Arthur Marshall

We do. I think the navigation closures will happen by default, sadly. Income from boaters simply can't fill the gap, and as we are a minority interest as far as CRT is concerned, why should it? You can't blame CRT, it was lumbered with being what it is. As in most of the infrastructure in a declining economy, even maintaining the status quo is impossible without a bit of radical thinking, which is unlikely in a largely conservatively (small c) minded country.

CRT is a different kind of charity from one of the "doing good" ones, really, so one's opinion of how the other sort operate isn't really relevant. CRT is a business with technically charitable ends as it's running something for the public good. I think the argument is that too much thought is going into the running the business, and not enough into the outcomes of the decisions made. They are of course constrained by lack of money - the debate is really as to how what there is, is allocated; whether too much importance is being given to the bureaucracy as opposed to the wet bit. Bureaucrats tend to see themselves as the critical components, not locks, bridges or reservoirs. Opinions differ, the only thing we actually know is that depreciation is progressing quicker than maintenance can keep up. Which is not that surprising in such an old system, but it is a little sad.

Well, yes, just as I said. The purpose of the administrators of a small charity is to get to be a big charity, so it can spend more of your money on administration, and running the organisation, proportionally, than it did when it was just a little one, doing some good. And everyone gets paid more, hurrah, because they've got more people to manage.

But that's why most people have given up contributions to big charities- it all goes to pay the executives and the managers and a small proportion goes to the good deeds. As I said above, most big charities now exist to fund themselves and jollies for the boss. Bit like political parties. They aren't there to produce results, they're there to stay in business.

If the emergency repairs end up costing you more than the maintenance would have done, then it isn't a lack of choice, it's a change of philosophy, same as the supermarkets changing from keeping a stockpile to "just in time" ordering, which is fine for their profits but leaves empty shelves for their customers. As "emergencies" become routine, you're back where you started except that everything costs more and takes longer. You can only bolt lock beams together with meccano while there's a bit of beam left that'll take a screw. It's someone's law, I forget whose (Peter's, maybe). Any large organisation ends up caring more about itself than it does about what it's meant to be doing. CRT is more concerned about maintaing its existence (see the daft publicity, signage, tatty posters, weird grass/vegetation cutting, cycle paths) than about the survival of the system as a working waterway, or even as a linear park. Anything that gets in the way is just a nuisance, from boaters to pedestrians.

Some people forget that it's not just the reduction in the government grant that's hitting CRT's finances but the astronomical cost of the Toddbrook Reservoir work which is currently heading towards £40m since it happened 5 years ago. All of this has had to come out of CRT's general maintenance budget for the rest of the system. Following the near disaster of Toddbrook they've also incurred additional costs at their other 100+ reservoirs in making sure they are up to scratch, all of which has also impacted on their general maintenance programme Which of course might not have been necessary in the first place had there been regular maintenance instead of the "fix it when it breaks" philosophy now in place everywhere. You can't have it both ways - it's either cheaper to do it as a process or to leave it till it's an emergency. Once you've chosen which you're going to do, you can't use it as an excuse if it bites you in the bum.

CRT reckon the "boating season" runs from April to October, and nobody moves much the rest of the year. That's almost half the year when the only users that matter are walkers and fishermen. And they're probably right for most of the rest of the year, too, once you've discounted hirers and taken into account the huge number of boats that never move from their moorings, or manage a two week trip in the summer, and the majority of continuous cruisers that either don't move at all, do the absolute minimum or just dump their boats on the towpath and go home. It would be interesting if they ever did a survey of every boat owner to see the actual ratio of moving to static boats over the course of a year. 5% maybe? Certainly on my mooring, out of about 20 boats, discounting the CCer who maintains a mooring to occasionally pop back for a doctor visit, I'm the only one who leaves for long periods, and most of the others never see an owner from one year to the next. We think it's a busy navigation. CRT don't, and they may be right, and as the costs keep rising (not just licences, there's diesel, gas, maintenance, BSC etc) they may get righter.

The problem at Colwich is not just the falling apart beam, it's the bust ground paddle. This is happening more and more on the T&M, especially on the flights with paired locks which are slowly being reduced to single locks with, at best, three working paddles. As they all seem to be failing at the same time, they will presumably do the same again. There obviously isn't the ability any more to renew locks as they fail, so the only long-term solution is to reduce the number of locks to a quantity that can be maintained. And the only way to do that it to close some bits of the network. I suspect reducing any paired locks to a single will be the start, but it won't be enough.

The few I ran into this year have without exception asked if I wanted their help. Occasionally they have set the lock and opened the gate for me without walking half a mile down the cut to ask, but that's no different from when another boat exits so I reckoned it's acceptable. They've always asked when I reached the lock, and none have turned a windlass without checking I was ready. I think the training has improved and this has been stressed though there are probably still rogue lockies out there who think they know better.

I forgot to mention the bloke I went to (on recommendation) after a massive oil leak who "specialised in old marine diesels" who rebuilt the engine for me. Did an excellent job with new pistons etc (having told me it would take two weeks and actually taking three months and then only after almost daily phone calls and repeated visits) but left me with a smaller but still significant oil leak and a sump filling up with diesel, which he swore blind wasn't happening, and he'd never in his whole life heard that Listers might do this. Part of the contract was that I'd get an itemised list of what he'd done. Needless to say I never got it, and paid a few hundred more to another bloke to fix the remaining oil leak (he'd left a gasket out) and replace the leak off that he'd broken. Last guy did a perfect job.

