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Today's H&S culture is often ridiculed, certainly criticised. But we need to consider how we arrived at this position in order to see if, anything, can be done to improve it: A century ago, industrial accidents, many fatal, were all too often a characteristic of everyday life. Sometimes made worse by the complete lack of financial support for someone involved in an accident that came about from placing profit above all other considerations. (I am not saying that profit is bad or a necessary evil but unrestrained it can lead to all sorts of consequences) In modern times, many of the regulations, laws and paperwork has arise from an outcry following a particularly horrific accident. "They must do something to prevent this ever happening again" is a common red-top newspaper reaction. The only way that 'They' can do anything is usually by regulating and inhibiting harmful activity. Alas, it generally means that the inherent costs fall in the first instance on the industry originally involved but those costs inevitably work their way through to all of us - and, in a way, rightly so. Society demands that accidents do not happen and there is usually no cost-free of reducing risks. (Just occasionally commonsense wins the prize, but rarely - after all, if it had been deployed before the accident, it would not have happened!) Another route is to mitigate the costs, both to the 'victim' as well as the organisation, by making insurance compulsory. As well as being yet another cost, the insurance companies regularly reduce their risks by imposing restrictions that are not enshrined in law, or even implied by it. We all know that at time insurers can be excessively vigilant in protecting their shareholders and customers from false claims including those that fail becasue they fall outside the small print. Canals were designed and built at a time when fatalities were very common and no-one did much to stop it. I think that most of us know, even if reluctant to admit it, that were the canals to be introduced today, especially as a leisure activity enjoyed solely by untrained and inexperienced individuals, what we have today would come nowhere near being approved! The Navigation Authorities have taken many steps at some cost to mitigate risk - such as the installation of lock ladders - and some brought incidental benefit, such as in the case cited, making single handing operation much more feasible. An all to common cause of accidents is when someone, perhaps insufficiently trained or supervised, takes a well-intentioned action that has unforeseen consequences. My boating experience dates back to 1967 and in that time I have had several near misses that I now about and probably others that I did not. On one occasion, I was helping a boater that had got himself stuck in a silted up winding hole. I was pushing the boat with a long pole when it slipped. I had leant too hard on the pole and narrowly missed falling in the water. However the pole slid along my neck with a splinter causing a tiny nick which if deeper would have been fatal. Only later did I have a nightmare about how near a miss that was! (You should see my pole!) All too often, the lack of commonsense leads folk to react to an accident, fatal or otherwise, by seeking recompense from another party, whether or not the Man on the Clapham Omnibus would have thought them responsible. (A while back I was familiar with a case where an adult with learning disabilities injured themself, not seriously. Normally this would be considered no-one's fault but the individual. However, the legality hinged on the fact that such an individual cannot be considered to be liable and 'someone' has to found at fault. The law can sometimes land in surprising places.) The litigious nature of modern society is expensive and one of the costs is a risk-averse regulatory environment. It is a fact of life now and we all have to accept and bear some measure of responsibility. None of us can ignore the consequences of past social actions all around us. It seems to me entirely understandable (and corporately responsible) to have acted as CaRT did.

Another cut and paste from someone who feels he has a duty to keep those of us who still use the canals right . I wonder if anyone actually reads the words -:)

If the lift is closed the beautiful Weaver would be closed off to all but those prepared to pay to travel on the Manchester Ship Canal but more importantly, many businesses on the river would no longer be sustainable.

Today the dog and I have got ourselves covered in mastic, white spirit, thinners and all sorts of dangerous chemicals. The double glazed wheelhouse door window has 'blown' and is full of mist. According to You Tube it is possible to repair them so we separated the two glass bits, salvaged the silver glazing bar, took out and dried the dessicant in the silver thingy and transferred all the horrible black stuff to ourselves and the nice fluffy towels in the bathroom. We have now cleaned everything and put it all back together. Window looks good, Dining table looks like bottom of dry dock, dog is firmly stuck to the sofa.

There are cost savings associated with health and safety as well as costs. If a highly trained, specialist technician is injured or killed, it can mean delays to the project whilst another is recruited and trained. Then the companies insurance goes up. Similarly if a member of the public is injured or killed the compensation costs can be eye watering, as will their increased public liability costs.

May as well shut it all down with that attitude....thankfully most of us want to keep what we have and are prepared to fight for it....Your attitude really isnt missed on the cut!

You could say the same about any bit of canal. With their "financial " hat on everything should be closed

Oh, piss off Tony. We aren't in charge.

