IanD

Well colour me surprised... 😉

That's why I know it'll be raining on Saturday... 😞 https://www.facebook.com/Smiffs.W6

I can only assume you think this would make the canals "suitable for navigation" because you can use your fabulously effective anchor and winch to go up and down them? 😉

Of course not, because the government's own figures show that the biggest overall benefit from the waterways is to the much larger number of people who use them for other purposes -- walking, cycling, fishing -- which is how the DEFRA grant is justified. Though strictly speaking they don't have to be *navigable* for those users, meaning working locks and paddles and so on, just kept in water. OTOH it's quite possible that the cost of just this (keeping them navigable, as opposed to in water for the non-boater users) *is* paid for by boaters, including license fees for both private boaters and hire companies, the 9% slice from most marina fees, and direct payments to CART from EOG/farm and online moorings.

<sigh> Ignore the fact it was a literal reply to a snide comment your bestie made, and throw some more fuel onto the fire... 😞 Onto the naughty step again, maybe you'll be happy there together...

I didn't say they *couldn't*, just that they're bred for slow heavy load pulling, but the heavier the animal is the less well suited it is to moving more quickly, and the more quickly it gets exhausted and overheats when doing so -- as I'm sure you're well aware of, even elephants can get a move on if they have to but they're not really built for it... 😉 Getting under bridges is certainly an issue in some places, it's one reason cobs or donkeys were often used on the canals, but whether it is on the Lancaster I don't know.

It's unlikely they'd have used heavy draught horses, these are bred for pulling heavy loads (ploughs, wagons) at walking pace, not trotting at 8-10mph.

Only one beer? I'm truly disappointed... 😞 You mean like you and your bestie BLUNT? 😉

Wow, those are ridiculously light -- at least, when unladen. If Swiftsure was 74' x 5'6" and 32cwt (1.6t) unladen and you put 80 passengers on it that would add another 100cwt (6.6t total) given average weight in the 1800s. Incidentally, if you put those figures into the vicprop calculator and allow 5hp (engine equivalent to 2 flogged horses?) for propulsion, it predicts 11.6mph unladen, 9.6mph with 20 passengers, 8.5mph with 40 passengers, and 7.2mph fully laden with 80 passengers -- which given a normal number of passengers actually stacks up quite well with the historical reports of speed... 🙂

I've been pretty open about what I've found since getting the boat, certainly much more so than most others about things like cost (higher than originally quoted), energy usage (more than expected), solar yield (less than expected), fuel consumption and generator running hours (more than expected), joystick failures (Vetus!!!), charging speed (lower than expected), electrical cooling (needed improvement, now done) -- because this should all be useful for anyone else thinking about going electric. But every time I do post anything some people seem to be just desperately looking for ways to find fault or tell me I've wasted my money -- I'm sure this is in part the good old green-eyed monster, but they'll never admit this. Which is why I've largely stopped posting details, because I'm fed up of this attitude -- and it's always the same people doing it, see this thread for example... 😞 Would love to do the BCN challenge, but this year it just didn't stack up with planned cruises for myself and family. Maybe next year... 😉 More trolling, see above... 😞

You really don't seem to understand what I said, so let me repeat it. All I ever said about running the genny was I preferred doing it when not cruising (e.g. tea in bed in the morning, out shopping at lunch, at the pub in the evening) so I could enjoy complete silence while travelling instead of just quiet (still quieter than any diesel boat I've ever been on) -- why would I do anything else, that would be idiotic? As far as solar is concerned I go out when I want to (and can -- still working remember, and I have lots of other mostly musical events on), and use as much solar as I can get -- but it has no influence on whether I go out or not. Of course like anyone else I'd rather be cruising in the sun (with lots of solar power!) than in the rain but then this is England, you don't always have a choice... I'm not having a go at you or anyone else for asking questions, but your repeated posts about Gybe Ho had zero useful content and were 100% personal attacks -- which by definition makes you a troll. If you don't like being called a troll, stop posting like one... 😉

You really are inventing stuff here... I'm not "struggling to enjoy it", I go out (and love it!) whenever I have enough holiday and no other events that I need to be at home for -- including these and boating plans my next free weekend is in October. I've certainly never stayed in the marina because "I didn't want to listen to the generator" -- all I do is try and arrange it so that if possible the genny runs when I'm not cruising or in the pub, why would I do anything else? Your last line is pure fake concern -- be honest, you don't care a fig, you're just having a dig as usual... Sorry to disappoint you -- I had the boat built because I could afford it (better than having the money sitting in the bank doing nothing!) and didn't want to rent boats any more, and don't regret it -- as far as I'm concerned, more money than sense would be spending it on Art... 😉 As far as water shortages are concerned, I'm in exactly the same boat (ho, ho...) as anyone else -- p*ssed off by all the closures and stoppages, but realise that with the hot summer and water shortages and lack of maintenance these are inevitable. So I've had to change my mind about where to go, it's not a big deal, every trip I've done has still been enjoyable -- so you don't need to feel sorry for me, if that makes you feel any better... 😉

The beer (and food) was fine when we were there recently -- but the Shroppie Fly beer was better, and it's much more of a pub if that's what you're looking for (can't comment on the food, we ate at the Comby not the Fly).

