Arthur Marshall

Mine is a permanent bed as I don't have anyone to play with...

That was it - thanks. It can stay where it is then.

I've got a couple of 5 gallon diesel kegs currently on the front deck of the boat. Having read on here recently that diesel doesn't like the cold too much, would it be better moving them inside the boat as the temp drops to freezing? The boat won't get used again till March and there's no heating on board.

Same reason as CCers think leisure boaters hate them. And yoghurt pots think tin cans despise them. I don't know about canoeists. They probably think fishermen hate them. it's all crap. No-one objects to CCers, fat boat owners, people who sit in marinas all year, plastic tubs, pedalos, Carabos. I quote you the god Thoth-Hermes, from the Sheckley Bible: "...naturally, you and all the other pearly white onions think that carrots are just bad news, merely some kind of misshapen orangey onion, whereas the carrots look at you and rap about freaky round white carrots, wow! I mean, in actuality everything's got a place in The Stew! And that means that everybody who exists is necessary, and you must have long hateful orange carrots if you're also going to have nice pleasant decent white onions, or vice versa, because without all the ingredients, it isn't a Stew, which is to say, life..."

I didn't.

No, I don't understand either. But I do wish you'd try to understand what I'm saying. I'm not making silly arguments against those who bunny hop, it's all legal and if you'd read my post, you can see I personally don't worry about stuff like that. Nor do I think you're all freeloaders, again, if you'd read my post you'd have seen that I've been there myself. Nor am I trying to stir up trouble between boaters. What I'm trying (apparently pointlessly) to say is what I suspect CRT are thinking. Not me, I'm not CRT. Nor do I care much if CRT go broke, I don't expect it'll affect me if they do, as my boating life will probably only last another five years at the most. A perm mooring suits me, as I can't get fifteen thousand books, twenty instruments and a recording studio into the boat. It doesn't suit others and that's fine by me, but it probably won't be for CRT for much longer unless you can prove you're on a Continuous cruise rather than a variable mooring. That's all. I was just trying to point out the way I feel CRT are thinking. I repeat, I am not CRT and this doesn't reflect my own opinions. I don't care much either what happens to CCers if they can't be bothered to actually think ahead, and just come out with knee jerk reactions to any debate, but maybe they should.

I don't think I said anywhere that to comply with the letter of the law you had to live on your boat. My point is that CRT need to raise some money. I can see them arguing that weekending is not continuous cruising, which is supposed to be continuous, not in short jerky movements. Someone who weekends their boat probably does less actual boating in a year than most leisure boaters (who stump up a load of dosh in mooring fees), and someone in CRT is going to notice this sooner or later. They will then point out that a weekender's boat is probably actually moored up for longer than mine is (for example), and wonder why they get more money from me but not from the guy who leaves his boat moored for most of the year, just clogs up the towpath in different places. As they still, sort of, come under the legal definition of continuous cruising, CRT will need a way to raise their licence fees. They will do this by pointing out that if someone is actually going to be a continuous cruiser, they should also be continuously on their boat because otherwise they can't continuously cruise and therefore must be resident, and therefore will pay a residential licence. Whether they can then wave a council tax bill around will be irrelevant. Two level of licence, leisure (for people with moorings) and residential (for those living on, continuous cruisers and the short jerky movers). And more money for CRT. Whether I agree with it or not is irrelevant, as, probably, are the finer legal aspects. It's all about money. And don't start going on that as a leisure boater I must hate CCers, which is usually the next step when someone points anything out which affects them. A fair few of us have been both, and are quite well aware that without the real CCers the system would have degraded a lot faster and a lot earlier that it has. And personally, I don't have a problem with dumped boats, or people living where they technically shouldn't, nor, in fact, with unlicenced boats. Everybody needs a roof. I repeat, it's all about money, and sometimes it's best to think about it and be prepared rather than just be astonished when it happens. Like we all were when mooring fees suddenly happened to us.

It looks to me as if CRT are going to change CC basis to residential - after all, it doesn't matter much whether you're in a marina, on a CRT mooring or CCing, your boat is your residence.There will be a leisure users licence for those of us paying mooring charges, and a residential licence for everyone else. CRT will argue that it is impossible to CC legitimately without living on, state that that means you are using more of their resources, almost certainly win in the courts, and suddenly get a lot more money from CCers.

No, there are quite high bearers right across the baseplate and the water was nearly up to the top of them but not over. So it was only the first yard or so of floor that had the water in, but it still took a fair bit of pumping and mopping to get it all out, especially under the bed. The floorboards had rotted, which is how I noticed in the first place. I left it open for a couple of months to air and to check and now have a couple of inspection holes in the floor just to check every so often that it's not recurring. I was also worried about the tank rusting through as yours did, but so far it hasn't...

Presumably this is a CRT mooring site. I don't recall seeing it on my farm EOG mooring this year, but will keep an eye out next year. Did you get any information in advance they were doing this? Can't remember seeing it in a Boater's Update (maybe not surprisingly).

Chimney height? Mine's fairly short and double skinned, so presumably any crud runs down back to the stove.

I bolted a hole cutter of the same diameter as the flue onto a long handle that used to open conservatory roof windows. The flue on mine was down to about an inch wide, if that. The hole cutter cleared it, though it did take a few hours of cursing. I mostly get the coal dry before it goes on the fire, but not always. Hadn't realised that's what caused it.

The important thing about setting targets for funding purposes is to set them low so you exceed them. The important thing for setting targets for employees is to set them high so you can keep their pay down. The important thing for setting targets for the board is the size of the bonus.

It's probably being chased because councils are now so short of money. Everyone knows people live on the parks, just have to move out for a few weeks of the year but presumably they don't pay council tax. Evicting everybody isn't the answer - well, I suppose it is an answer but it's a fairly stupid one. Providing housing might be a better one, but looking at the planning permissions given round where I live for thousands of new homes, all of them are too expensive for people who live in caravans. What needs building is terraces, not endless semi and detached things. But where's the profit in that?

A couple of years ago after moving the boat to Macclesfield, which is a lot higher up and colder than the Shroppie where it was before, I found the floor getting soggy at the front of the boat, lifted the boards and found about two inches of water. All, it turned out, from condensation off the back of the water tank (which is the the other side of the bulkhead at pointy end of the boat) which i had omitted to insulate. Since I did, no water.