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It doesn't matter much whether a stated rule is legally binding or not. Most laws are unenforceable - for example, it's actually against the law to stab people, but you can't stop people doing it. You can punish them afterwards if you can find them, but that doesn't actually stop the nuisance in the first place. A law which is neither going to be obeyed or possible to enforce is pointless. That's why the t&c's are worth having as a guideline. They're simple to understand and cheap,and largely enforced by peer pressure. If you want noise nuisance to be controlled and policed, you have first to define it, then hire a million noise coppers to crack down on it. I think the licence fee might have to go up.

They always shut when you are in the area 😎

Having always owned (ex)working boats, I can find myself at the end of the day thinking "only one (or two) miles to the next spot I can get the boat in". During that one or two miles I often don't pass another moored boat, but as sure as eggs are eggs, as I turn the last bend, there is another boat tied up there. I know the next suitable spot is another two miles away so, sorry, you've got company for the night.

Yes. Come winter it will typically be colder, with a higher probability of snow.The hours of daylight will definitely be reduced compared to say summer.Canals may freeze.Councils will buy in their grit after a typical major freezing event ready for next summer. Come spring the weather may show signs of warmer sunnier periods, but this is not guaranteed. The hours of daylight will likely increase.People, especially up north will be seen out and about in their shorts in temperatures below 5 degrees C. Come summer June 21st-Jun28th traditionally when Mrsmelly has his annual summer holiday, it will almost certainly be torrential rain, and flooding on a biblical scale, though you will be able to see it longer due to increased hours of daylight. The following week it will be glorious with temperatures in the mid twenties.On hot summer days, people will complain that it is too damn hot. It will then revolve back to autumn, as it has done for countless millenia with everyone complaining that it is colder, wetter and windier than it ever has been in the past, forgetting that we only have ourselves to blame. Bear in mind the short time window you have for doing external work on you boat before it is too wet, windy, cold, hot, still, cloudy and that you must share that small window with actually going boating. Here endeth the forecast.

Why is it so many boaters desperately try to tie CRT's hands in any attempt they make to impose reasonable behaviour on those to whom it doesn't come naturally?

That's pretty clever, but it could be improved by fitting some sort of auto-crank turner. Maybe you could rig something like this to it.

Dear God. This is third form debating level. Judge to man in dock "Will you please answer yes or no. There is no question that cannot be answered with either a yes or no" Man in dock to Judge: "Have you stopped beating your wife?" I think CH is losing his grip on reality, must be the effect of too many noisy gennies on a Sunday afternoon. But. Question one is of course meaningless, because why the hell should they? They don't claim their T&Cs are law, they are terms and conditions they impose in order for them to let you jiggle about on their water. CRT think they are a good idea. Anybody can write any terms and conditions they like into anything they are trying to control. The only way to find out if they are reasonable or lawful (if you want to do something that is officially under their control) if you disagree is to go to court. If you don't have the guts to do that, then you have to either accept them or just behave as you think is right and face the consequences. But get it into your head, T&Cs are not laws and no-one has ever, ever said that they are. Of course, if you do challenge them, and end up in court, then they may well wind up as laws with heavier penalties. Again, one dickhead messing it up for everyone else. Question two is so stupid it hardly bears looking at, about a twelve year old's level of argument. If anyone has their wits about them, as most of us on here have, we behave in the way we do because we think it's a reasonable way to behave. We don't do anything because someone writes us a code of conduct, puts it into terms and conditions or even passes a law. This is because some of us accept responsibility for our actions and the way we behave, and we don't need to be fooled into behaving well, or blame other people - "them" - for forcing us to act in certain ways. A law existing doesn't make people obey them - try driving down the motorway at 70mph in the fast lane if you don't believe me, or count the drivers on mobile phones. All these things are just a way of trying to advise people how not to come over like a pratt. Inexperienced people find that useful. I really thought the schools had gone back. We used to get this all the time on the old newsgroups when the ten year olds started to play with their Amigas and be naughty on the internet. Of course, it happens on here when the weather's cold and people don't cruise much. It all calms down in summer. I shan't be respond any more as I've blocked CH, so I won't be seeing any more of his posts. I'm sure he's very nice, really.

