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oh thats great to here, i'm glad you're enjoying following it! As a special treat, here's todays efforts, tackwelding the rest of the gunwhales and the internal upstand into position, its great to be able to see the curvy shape of the hull finally appearing..... enjoy!

Our boat has been at Glascote Basin since last November where it is being repainted to a very high standard by the team at Norton Canes Boatbuilders with experienced supervision provided by Sarah Edgson. There is more information on our website here. We did start repainting 'Alnwick' in 2005 but for many reasons, progress slowed when we had completed the outside of the back cabin. By 2016, we decided that the paint we had purchased more than ten years earlier was by then too old to use!

Of course it can. The Business Rates on it will have gone up, and the interest on the loan taken to buy it will have rocketed. As will have the cost of mowing it (diesel and maintenance costs) and labour too, as minimum wage increases every year.

Continuous mooring.

The late and very well informed Nigel Moore did have a slightly diferent interpretation of this. CC'ers are not required to move every 14 days (as you have suggested), but are allowed to stay in one place for up to 14 days (or longer in reasonable circumstances). So the subtle difference is that the 14 day rule is not specifying something that you must not do, but something that you are allowed to do. The inference is that Home moorers do NOT have permission to stay anywhere for up to 14 days (except on the home mooring). I think I remember that CRT did not say that any interpretation of the 14 day rule actually applies to home moorers, they said that they "request" that home moorers obey the same conditions as CCers when out boating.

Inflation doesn't mean prices with fixed costs have to rise. That just increases profits. If you own a field with caravans on it, the field doesn't cost you any more because of inflation - it's raising the cost of hiring the caravan (because you can) that causes inflation in the first place. Same as owning a rental house outright, no mortgage - but whacking up the rent just because everyone else has. Of course, some of your costs do increase, it's not quite as simple as that, but increaseing charges over costs is what fuels inflation, and makes some people rich. Which, after all, is the point.

From the Ian Moss archive - however (as with most of Dad's slides) absolutely no idea of date or place! Likewise...

That last sentence makes no sense whatsoever.. I will point out again that it doesn't matter to CRT what bit of the Macc that I choose to moor on (a bit like it doesn't matter where a CCer moors), or which farmer I pay for my mooring (or how much), I have to pay the same additional fee to CRT. It's not tied to a particular place at all - I paid the same when I moored on the Shroppie. The difference, of course, is that it can be adjusted for circumstance, so if I wanted to hang about in a popular spot like London, the CRT fee would be higher. For a CCer, this isn't the case, they now get the same small surcharge everywhere. This is logical for the ones that move round the system, but for the majority that don't I suspect further changes may be in the pipeline. The point is that everyone moors, but only some pay a fee to do so. That fee has nothing to do with the rent paid to the landlord. The law was written to be fair to those who wanted to cruise the system. It wasn't intended to cope with those who wanted to stay in a small area for whatever valid reason. That's the trouble with the law, which is inflexible, and the society it controls, which can change rapidly. Luckiky, CRT have found a way round it, following the example of those who have, themselves, found a way round the intention of the law.

Peter Coates as Alrewas is also very good. They have their own abbatoir and source local animals.

Reminds me of the Greenline 33 with the lines. Love those boats. Wish we had bought one when they were first launched in the UK. They were £100k at the time for the hybrid version. Would be worth a damn sight more now!

On this day 2018 Captain Sydney became acquainted with Naughty-Cal

This morning 2024 Toddbrook Reservoir - temporary repairs to emergency spillway still in place - water in bypass channel. Compare 6Dec2019 (#2) 1Jan2022 26Apr2024/2Aug2019 pipes to extract water are still in place from the top of the reservoir

This morning 2024 Whaley Bridge Basin Peak Forest Compare 15May2002 17Apr1979/17Apr2007 17Apr2007 1Jan2022 10Apr2023 23Aug2013

Thorn Marine just did a nice job of making me some new deck boards. Two boards, neither square in shape. I gave them the measurements and they sourced the boards and cut (exactly to spec) then treated the edges. Good value for money too.

