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Moored at Westport Lake, just had a few boats going past and all set our boat bouncing and banging somewhat. Were they going too fast? Not really. The mooring ring spacing is sub-optimal. So I have just been out and added a spring at the stern, ie taken a line forward to the next ring, and tightened the ropes properly so the boat can’t move fore/aft. Took about 2 minutes. Now another boat has just come past, fairly fast. Our boat didn’t move at all. How often do you see boats moored with a spring? Hardly ever. So I say that every person who shouts “SLOW DOWN” or even thinks of doing so, or likes to whinge about boats passing too fast on here, only does so because they don’t know how to tie their boat up properly. (With possible dispensation for being moored on pins).

It may not be important to you but it's very important to those that live and travel there, and is truly beautiful so important in its own right.

I find it more effective to push the beam from the correct side rather than the other side. This is based on the experience of several occasions. I worked this out all by myself, without any volockies telling me.

I had a phone call earlier from a friend of Mary’s. Swan was meant to be at Audlem for the gathering this weekend. As a mark of respect, the organisers are leaving a vacant berth where she would have tied. A lovely gesture.

My impression is, that some boaters quite enjoy the confrontation of bellowing 'SLOW DOWN'. I've even noticed that some leave their mooring ropes deliberately slack for greater effect. The K&A is particularly bad for people with such an attitude: not that I ever speed of course!

When boats move on water, they push the water about, so any boat moored on the water will move. With caravans it's the wind that moves them about. Never really understood the desire to be on water but not move. Rog

Yes I know the feeling! And I think they rely on most people not wanting a scene. But the more control freak volockies are tolerated, the more they feel empowered. I had that at Stenson once, went to open the top gate and the micromanaging volockie said “No, it isn’t ready until the water level (inside the lock) reaches this mark”. I pushed anyway and of course it opened, because it is nothing to do with the level inside the lock, only to do with the difference in levels, and the pound was slightly down. This is the sort of intelligence and competence that one has to deal with with some volockies! No idea of the big picture, everything done by numbers.

I find pushing with the bum is easiest and allows the most force to be applied to a recalcitrant gate. As you say, when closing you have to start off by pulling but then you are not trying to fight the last 1/2” of water pressure and as soon as I can, I switch to bum mode. However it is absolutely nothing to do with a volockie how you choose to operate lock gates. Tell them to move away from the lock that your boat is transitting as their assistance and opinion is not wanted, and that “nobody likes a back seat driver”. They might get the message, although probably not!

Using your back allows the use of the strongest muscles in your body - your thighs, and stops potential back damage caused by pushing with a bent back that a 'forward push' requires

Yes the optics aren’t good and yes it used to irritate me. But many if not almost all are done via council, governmental dept and other funding. I believe that was the case with the recent Market Harborough resurfacing works. It states here, £900,000 from Dept of transport and Section 106. https://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/news/environment/ps900000-revamp-to-improve-stretch-of-harborough-canal-towpath-is-set-to-begin-4152677 It shows that someone at CRT/IWA / local Canal Society are awake and keeping an eye for opportunity. That doesn’t get away from lock problems of course.

that reminds me, I had a friend come visit and they had a bad lower back, after making sure they were still happy to do locks I suggested they keep their back straight while pushing with their arse/lower back and using their legs. They went home in a much better state after exercising properly. Tardebigge flight too.

Not 70 ft! I reckon whoever specifies ring spacing thinks everyone has a 55-60 ft long boat.

You really need to tie one of the rings off or the boat can move back and forth with the rope running through the ring. You may of course have done that with the stern line, I cant quite see, but I often see boats moored just as your bow is.

I use my backside on the Balance Beam - with my knees very slightly bent... The biggest advantage (to me) is that when the gate starts to move, you push about two inches and your knee naturally locks - while the lock makes a proper level. Other techniques mean you start to open the gate, then the rush of water slams it shut again.

It's a great place to overwinter, just ask Ange.

Well in that particular case, we had already drained the lock and driven the boat in and opened the appropriate paddles ( bearing in mind Stenson is one of the few wide locks where you open opposite side ground paddle first). So it must have been pretty obvious. Encountered that just yesterday at Planet lock, Caldon. On arrival there was a boat in the lock coming up. He opened the top paddles and then disappeared inside as I walked up to the lock. I sat on the balance beam and then started to open it, at which point his boat started moving forwards as it was in gear. I was momentarily alarmed thinking I shouldn’t have helped open the gate, but then he appeared, lowered the offside paddle and drove out. Presumably he was sat inside waiting to see the boat start to move, then came out. Quite cool I thought, although personally I wouldn’t be inside in a lock with no-one outside whilst it was filling. Although I love a good anti-volockie rant, it also has to be said that there are some good ones. This morning we went from Westport Lake, to Harecastle tunnel entrance just to turn round and dump rubbish. A young (relatively) volunteer tunnel keeper of female disposition came over for a chat, she was very pleasant and interested and presented a good customer facing image of CRT. Makes a change from the usual taciturn grumpy grey-beardy limpy old men!

