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  1. I never got that far! For quite a while, three of us handled moddy duties - self, Magpie Patrick and the former Buccaneer. The arrival of two new ones, Jen and Ade, was succour indeed [as in, only a succour would do this job]/ Midway through last year I was, as Nicj Noeman says, beset by a truly exciting cocktail of eye conditions which made long spells of reading irksome. These are mow controlled by medicayion, and my eyes are not deteria...er, daterior...er, getting worse. I'm still taking part in moddy duties, but more in behind the scenes discussions than dront of house. Thanks!
    24 points
  2. Just had an offer accepted on Arden No 2 🙂 Many thanks to everyone who encouraged me to consider older boats, especially @agg221. It's a lovely boat, owned by the same couple since being built/rebuilt in 1990, and has been very well cared for. I must be mad!
    13 points
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  8. That is the end of a 2 day trip which took almost 2 weeks and Kelpie is tucked up in her mooring after leaving it 4 months ago to get her bottom and base plate reblacked and a complete strip back to bare metal repaint.. Some thoughts on the journey which was dull, dry and cold every day till today when we had intermittent showers. I have never seen so many mole hills ! They had been busy round most locks but as few seemed fresh, they must have moved on. We saw a lot of evidence of trees having fallen across the canal. In fact, if anyone wants logs there are lots , all different lengths, lying at the edge of the towpath just north of bridge 117 on the Shroppie. We saw very few moving boats and mostly had moorings all to ourselves. We only once met another boat at a lock. It was an enjoyable trip and good to have experienced the Manchester Ship Canal again but I can't remember having so many short days boating on a trip. The big plus for me was that I am still able to do locks despite all the health problems I have had. Home tomorrow .
    9 points
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  16. As a hirer, with a crew of two, we have often strapped our boat to a willing participant when running through a series of broad locks. Means we can both help operate the locks with the other boats crew and only one helm is needed. We came up behind two single handers proceeding down the south Stratford last year. They were taking both boats through each lock as a team. They were insistent in helping us through the lock having passed through themselves. They then sent us on ahead as they were pootling and didn't want to hold us up. Very pleasant couple, as are the vast majority of people. We always try to engage with other boaters and invariably find them pleasant. Playing the incompetent hirer card usually raises a laugh. If we meet genuine first timers we sympathise and encourage if they are struggling. We are all out boating for enjoyment and a friendly chat makes everyone's day a bit better.
    8 points
  17. We found the culprit! I had fitted (without realising it) 3 of the large O rings in the second filter and in the first filter, I had fitted the top O ring in the wrong place : on the filter itself rather than on the slot in the metal housing.. All worked now - the hand pump got harder and harder and after a couple of cranking attempts the engine was running Thanks everyone for the great help 🤗
    7 points
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  23. I think we are in danger of confusing roles: of course, in a civilised society there should be in place mechanisms to ensure that everyone can have a waterproof roof over their heads regardless of their earning capacity. That is clearly the role of the state and is currently effected via the benefits system such as Universal Credit. It is also clear that this is not the role of CaRT who are not a housing authority and are not funded on that basis (OK, one can argue whether existing housing authorities are adequately funded but that is another matter) It is up to CaRT to determine what charges they need to make (especially licences and moorings as well as ancillary services) to balance their books - they are not a profit distributing organisation but to need to make a sufficient surplus from normal I&E to finance longer term depreciation etc (think reservoir repairs!). They can make decisions about how to differentiate between various categories of user and the current debate is mainly about those choices and how fairly they are made. At present, the largest differentiating factor is the size of the boat and some boaters may need to face difficult choices in that regard. They might like a 60ft widebeam for convenience of living but they might have to settle for a shorter narrow boat (such as David Johns' 'new' Sea Otter). Leaving aside questions about overcrowding, that is the choice that we all have to make as well as location - we mighty fancy a six bed house in Chelsea but have to settle for something a tad less posh! OTOH, some might want to argue that the cost to CaRT of a boat using their waters is much less connected to boat size than is embodied in current licence fee graduation. Tough! I think it is all but inevitable that CaRT have little scope for a policy that includes an ability to pay factor (any more than other private landlords) - their funding assumes that customers in that situation should apply for assistance through the benefit channels (which now usefully include licence and mooring) They have developed some limited schemes for helping boaters in short term financial difficulties but cannot address a long term problem. In any event, all of this tends to obscure the real challenge - to what degree does anyone have a right to use the canal network to live in one settled place at no charge? That is a reasonable point to debate (even if the current situation is pretty clear) but also that what some groups are aiming for is a bigger change than might at first appear to be the case. The eventual trade off might be one in which clearer arrangements for generally-cruising boaters are traded for stronger enforcements against those who would like a free permanent towpath mooring.