If that's the rhyming slang you came up with after I pointed out that your username spelled out BLUNT, then that's down to your fertile imagination -- maybe you're the one being "cotton wool" here... 😉 Anyway, do explain again how you think these two lines are not in conflict, I must be missing something... 1. "Really basic questions from a totally clueless person. An old man that can’t do anything, totally incompetent by the sound of things." 2. "Members are required to conduct themselves in a civil manner including the use of language when engaging with other members" It's currently impossible to plan any trip much in the future given water shortages and stoppages, next time I'm going out I'll do what I did last time and decide based on the situation at the time -- nothing else makes sense.

You're sure it's not a euphemism for something more personal? 😉

Just like humans, there are a couple of things that limit how much power a horse can put out for how long, the first is muscle/fuel/lactic acid (getting tired), the second is overheating -- and like humans but unlike many other animals, horses sweat to keep cool, so they have better endurance. Like humans they can put out high power for very short periods of sprinting (15hp and 3hp), sustained power over long periods (e.g. a day for a horse, endurance cycling for a human) is much smaller (about 1hp (750W) for a horse and 0.3hp (250W) for athletes) -- that's roughly a factor of 10 lower. For half an hour (towing horses with changeover, running 10000m) humans can average about 400W, so on the same basis you could guess that a horse could sustain about 1.5hp -- about 3hp for a pair of horses. That's about 50% more than the all-day power, not to be sniffed at but not massive either -- it would reduce boat journey times by about 15% compared to not changing horses (boat power is speed^3 -- unless you can catch a ride on a soliton, obviously...). Which was enough to pull a fine-lined shallow-draft light flyboat at 8mph average with horse changes, as the historical facts show 🙂

My "snide remarks" are usually about what posters say, not their personal attributes or intentions. But I make an exception sometimes when people are making especially obnoxious or personal posts, like you regularly do. And you especially don't like this being pointed out, see your last couple of posts -- you don't seem able to resist personal attacks, or to distinguish between attacking what people say (fine) and attacking them personally (not fine). No I'm not "playing the victim", but yet again your posts are not within the rules of the forum. Which you also don't like being pointed out, so I expect you'll come back with more of the same... 😞 To repeat -- if you don't agree with what someone says then dispute what they say instead of name-calling, that's how grown-ups discuss things. That applies equally to GybeHo, me, and anyone else you don't like... 😉 AFAIK the water is fine both in Great Haywood and down here in Lunnon, thank you for asking...🙂

Or fish?

I don't think his questions are genuine, but unlike you I simply ignore them instead of repeatedly attacking him personally -- which as I said is against the forum rules. And just because you're not the only one doing it doesn't get you off the hook, does it? Though you're the worst culprit, on this as on many other occasions, and encourage others to do the same. As I've pointed out before, with the same response from you of turning the name-calling towards me. It's this kind of behaviour that puts people off CWDF -- as I've also pointed out before... If you don't agree with what he says then dispute what he says instead of name-calling, that's how grown-ups discuss things.

No, just pointing out what you're doing is repeatedly personally attacking another member, which is of course against the forum rules... 😉

Given that the definition of 1hp was the output that a horse could sustain for extended periods -- meaning, all day -- while doing tasks like pulling a plough, I expect this would apply to pulling boats as opposed to running the Grand National, with much higher output for a few minutes... 😉 How fast the boat can accelerate is irrelevant, how fast the horses can pull it for several miles (at least half an hour) is what matters, and this will be closer to the sustained output of 1hp -- maybe a bit more, but certainly not the much higher figure that horses can generate in a race, which apart from exhaustion would lead to overheating if sustained for long periods. The point is moot anyway -- actual evidence was provided which shows that lightly-built wooden flyboats on the Lancaster canal pulled by two horses (generating however much power they could!) could average 8mph (and peak above this to allow for locks), and that's the question that was asked... 🙂

Useful post content: 0% Ad hominem content: 100% Troll probability: 100% You're the one who keeps fanning the flames... 😉

Most probably damselflies -- we get lots of them around the pond here...