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Starcoaster

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Posts posted by Starcoaster

  2. Opinions on a boat

    in New to Boating?

    Posted

    On 5/11/2017 at 08:42, Athy said:

     Springers and Hudsons are good examples of this.

     

    This is probably the first time that I have ever seen the words "Springers and Hudsons" used together to describe a shared trait other than that of being the respective polar ends of the price spectrum!

    I find it way funnier than I should that now that the day has finally come, it was in a sentence highlighting one of their most obvious differences! :lol:

  3. Lock solo as a beginner on a leisure craft

    in New to Boating?

    Posted

    Yes but what YOU would or would not do is irrelevant when it comes to advising someone else... The OP MAY have had very few responses at first, but that's how a message forum works... the post was only made yesterday, waiting for informed advice is hugely superior to taking half-cocked advice posted as it seems simply because "someone should say something!?" Personally I prefer the ethos that if you don't know for sure what advice to give, either say nothing or explain your situation in relation to what you DO say, so that the other party can make an informed decision about how reliable your views are to their situation.

    "The OP should not regard my ideas as dangerous" etc... Whether the advice is good or bad (or really, irrelevant or neither in my opinion  in this case) The OP should regard your ideas as QUESTIONABLE, given that you know nothing from your own first hand experience of any of the pertinent factors. And honestly I would be hugely lairy of taking advice on anything from someone who is so stoical about being right all the time, even when you have now demonstrated many times (and had explained back to you) that you are a pre-novice in canal terms.

    Stand by your post all you like, because of course you will, but don't be surprised if others quickly point out the lack of relevant knowledge and experience behind your suggestions and how this can be at best misleading and at worst, apt to cause problems.

    Someone who spouts information that they haven't won and won't heed advice from those who have is a potentially dangerous boater, and dangerous to others too if they frame that information as The Word to those who don't know who to listen to.

  4. Lock solo as a beginner on a leisure craft

    in New to Boating?

    Posted · Edited by Starcoaster

    3 hours ago, LadyG said:

    Correct, I am seeing things from the novice POV, so I am giving the advice I would give to any complete novice boater ............. get instruction, [in fact I said this is what I would do in her place], wear a lifejacket when locking, have reliable equipment and know how to use it. "Its nought to do wi' ought", as they say in Yorkshire. 

    As previously mentioned, I framed my post from my viewpoint, on what I consider to be a sensible plan before setting out on a long journey.

    I did not mention nitty gritty of boat handling, narrow or otherwise. I think it is unwise for anyone to power up and set off without any preparation, [not that I am suggesting OP is doing this], but plenty of people do it every year.

     

    I am sorry (ok totally not) but why don't you just stay in your lane. There is no shortage of experienced boaters here who can offer well informed and locally/craft-relevant advice to the OP, and you are not one of them.

    You literally know no more that the OP and demonstrate a much poorer propensity to be able to take advice on board and listen, so why are you doling out advice yourself when the thread has already received (and likely will continue to receive) many useful, relevant comments from highly experienced boaters within the environment in question?

    At the very least if you are going to "advise" others from your position of not having even got started yet, add some sort of disclaimer to it, otherwise it simply reads as hubris.

    • Greenie 4

  5. Lock solo as a beginner on a leisure craft

    in New to Boating?

    Posted

    You have to make your own decision about what is right for you/what you are happy with etc., using the useful bits of info you get given... But as ever, consider the provenance of the posters whose advice you are considering when sorting the wheat from the chaff.

    Experienced narrowboaters/canal boaters, regular single handers, those familiar with the stretch, those who lock with small boats, GRP boats etc., are good picks for a start-but beware of those who see fit to offer advice framed as if coming from an old hand despite never having owned or hired a narrow/canal craft.

  6. POLL: Guest Advertisements

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted

    Need more information.

    Can you clarify what exactly you mean by "non intrusive adverts?" Like, are they banners between posts? Rotating headers? I assume no fecking pop-ups, which is the antonym of non-intrusive...

    How many ads would each guest see per click?

    Are they likely to be gifs, vid clips, other shiet that can significantly slow down mobile or dongle connections and cost data?

     

    Do you intend to use a service to find and place ads and pay out revenue to you? If so, which service, what type of ads, how will you regain any autonomy over the type of things they place?

    Or do you intend to shill ad space to canal-related businesses?

    Like, You need to provide more detailed information to have a hope of getting informed replies/votes. This isn't parliament, you know.

     

    • Greenie 1

  7. URGENT HELP PLEASE - Lister Blackstone Box Om HA2 Stuck In REverse.

    in Boat Building & Maintenance

    Posted · Edited by Starcoaster

    Right now, so am I...

