Arthur Marshall

If anyone isn't a bit suspicious of the business habits of insurance/rescue companies, they ought to be. AA and RAC are both notorious for overcharging for unnecessary batteries or tyres. All these people will get you out of trouble, but you're paying extra for, I suppose their "waiting around and not earning any money" time. It's a bit of a ripoff, but the alternative is learning to do it yourself, and if you can't be bothered then you can't really grumble about the price. RCR don't pay their employed blokes much, so as soon as they're any good they tend to leave and go solo. Get one of their contractors and they're usually excellent. For a novice boater I think they're essential, as they are for an experienced but cackhanded and aged soul like me. For someone who really understand what makes their boat go, and doesn't panic when it doesn't, be a waste of money.

The GoWindlass has a fixed socket in the usual position for a normal (not long throw) windlass, so if the lock is easy I use that. The ratchet socket is a few inches further along, not as far as the long throw but far enough to give you extra leverage if you need it, even without the ratchet. It's also generally not so long that you have to keep taking it off the spindle to clear the lock beam. If it's seriously hard work, you just pump the ratchet. So you get three options, standard, semi-long throw and ratchet. With a bad back, I've found it a godsend this last year, though the ratchet has only been used on a few occasions. My wife's used it a bit more often when she's been along. There's very little difference in the weight between a standard steel windlass and the Go. I've never dropped a windlass in the canal yet (probably do it tomorrow, now), though I noticed someone on FB saying they'd left a Go behind at a lock, which would upset you a bit.

All social media is like that. Some only come on to sneer or pick a fight. There's enough positivity to keep the newbies here though - I'm seeing a lot of names I don't recognise lately, and they can't all be once banned Thunderboaters under alternative identities.

Your figure for the tow was, I think, more or less what their bloke told me. But there are still odd occasions when it could be useful, although there are usually boats passing that will tow you somewhere if you ask. For those of us with no engineering knowledge and who are intrinsically cack-handed, having an engineer always available is worth the money. If you are capable of doing your own maintenance, it probably isn't. I presume, like any insurer, they make their money from those who pay but never use them.

What they told me when the gearbox died was that they'd happily tow me home (probably about four hours plus Bosley locks) but they'd charge me for over 2 hours, and that would come out of the money they'd pay towards the gearbox. So I'd be better off making my own way home and keeping the whole of the £1000 for the rebuild. Which is what I did - got a tow to Bosley from a friendly boater, pulled it through myself and hitched a lift from a hire boat home. Luckily, they used my favourite engineer as a consultant, so they usually sent him anyway, as none of their usual guys know anything about Listers. I reckon the two grand I've had from them, plus a new starter and the gearbox problem sorting, keeps me ahead even if I never need them again.

Interesting. I've paged through all my responses in this thread and can't find any evidence that I've said that, though admittedly your posts aren't really worth much attention. Were you posting under a different name when I said that? Or about something completely different, and in an equally agressive manner? You've obviously struck me as someone not worth discussing anything with as, like all pseudononymous bigots, you only seem to want an argument, not a discussion. However, as this is a forum, and some of us have open minds which can change if data or circumstances require, you can take your attitude and shove it. I'll post as and when I want. Entirely up to you whether you read them or not. I certainly wouldn't expect a constructive response.

Hi Glynda. Most of us aren't. Thanks for your post. A lot of stuff on here does look like negative and complaining about things, but that's because one hardly notices all the things that go well, like happy cruising and working locks (and engineers who turn up and do a good job), so we tend to fulminate when things go wrong or we get badly treated. But there's also an awful lot of expertise and good advice, and a large number of people who will have had the same problem as may turn up for you or a.n.other and will go out of their way to help.

I've been a member for years now. I've had one callout when the bloke just shrugged and walked away, another who did his best but failed to sort a broken fuel pipe, one who replaced a bust starter, another who sorted out a gearbox problem in half an hour. On top of that, they've contributed £2000 to gearbox repairs and their service engineer had a fallout with the owner of my mooring site which got RCR banned from the farm and for which they never apologised. So a mixed bunch, but as a person of a certain age and inflexibility with no expertise in engines, I wouldn't be without them as a safety net. When disaster strikes, panic sets in and an expert on the end of a phone call is very reassuring. And to know they'll always get you to a boatyard if necessary is also handy. And to slag off a new poster, who in good faith put a useful report on here, as some members have done, is a disgrace and they should be ashamed of themselves. Sadly, it's typical of some, but luckily not the majority.

Not necessarily. If a day is as per the definition: if I arrive at 10am, I am not there for a day, as that is the sunrise-sunset period, so my first day is the second day, and the third day is the second day, and that's my two days. I can then leave any time before sunset on the fourth day, as that isn't a day until it's sunset, so if I leave at 4pm on the fourth day I've only been there two days. 48 hours made a lot more sense, but then there would have been no need for new signs, consultancy fees and management.

That's been going on for a couple of years now. Still makes no sense. Does it mean you can stay two full days, which is three nights? At least with 48 hours you could work it out. Loads of them about, not usually with a time or distance, so basically useless.

There do seem usually to be a lot of unattended boats resting there for weeks on end, which is a shame because it's a nice place to stop. At least they did extend the rings a few years back, but it always surprises me that it isn't a designated 48 hour or 5 day mooring. Not many of those untimed ones left in places like that.

The number of boats I've seen moored opposite winding holes recently indicate that the signs are in fact needed these days. I spent an entire afternoon (feeling guilitily like a jobsworth) a few years ago pointing out to both hire and private boats that they were mooring in the one at Rode Heath before giving up and sticking a notice on the towpath fence to point it out. I was greatly relieved next time I went to see CRT had both put a sign up and taken the relevant rings out. Mind you, people still try and moor there. Same on the lower Macc. Sometimes, signs do perform a useful purpose, especially when the cut is filling up with ignorant people.