Arthur Marshall

I, following advice on here, fixed my no longer functioning gas fridge with a bit of wire for a wire brush run through the gas jet. Ten minute job... except that to get the fridge out, I had to dismantle the kitchen cupboard, which involved various other bits of kitchen furniture, all of which had to be put back again afterwards and took most of the next day too. At a boatyard's probable cost of forty quid an hour (more if they'd got someone in to do it), the whole job would have been about £600. And as I was doing the job, it didn't really matter if things got bodged a bit in the process - a boatyard has to do it right. First law of boat maintenance is that it'll take at least twice as long as you expect, cost probably double the estimate even if you do it all yourself, and you'll have to take something else to bits to get at the bit you want to fix. And then it won't fit when you try to put it back. It's mostly because everything is linked to everything else and it's all trying to squash as much as you can into a very small space, and it's also why trying to fit out a boat while you're actually living on it is virtually impossible - it can be done, but the boat tends to be surrounded by a blue fug of swearing for a couple of years.

Reverting vaguely towards the topic, if not precisely, can anyone explain why cyclists on the towpath wear helmets?

Can you not trace and ask the previous boat owner?

Really? I suppose it's a typical British attitude, but I still find it weird. Especially as there seems to be more criticism of the rescuer for leaving the dog behind (which we don't even know that they did) that pleasure that someone actually could be arsed to help someone ill enough to warrant an ambulance. I find it incomprehensible that some of my friends have nearly bankrupted themselves paying thousands of pounds for an operation on a dog's leg, and the same again for rehab, when the animal appeared to be suffering no discomfort and was old enough to only have a year or two to live anyway.

There's a lot more occasional boaters about than there were back in the year dot, staying mostly in their marinas and using the boat as a kind of holiday cottage, and there's nothing wrong with that. They just never really, on their rare forays out, pick up on the usual friendliness and co-operation - they're the ones who stand by their boats at locks and never walk up to help boats through (or just chat with those who don't want helping). It's mostly ignorance, occasionally combined with arrogance, especially if they've spent a lot of dosh on their tub. But they're a very, very small minority - it's still a giant community, really, with a sort of spread out village mentality. With, as is traditional, the odd village idiot. I know I'll miss it when I have to pack it all in.

Electric too. That's what you get with polluted soil. Dangerous stuff, this coal ash.

I don't think it was differentiated in the original thread, which means I've been poisoning hedges for the last six months instead of binning the stuff. I am now not only old and forgetful, but also wracked with guilt.

Not long ago there was a thread on here saying that the ash was very good for the hedge and that was where it should go. And now it isn't and it shouldn't. It's just lucky you can always rely on the Internet for good advice...

It's all rubbish. But now its digital rubbish instead of analogue rubbish, which means it's more expensive and lower quality. And I've still got a Nokia E90, so I wouldn't worry about being a luddite if I were you...

Well, my old users site at zetnet.co.uk is still there, and zetnet folded at least ten years ago and I certainly haven't paid any money to whoever owns it now since 2009. It even has a little flash beside it that says "updated". I think the internet is littered with zombie sites that will outlast us all.

Basicboat.co insurance is nice and cheap, and they do pay for wreck recovery.

Ah, but I don't think you were Gareth E then! I'm easily confused. The lights are still working and are appreciated by my wife who likes reading in bed, and not at all by me who doesn't... I'll pm you his details and you can give him a ring.

There is, I think, but the farmer doesn't allow living on, apart from the odd night here and there, and usually only rents on an annual basis. I'll be down there this week so if I see him I'll ask, or I can pm you his number if you like,which might be quicker. He's a friendly soul.... It's a mile south of Congleton station.

That was what always bothered me about it. I suppose in a CC boat it would stay dry, because of regular use, but in a leisure boat it spends most of the time soaking wet (cruiser stern). I think I'll take mine off and have a look... I've left it on as I thought it might cut the noise down a bit, and everything helps with a Lister.

i thought the insulating bandage was no longer a requirement? Not that it doesn't have a use.

How does that work in practice? You're still really a CCer, but if you got, say, a farm mooring for five weeks, which would seem to be the logical solution, would you have to get a mooring permit from CRT for that period? I suppose that in a marina, the fees would automatically cover you.

B&Q wood is awful. It's warped and usually full of cracks & splits. If you buy a pack you need to check every piece. Any reputable timber yard will usually be a bit more expensive, though that isn't always the case, but the wood will last. As above, buy screws in bulk from Screwfix. And an electric screwdriver!

First time I stopped there was when my throttle jammed and I couldn't slow down (I could go, and I could stop, but not much in between). The engineer was one of the largest in circumference that I have ever seen and how on earth he got into the engine space, and then out again, I have no idea, but the whole problem was sorted with cheerfulness and good temper. Seriously nice people.

I don't know any more - just what the owner told me as I went through. But evryone's doing it - pubs selling off their car parks for housing for example. On really good music pub I played at recently, packed to the rafters every weekend and making money all week has lost their car park and field at the back for housing, which will obviously impact on the music played in the pub and will almost certainly lead to the pub closing. CRT seem to be following the same pattern - flog off land for housing and treat waterside businesses as irrelevant.

There's a hell of a lot of houses going up there, but set against continued rent income and a real waterways asset, it's a shame. The yard think it may put them out of business.

When I stopped there for diesel, they told that the land behind the yard had been rented from CRT - and it was CRT that sold the land off for development, not the boatyard. They were very apologetic about the widebeam blocking the canal as it had been sold but the new owner seemed disinclined to come and collect it. It a really friendly place, and a great shame they've lost the use of the land and an indictment, in my opinion, of CRT for their lack of support for a useful canal business.

Interesting - you do learn stuff on this forum.

I accept all that, but a canal fisherman (or the ones near my mooring) don't do any of that, surely. They always sit in the same place and drop their hoook in the same area. So, apart maybe from choice of bait, how are they taking any of these things into account?

True enough. Last time I went fishing was in the sea off the South coast as a teenager. I can accept fly fishing is complex, but not that sitting in a predetermined spot dangling bait attached to a short bit of string on the end of a long pole into water is. You don't even have to learn to cast. But I'm willing to be educated.

What are they absorbed in? A snooker or tennis player has to figure out angles, speed, trajectories. An angler isn't even trying to outthink a fish, essentially he dangles food in the water and then sits still. May I refer you to Ogden Nash (although about a different aquatic creature)? "The hunter crouches in his blind 'Neath camouflage of every kind And conjures up a quacking noise To lend allure to his decoys. This grown man, with pluck and luck, Is hoping to outwit a duck."