Arthur Marshall

Me too. Cruiser stern means if the wife's along we can sit out and chat while pottering, if she's not there's room for a stool for the map book or a cup of tea, room to sit and stretch my legs out, and, when boating's done, for the comfy chair to sit and read in the sun, without hogging half the towpath and getting run over by cyclists and dogs. Easy to get on and off when wrestling singlehanded with lift bridges. Easy access to the engine and weed hatch. Tools go in underseat storage in the boat. Mind you, if I'd happened to have bought a tub with a trad stern, I'd probably be telling you all the advantages of that now. Get the boat that talks to you, don't worry about what's at either end, as long as one's pointy and the other's blunt.

My boat had one when I bought it, only heating on it. Worked well for a while, but condensation was huge. Then it kept going out but still leaked gas and I decided it was a death trap and got rid. I think any still in place are going to be pretty ancient and unsafe.

I'd bear it in mind next time - if you mention to the first one you'd rather work the locks yourself they can radio that up the flight and find other things to do, or just go and help someone else. Myself, I'm always happy to see a lock open for me, and they probably assume everyone feels like that, but they need to be aware that not all of us do.

I have been known to lurch. The threat of a walking stick accidentally through the spokes seems to slow them down, especially as being deaf I never hear them coming, even the ones with bells. And I always walk slap in the middle of the towpath.

Did that, she's going to text me some numbers, but in the meantime I tried Stoke Boats, who passed my number on to someone who rang me and is coming tomorrow. So all ends well. Steve Williams was going to do it, but he's so busy I'm away again before he can fit it in.

I suspect most boat owners forget about their boats for 50 weeks of the year. Certainly on my mooring, at least half the boats haven't moved in years. So a marina is a safe bet for an expensive bit of kit.

They don't have a gas person, they gave me the number for someone in Audlem who obviously wasn't interested when I rang, but told me to email him the details, then never bothered to reply.

Continuing saga - need to change the gas regulator. Anyone got any numbers of gas men near Macclesfield or Congleton?

Just a warning that a boat got broken into on the Macc, it appears by someone on another boat. This has happened before, though it was a few years back. Food and drink taken and damage done getting in.

Mine's a bit like that. It's where the pipe goes into the isolation valve that worries me! The bits are all there on the current one, but it's how to fit it all together into the isolation valve that confuses me. I don't mind playing with the water or the 12v wiring, but gas worries me...

The facilities at Westport Lake (Stoke) have been closed for at least three months. The showers got vandalised, the toilet stopped working, but the Elsan was still ok a couple of months back. Now the whole place is locked. No sign of any intention to work on it.

Too complicated for me. I'll go back to original plan of getting someone competent to do it!

Notice implies a 3 day stoppage?

I've got my new changeover valve, but am slightly wary of doing it myself and am having some difficulty finding a gas bod to do it. If it's just fastening it all together, that's fine, but I'm unsure as to whether it needs an olive in the junction where it connects to the rest of the pipes. Does LPG need this?

I thought the general problem was with the anti-wokes getting upset when reminded where their good fortune came from? eg praising people as great philanthropists when in fact they murdered, enslaved and impoverished thousands of people, and refusing point blank to acknowledge the truth of history. So much nicer just to pretend it's just kings and queens, even if it does turn out the current one is as corrupt as those who came before!

The bit about a marina not allowing composting toilets was a quote from Facebook, not a direct statement by ditchcrawler.