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It's £450 a quarter for a 60' boat, so £1800 a year on the hardstanding at Debdale, plus about £1650 a year for a 20' container, though they are full with a waiting list.......maybe those folk are not sufficiently "outraged" or haven't heard about the "autocratic, vindictive owner". It just seems a no brainer, given the cost of a licence and diesel, plus your method of heating and the inconvenience of doing it all on the tow path, with one eye over your shoulder at whether crt are gonna give you grief. Why would you bother, my guess it'd cost you about £500 less on the towpath, given the price of a new build, it's peanuts. Seems like you know what you want to do tho, so maybe just go for that?

After seldom seeing another boat all that changed when we came onto the Llangollen. Small queues at locks and lots of moored boats but the sun is shining and all is right with our world 🥵

Yes, sloes are the fruit of blackthorn, once tasted never forgotten Worth noting blackthorn thorns have a nasty habit of causing infections and some people can react quite badly, rare just worth being aware

Or maybe it'll be mutiny in the Bounty.

They don't shout about it, just like there aren't any videos of shops not suffering from mass shop lifting or cars not hugging the outside lane of motorways, not being chased by the police and not doing 60in built up areas, no videos of kids on bikes that are not doing wheelies down the street

Not jumped in previously, but isn't it simply one persons dream can be another's nightmare ? This is why I don't trust reviews or others subjective opinions. Even my wife insists on asking me "that wind feels cold ... will I need a coat?" How the bloody hell can one person know what some one else may feel/ think / like ? Rog

Maybe he's disgruntled because he didn't get the aqueduct contract.....Telford did, and was served a fantastic meal in the local pub.

What you tend to find is there’s always two sides to a story and ex marina moaners that whinge about their ex Marina, only tend to tell their side of the story. I’ve seen moorers that have left because they’ve owed moorings and couldn’t afford to pay and moor there anymore, haven’t paid their electric bills or they’ve been an absolute pain to everyone, but they never mention things like this when slagging the Marina off. So I wouldn’t believe everything you hear from these people.

Knowing CaRT, they'd end up section 8 ing 30,000 boats that can't be licensed due to there being no scheme any more.

Not meaning to dampen the enthusiasm of the OP. I’m not sure whether anyone has said this to him…. ‘Before you even think about buying a boat have you hired one to check it’s the life for you?’ My wife and I were sat outside the pub last night and a hire boat came in. They sat down at the table next to us and one of them asked the question, “would you ever buy a boat.” The answer from the rest of the group was an emphatic “NEVER!” It’s been a glorious week and comparatively quiet on the canals, plus they were in a very nice well maintained boat, but even then they’d found it all too challenging. They were looking forward to being safely back on dry land! It isn’t for everyone, dip your toe in the water first before burning your bridges.

Blackthorn is one of a large genus - Prunus - which not only includes plums, damsons, etc, but also cherries. But it's the most vicious, well named scientifically Prunus spinosus. And the debate between shrubs and trees can be vague, but generally a tree has a central trunk, but a shrub has several branches from the base

Quite quiet on the River. I have the children aboard which is always a terrible hardship and we are going to the Bounty at Bourne End shortly. Its terribly arduous but the weather helps give the impression that it might all be okay.

Our experience of the Willymoor has been very good food but somehow our trips on the Llangollen don't seem to result in us being there at meal times. We'll need come back up here and plan it better .

But do they "burn"? That's acorny joke...

I have the same, but to be absolutely sure I never end up with two empty bottles, I valve off the full one that is not in use and hang an "in use" label around the other. When it is empty I open the valve on the unused full one, which causes the auto change valve to change over, then transfer the "in use" label to it and then hang an "empty" label on the now empty one to remind me to replace it before the other one runs out.

You eat them raw?! Oh, my goodness, they are disgusting!

With any luck, all the old examiners will retire, no new ones will replace them, and they'll be forced to shut the whole sorry scheme.

I have a Lavatree in my bathroom.

Gybe Ho! : Yes, is that Debdale wharf? Yes, I'd like to book my boat in for hard standing please. Debdale : Certainly sir. Let me check my red flag book to see if your name comes up on our system. Gybe Ho! : Ok. Debdale: Can I have your name please, sir? Gybe Ho! : Certainly, it's J R Hartley Mr Gybe ho! Debdale : Is that with an exclamation mark sir, like Westward Ho! Gybe Ho! : Yes, that's it.

When I walk down the tow path on the GU Leicester branch or around the boatyard at Debdale, I don't have "I Hate Debdale" tattooed across my forehead. Presumably the random chats that lead to info volunteered about Debdale, are representative. Hold the front page, man planning narrowboat shell fitout does not have a boat. You missed your vocation in investigative journalism.

It all depends on what you mean by "alter the speed". Any hydraulic pump & motor set up will alter the motor speed by altering the pump speed, but I suspect that you mean alter the motor speed irrespective (within reason) of the pump speed. If so a variable swash plate pump or variable swash plate motor will do that, but I am not sure if they can do it automatically to maintain a constant speed, I expect they can, but don't know for sure, and they may need extra equipment. Unfortunately, I think they tend to be the most expensive type of pump or motor. Remember that you are also likely to need a reservoir, oil cooler, PRV and an oil filter Over the years there have been many boats with hydrostatic drives (not hydraulic gearboxes) and although there is a loss of efficiency and thus a higher fuel consumption, it all seems to fall within what is felt acceptable to the owners.

I would assume that's a deliberate policy by the bods in charge to force the personal profit for the examiners up. That is, after all, the rationale of any group of people restricting entry to a profession, and reinforces my opinion that that is the only real purpose of the scheme.

Sloes are the fruit of blackthorn. The fruit on hawthorn are called haws. I suppose it was viewed as rude to call the fruit on blackthorn 'blacks'

we had an all singing and dancing opso auto change over regulator one time we came to the boat and found gas had run out, changed bottle and a day later gas had run out upon investigation there appeared to be a plug at the bottom of the unit which had literally blown out (trapped water and frost???) decanting all the gas into the locker (thankfully the drain pipe did its job. So now we have a simple regulator with no opso auto change etc. The company who made the original have gone out of business.