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Clearly not you, given your self-professed target of 100 hours a year, or your disbelief that someone might have done 25 hours over 4 days on a canal. Indeed, given your rather unremarkable sailing CV, you clearly never have been an active boater. You appear to have picked up just enough knowledge to sound authentic to a non-sailor, but when you start talking about "Travel Hoists", and one of the top 4 highlights of your sailing career is getting the masthead wet, your true experience (or lack of) is clear for all to see. The thing is, there's nothing wrong with being inexperienced. There's nothing wrong with not knowing much. Almost the only important thing in life is to try to be nice to other people. No-one cares if you don't know much about something, you just need enough humility not to pretend otherwise. If you can find a way to wind things back a little, stop insulting people, stop telling people they're wrong, and only offer opinions where you have experience, you might not get wound up quite so much; you might also stop winding up other contributors. Have a bit of courage to post some details on your new boat, share some of the issues (we all have boat issues, don't pretend you're different), some of your boating screw-ups (again, we all have them), and people might see you as a fellow boater rather than just a ranty forum poster on the Internet. Edit: I also agree with you on the sketchy implementation of that pontoon, but as Francis alluded you can make a point without being unkind.

I'll just leave this here for a bit...... this is so exciting!!!! also the top bends have been templated so hopefully will be on soon. also fore end guards on one side and a bit more painting!

Certainly history if not heritage - it's easy enough to look up what the restrictions were in 1976 if you have an old set of Waterways World or similar, and also to debate how the whole set up was different then compared to now, but I though I'd offer some memories of our family holiday at Whit 76 and perhaps encourage others to do the same. I was ten that summer, so I'd be nine at Whit and @1st ade was thirteen. Mum and dad had booked a week from Fenny Compton in a 30 foot 4 berth called Curlew (remember when four berth hire boats were 30 foot long?). IIRC correctly dad's original plan had been to head south but as restrictions tightened he changed the plan to head for Snarestone and Coventry. Napton locks were open 12noon til 3pm, meaning be clear of the flight by 3pm. We got as far as Napton on the first (Saturday) night and joined the queue. I recall a boat going past us at about 10am the next day and various people pointing out that this was the queue - I think they were genuinely surprised. Anyway, our turn came and we shared with a GRP boat, the picture in my memory says it was a Dawncraft - they were ahead of us but the lock keeper put us in first as is best practice, and we made our way down the locks. We then got to Hillmorton that day, and waited for the rather more generous opening hours to go down on the Monday - after that, Hawkesbury didn't have restrictions, and we didn't need to share it! It also became the first lock I worked without assistance... Then proceeded a lock-free couple of days as we went to Snarestone, where we'd been when hiring from Alan Tingay at Shackerstone, and Coventry, where we'd never been. I don't remember much about these previous cruises, I was too young. Memories of this one are the Ashby being so quiet that one day we didn't tie up for lunch, we just drifted, and we must have been at the start of the decline of the village shop as mum couldn't get milk. Then the plan was up Hillmorton Thursday afternoon to be ready to go up Napton Friday lunchtime - but (And this is where the memories come in rather than just the historical record) we got to Hillmorton to find them already closed for the day, the hours had been reduced. Nowadays internet and mobile phones would have told us this. Dad arranged for use to get to the head of the queue, finding a Natwest boat we could fit in with, and we did our best to do Hillmorton and Napton in one day, but it was too much - we got to Napton just about 3 from memory. and were due back at Fenny Compton the next morning. Dad recalled how the hire company had complained, as we picked Curlew up, about another hirer getting stuck at Nell Bridge and the boat being late back - I think he was imagining the scene as we would arrive late... What happened next is what sticks in the mind and won't otherwise be documented. Dad spoke to the lock keeper, who said something like he didn't know the hours had changed at Hillmorton, and "they shouldn't do that, they're supposed to give notice" (or words to that effect) - however he couldn't just let us through. With a colleague he went to the lock house next to the bottom lock, reached through the window for a phone and made a big show of ringing "head office" - sometime later they rang back, he took the padlocks off and we had our own chaperoned ascent. That really does stick in my mind, on a holiday where locks had been hustle and bustle, boats sharing and following through, Dad and Adrian steered whilst me, mum and the lock keeper worked the deserted lock flight in the early evening sun - such peace.... We were, of course, back at the yard bang on time thanks to this. I've told this tale because, 9 years old then, I've just celebrated my 59th birthday - 49 years on, the grown ups involved, probably including the BW staff and the other adult boaters, are probably all dead, and you won't find tales like this in the history books. Comments and other stories from 1976 restrictions most welcome!

I remember trying to get down the arm to Aylesbury before the locks shut for the day to be greeted at the last lock by the lock keeper laughing as he put the padlock on stopping me above the lock, there was no love lost between the lock keeper his son and ACS. This meant I had to leave my little marine ply cruiser tied to the towpath whilst I went away to work for a couple of weeks, I took the outboard and boat contents home with me. Sometime in that period my mother had a call from the police asking my whereabouts as the boat was sunk and they were concerned I might be inside. She assured them I was OK and the boat remained where it was for the time being. A while later duly returned with the boat trailer ( I said it was small at 14ft) put the trailer half in the canal, there was no hard edging, tied the trailer to a tree, winched the boat onto the trailer, then winched the trailer out of the canal and assed the damage. There was a spark plug sized hole neatly drilled in the bottom of the boat so I screwed a spark plug in there and relaunched the boat and took it down to the basin. Over the following weeks I discovered through the grapevine that it was the lock keepers son who had drilled the hole and I worked out a way if getting my own back. He had a motorcycle that he used to leave on the road and one night I filled his fuel tank, there were no locks on tanks in those days, with cement. Took him ages to work out why it wouldn't go and to correct it. I was 24 at the time and a bit of a rebel🤔

I'm sorry you feel that way. I don't agree that the forum is a tiny irrelevance. We travelled widely over our 4 years of boat ownership and met many people I recognised from the forum - normally by their boat names. Had lots of lovely chats and felt that the link with the forum added to the sense of community. Whether you like it or not, you will come across lots of people from the forum and how much nicer for you if meetings are convivial rather than combative. I wish you could be a bit more self-aware about how you are coming across on here. No doubt you are a smashing chap in real life and you are simply not doing yourself any favours. Wishing you well.

