Mike Todd

It would be interesting to hear viable suggestions on how to do things better, within current income streams. In my observations, CaRT engineering teams are trying quite hard to make the best use of the tight budgets. This means doing some things differently - eg the newer procedures at the gate makers, and also re-evaluating what they need to do eg gradual phasing out of laundry facilities when a substantial proportion of boaters responded that they had on board facilities. In addition, there are many examples of changing how things are done that reflect the change in the relative cost of labour. It may have been OK, in the past, to have people on hand just in case but not now. There are more opportunities to use specialist skills in roles that in the past were done by general purpose personnel, allowing better investment in time saving equipment. It is also best to be sure that you know how locks work before claiming evidence of incompetence. For example, some locks were designed to re-fill after emptying - various means were tried including what looks like unmaintained leakage. You also have to remember that a canal needs a constant flow downhill so that intermediate pounds do not run dry and also that operating so that both sets of gates contribute to retention of water, hence asking boaters always to close all gates and paddles (alas too often ignored by those who know better with sometimes significant consequences) I would encourage everyone to take any opportunity to chat with CaRT staff on the ground - it is rare that I never learn something new and/or interesting when I do so. Remember also that a failure to try to introduce new ways of doing things, as some advocate avoiding, is itself a sign of incompetence. Of course not everyone makes the best choices every time but it is also good to check the reasons before criticising.

Or tip the bucket of water into the bilge! (It is a better test in situ and usually is in a confined space anyway. It is not going to flood the cabin!

Trouble is, that kind of effect is likely to vary quite quickly as different providers seek to out compete in a tough marketplace. Most of us need to make decisions based on a much longer timescale.

We have the Greeks to thank for that! (Archimedes in particular) and also the boat will go up and down, are rotate fore and aft, all the time so a reasonable margin is needed if you want to assure submersion.

Not sure if all marina wifis use wired (cabled?) broadband to drive them. They could, today, just as well use a mobile option (after all, BT, now EE, offer a mobile backup option for a few which supposedly will keep you going if someone cuts the cable. I have tried quite a few marina wifis and generally concluded that the installation is a tick box item, just so they can say that they offer the connection whilst only a few moorers rely on it. I have yet to find one that I would want to depend on for a good streaming service.

Whilst the term case derives historically from the separate trays (cases) that held the different type characters, it is quite widely used now to indicate the style of mixing fonts eg this text is all in lower case whilst THIS IS UPPER CASE. I had not come across the specific term Title Case before or Sentence Case, but they are sometimes options used in DTP software to enforce one or other set of rules. Like spell checker, it may or may not do what you want.

At certain tunnels, such as Standedge, this is routinely advised by the staff to ensure that boats make it under the height check. But they are not so concerned if you drop down in the water a bit as that is less of an issue (usually)

I think that usually the manual on needs to be held to operate whilst the other two stay where you put them.

ANA Both Three and Vodafone same the same but they do not state anything about bandwidth - ie ratio of demand to supply. You may get a very good signal but if too many users also want a share at the same time, service will inevitably take a hit which will be more noticeable when streaming or other high traffic tasks.

Best read the stoppage notices carefully before you commit to a medium term (eg next 4 months) plan - it seems quite possible that, even with rain now, the stoppage will last at least a month or two to replenish reservoirs. Before much gets to them the ground needs to soak up quite a bit. I would not surprised, albeit very, very disappointed, if we do not get significant cruising availability (including access to Cropredy) until well into the autumn, But who knows, weather prediction is not at its most reliable right now! On the limited occasions we actually stay aboard in the marina, we now generally rely on our mobiles for streaming etc and have not yet invested in any special antenna. (We keep each phone on a different network although neither is EE) I am not sure I would want to put myself in a position where my employment/income depended on a 24/7 good signal, but that is an issue right across the canal network. Just have to factor into the daily schedule time to relocate as needed. As I am sure you already know, the ability to get adequate service is not just a matter of signal strength but also bandwidth relative to the number of logged in users (whether marina wifi or mobile) Hence, the responsiveness varies considerably with the time of day. This would be the case even if you sat right under the mast!

But only if the boat is covered by insurance that is valid in the circumstances. I would suggest that the boat club need to review, with their insurers, what risks they need to cover that may not be recoverable from anyone else. If any is a serious concern then the option for the club is to protect themselves against the risk. That's called insurance!

agree with both of those, although we do get a generally usable mobile signal on either vodafone of three (we have the choice)

Do we know how, if at all, the criteria for closing a canal for lack of water may have changed over that time?

Especially when the loos empty into a cesspit with the whole facility being closed when it overflows from more usage than anticipated.

Back when we started boating (late Sixties) a spade was standard equipment. even from hire companies. With people these days wanting to be picky about evidence based decisions, I am not sure that there was much evidence that hedgrows suffered as a consequence but we are all much more prone to hiding basic facts of being human!