IanD

Total lack of joined-up thinking here -- how do you "progressively encourage" visiting boaters to use electricity for their heating, hot water and cooking (a "gas-free" boat too...) when this means they end up with a boat that can't go anywhere else on the system? There are a *tiny* minority of boats like mine (LFP hybrid with onboard diesel generator and boiler) which could take advantage of this, but not 99.9% of the boats on the canals -- and never will be until/unless there are network-wide charging points, like for EVs. Even then any switch to EBs in any numbers would take many *many* years...

You mean just like Canal Boat Diaries and Cruising the Cut? 😉

Look on the bright side -- Birmingham isn't as lacking in safe places for visitors to moor (VMs or not) as Manchester is... 😞

Completely agree with the last sentence (and not just the main line, the BCN generally) -- but of course this would only work if boaters used them instead of staying away... 😉

That's a general problem with the internet (and complaints about products/companies) -- lots of satisfied customers post nothing, occasional disgruntled ones make a big noise about it. Same applies to concerns about safety, one bad incident gets blown out of all proportion because nobody sees the thousands where there was no problem. In all our travels on the canals -- including stopping sometimes in what have been referred to as dodgy areas or "bandit country" -- the only time we ever had a vandal problem was moored overnight in a "safe spot" near the Boat at Birdingbury when our pins got pulled out overnight. Probably not unrelated to the fact it was Halloween and we'd just p*ssed off some of the locals by almost winning the "best carved pumpkin" competition, and it was left sitting on the boat roof after closing time with a candle still inside it... Oh yes, and when we were moored near the Little Dry Dock pub at Netherton someone nicked the lifebelt off the hatch. Disaster... 😞 So unless there are regular/multiple reports about trouble in a particular area -- and recently, not ten years ago! -- I tend to not worry too much about the occasions when I have to stop somewhere less salubrious than planned. And maybe if boats didn't avoid some places with a bad reputation, there would be fewer problems there -- safety in numbers and all that? I'm sure somebody will now reply with a horrendous tale of woe about what happened when they moored somewhere, or got broken into or had bricks thrown at them. Which is undoubtedly true and unfortunate, but doesn't change the fact that there are 35000 boaters on CART waters (yes I know lots of them never go anywhere...) and probably 99.9% of them never have any trouble of any kind... 😉

A lot of schadenfreude going on here -- the OP knew the boat had problems and negotiated a big drop in price which he thought (and was told) would be enough to pay for them, to get a boat that he wanted. Isn't this what has often been suggested as the correct approach on this very forum? And it's still not clear that he got this wrong -- yes he's had to do various expensive repairs, but unless these exceed £13k then there wasn't anything obviously wrong with his decision. And if they do cost more -- well, how many posters on here have found that boat repairs *always* cost more than you think? The fact that the surveyor/broker/boatyard may have screwed him over is a separate problem -- and again not one unknown to many on the canals, there do seem to be a fair number of dodgy operators of all kinds around... 😞

But why the ring -- surely you can do exactly the same through the D at the end of the pin?

But the reel only has 25m of hose on it... 😉 Genuine question -- what's the point of the ring on some nappy pins?

The first one is what comes with the hose I posted the link to. Pairs like that with the rope through both hoops also make it a lot more difficult for late-night passing oiks to pull out the spikes amd set you adrift. DAMHIK...

There don't seem to be many of the barbed-spigot types around, at least where this was the only type and there wasn't also a threaded one -- but thanks for the reminder... 😉 Reminder to self -- have a spare adaptor as well, so if it breaks you can still fill up with water. DAMHIK...

A serious question I can't find the answer for, maybe because it's not common... With a series hybrid boat where the fuel is used for heating and to run a generator for AC power, but propulsion is electric and partly (largely?) powered by solar, what's the red/white legal position?

I know that, I was asking if anyone knew whether the Hozelock (and similar) screw-on tap connectors (as in the link) fitted CRT taps... 😉 Thanks 🙂

Does that mean you pay £100 on top of the fuel cost? If so this would make it pretty damn expensive for a narrowboat-sized fuel tank... (asking because I've also been considering HVO...)