Thanks for the advice folks. Made good time, getting up to Hanbury for a slightly late lunch (see photo) and a few of the others fancied a go at driving locks so we carried on up to Stoke Prior. We managed to spin around without too much bother, although lots of Black Prince boats either side did make it a bit of a faff (in fact getting in and out of the lock was slightly awkward too), nothing on the towpath opposite at least. Judging by the state of the brickwork in the winding hole we were much more gentle than some other boaters! Actually winding in Diglis basin was worse than Stoke. It looks bigger on Google maps... Food wise we ended up going "posh" (for us...) in The Danesbury, kicking most of the crew off after Blockhouse Lock while the rest of us plodded up to tie up at the Lowesmoor VMs (which were spot on) and walked back down. At Stoke we'd stopped in view of the Boat and Railway but they had a private event on so the kitchen was closed. We mooched up to the Navigation instead which we were slightly surprised to find was doing both Indian food as well as usual pub grub, but it was very friendly and the food (we nearly all had Indian) was decent and pretty reasonably priced. I'm afraid I can't comment on the beer 'cos I don't drink, the ice cream was nice though... The guys at Worcester Marina were great, very laid back but very thorough - handover was taken seriously (as it should be) but they were very friendly and helpful. The boat was great too, spotlessly clean and everything worked. Canal wise there was only one out of use paddle, and only a couple of slightly leaky gates (and someone had not quite shut nearly every towpath side bottom paddle on the Astwood flight...) but a couple of the ones on the edge of Worcester have some very sticky top paddles. One low pound coming up Offerton on Saturday which a couple of CRT guys were running water down to already before we got there. Couldn't get into the Gregory's Mill bottom lock until the police had finished dealing with a group of ne'er do wells loitering on the bottom gate. I was going to get them to help work the lock for us but they moved them on instead 😁

I'm quite sure that insurance companies will be involved. in all your posts about this you've come over as an arrogant prick who seems to have a major problem with CRT.

Very nearly three whole days after these two boats got themselves properly wedged in Lock 19 at Seend, on the Kennet & Avon, a - quote -"Professional Rescue Team"- on instructions from the C&RT, has driven down to Seend from Stafford this morning, carried out the precautions/preliminaries that I advised of yesterday, and after slowly filling the lock, floated both boats out, re-opening it to navigation In other words, a task that, . . before Parry and co. fired them all and replaced them with something in the region of 1500 pointless office chair polishers, . . would have been sorted out, on the day of the incident, by a Navigation Authority Length Foreman accompanied by a Lock Keeper and/or Lengthsman. I'm now going to make it my business to find out the cost, to this useless sick joke of a Navigation Authority, of this wholly unnecessary exercise in wasting the money that they witter on endlessly about being so very short of.

That was another benefit of installing LFP batteries that I hadn't anticipated. I thought it was just going to be easier charging and a greater range of usable SOC, but because 12.8v is the bottom of the LFP voltage range all the 12v stuff works better too.

@rd9002 This is all very likely to be a non issue. Your boat has a 600ah lithium battery bank plus a decent solar array.....for 8 months of the year your solar will provide all you need and more. In the months where it doesn't your deficit could probably be made up with 20-30 minutes of engine running per day. Remember lots of what you might read on battery charging assumes Lead acid batteries...these require very long charge times to prevent long term damage. This doesn't apply to Lithium chemistry. I think you mentioned a Canaline 70 engine which has a 175amp main alternator and while we don't know the precise charging setup, it should be possible to generate 80 amps from that alternator without issues (overheating). That is a big engine so assume it's also a widebeam = lots of solar presumably.

I don't have a freezer, just an under-counter larder style mains fridge but I leave my boat for several days quite a bit in winter and my 940w of panels and my batteries easily keep up with demand. Even on a dull winter day the panels will be putting up to 5A into the batteries so might generate say 20 - 25ah/per short 6 hour day. The fridge consumes about 4A but if left alone with the door shut it's only on about a quarter of the time so that's 24ah + 0.6A (14.4ah) for the inverter = a total of 38ah consumed. That means a deficit of 38 minus say 20 from the panels = 18ah consumed per day x say 3 days while you're away = 54ah consumed. Depending on the size of the battery bank and what SOC they were left at before leaving the boat, any decent battery bank should be able to cope with that sort of light usage over a few days. If it can't then perhaps it's time to think about new batteries. Yes, it's like when people used to smoke in bars and restaurants. It used to irritate me immensely when someone would light up on the next table without a care, but very occasionally they'd lean over and ask "Sorry but would you mind if I smoked?" and I'd say no, go ahead, and I genuinely didn't mind because they'd sought my agreement. A huge part of one's irritation is psychological. If you know you've been considered in any disturbance it can make such a difference and polite communication and consideration for one's neighbours is often all it takes. My advice is don't make them come to you for that chat. If you have any doubts about the noise go to them first - it's your noise so that's your prerogative. If a neighbour has to come to you there's a fair chance it won't be for a friendly chat.