    It does seem very un-Odin-like to eat something horrific, given that he is both generally good (I may not have mentioned this before, but whilst setting up for the wake, I forgot about the dogs and went upstairs for a pee... It was only when I was um, fully committed as it were, that I realised I had left two Labradors unsupervised with the buffet. They had touched nothing, as I suppose is self-evident by virtue of the fact that this is the first you are hearing of it... :D ) and also rarely out of sight of one of you.

     

    Are you 100% sure it was shitty vomit and not vomity shit? By which I mean, is the method of expulsion definitely confirmed as a launch from the roof hatch and not the stern gland, because in my professional experience, some peculiar-looking blends can come out of the back end of a dog.

     

    • Greenie 1

  16. Richard Saillet/Mr. canalshop jailed for eight years for violent sexual assault.

    in General Boating

    Posted

    I also found 25p (plus VAT) per unit of electricity rather flagrant too... I looked into what recourse I had over this given that it is theoretically verboten to sell mains electric on at a profit (unless you declare it as a separate service charge), but without knowing who their electricity supply firm was I found there was little I could do.

    2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

     

    Ooh now I'm intrigued. Can you outline what happened please?

    Paintjobsgonewrong.com

    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    Moderating

    in Suggestions & Feedback

    Posted · Edited by Starcoaster

    I would welcome a definitive statement from Daniel regarding protocol for a moderator to edit the spelling and grammar within other people's posts please.

    I can fairly say that if someone was ever rude enough to do that to me I would throw a pretty epic flounce. 

    If someone pointed out to me that I had spinach in my teeth or my skirt tucked in my knickers, I would likely be grateful. But I would not be so happy if the girl in Subway told me I was too fat to order the meatball marinara and she'd make me the veggie delight instead... She might be totally right, but she's also way overstepping her boundaries.

    If a hairdresser accosted me in the street and started snipping at my split ends.... If a random boater re-tied the knots on my boat simply because they were not "correct..." If the cashier in Debenhams refused to sell me a dress because that style won't suit me...

    I could go on for a while here, but seriously though, don't correct another grown-ass adult's spelling and grammar for its own sake within their own posts without their permission, that's a bloody liberty.

    ThankyouPlease.

    • Greenie 9

  20. Guys advice please if you can spare a minute - Thinking of moving onto a boat.

    in Living Afloat

    Posted · Edited by Starcoaster

    On 5/12/2017 at 10:40, mross said:

    I think you should work hard until you are 50 or 60 and build up a good pension plan, or one day you will find your savings gone and your health failing.  Then what will you do?  Unless you already have a property worth one million plus that can fund your dream long term?  Nothing wrong with dreams but sometimes that's all they are.  Some people's dream is to retire on a massive lottery win but this needs a 'plan b' because they never win it.

    Not sure I agree with this. When I bought my boat at the age of 33, I had two choices:

    Use that money as the deposit for a mortgage that would tie me to one location and see me working full time until I was about 60 to pay it off and retire, and hope that I was in good health and ready to start again by using the money from selling the house to buy a boat. By then I would have waited 27 years to start the lifestyle I wanted, and also would have been pretty much obligated to work full time to pay off this mortgage.

    Or:

    Use that money to buy a smaller, cheaper boat at that juncture allowing me 27 additional years (should I choose) of my lifestyle of choice knowing that I would at worst, get to do it for a while when I was young enough to have my health and lots of options, in case I was unable to for any reason when I was older.

     

    Now I am 39, living on the same little cheap boat with no desire at all to ever go brick, working less than 20 hours a week, and in a freelance job that I would never have even considered trying in and that became obvious as an option only as a direct result of getting the boat and joining this forum.

    To me it was a no brainer to not waste all those years in a house with a full time job, or wait all that time being a good little minion to retire and find out for sure if it wasn't for me? for-after all, I could be dead by then for all I know, never mind in poor health!

    I am not trying to say it is an easy thing-Sometimes, some boat stuff sucks, where you are sucks, or there are boat-related people who you can't get far enough away from fast enough for whatever reason, and you will never know what exactly it is that you will find so sucky until you get there-it is different for everyone.

    The last five years that I have been on the boat have in fact included the top scorers in the ranking of the very darkest times of my life for various reasons, and even the logistics of managing things like that (whatever your equivalent "like that" is) can be harder on the boat too.

    But I think there is a big difference between "dreaming" and "wanting something nice that you can actually get." Sometimes people are too programmed to do what is expected of them without questioning it, and questioning if that is actually what they want-why SHOULD someone work until they are 50 or 60 if they don't desire to and have other options that they prefer?

    There's a trade-off for everything in life, innit. That doesn't mean the trade is necessarily a poor one.

     

    • Greenie 4

  22. BSS fail?

    in General Boating

    Posted · Edited by Starcoaster

    I can ride a horse pretty good, so I guess the same principles apply for a unicorn!? If not, that's stupid! Stupid unicorns not knowing how to be ridden! 

    • Greenie 1
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