Richard Fairhurst

That's all right, I'm not offended.

If you ever saw my boat you wouldn't call it elitist! The Melton & Oakham society started because nine years ago there was an IWA Leicestershire meeting, at the Gate Hangs Well in Syston (beside the Wreake, fittingly enough), on the history of the Melton. I stood up at the end and said "isn't it time we thought about restoring these waterways?", and started signing up names. I've not really been involved with it for a while, but it's great to see it moving along, with a slipway in Melton, the possibility of a new bridge at the Old Junction, and so on. C&R's editor is Chris Cattrall.

Sorry, have I missed something? Richard

You're generally right, but it's a lot more than a handful (I've seen the list!).

If we're talking wireless LANs... Mac wireless networking is almost exactly the same as Windows wireless networking. It's just that PC people call it 802.11, and Apple calls it AirPort. It's the same thing. The only thing you need to be wary of is that PC wireless passwords are usually something like FD78A912ED03CD18BBC9, whereas Mac passwords are of the form 'secret' or 'wontguessme'. This is one of the reasons Macs are better than Windows. (Anyway, you can enter a PC-style password into the Mac's password box if you like... it'll understand it.) But I guess you're probably more interested in Internet connectivity through a mobile phone. Again, no problem. Most Macs, including the iBook G4, have Bluetooth built-in. I believe Andy Greener on Whisper connects to the Internet this way... you could try asking him for any specific advice. Incidentally, if your narrowboat doesn't have room for a Mac mini, it must be a really small one!

Not seen it mentioned on the board yet, but the boatyard eviction took place yesterday (Wednesday). Richard

Richard Fairhurst (not far off ). Yes, I'm interested. Don't think I've got the original message, but you can PM me here or e-mail me at richard.fairhurst@wwonline.co.uk . dor - it's only appeared in the shops today, but the June WW has a big feature listing 50 points that you should check off when buying a boat, directly inspired by the Heron experience. Some of it should be fairly obvious stuff, but we really, really hope that by pointing out some of the less well-known safeguards (such as the point made here, and elsewhere, that your builder should have title to the fittings before you make the staged payments), fewer people will get burned. cheers Richard

Tony, when you've downloaded the tracklogs of your trips, how about uploading them to Openstreetmap? The Waterscape boaters' guides actually had a secret mode in them that would give you Ordnance Survey mapping as a 'base' (rather than just a white background), a bit like Nicholsons. Unfortunately I've just tried it and it doesn't seem to be working any more.

One man's "pedantic" is another's "correct", and I know that if we wrote about it using the word "registered", we'd get picked up on it! Certainly the Environment Agency are always very sensitive that you should use the word "registration" as opposed to "licence" for their waterways, so I see no reason not to make the effort both ways round.

I'm working on it... Richard

Nonono. All boats on BW waters are licensed in Watford. They're not registered anywhere. The registration requirement was removed by Act of Parliament, possibly '63 or '68 but I'm not sure off the top of my head (it's in a past issue of WW, after some correspondence where a chap tried to convince Harborough District Council to register his boat). So you can paint whatever you like and it makes absolutely no difference. Boats on the Thames are still registered, however (that's why they're "registration charges" on EA waterways, not "licence fees"). But there's no obligation to put the place of registration on a Thames boat. Richard, whose boat is still proudly registered at Rickmansworth

I believe the reason is essentially that stated by John, but with the added local twist that the Mon & Brec is built on the side of a hillside. The 'hillside' bank has several million tons of rock in it, whereas the 'valleyside' bank is fairly inconsequential. Consequently, you're asked to leave locks empty to prevent leakage into the valleyside bank, which is more likely to collapse. The canal has a history of landslips (there are some great pics in the Star Inn in Talybont-on-Usk, which is probably my favourite pub on the whole system... mmm, Dunkertons Organic Scrumpy ). So you can understand BW not wanting to encourage any more.

Ah, but the Agency is only the navigation authority for certain rivers (Thames, Nene, Great Ouse and tributaries, Wye, Lugg, Medway, Welland, Glen, Ancholme, Suffolk Stour; plus a few oddities, like Lydney Harbour and Canal, Rye Harbour; and I'm not 100% sure of the situation on the Yorkshire Derwent or the Market Weighton Canal). Though the Agency administers certain functions on all the rivers of England and Wales, such as pollution control, it doesn't have power to demand boat licences for them except where it is expressly the navigation authority. Frouds Bridge is at least a fairly predictable case. There are, however, a handful of standard marinas on standard, BW-owned canals that are exempt from the need for licences, for no reason other than it wasn't required by any connection contract when the marinas were first constructed. I believe that there are some on the Llangollen, for example.

AFAIK, no it doesn't. Stopping selling short-term licences over the Internet was purely a result of changes in Waterscape's technology. You can't actually buy any licences for the first time at the moment, long-term or short-term: you can only renew. Appeal against (sorry, that's an Americanism that really does drive me up the wall). Rog - I think you mean Frouds Bridge Marina. But there are loads around the system that don't require BW licences, believe me. Richard

and wooden boats... we've just got a nasty leak behind one of the knees in ours caused by ice. Richard

Lock 13 on the Rochdale. (I'd just found it on Google Earth and refreshed to check whether anyone had got it yet... and you'd posted the enlarged pic!) You can see a map on Waterscape here. It's not a tunnel, just some tall trees overhanging the waterway.

And the lock goes down into the tunnel, which is unusual, and suggests that it's a modern construction - perhaps one on a restored canal going under a main road. I did think it might be Roughcastle on the Union, but it doesn't look right. Still thinking...

That is exactly what I was trying to use, as detailed on the little leaflet sent by BW with the reminder. It doesn't say watrerscape on the leaflet. I'm fairly sure about that because I laid out that leaflet in a previous life! To have something "only accessible through the Google search engine" is more or less impossible. (Note to techies - yes, I do know about the referer header. ) The prefix doesn't need to be used. The computer redirects to that accordingly. Works 100% fine for me here on Internet Explorer, Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. Are you sure you're using a computer and not, say, an electric toothbrush? Richard

John - I think it's called a "senior moment"... Richard (31)

Though the tunnel was still being built when he died, it wasn't the cause of his death. That's more commonly attributed to catching pneumonia while surveying the Caldon.

I'm a cider drinker - real cider, that is, none of that Strongbow rubbish. Never touch lager (although I have a view of the Carling Black Label towers from my office at WW). Ken Fairhurst is the one who runs the webring. We're no relation, as far as I know.