FUD is using either misinformation or selective quoting to induce negative views of something -- for example selecting the tiny number of (often discredited) articles which claim that climate change is not anthropogenic, or suggesting that LFP batteries are dangerous "because lithium batteries catch fire and are impossible to put out". Not all "professional websites" are truly impartial. The CPD website uses data from Greenectra, whose business is providing courses about "lithium-ion" batteries with a focus on safety precautions -- meaning, mainly for the most popular/dangerous chemistries like NMC, like this (because LFPs don't really suffer from thermal runaway etc, see below): "BattXcel Secure: A dedicated course addressing safety-critical aspects of Li-ion batteries. Learn about thermal runaway prevention, hazard identification, risk assessment, risk management in battery systems." If you were being cynical, you might think that it was in their interest to tell everyone how dangerous these batteries are, to maximise takeup of their (paid-for) courses...😉 If you look across scientific papers and the whole industry, the overwhelming opinion is that LFP batteries are many times safer than NMC and similar ones with free-oxygen chemistries -- which are the culprits in (pretty much?) all the "lithium battery fires" that are identified as a safety hazard, rightfully so for NMC but not for LFP. And when comparisons have been made the conclusion is usually that LFP are safer than LA, so there's no real justification for saying "We should stick with LA because it's safer". More familiar, yes, Safer, no. What is really needed is proper education about this, for both insurance companies and CWDF posters... 🙂 https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2023/09/26/not-all-lithium-ion-batteries-are-dangerous/

hold my beer......

I like that. Perfectly smooth elliptical counters don't look the part for a 90yo boat. That kind of thing is for Hudsons!

That's it, half a ton of 2 different nuggets delivered tonight by our very reliable Ryan on Southern Cross. He has been fully loaded 3 times in the last 3 weeks, and had to be helped off his mooring today with a JCB due to low water levels. From somewhere else...

I had been living in London for several years by 1976 and was 20 years old and newly married (yes, we are still together!). My main memory of the long hot summer, in relation to the inland waterways, was that we had booked our first hire 2 or 3 months before the heatwave arrived. I then spent much of the summer worrying about whether or not there would be enough water for our late August hire boat to go anywhere. For some reason It hadn't dawned on me, despite having left my home town of Great Yarmouth only 3 or 4 years earlier, that the Norfolk Broads were tidal. Our holiday went ahead with no problem until (if my memory serves me correctly) our final night (a Friday) when the heavens opened and the long hot summer was at an end. That was our first step towards owning a boat. It did take another 39 years though.

I’m a liveaboard continuous cruiser and stranded on the summit pound of the now closed Leeds & Liverpool. I have no car. There are facilities at Foulridge and Greenberfield, but I’ve taken a mooring so I’m doing it easy - nice facilities really close at hand, lovely little town nearby, beautiful countryside and friendly neighbours.

No I'm not. Just despairing a bit as the collapse of the system speeds up. I'd be amazed if the forum is dominated by left-wingers. It's always seemed the opposite to me, which probably means that, like the BBC, it's reasonably well balanced. It is, of course, only those who disagree with you that rant and rave, those of one's own persuasion only ever use reasoned argument. And, having been modded on occasion, I have always found it done humourously and with good sense. I rarely see Mr Ho's nonsense as he's the only one I now have on ignore. Perhaps he'll grow up if he ever gets a boat apart from in fantasy. I do notice that, as far as I'm aware, he has never posted a photo of the boat he has supposedly bought? I do wonder if this has any more reality than the invisible shell he was going to fit out. In the meantime, I'm on my way home early (in my real boat) to avoid lock and canal closures.

I didn't think the Irish Sea was that deep 🤣

To be fair, legislation like this makes sense for large multi million pound yachts, commercial craft etc. It does not for canal craft, especially where the compliance test is as much as 20% of the value of the boat. Hell, I know someone who just bought a small butty and it would be 100% the value of that!! not to mention distaste for the nanny state...

Noted, thanks. (You and I both know that I will probably ignore your suggestion though, don't we? You have to play with the trainset while you build the scenery).

What i like to refer to as a Failaway

Really? It's mandatory procedure on my boat when locking, even if it's a heatwave.

This argument is all getting a bit cilly... 😉

In my experience ACTUAL volunteers are usually quite good and helpful - does not mean I trust them from the off with the safety of my boat but usually quite good. One stayed late to help us get the butty through atherstone locks which was very appreciated, I asked him to set and open the locks as I bow hauled it - saved an awful lot of effort. I don't think these were volunteers - just random people pretending. They had the gates open yes but like I said, with a single boat I never moor up to enter a lock. If I'm going up I leave the boat in gear against the gates while I empty the lock, and hop back on from the lock mouth when leaving (this requires some careful timing with putting the boat in reverse if by myself). In this case it was just a case of my friend either hoping off at the steps going up or climbing the ladder. Didn't take any time at all. Then he would just hop onto the counter after the top gate was closed. No extra time needed - I don't even slow down for able bodied crew to get on! (as I leave the boat in gear to exit when alone, the boat pushes the top gate open and I close the paddles and hop back on, put it into reverse and then close the gate). I do not want strangers in charge of the safety of my boat, especially ones with poor attitude!