That will be lack of HTTPS, yes. With unencrypted HTTP it's possible for parties between the client and server to monitor and intercept requests - either just to snoop, or to pretend to be your server and return something malicious instead of what was requested. Examples I'm aware of in the wild: * operators of public WiFi networks logging users' device info and the pages they visit, then selling the data. (this one also needs encrypted DNS to fix entirely, but browsers are working on that too). * unscrupulous ISPs (looking at you, Virgin Media) returning fake ad-loaded search pages when DNS lookup fails [i.e. there shouldn't really be a page at the address at all] * poorly-configured public WiFi enabling other users to interfere with requests, inserting viruses into the response. * governments (our own, the US and China's among many others) forcing ISPs to let them monitor or interfere with traffic as above. Chinese entities have repeatedly used a technique called 'BGP hijacking' to redirect traffic between other countries that would never normally pass through China so they can do so. None of these are possible with HTTPS. The nature of the content you intend to serve is moot because the data is tampered with before you receive it and after you send it back. The browser vendors and other large companies don't gain at anyone's expense from using HTTPS - in fact as above it makes certain tracking techniques impossible. Certificates are free these days. It's just standard good practice. I'd also be happy to help with sorting it out, your site's a great resource and it would be a shame to lose it.

An exception for http sites is also available for chrome users. To apply it a user needs to go to the site in question (needing to press the "continue to site" button on the warning screen that the site is not https). On getting there to the left of the web address is a button which will say "not secure". Click on that, and then Site settings. Scroll down the permissions list to "insecure content" and change from "block" to "allow", and the browser will remember this preference for this site only.

Interesting discussion, if a bit sad. We're headed into the UK for a fortnight around the 4CR starting next week. Looks likely that we will experience actual weather this time. (We're from California. We don't have that. Not like you'd know, anyway.) I guess we don't mind low traffic, but I hope it's not a desolate experience. We've planned 4 weeks a year for the next several. We've bought a share for our cruises starting 2025. Hope not to see the canal boating economy go south. We'll do our tiny part. Hope to see someone!

a few from today playing with the deck beam and first section of gunwhale running into the deck beam on the port side, With every bit of new steel and every tack weld the hull gets stronger before we begin welding her up.......

But is a tow path a public highway? If it is not, then using a vehicle that would be illegal if used on the public highway, would arguably not be illegal when used on something that is not a public highway. You used to need a special permit to use a bike on the tow path, indicating that a tow path was not a public highway, but I don't know if subsequent legislation has changed the towpath's legal status. Perhaps it would be covered by by-laws or conditions of use, which could mean it would be a civil law matter rather than a criminal law one. The last two times we hired at easter, it snowed. The first time it settled and was heavy enough to build a snowman figurehead.

Stoke Boats for a first rate resteeling job and for a quality repair after someone else's screw-up. The engineer at Heritage boats who tracked down and fixed an oil leak caused by the bloke who rebuilt my engine forgetting to use a gasket somewhere or other.

I always tended to use individual people to do work on Helvetia rather than boatyards, with most of them being based in Braunston, and I always got excellent work at a modest cost. Yes I will name them:- Roger Farrington for Steelwork, Jonathan Hewitt for engine work, AJ Canopies for canories, Tim Hewitt for blacking, John Sanderson for complete boat re-paint, and Ron Hough, and later Dave Moore for decorating and signwork. Apart from Ron Hough, who is no longer with us, I would recommend any one of them.

There is one aspect to all this not yet mentioned. T&Cs are not always enforced. Businesses have them in order reinforce their position on the odd occasion a dispute arises of if a customer is being unreasonable. I would not be surprised if during an amicable purchase progressing in good faith an un-forseen and genuine problem crops up, most brokers would return a deposit even if their T&Cs allow them to keep it. The deposit is there as a demonstration of good faith, and to stop people changing their mind for no particular reason. There is a groundswell of expectation especially amongst younger people, that they should be able to back out of ANY transaction even after completion, just by sending the purchase back for a refund. With a second hand boat this is not the case.

But nevertheless you though they (and the boat) were sufficiently attractive to go with them... 😉 So it didn't put you off or cost you anything, but probably discouraged the gongoozlers and tirekickers so you got the boat you wanted more quickly and with less apparent competition. Isn't that a good thing? 🙂

No I don't mind at all.

I wasn't too sure about the red/white diesel so I left it out. Arthur has clearly never run a business in his life. Just spent most of his career as a taxman wringing them dry instead!