not boating in my book but a incovience for people who do boating. 🤔

What about Caggys Yard at Tipton Or Phil Jones at Hatherton

Mines a small boat, 40ft, air cooled engine so big holes for ventilation, been overplated twice, now has three bottoms and two sides (well, four, I suppose, really) and shows no signs of sinking! I just took the ballast out.

I know that to be the case in respect of caravan sites, but never in respect of working boats, and I don't know where your grandparents got that idea from. It's not a thing I've ever heard of from any of the boat people we knew or worked with - they had no other place to live anyway. We lived on boats from the late 50s and had two children. We paid whatever were the relevant rates/Council taxes, the boys went to school, had Doctors etc, and never was there any suggestion we should 'live' somewhere else for a week or any other period. Nothing changed when we took up freight boating about 1970.