The yard that fitted my self draining cruiser deck did half of it in reverse, so it drains into the bilge rather than the canal and fitted a new prop tube at the same time so badly it nearly sank the boat when the seal failed later. When asked about the former they just shrugged. They also let me drive out of the yard with the fuel switched off. The one that fixed the gearbox left half the bolts out of the coupling when refitting it. The few he'd bothered to put back in were so loose the nuts fell off as soon as I started the engine For various genuine reasons it cost a grand to have it redone by another yard. I lived with all of it. Any legal action is expensive, time consuming, stressful and probably pointless. My default position now is to assume any work done on the boat is defective and get it double checked by someone else if I can't do it.

I do like gizmos. I shall try this out on next week's cruise. Thanks for sharing it.

That's really the problem with being an official volunteer. That description is rather a contradiction in terms, you're really an unpaid employee with no rights but considerable responsibilities - the guys working the locks as the Flight Crew are genuine volunteers. I'm not sure running the system on this basis is sustainable, though I suppose it might keep it limping into collapse.

The Wigan Flight Crew weren't CRT volunteers, just a group of people who helped boaters up and down the flight, mostly when requested on FB. I'm not sure how you can resign from something that doesn't formally exist. I think the ones who quit en masse were the official vlockies, and what they quit was CRT, as you can both be an official CRT fake lockie two days a week and just a helpful bloke the rest of the time. If I was them, and was just a chap who liked playing with locks, I'd have quit CRT and carried on being a person with a windlass, and I suspect that's what they've done, with a bit of luck not letting go of it unexpectedly. As has been said, accidents can happen to anybody, assuming it wasn't a habit.

If a vlockie, even off duty, was daft enough to get hit by a flying windlass he'd been using, I admit I wouldn't want him anywhere near my boat in a lock, and I can see why CRT, having found out about it (how, though?) thought him unsuitable for the job. We are supposed to consider them relatively expert. I suspect that discussions understandably got heated and words said, positions taken up and nobody could find a way to back down. The trouble with volunteers is they can't be treated like employees, though that's more or less what CRT is trying to do. Bound to lead to trouble.

I remember when Rob the Lock started working the Stoke flight as a volunteer, but didn't want to have to sit on one lock when he could be helping people up the flight, so he sacked CRT and went on his own, ultimately turning it into a business, doing shopping and laundry for boaters as well as moving boats. He never asked for money for lock working, though most people gave him few quid as a tip. He took a few people all the way to Middlewich, cycling back after. CRT largely tolerated him I think, though he avoided them as much as he could. Whatever happened at Wigan, I can't see how they can ban anyone from walking down the locks with a windlass and asking boaters if they want any help. I think they're just covering their rear ends in case there's another problem. The key factor is that the person on the boat is solely responsible for their and the boat's safety, nobody else, nor are they (or CRT) responsible if someone unconnected to them gets hurt.

Judging by the number of complaints about vlockies on here, it's more than likely someone has complained to CRT about the actions or attitudes of one of the unofficial WFC. There's not much CRT can do except to say he has no official status and shouldn't be doing it. They've covered themselves if an accident is caused. I've met a few random blokes with a flask of coffee and a packed lunch who enjoy working locks for people out in the countryside. Beats fishing. They can't ban people from helping others at locks, we all do it, especially in queues. ETA crossed with Peter's above

Risking a slap on the wrist for continuing the politicalising, I suspect rent controls will be coming in before too long, and certainly if rents suddenly shoot up. The whole buy to let palaver has been subsidised by housing benefit (as, of course, have low wages by tax credits) and a fair proportion of MPs are bulk landlords, so the debates should be fun and even more hypocritical that usual. I think Labour brought most of this in, so it's only justice they should have to sort it out! Thatcher, I think, abolished the rent councils or whatever they were called. So long ago I've forgotten. Back then my rent was a few quid a week... Really? The press generally is looking for anything to clobber Labour for, and they've generated the heat. But it was a political error. Should have just made it taxable, same as the pension.

You mean like landlords?

Probably been put on for extra insulation? Which opens a new can of worms if you take it off. Beer's suggestion probably the best - live with it. It's amazing what you can get used to, and you can always earmark it for a future project. Next year is a really good time to do stuff - I've had bits of my fitout to finish off next year since 1992.

Fair enough. One of those locks isn't paired, so you'd only have one lockful coming down. Sooner they get the reservoir back on function the better. At least it lasted the bulk of the summer this year.

You can't stick stuff to carpet. You could use real board and screw it through. Best strip out the carpet. It always seemed an odd thing to cover the walls with but it seemed to be a fad at one time. Mind you, best way to get a wood effect finish is to use wood.

CRT has closed one of each of 2 paired locks on the T&M by Malkins Bank in order to save water. But does this work? Surely the same number of boats will go through whether one lock or two so the amount of water used remains the same.

It was diclofenic I was prescribed, sorted it quite quickly.i used to take it for backache until I was banned it due to angina. I do remember the doc said it shouldn't be taken for long periods.

I got told to take aspirin, which made it worse, then heavy duty inflammatories. I think I had two bouts of it and then never again (so far, anyway). Couldn't bear anything touching it, had a construct built at the end of the bed to keep the sheet off. Weirdly it wasn't in the big toe but the edge of the foot.