    7 points
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  27. Next week there is an exhibition of Mary Austin's life work in Nottingham. You may well know Mary's daughter from this forum, Kathleenbridget. Mary passed away last year and her works have been sold worldwide...she was commissioned by Johnson&Johnson in the US for 6 months to paint their day to day life, homes and horses. Her life as a painter was human study... sketching her local village, her pub customers, people and landscapes, seeing humour, character and individuals as her ideal works. She was also an avid reader of classic descriptive novels and poems, and became enthralled by the challenge of turning them into her interpretation of what she viewed those stories said to her in pictures. If you are free, the gallery is free too. Kathy and me will be there on Sat and Sunday. Exhibition celebrating A Life in Art: Mary Austin at the NSA Gallery, Friar Lane, Nottingham 18th -25th Feb https://www.nottinghamartists.org.uk/nsa-main/ https://leftlion.co.uk/venues/nottingham-society-of-artists/mary-austin-a-life-in-art/ https://www.nottinghamartists.org.uk/nsa-main/
    6 points
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  29. This thread had reminded me of one experience we had coming upstream in Cromwell lock which we had been through many times before. I was on the bow deck and put the rope round the riser and round the T stud and back to me. Across the lock from us were two narrow boats . The inside one had a rope through a riser at each end and the outside one had his centre rope over the top of the other boat and he held it while standing on the roof. The lock was fairly full of boats. The lockie opened the paddles and I had difficulty holding the boat in and the boat on the inside opposite couldn't hold their bows and they shot across the lock taking the one with the guy on the roof with it. I don't know how he managed to stay on his roof as the boat banged around. It is a deep lock and there seemed no way of getting the attention of the lock keeper who was out of site while the lock filled. It was a scary experiment and I would never try to hold the front of a narrow boat in a lock unless I was safely within the well deck
    6 points
  30. We've already done our monthly grocery shop. Can you recommend anywhere that sells paint?
    6 points
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  40. Nice to see your command of the English language is improving at last. Welcome back, you've been missed!!!
    6 points
  41. There are 210,000 photos in the RCHS collections, and we have 37 volunteers (including myself, @Heartland , @1st ade and @magpie patrick ) working on the task of digitising, cataloguing and uploading the images to the Online Media Archive website. There are currently about 15,000 images available for everyone to view on the website (an increase of 5,000 in the last year !) but inevitably it is going to be a while before all images are online. Please bear with us !
    6 points
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  48. I would not like to cruise without a well deck and good access to it through the boat. We normally operate with crew getting on and off at the stern. However, when it is safer to operate from the bow (high landing stages/banks for example) I don't want crew walking the full length of the boat along the gunnel. Also when needing to handle bow and stern ropes (e.g. when asked to use ropes on risers in large river locks) I would not be comfortable with crew doing this from a small bow area without a well deck. This is just my personal preference and thoughts, but it seems that the current trend is to maximise internal space without considering ease of cruising.
    5 points
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  50. (- with a steering wheel of that size, what do you need a tiller for ?-)
    5 points
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