Lidl by me has smokeless for £3.99 and nasty coal for £2.99 for 10kg. I bought 20kg bags of smokeless Brazier for £8.45 each from a local boatyard. Yes it works out slightly more expensive than Lidl but they drove it round to me in a van, unloaded it and even stacked it on my roof. And I'm supporting a local canal business. Big thumbs up from me.

It's a known fact that Bizzard's buys his coal from Harrods.

It will be 10 years in December and my fitout is nowhere near finished, though habitable and useable. Why has it taken so long? 1. Travel time to boat. Takes a day out of every visit. 2. Getting materials to boat. Rarely been in a position to have vehicle adjacent to boat. Recently acquired a van, would have saved so much time. 3. Family. They just take up so much time. 4. As 3. 5. Difficulty of getting materials. Everything to do with boats is often in discrete elements and not perfect. The stove I bought has a slight tendency to run away, the flue smelt bad when it got hot, and the chimney was crap and lasted just 2 years. The UFO vents took 11 screws, don't have collars and ceiling fitting supplied, and can drip condensation. Boards are normally available as 8ft x 4ft which is exactly wrong for most boat work. Waste pipework: Hull fittings are not naturally matched to hose and sink fittings. And so on. 6. Maintenance. Just keeping what you have already done in good condition takes a lot of time, particularly paintwork/blacking. 7. Changes of plan. The longer you take, the more likely you are to decide you want something different. Stove installed, and taken out. Built for 2, changed to 4, then modified for 4 plus children. Alde boiler installed and removed. Calorifier installed and removed. 8. Weather. Whenever you need to do something outside, the weather will be too cold, too hot, too wet, or too something else. However, since my main enjoyment is the fittingout itself, none of this has bothered me.

Those personal Qs are not there to have a point for you - they're for them to be able to say they have x many (insert name of minority group here) to help them reach or prove they meet their diversity targets. There's funding in that.

They don't open from the outside - they open from the inside. Apparently the ones that opened from the outside weren't popular.

If you play a Windows 10 CD 'backwards' you get Satanic messages, but even worse, if you 'play'; it normally you get Windows 10 on your PC

Yes I watched that - "Maiden". I found it quite emotional (must be getting old)

May I draw your attention to C&RTs own documentation on the subject : https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/media/library/1127.pdf See 3rd para up from the bottom (page 6 of the document) This is an extract of a post by Nigel Moore (20/7/17) on the same subject : "In short, where the 1995 Act has expressly limited grounds for refusal/revocation of a licence to 3 specific conditions, then the issue of the licence CANNOT legally be subjected to compliance with anything else. Where, under byelaw making powers passed on to CaRT by the terms of their Statutory Instrument, conditions of use of the waterways by licensed boats may still be added to, the relevant statutory procedure must be followed – but those, as with existing byelaws, could only govern use of the waterways by licensed boats, they could never be tied to issue or revocation of the licence. Any attempt to portray them as something issue and retention of the licence is subject to, is blatant falsehood. The law quite simply does NOT permit T&C’s to be attached to issue of the licence, therefore the asserted contrary statements and actions are indeed unlawful. When elements of these T&C’s specifically claim to over-ride express statutory protections and prohibitions, the legal affront is all the more objectionable".

