Arthur Marshall

The crucial thing is to remember to take the go-cart off first. Or, in fact, the wheelbarrow.

Barrow wheels are handy on the Shroppie or where there's an underwater shelf. Go cart tyres are useful for all sorts of anti-bump activities.

Get two spares. If it's anything like mine, when the throttle cable goes, the gear change follows...

I'd check the bottom of the flue isn't blocked with gunk first, where it sits on the collar on the fire. That what usually blocks the draught, and a chimbley extension won't help that.

I reckon I'd get what I paid for it. Boat value's stayed the same, the pound hasn't! When it finally goes, as long as I get enough to buy a small yoghurt pot I'll be happy.

What about tatty old boats with knackered Listers?

I suspect it's just an excuse for delay, like when you ring your insurance company and get a message "we are experiencing a high volume of calls...". Basically, it means they can't be bothered to employ enough staff in case it cuts down the size of the director's bonus.

Well he says he doesn't, so almost certainly hasn't, so there won't be one, and so, to be ruthlessly honest, who cares? As I said before, it probably only gets looked at if someone reapplies under their own name, and until that happens, there's nothing to know. No sound in a vacuum. This is an awful long thread from a good starting joke, hijacked along the way by dragging up an old and somewhat dull story about which nobody with any sense cares any more. You lot must be bored cos Brexit's gone into meltdown...

I read bits. I'm entertained by their thread about this site and I keep up with Tony's posts because I like him as a person and his posts are always interesting and often informative. I don't bother with the rest of it, and I'm not a member because I have nothing to contribute and my attitudes in general don't fit in with theirs. So no masochism involved, not that it isn't fun, in its place (see Lehrer's tango). And it aint awful, just different. ETA PS, I read Narrowboatworld, sometimes, too.

I suspect Tony would last about a week! Which in my view is a pity, but like a number of people I suspect he's happier with an unmoderated forum where they can indulge/amuse themselves with abusing those who have the temerity to disagree with them. Some of us think that's just too childish to be bothered with. Any information gets lost in the noise. I suspect the mods, or whoever deals with these things, don't bother to check ban endings unless there's a particular reason to, such as the person wanting to rejoin, and, judging from most comments on TB, most don't. Doesn't stop them reading stuff on here, same as I read stuff over there without any desire to join it. I can't say I miss the deliberate unpleasant tone and ranting that went on before they left and still goes on on TB. I do miss some of the expertise. (I would have thought the ban length would be automatic though, but it obviously isn't.)

Maybe the bans only get reviewed if someone reapplies to join (on the assumption that they haven't like, I understand, half of the proudly banned on Thunderwotsit , already rejoined under a different name). Does Kris want to return? Not everyone does want to join every available forum - some of us have lives to live.

Re anodes My boat had forcsome reason, only one fitted when I got it. I had three more fitted. After about ten years, they were slightly corroded. New ones were fitted about three years ago when I had some resteeling done as the hull was getting a bit thin. The anodes, however, were fine. That's it. I've had the boat thirty years. If yours really needs new ones after two years, there's something wrong, and you should make sure you get a good surveyor - don't rely on one recommended by either your seller or the marina.

The tune in the book that followed the one I decided to use was "Lady Windermere's Dump". My boat painter said it had too many letters...

I can see a sense of humour failure hovering... I blame the political threads...

I wouldn't bother, really. There's enough to get het up about going on now without dragging up something that happened yonks ago. The past should be left there. Whatever the case then, the now is that there's a boat in good nick wandering about, which, as it's more than mine currently is, I'm pleased about.

I had a coal fired Rayburn in my last house but four - wonderful thing. A friend of mine had one in an old working boat. A bit smaller than an Aga and works on a slightly different system,only one hotplate with a graduated temperature range.

Yes there are.

Routers terrify me. Uncontrollable little sods. They're the bagpipes of the DIY universe.

I've got a square sink, much easier to fit than a round one. This makes a change from toilet types...

Well, it seems to have worked..Currently, the rule is that a boat without a mooring isn't a house. Break that rule and consequences follow. If you can afford to buy a boat the size of a house, you can afford to either get a mooring or pay the bus fare to get your kids to school. Living on a boat to avoid being homeless and sleeping under a hedge because you're broke is something else. And, oddly enough, you don't have to live in London to get a job...

I used the words I did deliberately as, in general, the boats people complain about are not the shiny or expensive overstayers, nor are they the ones likely to proliferate should CRT decide to stop their processes. But as these do appear to work this is unlikely to happen unless the economy's roof really falls in, in which case we'll all have a bit more to worry about than boats on the towpath.

I think it would, yes. The housing problems are likely to get worse, not better, and with a recession imminent, boats are going to get cheaper. Whether an explosion of canal dossers is a good or bad thing rather depends on whether you think people are better off under a bridge or in a crappy boat. I know what I think, but I'm biased. Ultimately, the use of the canal system changes to follow social change, and I suspect it turning into a housing system is only a matter of time. As a navigation, its days are probably numbered, anyway.