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I will admit my second foray into this (and I had a permanent mooring) ended when I got skin cancer - I woke up one morning in my lodgings, the wound from the op had become infected and I both looked and felt like a mouldy potato, suddenly all those needless luxuries of houses, toilets connected to mains sewerage, taps that never needed their tank filling, endless hot water etc - weren't luxuries any more. I was reminded of this last week when we took Juno out for the day - I was recovering from a COVID type bug and found everything hard work, the deft step on and off became a major climb, pulling the ropes (on a Viking 23!) felt like mooring a container ship. I watch Canal Boat Diaries with a nostalgic pain for the great journeys I have made, and I will go boating again, especially as SWMBO is keen for us to do this in retirement (for once it's not me suggesting a two-three month summer voyage) but I will always have a land base with mains services to retreat to!

You really should do some research on CRT finances. Boaters contribute only around a third of CRT's income -- and it doesn't even cover the cost of maintenance. A third comes from the government grant, so the walkers, paddle boarders etc are paying through their taxes. The final third comes from property, utilities etc

Me too, and lest anyone get gloomy over how illness might affect canal exploration, here's a pic of me on the towpath of the long disused Horncastle Canal - and that thing running to my nose is portable oxygen... I'm not going to let a little thing like chronic illness get in the way! (For those wondering - i stay in hotels with creature comforts)

hey if it weren’t for the boats passing fast I’d never get outta bed in the afternoon 😃

I'm not getting into that old argument - you pay for a home mooring and have the comfort, security and more often than not a range of facilities providing at said mooring be it canal side or marina, I'm just highlighting CRTs reasoning for charging CCers more. Yes, clearly it's to raise revenue but they've been very open at laying the claim that CCing involves providing year round facilities. All fine if they were *just* for boaters and not anyone who has a key. Like anything else, if you're paying for something exclusive, you want to ensure that *you're* the one gaining the benefit.

At least your addiction seems limited to boats. Mine is boats and the waterways they float on. Yes I'm a canalcoholic...

I sing back to them ‘you move too fast , you gotta make the morning last’ in a Simon and Garfunkle stylee 👍

I completely agree that it is addictive. We sold out boat last year (reluctantly) and won't be able to get another for the foreseeable. But I am still compelled to spend hours a week reading every thread about what size nut to use on an engine I've never even seen etc etc. I just can't stop. My name is Marianne and I'm a narrowboataholic 😫

I think some miserable old gits just can't go to bed until they've had a good moan about something! 😄

I was rather mortified to be sent this photo a few years ago... My excuse was that the previous day was a 14 hour cruise..

They really do make a big difference, it's almost as though they're designed for the job 🤔.

This surely is the crux of my point. There are 2 choices, one being to tie your boat up sloppily and expect everyone else to compensate for that by passing at a crawl. The other is to spend an extra 2 minutes tying your boat up properly and then not expect everyone else to pass at a crawl. Personally I think that following a strategy which doesn’t place a burden on other people is the better one, but other opinions are available!

I've often wondered about the people who shout 'slow down' at passing boats. I'm sure I'm not the only person who's cruised in tick-over by a long line of moored boats (Golden Nook being one such place where this happened) chatting happily to occupants, exchanging salutations etc., to be then confronted by a resident bellowing 'slow down'. Firstly, I can't actually slow down ... I can stop, but tick-over is the slowest I can travel. Secondly, the other two hundred boats I've JUST passed by were quite happy with my speed ... how can it be that only one out of several hundred (at Golden Nook) thinks I'm too fast ? I suspect the shouters have unhappy lives and need to vent in some way to release pent up anxiety and it's nothing to do with speed. Either that or the penny hasn't yet dropped about how how water moves in and around boats, and that the movement is actually what makes boating different from camping , and why most of us love it so much 😁 Rog

Me too. I actually like to feel my boat moving when boats go past. I was moored on a bit of bankside on the Thames near Boveney once, when a big trip boat came past very fast and that was a bit scary. I realised I needed to set up some springs and once I did that the next time it came past it was fine. Yours are in an open and obvious position which everyone can see and they have other options rather than walking on the gunwale. The ones that are trip hazards are next to cabin sides where people will be walking along looking at the handrail rather than the gunwale.

It may look that way but remember that towpath resurfacing etc is funded separately from outside sources specifically for the work in question. So these funds can't be used to fix leaky gates and faulty paddles etc.

My youngest daughter works for a conservation organisation in Scotland. They are dealing with hundreds of Giant Hogweed plants and those doing the work are wearing full protective suits with no skin exposed. I often use nappy pins and have never had a sound from them. Just make sure the rope is taught and if not using springs they run away from the boat foe and aft at 45 degrees.

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.

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).

Remember who you are talking to.

The problem with all these bed sizes is the sheets. Places like The Range generally only sell (what they call) single, double and king size fitted sheets. Plains sheets i.e. not shaped and elasticated are near impossible to buy in normal shops.

I work for a furniture manufacturing company (beds and chairs). We never use the terms "king" size or "queen" size because people's understanding and expectation of what it means, varies so much. Also, we don't use metric units for beds. Ours are all made to order and we can accommodate 6'9" and 7'0" (and anything else if you really wanted it) lengths. But about 75% of the beds are 6'6" length and the others 6'3". The widths are typically 2'3", 2'6", 3', 3'6", 4', 4'6", 5' but we can join 2'3", 2'6, 3'0" etc as desired and obtain a headboard to match and fit.

I followed a hire boat past the moorings near rose Narrowboats, one chap complained to me how fast the hire boat I was following was going. He seemed happy with the speed we were doing, but my engine was only going chug chug chug compared to the hire boat doing the same speed.

https://www.portofwells.co.uk/webcam/

Who mentioned tow path improvements? Not I. It all goes into the CRT pot and comes out again to whoever so my contribution is still distributed in part to other canal users other than boaters/.

Until a few years ago I never bothered with a spring because the vast majority of passing boats slowed down. Nowadays because most don't slow down I always make a spring. Better for my health than getting stressed every time it happens.

We had a lovely year on the Lancy, it really is a wonderful canal. The only downsides were getting to the bank between official moorings and finding somewhere to buy diesel. We did have a car at the time and found a garage that had a competitive price when we filled our cans there 🙂.

If you look into the middle distance, you can just see the 'Trent Lock Monster' (Father of the Loch Ness monster) sufacing and swimming across the river

Is it only me that thinks that CRT should only issue keys to registered license holders and not sell them to every Tom, Dick, or Harry? If facilities are "Boaters Facilities" how the frick is it that cyclists, fishing people and anyone else seems to use the same facilities just because CRT have sold them a key? License holders pay for the facilities, not Charlie Farnsbarns who cycles down the towpath in his lycra with the rest of the pelaton. That's the same facilities that CRT claim CC'ers use more than anyone else hence why they've increased the license...if that's the case then only issue keys to genuine license holders.