Thanks all, Panic over, we managed to get him seen at Rainsbrook at Hillmorton. very impressed with the vet we saw Follow up check tomorrow but just looks like a dodgy tummy. Pets don't half worry you sometimes. On a wider note though, how do you cope when liveaboard cc'ing. We are wintering near Crick but intend to cruise all next summer possibly to the k &a. We still have our vets at "home" where we get their regular check ups during visits to family but need something when moving around. We did look at at pets4vets as they appear to be national with centres in pets at home branches but their online revue's are pretty poor. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I have seen and read the article, afterwards I was sure it had been written by a muppet, but what do I know? 👹

Whilst waiting in the local garage for the annual car mot to be completed,I was thumbing idly through the magazine rack when I came across a canal boat magazine. Now,I don't normally read magazines, but this one piqued my interest as it had an article describing the holy grail.....yes c̶o̶m̶p̶o̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶i̶l̶e̶t̶s̶ LiFePo4 batteries and their installation on canal boats.It looks to be the first in a series,of articles written by pioneers on the subject.These pioneers were using secondhand cells and diy battery management systems. Unfortunately I didn't read the whole article as it was a bit technical for me and I fell asleep. It was Decembers issue. Anyone see it?

My cousin Colin was a Teddy Boy. When he first thought of becoming one he found an old cast iron drain pipe and pulled it up a leg to see in the mirror what drainpipe trousers would look like, he used up a whole bottle of iodine on all the bloody grazes.

A very green car then! 😁

Nah.I have the the other one. But I have it pointed in his direction, so it cancels it out.

A potato pushed firmly into the exhaust works and gives you enough time to get back to safety before the engine coughs and dies. 😁

Yeah, but what exactly are you blaming him for? The bloke who wrote the article was called Dave or Andy, or Bill or summit. It certainly wasn't Bob. Nice try though

Why did you choose to moor there? Perhaps their criteria for a good mooring is the same as yours. To be honest 60ft away sounds reasonable, it’s when they stop 6in from your fender that annoys me.

If anyone asks Dr Bob nicely and agrees to buy him pints he might just email you his original but much better to buy the magazine (Canal Boat) and that will make my job a bit more secure as well

Just a quick update to everyone who has helped. We now have hot water relatively quickly after running the boiler for 45 minutes or so on high. i think that it’s a combination of air having worked out of the calofier over the last few weeks and the system being plumbed in oddly. The valve which turns off hot water to the radiators also seems to turn off hot water to the taps. I think this is because the calorifier is at the opposite end of the boat to the boiler so the line which takes fluid to the calorifier is the same one which runs through the radiators so when we turn off the radiators nothing goes through to the calorifier. We had been running it with the radiators turned off assuming that would allow more hot water to the calorifier and allow it to heat up faster although I’m sure we tried it both ways at one point. Now it has got colder and we’re running the radiators more we’ve found we’re getting hot water within 40 minutes or so of turning on the heating. Thanks very much to everyone for their help, I now feel as though I understand heating systems on boats a lot more!

With the Derwent now at record levels in Derby, and still rising, Crockers Farm marina will be underwater tonight , perhaps worse than it ever has been. The Derwent when this high comes straight across the fields and across the marina , over the canal and into the Trent. Boats tied too tightly might not rise enough. Take care folks, and look after the boats around you.

They are not fitted to many locks on the Wigan flight, mainly those where subsidence has made it difficult to maintain an accurate fit for the mitre. Without having a stop, the top of the mitre could 'rub', that is seat slightly differently each time the gates were closed, causing the sharp edges of the mitre to wear and thus cause leakage. In the worst scenario, a boat could hit the gates and cause them to overlap and fail, as did happen once with Wharfe on the 9th lock on the Wigan flight. Striking posts, where the outer end of the balance beam rested against a vertical post when the gates were closed, were used for the same reason, though they were removed, in the 1960s I was told, after someone got caught between the beam and the post. The Rochdale locks were badly built from the beginning, if the canal company minutes are to be believed, so such supports were used extensively on that canal. However, it could just be that the engineer at some point thought they were a good idea in restricting wear on the mitre, and thus extending gate life.