Weve been quoted quite a fair bit more from Debdale but we are 70 foot. I did some research and Debdale are at the upper end of the price range, but not the most expensive. They have very good facilities and competent people so you pay for this. The zinc spray is costly but they have the monopoly. DIY is possible at some places but I would really not want to DIY grit blast. Grit blast + epoxy is a big job so needs to be done well. Doing it outdoors is a big risk, if the weather is wrong it will give a second rate job so a big waste of money. I would think that most dry docks would not allow a DIY grit blast, and most do not give access to the baseplate. I suspect the cheaper contractor quotes do not include masking up, or removing the grit and cleaning up afterwards. If a grit blast and epoxy is done well then it protects the boat for a long time.

I use the power of the human backside whenever possible. That way you push with your legs and avoid back strain.

Amusing and pleasant read currently in The Spectator. I won’t paste the article in respect of their paywall and the author of the article but you can read the article for free yourself if you visit the link below. I liked the article because the writers dilemma as “someone who has flirted seriously with the idea of buying a boat to live in but then thought better of it” struck a deep chord with me personally….much like the writer I can’t give this idea up and I share the obsession. The writer goes on to reference a book I now have a desire to read: “In his classic Britain-by-boat travelogue, Coasting (1983), Jonathan Raban describes a recurring type: a divorced man who has ploughed the entirety of his share of the house sale into living his long-cherished boat dream, only to become semi-feral and borderline destitute. When trying to buy a boat himself, Raban finds that seemingly every vendor fits this profile – a warning that buying himself may not be the best idea.” https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-canalboat-obsession-is-causing-me-trouble/

I don't actually agree with that because with a bypass circuit it will all eventually mix, by water pump action, as long as the engine is run until the thermostat opens and then some more. It is central heating, especially gravity systems, where premixing is vital. Not mixing should not cause the overheating the OP is experiencing. However, if the OP has put neat antifreeze in, the cooling capacity will be badly compromised. As I can't read the labels and as they are images I can't put the text into Google Translate, so we don't know if it is neat antifreeze or pre-mix. Yes, Google says they are the same, but it seems Ethanediol should have some numbers associated with it. I suspect (don't know) that there may be subtly different Ethylene Glycols depending upon the number. It seems that you have mixed blue and red antifreeze, that is what we call OAT (Organic Acid) which when mixed can cause the corrosion inhibitors to precipitate and drop out. On cars, this can block the smaller hoses, drillings, and radiator core. Although I don't know for sure, I feel that the precipitate will not be such a problem on your cooling system. If you have put neat antifreeze in, I would suggest that you drain it down, flush the system well, and refill with a 30% mixture and retest. That just might be enough. Or just try it with water to see if it overheats. It won't hurt anything for a couple of weeks.

I do that too. It works well. N I would have thought that the freezing of a pipe next to the basplate is very unlikely. You would need to have the canal frozen right down to that depth and to be frozen under the boat. The freezing of pipes above floor level is an entirely different matter. The air temperature in an unheated cabin will approach the outside air temperature and if the boat is unoccupied and freezing conditions persist fir weeks then even well insulated pipes can freeze. And with the possibility of the failure of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation within present lifetimes, weeks of freezin conditions need to be considered. N

Mooring on rings can be problematic for setting up a spring line but I have been known to use the centre line either going well forward to a ring or well back to one to create a spring line (doesn't seem to tilt the boat quite so much then). Most other places I try to moor on Armco and a few years back I acquired a short length of rope (about 1.5metres I would guess) with a spliced loop on one end and a 'nappy pin' on the other. First thing I do when mooring up is put the loop of this over the stern mooring bollard on the boat and drop the 'nappy pin' into the armco. Stern now temporarily moored I then go and tie off the front pulling the boat as far back onto the rear mooring as I can, and then go back to the stern and tie off the actual mooring line on a chain putting tension on the mooring line with the 'nappy pin'. Once moored like that you may come past me at what speed you like because my for and aft movement is going to be minimal.

Very many thanks for your help and speedy response.

This aqueduct was constructed at the time of the various new railway developments to New Street and Suffolk Street. Previously the road, or passageway, under the Worcester & Birmingham Canal was called the Gullet. I have the aqueduct built in 1885 but for some reason the Listing of the Structure gives a date of 1870 But that was in 1982 when could not spell aqueduct (acqueduct?) Heritage Category: Listed Building Grade: II List Entry Number: 1076303 Date first listed: 08-Jul-1982 List Entry Name: HOLLIDAY STREET CANAL AQUEDUCT Statutory Address: HOLLIDAY STREET CANAL AQUEDUCT, HOLLIDAY STREET B1 HOLLIDAY STREET 1. 5104 Edgbaston B1 Holliday Street Canal Acqueduct SP 08 NE 7/58 II 2. Dated 1870. Cast iron framed acqueduct taking canal from Gas Street Basin over the road. The trough is carried on segmental brick vaults between guiders supported by cross guiders resting on decorated cast iron columns along the pavement edge both sides of the road. The bridge parapets of iron have diamond patterned panels.

If you're on shore power, use a plug-in WiFi repeater (extender). You may need an extension cable to place it in the window to grab the signal for rebroadcast around the boat.

Like others, I prefer to use my backside against the beam. Which isn't to say that I don't sometimes pull instead, particularly on lighter gates. But it is entirely up to you. There is no absolute right or wrong way of doing it, and the vollockie shouldn't be telling you there is.