No that's reclaiming the VAT on business inputs. VAT Exemption is a different thing, rooted in the boat being built for use as a residence.

Open air one at Fradley always seems ok.

nd its And its why you get photos like this

Hi The worktop is 40mm oak and when the hob is lowered into the cut out it doesn't even show it's that slim, the ignition is 240v and there is a lead with a plug on which is a bit awkward, I am tempted to cut it off.

thats correct... but £5 im sure doesn't cover the cost?

On some of the minimum facilities camp sites, available to members of the Camping & Caravanning Club, that we used to use when we had a camper van, elsan contents were emptied into the drain by removing a cast iron drain inspection cover.

Two possibilities. Could you use a piece of that non slip material you put under floor mats on laminate floors? I did this for my microwave on a work surface. For my fridge and washing machine I used a thin (6 mm or so) piece of ply with cutouts for the appliance back feet and fixed this to the floor. By doing it for the back feet only it wasn't visible. Must admit it took a few dry runs using double sided tape to position accurately. Once achieved I simply screwed it down. See I was beaten by Hudds Lad and Tony Brooks, Ah well back to sleep

The MOST annoying and concerning thing about an engine running noisily or obtrusively on a neighbouring boat is not knowing when it will stop. Especially if the 8.00pm turning-off time is approaching! If someone on the boat says cheerily "Just running for an hour as my batteries are totally flat, will turn it off soon mate", the irritation reduces substantially. But conversely, the concern and doubt about when and how it will be turned off amplifies if it is apparent there is no-one on the boat.

If we're going to be talking about the perceived annoyance being greater because the boat is unoccupied, and then making up a backstory about the boat owner thinking it being too annoying to be on the boat...then I better change my habits, lest I annoy someone! If the engine's running and I'm stationary, I'll be sure to have some lights on or perhaps a door ajar to show that I'm home. I'd hate for someone to be annoyed by thinking the boat's unoccupied! As soon as they see I'm on it, they'll realise that the engine isn't actually annoying at all and it'll be fine.

On paper there isn't, and there is no specific rule against it. But I think it is generally considered bad etiquette as if there is no one on the boat and the noise is intrusive or annoying you don't have the option to go and complain. There can also be an impression that the person who has left their engine running unattended, is basically admitting that it is so intrusive and annoying that they have to abandon ship while it's happening and to hell with anyone else within earshot.....unless of course you have a cocooned generator in which case I don't think anyone would mind.

We use JayWolfe for anything tank wise.

I have three options - on the roof, on a bed or in the middle of a gangway. Any of those sound reasonable? Perhaps it is indeed about what 'personal responsibility' should be. I think you can reach Birmingham from pretty much any location in four days running fly, which seems to match some people's expectations of what 'proper boating' is about, so maybe CRT should keep the service point at Cambrian Wharf and close all the others, expecting people to be able to carry 8 days' waste (might need a second one in Leeds and maybe a third in Wigan if they are feeling generous). Anyone who isn't prepared to boat that far or that fast should make arrangements for storage of more waste by converting their interior accordingly. More rationally, CRT has already stated that it aims to provide points within a day's cruising, and it has defined what a 'day's cruising' means. The recent situation at the southern end of the Shroppie illustrates the issue, because 12hrs cruising between service points rapidly becomes 15.75hrs between service points when Wheaton Aston goes out and if you are making an out and back trip to The Bratch (due to time constraints) that becomes 25hrs cruising. We have capacity for 2 days cruising, double the expected CRT standard, and it is of course our choice to travel not quite as far as the next service point, but where it becomes difficult is when the service points are already 12hrs apart and then one of those goes down, is not fixed for some time, leading to distances over double what CRT states should be expected, ie a boater who has made over 100% provision for contingency against expected standards still has not made sufficient contingency and that becomes open-ended as to how much is reasonable. Alec Alec

That sounds a bit rough on the pigeons

Why -- is this anti-Aldi snobbery? Many tests have concluded that Bramwell (Aldi) are cheaper and as good or better, and having compared the two I'd agree. I prefer Branston to either though, they're noticeably less sweet... 😉

Words can develop different associations over time. My first experience of inland waterways was in 1972, when a group of us hired a boat on the Thames from Bushnells of Maidenhead. All Bushnell's boats were named "Gay" something. Ours was "Gay Fantasy No. 4" .

Yesterday I got my bedroom bulkhead to what will be a wardrobe fitted loosely, fit of a faff with angles, my template lies to me. I had to do the resize to show the other pic