Mike Todd

At least on a canal boat you get, more or less, to choose where you moor for yourself. Those extolling the greater virtues of caravans/camper vans should recognise that on most camp sites (you cannot just pitch up beside the road) you have to book ahead, use the pitch allocated to you an be just feet away from your neighbour (or at least that is how it seems to me) I'd much rather have the canals where, at the price of the occasional proximity, you get a large degree of freedom.

So long as you are comfortable with driving your car over a very narrow swing bridge.

People buy houses built around an old basin and then complain about the presence of boats and boaters so the moorings are removed!

It certainly used to be the case, but I have not seen up to date evidence, that for lot of vehicles the cheaper the policy the more the get out clauses. Cheaper because they paid out fewer claims.

The OP asks for a 'proper' answer to the situation posed and indicates that only a few of the posts have tried to do that, preferring instead to contemplate their own insecurities that come to the surface when someone moors close by, just when you had hoped for loneliness. (Leave aside a debate on the difference between being able to choose loneliness and those who have it as an enforced permanent condition) In the interests of disclosure: our first reaction in such situations is invariably negative but it soon passes! Having a degree of hearing loss means, for me, that most annoyances can be ignored by removing hearing aids! A few posts have posited reasons (like security) and here is another: many boaters on unfamiliar waters will use published guides to plan ahead where they hope to moor overnight and, on some canals, there can be a paucity of places marked. Sometimes we approach a planned mooring in some trepidation, knowing that if it is full then we have a lengthy and uncertain unplanned extension to the day. What most guides fail to mention (and it is not an exact science anyway) is just how many spaces there are at one of the marked moorings or even what the depth is like. Some new boaters may also be unduly influenced by the often strongly worded cries (here and elsewhere) for boats to moor closely on busy mooring spots. (Share a Ring) It is possible that some have done so in the belief that this is the right thing to do. It is always worth remembering when criticising the behaviours of other boaters, that changing them may have unintended consequences!

Not on your Nellie . . .

Quite possible - but my point was regard with the specific use of 'cilling' which is not normally associated with going uphill. Don't know if there is a specific term for 'getting caught under something on a lock gate whilst ascending' . . .

So?

Don't try the Ribble Link then!

Surprised that you would carry a pole long and strong enough - my recollection is that it would have needed something more substantial than the conventional Banbury Stick.

If a canal has been closed, then restored and accepted back by CaRT, what is their obligation? The text you cite indicates that the court will not impose a duty not previously in place. How far is your argument dependent on a continuous application of the original legislation authorising the canal?

And on the very southernmost parts of the GU, I recall.

I'll give you 3 out of 4 but, given that it was going uphill, not sure how cilling would be the cause, unless it was coming down backwards. Or there was a much more complex sequence of events that led to the water level dropping after the boat had rise above the level of the cill.

Given that, when we were moored just down from there, that there was nothing to hold the bridge open (neither counterbalance nor chain, not even blue string) and quite a weighty crew member (ie not a small one) was needed to sit on the beam, I doubt whether it could have been done single handed without very special preparation - like taking your own mud weights!

Still only approx. Assumes ground and boat are level

Had an Auction sign up three days ago when we came by.

I thought he only built over canals, not dig them.

So it is not the dredging that does it but a change in water level somewhere. Presumably does not affect the lock the other side.

How does that work?

Our last boat had a rod welded to the inside edge of the square section for just this purpose. Alas, the attempt then to fill in the gap between round and flat was less successful and a perennial problem with rust!

Given that this was one of the founding motivations for what became the EU, you have good reasons to worry!

Cl;early there are two UK canal systems with very different populations and experiences. I'm glad I use the other one . . .

But on some canals, the narrower especially, can have so much greenery over the top that the sun hardly gets a look in, whichever sun it is.

They do the Scottish variety, then?

I'm just bowled over by the wit.