Lady Ga

I hope your wrong too Derek. As a person stood on the outside looking in on all this, Im wondering whether to take the plunge here or hold back and wait and see for a bit....we were'nt going to buy till November or December anyways... I did notice that on Saturday, at Crick, BW are holding a public meeting on this very subject? whether you can get any sensical answers out of them, other than them dancing round the subject, dodging verbal confrontations, is another matter...

Very very well put.... I think you covered all bases there.

if you have a bank of batteries that need you to run 5/6 hours a day to charge them up then you will need to run your engine for that amount of time a day. Anyhoo, I''ve seen all I need to see on this topic. Its getting to the stage where I think its run it course... so its over n out from me on this one

Half a lite and hour = 50 p Cruise 6 to 7 hours a day =£3 a day say, CC for the summer, seven days a week = £21 a week that totals a saving of £80 ish quid a month and over 12 months, then u do the math. Look, Im not wanting this to turn into a ruck... But for people CC for the year it adds up as we can see... if you on a low income. good grief.

I know someone with a 60 footer and a 33hp vetus and once they put a bigger prop on it, it was fine.(fuel economy v good) I also know someone with a 58 foot boat and a 55hp isuzu in it and they think it guzzles the juice, so it seems people have their views, who knows who's right or wrong all you can do is make an informed decision, isn't it?(wotever)

Well, we are at Crick this weekend so guess what my main question's going to be on the engine sales people there... If we do do this and it comes off(our planned boat), we plan on cruising every day(summer) for about 5-6 hrs a day so this could well add up to be very beneficial actually..

so, dilemma, if we get a 60 footer(new boat) do I go for a 33hp or a 42? can I save half a liter an hour? if so where do i sign? Didn't the old working boat swing a really big prop? so if you fitted say a 19x11 on a 33hp vetus lets say u should have economy and grunt?

Hi Alan, Indeed, BUT if your out for the summer then that IS a saving over say 6 months, or indeed if you live on and CC then its a good saving over a year... (half a litre an hour) hmmm food for thought!

Ah, you quite right. (Sueb) Then again, someone told me they attended a meeting once with BW, a supposed customer focus meeting and someone stood up to voice their opinion and a high ranking lady with BW stood up and said in no uncertain terms, "Well, if you don't like the increase in mooring fees then move your boat" So if thats the attitude you get from high ranking BW hirachy then were well and truly stuffed, as it were. They will probably turn round and say, if you can't afford it then sell your boat.

Okay, we surfed the net last night and found a motel type thing in Northampton(with a very odd name near some university campus)lol, for £30 a night, double room with a buffet breakfast!!!! the cheapest I found after that was at least twenty quid more with no breakfast. Yes I know what some are thinking....but the reviews on the net said it was excellent VFM comfy beds good food etc, anyhoo, fleabites aside, we are spending saturday night there and Crick the next morning. I didn't much fancy getting up at 5am to drive 3 and a half hours there, so we are all now happy campers.

As some of you may have guessed by now, me and my significant other are thinking of buying a boat, possibly a sail-a-way or possibly second hand, we aren't sure yet...BUT an article I read in one of the monthly canal mags, brings up a very very good point, given that we now pay full tax duty on cruising fuel, then maybe we ought, for economy reasons alone, consider installing a smaller engines into our new builds? given the trend, to put larger engines into boats than were origionally fitted to the old working boats(and they managed to haul massive loads with somethiung like 10hp?) The fuel economy on say, for example, a 60 footer, if u installed a 33 hp engine instead of a 42 or indeed a 55 hp engine should be very good? I suppose one could fit a larger prop, to give some extra OOOPf should you need it on rivers and the like .. It goes on to mention that most modern engines are not running efficiently until they are running at 85% capacity anyway.... So, like road cars, maybe its time to ditch the gas guzzlers and opt for a smart car?(ie., smaller engine) (this is assuming were not all priced off the canals-re my other topic)

There are some really good replies to this dilemma. When I started this topic, I wasn't sure whether this topic had already been discussed, but either way, I thought that it should be mooted....(again or not, as the case may be) Magpie Pat: you mentioned that we could be charged a few quid to empty elsan's? .....umm, straight away I saw a big problem with that....Im sure you would then end up with a certain few just emptying it into the cut instead of paying? In reality, exactly how much could BW or what is to become BW as we know it, increase licsense fees? is there a legal limit like you have with land-lords....ie, they can't just hike up the price to something like double, can they?(for their tennants) BUT if BW ceases to be, and a "new company" takes over, maybe they can start afresh with a whole lot of new charges? (omgosh, think of that prospect!) Is that a possible way round any red tape dictating how much an increase is deemed "fair"? But.... if its a case of "The licsence fees need to double or the system shuts down", then what? We pay or fold....? But what of the "Lottery Fund"? If this becomes a "Charity" would it(BW) then be able to get much higher donations from that? OR: Maybe we will end up with a "Pay as you go" boating, like on the Lower Avon, where you pay to do a stretch of canal or indeed river(as is the case on some rivers now, as mooted earlier by someone).... Well, aint this good? Nothing like not knowing what on earth is going to happen, hey? I can't help feeling that BW will use smoke and mirrors to appeas us, then do a runner leaving us to pick up the pieces(once its too late) and they have long gone.

yes that all sounds very familliar...... question: in reality what is really being said here? is it me? or is it all words dancing round trying to look like something good and nice and really, underneath and reading between the lines....this could all end in tears? what if these "local communities" don't want to be bothered "taking care" of their stretch of canal? It all seems very flaky to me, if I may be so very bold. Am I missing something here? or what...

