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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 Great Bedwyn too (K&A). And Hungerford!

Oh its back on line eh? How pleasing, I was expecting to find it demolished next time I passed. There's an open air one at Hilmorton too....

The open-air one at Braunston was closed several years ago for no obvious reason.

All us old 'uns just keep a map of where all the Weatherspoons are

thought it was £5 to book or nothing if you turn up on day and wait for a slot?

It is, and a very special place too, I wouldn’t want to see it go, during the summer coach loads of folk arrive everyday from all over the country to visit the Lift, the Visitor Centre and the Café, there’s an education thing going on for schools and it’s a venue for weddings, and obviously allows us access to the beautiful River Weaver there’s also the story of the spider’s web between the stop/start sensors, 😃

Possibly Worcester and Birmingham Lock 15?

I know you probably feel you are helping by "educating" all us lesser mortals, but in all honesty I think most of us can figure it out for ourselves and despite all your hard work cutting and pasting we mostly get there is the end. Relax, Alan, and enjoy the cut and thrust of discussions without trying to keep us all on the right road 🙂 . I am impressed though on your ability to find and copy so many bits of legislation!

If you come up with a method please post it back here, I'd be most interested to try it too. ^^^ This ^^^ I don't think Mr Sundodger is taking on board juast how much voltage gets dropped between the battery and the Webasto during the start-up sequence. Even though the batteries are at 12.40V the terminal voltage at the Webasto input terminals during start-up could easily be down at 12.1V or less. It all depends on how fat (or thin) those wires are.

So true. But by employing a "specialist" company someone else takes the risk and that can be seen to have taken all reasonable steps if it goes wrong

You might find a blob of Blu-Tak under each of the front feet stops it moving, once there is a bit of weight in the new fridge pressing down on them.

All facilities should have a Maureen installed in immediately adjacent accommodation, maybe lock cottages, to look after them. All facilities that can't have Maureens installed should be closed as the primitive society that is Britain is incapable of treating unattended communal property correctly. (Marinas can do their own thing.) This is an example of a good use of elderly people.

all true, but why make it harder for folk? why accept closures with a shrug ? I do move about, sometimes I whizz about, sometimes I overstay my welcome, and sometimes I’ll move slowly and use the 14day max to explore, if CrT want to save money there’s bigger stuff out there to knock down and sell off the land it occupies, starting with the Anderton Lift

I’ve already eyed up some lovely lawns, the owners’ll think they’ve big moles. I’m always surprised how some boaters here will readily give up these facilities and a few will actively encourage there demise 🤷‍♀️ why do some boaters simply refuse to accept there’re others who rely on the service facilities?

You do not have to be VAT registered to have a Qualifying Ship. What you do have to do (provided your ship qualifies) is to convince your suppliers to supply you at 0% VAT. It's not a question of being VAT exempt but of supply at 0% VAT. Not the same thing at all. Yes I've been there done it and got the T-shirt. As an aside: When I bought Parglena it was a qualifying ship. HMRC changed the rules and suddenly Parglena didn't qualify. We lengthened Parglena by 10ft and lo and behold became a qualifying ship again. Yes it's a big can of worms best left closed

A berth neighbour had a large Fairline motorboat at Port Solent Marina. It was called 'DILLIGAF'. I asked if he had named it, he said "No, it was called 'DILLIGAF' when he bought it some years previously. At this point his wife joined us. I asked if they were familiar with computer/social media acronyms. They said they were not. I then told them 'DILLIGAF' was the acronym for :- "Do I Look Like I Give a Fu##!" Shelly, the wife was at first, shocked, then started giggling and saw the humour. AFAIK, it is still 'DILLIGAF!' During our stay in the same Marina we often heard over the VHF radio "Port Solent, Port Solent, Norman Sranley, Norman Stanley. Locking instructions please". Norman Stanley was a small Fletcher Speedboat. "Norman Stanley Fletcher, you are an habitual criminal.................................... The 'Boot' at Stonesfield in North West Oxon had regular Saturday night gigs. The next band to appear was chalked on a low beam as you entered by mine host, a Welsh piss artist of the first water called 'Leaf' Leaves. One night, no band. An irate customer asked Leaf what was going on-why no music. Leaf replied "I chalked it on the beam mate, same as I always do!" The punter took a look, sure enough, chalked on the beam it said "Saturday 17th 'Far Call'...........................

That sounds like a good example. For the avoidance of uncertainty wouldn't if be polite if C&RT could give us , their fee paying customers, a list of every facility stating what what they propose . Surely they have this already as the closures are imminent . Can anyone imagine the greater demand on the fewer remaining facilities being a benefit to boaters?

Morning Glory as a name isn’t too cringy in itself but coupled with the emoji it races to top of the cringe list.

This looks to me like one of the boats' bow fenders has got caught on the bottom gate as the lock emptied. No body was paying close attention and the hung up boat rolled slightly sideways, trapping the other boat too. As always, the best advice, is pay attention to your boats when in locks. There would likely have been a window of opportunity to stop the lock emptying before both boats became jammed.

Imagine ringing a yard for work to be done; arranging a Boat Safety exam; contacting moorings with your boat details; or just sat in a pub chatting and answering "what's your boats name?" If after five years or more of doing that you still think your names 'a laugh' all is good. But perhaps imagining what may be a good name is VERY different looking forward to looking back. I suggest choosing a name you can live with long term, whatever that may be. Good luck. 👍 Rog

Sorry just back from The Manx Grand Prix, back working on the boat, I did strip it back to then bare shell, so up to now 18 months