Tuscan

Unballasted was fun on a windy day. On the Nene exiting a lock in a storm with very little way on we were blown round completely. Now converted and ballasted its no longer a problem

Looks like a deliberate petulant (and dangerous) act to me.

Can you not get a tradesman to buy from Howdens on your behalf, that’s what a colleague did.

this is definitely the case in my recent experience

We looked at Wigrams but chose Nearby Calcutt, inner marina spaced out more, one boat per pontoon. Engineers and workshop in situ. Cons difficult entrance (70’) , wifi signal non existent. Only EE on mobile , 3 and Vodafone sporadic.

What a suprise , we have occasionally seen one walking down the flight to the cafe for his lunch

Reckon £200 for blacking liftout and also every 6 months if being stored on land, assume you will winterise.

I would say it’s not really feasible, perhaps if you buy an ex hireboat you might get enough beds but no storage. However you would no doubt be constantly filling up with water, emptying the loo etc . Assuming your husband could find somewhere to work you would need to do a good power audit to ensure you were not running the engine constantly.

I passed this today, we rocked on the bottom passing close to the bank. What was surprising was the upper ‘flying bridge’ structure was steel so could not be taken down. I imagine it will struggle with some of the bridges as he moves down the Oxford to the GU

To give an idea of the scale of the problem from CRTs perspective , this is from a meeting held in early 2015 prior to CRT introducing their guidance (which became miles not kilometres. I thought this figures were high at the time but if true then CRTs change of policy has achieved what it set out to do with the vast majority of boats exceeding a range of 20 miles. • the current information relating to boaters without a home mooring are: 16 % of c.5,400 CC-ers were recorded cruising within a range of <5 kms, and 66% in a range of <20 kms. X stated these were top line figures that were still being verified – they include some boats licensed later in the year - but they were likely to be a reasonable indication of the numbers with a very limited range of movement.

Well I’m sure Nick got the reaction he was seeking. We acknowledge the helms of most boats as we cross. Most acknowledge some don’t. We’ve met some ignorant or unfriendly owners of old boats , private boats and hire boats. That’s life and it’s too short so I prefer to get on with living it.

Passed Sickle today new paintwork looks very nice

Probably the same one we met in Bugbrooke narrows, took a while to get past as he had little control but did go into the bushes so I could creep past.. No name or index number, CRT spotter was just arriving.

It was the fear of abuse of ‘ghost’ moorings (although when challenged CRT were unable to quantify the scale of the problem) that was behind CRTs decision to alter their terms and conditions in an attempt to require boats with a home mooring to cruise as if they did not have one.

A lot of good boat builders were building boats with more than 2’ draft until very recently Hudson comes to mind , so enough room in the centre of the channel for two to cross, not the case when passing a 12’ wide wide beam. This could be alleviated if CRT were to dredge to the bank side rather to the current curve. Yes I know that’s not going to happen. Every time that someone says a particular vessel is suitable for a canal just because of the published dimensionsis one sandwich short of a pick nick and should go away and have a good long think.