Which is why Duff man carries spare acid on his trusty utility belt(or did you think it was beer). Revives Duff batteries:-

Yes precisely, which is why I ignored that aspect of who could fit my gas systems and just did it myself. As long as you read the regs, buy the correct materials (correct pipe and fittings) and install the system as required, clipped correctly, and then get it properly tested the job's a good 'un. My systems have been inspected 4 times by 4 different inspectors all of whom say it's a decent job. One said he hadn't seen a better installation. I'm not sure why people think installing LPG pipework is some sort of black art that's not to be attempted unless you're a member of the gas safe fraternity. At the end of the day there's really no great mystery to it. It's just plumbing.

We have a hydraulic wheelchair lift on our boat. Initially, we looked at retrofitting one into a secondhand boat but in the end had a boat built that meets all our accessibility requirements. The lift was designed, fabricated and built in by Mel Davis, the hull builder.

Improved the accuracy of that for you.....

So their examiners do not have to be "gas safe" registered. Proper examiners are "gas safe" registered.

I see the OPs point, well backed up by the way. Has the effectiveness of the reservoir in flood control, been compromised by poor maintenance leading to fears that the structure may not cope with full load. A very good question.

On the other hand, the time when you fund out how good the customer service really is is when something goes wrong. And on that score it seems they excelled.

If you decide to remove the slider it's very easy, guick and safe to do. Wind down on the greaser to make sure there's grease in the gland & stern tube Remove the 4 nuts on studs Slide the slider out to give access and clearance. You may ffind that some form wooden levers help. Measure using chosen method, Replace slider and nuts Adjust as appropriate

Careful Tim - belt and braces can be a bit of a hazard in urgent toiletry circumstances!

Don't put yourself down, I've certainly learned a fair amount from your posts, who cares about a few spelling/grammer mistakes, I am hardly Shakespeare myself and contribute a lot less

The proliferation of political, or politically inspired threads is annoying, and has made me visit the Forum less often. Change the software so that individual threads can be made invisible please. If possible, control the few members whose offensive/libellous comments cause deep offence. You can probably guess how I have voted in this poll.

Interesting points raised in respect of the design, construction, maintenance and mooring of the channel by @frangar and @Mike Todd. The GJC was engineered by William Jessop who had previously worked on canals and canalised rivers in the North East. He amended the original proposals for the GJC to a channel of 42’ wide at the surface, 28’ wide on the bottom and a depth of 4’ 6” to enable the canal to accommodate small river barges. I note that nobody has yet challenged my premise that these dimensions are generic for the whole length of the canal. However @alan_fincher did offer the narrow channel through Tring cutting as a reason for different usage either side of Berkhamsted. Add to that the even more restrictive nature of Blisworth and Braunston tunnels plus the lack of any one large, or concentration of smaller, commercial centres beyond the Home Counties and it becomes apparent why barge traffic north of Berkhamsted never caught on. It must though be the case that this was due to commercial considerations as well as, or perhaps rather than, physical ones. Did anyone else think that @Ray T‘s photograph of a widebeam in it’s ‘natural’ home could have been a picture of any Midlands narrow canal without the boat in the picture? Over the years maintenance and repair practice will have developed in response to usage and we end up 200 years later with a canal that presents difficulties for wide beam craft (at least ones that are at the physical limits, designed for intended use on larger waterways and have inexperienced crew). Mooring is an interesting one because there is a clear paradox. Does the ability to pass two boats take precedence over someone’s ability to moor? Historically the answer would clearly be “yes” other than at a recognised operational location. Today we tend put the onus on being able to pass even alongside a moored boat. The number of wide beams is increasing and CRT has a legal duty to maintain the GU so they can technically make passage. If the divisive attitude between narrow and wide beam boaters continues it will develop into a situation that results in an environment in which everyone is worse off. I’m no fan of widebeams but the arguments used against them have worn thin for me and ultimately I support boating full stop. So instead of continuing with the simplistic lines and amusing comments what is to be done to improve the current situation? JP