Arthur Marshall

Be interesting to know which Macc mooring, too.

As with most things , it's not the reality anyway, it's the perception . I, and most people I know up here wouldn't be interested in travelling to London because of its rep. So CRT might as well accept reality, take the money and turn it into a housing estate. They don't even need to define them as residential moorings - let the local authorities sort that one out.

Or simply do what was done before the advent of mooring fees. Boat registers a "home area". Licence rises to include what CRT would charge for mooring. Moorers are no worse off. Rebate at year end for CCers if CRT's records show distance travel satisfies them .

Sometimes it's just "housing", cheap doesn't really enter into it. There's got to be an answer, preferably one that increases CRT's income. I suspect a big increase in CRT's online moorings, heavily policed, in the popular areas, with some visitor moorings also being charged for, as at llangollen. It'll make London virtually unvisitable without prior booking, but it probably is already as far as I can tell. And most leisure boaters don't want to go there anyway, being more interested in country than city.

I didn't find that when I lived on maybe 25 years ago. Maybe because most boaters I knew lived on, I suppose, with or without a mooring. Bit like I find now, no one cares very much. The debate, rather like on here, seems to be between just a few people with axes to grind or chips on shoulders. Most boaters just like boats, and boating whenever they can,whether they are owners in marinas, CCers, hire boaters or whatever.

I did run the engine for a while in gear before trying. I'm always a bit wary of overusing reverse.

Any suggestions as to how to get the old oil out? I physically can't get to the drain plugs and my suction doofer tube is too big for the dipstick tubes, and I suspect if I get a tube thin enough the oil will be too thick to pass through it. I tried a tube down the filler hole but couldonly get half a litre out.

The met was one of the ones i was using. Seems to change its mind every half hour, but maybe it's just being accurate...

Actually, I suspect it's because there often a bit of piling near the bridge and the rest of the towpath is too soft to moor to. Sometimes it's one of those weird people who moor up for two weeks and then move a couple of miles need need car access.

Anyone found an accurate weather app for Android? I was hoping to paint the tub today as all forecasts and both my apps said cloudy but dry. They both still do, both show the radar clear and it's raining...

No visible name or number per the OP. Not a lot anyone can do.

Basically, range is impossible to define as the area you do it in is as relevant as distance covered. Any set of rules has fuzzy edges which can be exploited until someone decides a limit has been exceeded and someone ends up in court. Then you just get another set of fuzzy edges. The answer to the original question is "probably". Whether anyone wants to live with the resulting uncertainty depends on the desperation of their situation and their estimation of their chance of not only being made homeless but losing their investment into the bargain.

I'm not surprised. I wonder how many of them turn up with a couple of cans of paint and a space booked on Apolloduck...

Both the OP's experience and the one in the same place a few years back were first hand. So were my comments. But it's probably no different from any other inner city area - large number of people, some of whom will be scroats and a lot who aren't. Some places there are safe and some aren't, that's all. Westport Lake is fine.

Same as building new roads doesn't solve the traffic problems. It wouldn't solve the housing shortage, but CRT would make a bit more money, and they'll need it when Government money stops. And not that many people want to live on boats anyway.

So you don't apply for a licence, have no name or number on your boat, and tell anyone who asks for i d to shove off. I suspect what will happen is CRT will turn long stretches of towpath into long term moorings - it's another income stream and nonmoving boats put little wear and tear on the infrastructure. Whether we like it or not, people have to live somewhere, and when houses are unaffordable to buy or rent, you either need a housing price crash, something else cheap, or employers paying sensible wages. The last won't happen, the first might but is unlikely, which leaves...

Whoever runs it makes the rules. Someone has to. Users can challenge if they wish. The winner is usually the one with most money. Keep a low profile, don't push your luck and generally you can get away with murder. Behave like a pillock, shout loudly about being unfairly treated and you're in trouble.

I remember her too. Never understood why people like that buy houses on the canal. It was almost certainly there when they moved in. If you walk into the village, the stationers on the left is also a very fine second hand bookshop.

I remember Rob when he started out ass a youngster, he just liked being out and about. He turned it into a bit of a business and recently had to pay for an expensive bike repair so I usually slip him at least a fiver, though I have never known him to ask for money. He helped me up the Stoke flight this year. Nicest guy you could hope to meet.

The Act is ambiguous, and so like all is open to interpretation. "Continuous cruising" is an attempt to clarify "bona fide navigation". Whether it succeeds or not is moot and in the end is playtime for lawyers, which is why they are rich, we aren't, and CRT loses a lot of money because of those who want to bend the system to suit themselves, rather than the general user. PS anyone who seeks tax advice when they don't want to reduce their tax bill is not only weird, but probably unique. Everybody dodges tax when they can, and so they should... .

I think part of the problem is not cultural in that sense, but mutual poverty tends to result in people looking for reasons to blame for it, and obvious differences make scapegoating simpler. Once you get this tension starting, it's hard to stop. You then start exaggerating the differences, resulting in an invented culture you can claim as your own instead of the actual shared one. Unfortunately, all shades of skin do it. People, unless they own boats, are basically idiots.

There used to be, and may still be for all I know, a halfway house for those about to be released from jail close to the staircase. I met a few guys from there having a smoke by the lock and enjoying a bit of freedom, never had any hassle from them.

There was a post a couple of years ago about someone who got bricked there . It's a shame, but the first safe spot on the Caldon is up by Endon, Milton or Engine Lock. In my younger, hairier days, I usually got offered various interesting substances from lads on the towpath, all friendly enough, mind you. I 've never had any trouble at Westport Lake, though you do get yobs on motorbikes tearing round it sometimes. Stoke is a notoriously poverty stricken area and the atmosphere is often pretty toxic and racist (I've worked round there a lot and have been amazed by the attitudes of people I liked) , so tensions can be high which leads to this kind of mindless vandalism/behavior by all shades. In the town, the only places I'd consider mooring are the Lake or by the Carvery.

No, mine are in a pic about two pages back. I do have a pic somewhere of them in use but it really isn't that exciting,and if I put it on, someone would just tell me I was doing it wrong...

There's a mention in the notes of the CRT meeting that nuisance practices could lead to licence withdrawal. And no doubt a bout of whinging, court action and more money wasted on laywers.