Indeed! Me and my significant other will be going, not sure what day yet....in fact im toying with finding a motel or something, because we have a 3 hour drive to Crick and after a day trailing round I'm not sure I fancy a 3 hour drive back.

WHAT! WHAT?!! BW CE earns what? £284,041p! two hundered and eighty four thousand pounds a year! I'm flabbergasted! I'm completely gob-smacked he earns MORE than our Prime Minister! OMG this is so outrageous its funny! And he's getting away with it why? (no one noticed, perhaps?) nice job if you can get it, huh? Omgoodnessness.. phew x 30000 I was just thinking today, perhaps due to all the cut backs and savings having to be met by the new government, that this 'charity' mullarkey could well be pushed forward quicker than we think------ and as for cutting quangos (whatever they are) perhaps our dinamic duo, Nick and Dave could start by cutting BW's very outrageous wages perhaps? I can't get over those wages! I need a lay down after that shock, at this rate our licsense fees will be about 10 grand!

oki koki then, thanks for all your great responses! (and amusing replies:- twinpot)

Since we (me and my significant other) decided to look into the costings of actually owning a boat(with a view to CC) one thing has been bugging me badly more than anything else....and I have to say, alarm bells are - a - ringing... Is it just me, or is anyone else actually wondering where the money is going to come from for this "trust"? My anxieties about this, not helped by picking up this months "Canal Boat magazine" ... And Steve Haywood's article, which he states and I quote: "For despite the recent PR offensive from Watford, the fact remains that BW has simply not addressed itself to the major question raised by this move to mutualisation. Frankly, where's the money coming from?" Its mooted that there is a shortfall of £30million pounds on routine canal maintenance but its suggested that the figure is nearer to ten times that figure(also quoted from said article in CB mag) I have also spoken to a person who works for a charitable trust and he said to me that the only way would really be, of raising these sort of figures, were to indeed raise the licsence fee considerably...... not exactly what I want to be hearing, just before undertaking such a costly decision, especially when everything you have(financially) is going to be invested in a boat.... Is anyone else here concerned? or am I reading too much into this? OR are you reading too little into all the spin from BW? I did try my best to wade through all the glossy text, flowery, fleeting suggested hints at what may be possible, nay would be possible if the canal system was turned into this "charitable trust", and I did try to see some comforting words, but at the end of reading it, I was left with an overwhelming feeling that for all the flowery words, what had they said, in reality? Anyhoo, over to you, there may be someone out there more in the know(lets hope so I say!)

Ok, hypertherthically, if you buy a second hand boat, with an engine that has been regularily serviced, what sort of life span could you expect from the engine and box before it needed replacing?

I think you have pretty much said what I was trying to get at, in my last post, I fully subscribe to your philosophy!

Im with the masses on this one, this is not a dress rehearsal(pun intended). Go for it, you never know what's lurking round the corner. Whatever happen's in your life you can always look back and think to yourself, at least you have done it, job's wise, if you are in a specialist job, which I think you are? there will always be some sort of work out there, freelance? Plus as someone said already, I'd tend to go with doing this in the summer.

well, pretty much, most things are a constant cost, such as bw licsense and boat insurance, ie., they wont fluctuate much if any during the year(paying monthly) (or should I say praying monthly!) the main bones of contention are diesel and food, and, err, and I think Im pretty much confident(gulp) about that now...

umm, did u buy this diesle derclaring it as 100% for cruising or was there a split? but yeh, Im calculating its probably going to cost £50 or £60 a week to go out for the summer, cruising 5-7 hours a day, oh deary me, im confused now.... am I right with my costings? its important I get this somewhere near right here... Ive already had one costing Im wrong about, which was the food bill... now I estimated we spend about £50 a week on food, so I saved all my receipts this last week and I've now discovered we spent £120!!!!!!!! in a week, it adds up spending £18 here and £18 there over a week, doesn't look much in your minds eye till you actually save all your receipts then add the lot up...

There was a spate of this type of behaviour on the birmingham and worcester a few years ago, 2 flashers(not connected) operating on the stretch near the offerton area iirc. Joking aside, its very scary for a woman on the towpath, in the middle of no where to be confronted by this, because she doesn't know whether its going to escalate into an assult. A friend of mine who is a victim support worker reckons, statistically, people who flash, go on to actually get braver and end up sexually assulting people, so, altho it initially seems funny,(and we all have a laugh) there can be worse consiquences ahead when he gets braver or the flashing doesnt quite cut the mustard anymore... Its easy to get blase, when your off down the towpath....ladies should always have this in the back of their mind and have a contingency plan imho.

....good god.....its easier to get a passport....than this discount card

The thing that is sad really, is the fact that there are lots or retired people who cc who are on fixed or very low incomes, who have probably been forced off the water or at the very least forced into not boating/cruising as much as they could have, its sad when people like that have worked all their lives, paid their taxes and looked forward to retirement, to have all this extra cost forced upon them, and no doubt in some case, had their pipe dream banished, not by this country, but by our cousins in brussles. Going back to WW2 and Churchill....Ive had a thought; maybe if we volenteered the use of our boats in these latter day war efforts we could lay claim to discounted fuel again? is it worth a punt?