IanD

FTFY... 😉

That's one I remember being tricky too, nothing you do seems to work -- and I'll be going through it next week... Why not just hang some enormous 3' diameter fenders down both sides? 😉

If that's the case then you'll find out at the first lock that you need to do things differently to "normal", and change to opposite-side-first -- as you say, this is an exception to the rule, but one that might well apply to the OP since they mentioned the T&M. And there are some broad locks where neither seems to work and the boat gets pushed across whatever you do... ;-(

No! *Same* side ground paddle first, the water goes under the boat and bounces off the opposite wall and holds the boat to the adjacent wall. (if you open the opposite side ground paddle first the water goes under the boat, bounces upwards off the wall next to it, and forces the boat away from the wall). Then *opposite" side gate paddle (if there is one) once the water has come up to it, the water from this flows across and pins the boat to the wall. Then opposite side ground paddle and same side gate paddle (if there is one).

The revenue from land and buildings does contribute significantly to CART income if you look at their accounts, possibly not as much as was hoped by rose-tinted-glasses wearers when CART was set up. Like all other income sources, it goes into the pot out of which all the expenditure comes -- I don't think CART are doing much reinvesting, they can't afford to when they haven't got enough money to run the system properly... 😞

Of course, that's how politics works in the UK today... 😞

Tapping 170 holes by hand is going to take a *long* time, even if you know what you're doing and don't break the tap by forgetting to reverse it. DAMHIK... 😞

I disagree -- people pay more tax because they earn more, and tax is what pays for all the societal benefits provided by government -- as well as what they spaff up the wall, unfortunately... 😞 The principle is that the broadest shoulders should carry the heaviest load, not that the strongest richest get to decide what happens. Hmm, like private medicine then. So if you follow that to its conclusion with canals, those who pay the highest license fees should be able to (for example) jump queues at locks, claim priority over "poorer" boats at water points and moorings... An example to the contrary is road tax (yes I know...) -- drivers who pay more don't get any privileges over those who pay less, everyone contributes to the cost of maintaning the roads. Except it's not hypothecated so they don't any more, but the principle is exactly the same as the canal license fee.

That assumes that this doesn't cost more money in the short-term than it saves in the long-term -- since they were established by Act of Parliament closing canals is neither cheap nor easy, with legal obstacles apart from the obvious protests. If CART can't find a way of increasing income -- license fees, DEFRA grant, commercial charges -- and they can't close canals, deterioration will continue... 😞

So on the same principle, if I pay (for example) 3x as much tax as somebody else, should I get (for example) 3 votes in the next GE?

It does make a difference because it puts the cost of living on the cut up for the CMers, which must reduce the numbers doing it since they're in it for the cheap housing. CCers and widebeam owners are paying more to get more money for CART; they don't get any extra privileges any more than people paying more tax do.

Yes I know -- but still they're paying less for their use of the canals than HMers are, so I think some surcharge is fair, the existing 25% is easy to justify from this point of view. I did suggest the way to fix this -- which is also more redistributive -- is to also make the license fee a function of boat age, so those with shiny new expensive boats pay more and those with old cheap boats pay less. Easy to administer, but no doubt would cause howls of anguish from many (not me!) who would pay more as a result. Something like a 2:1 variation with boat age would solve that particular problem, for example new boats might pay 40% more and old ones 30% less without affecting the total license fee take for CART. Then a bigger CC surcharge (e.g. 40%) would put the older retired boaters back to where they were before it was introduced), but with more income for CART from new shiny boaters who would be paying double what the oldies pay (100% more than before the CC surcharge). The numbers could be changed to alter either what oldies pay or newbies pay but the principle is clear, link the license fee to boat age which is a reasonable proxy for boat value. The trouble with any change like this is that the people who have to pay more make a big fuss, and the people who pay less don't, so it's difficult to push through... 😞

There's no way that license fees -- direct to CART and indirect via marina fee slicing and commercial licenses -- can pay 100% of the cost of running the canals, and neither should they given the other sources of CART income including property, water extractions and the DEFRA grant, and the use of the canals as a resource by non-boaters. But it's clear that they are artificially low, and -- even after the recent changes, which will take 5 years to come into effect -- are not graduated enough, the differences between different types of boats and boaters are too small, and there is insufficient enforcement of the rules about moorings, especially overstaying CMers. Just like the current tax system this has been to the detriment of less well-off boaters with smaller older cheaper boats and to the advantage of better-off boaters with bigger newer more expensive ones, and also has favoured those who bend (or break) the rules to their own advantage (cheap living) while effectively penalising those who follow the rules. It's also clear that the reduction of the government grant in real terms in recent years and even more so in the future is going to have a severe impact, and doesn't even make sense given their stated view of the canals as a "national treasure" or part of the national infrastructure -- but it's just another example of Tory privatisation-by-stealth, anything to get stuff to disappear off the government books and make it Somebody Else's Problem -- in this case CART, who can do very little about it. The result of all this has been an ever-increasing maintenance backlog combined with more and more money spent on emergency repairs, more stoppages making it difficult for boaters to actually use the canals for -- well, boating, and a system parts of which are increasingly clogged up with CMers to the point of being well-nigh inaccessible to boaters who actually boat. The problem is that the two things which would fix these problems -- restoration of the central grant (in real terms) to at least what it was when CART was formed, and a significant and rapid increase in license fees with more graduation (bigger and faster than CART have proposed, with a bigger surcharge for wideboats and CCers to discourage CMers) -- are being blocked, the first by the government and the second by the boaters who would be worse off as a result, including the NBTA... 😞

Having done this trip a couple of times in hire boats, there is definitely a difference in average speeds going up to Llangollen and coming back -- IIRC Canalplan takes this into account, and the timings it came up with were pretty accurate in both directions. One warning when planning -- queues are likely in summer at the lock flights (especially Grindley Brook), so don't forget to allow for this, we've had to wait anything up to a couple of hours. With a Monday-Monday trip you should miss the worst of the congestion at Llangollen from all the hire boats doing mainly Sat-Sat trips. It's worth planning to have a full day there, there's a lot to do -- much of the rest of the canal is pretty rural with not much to do. Ellesmere is also good overnight stop.

Just like people who dress in smart suits, I've found some shiny boaters to be very unpleasant people, especially to anyone they see as inferior (e.g. hire boaters!) -- and many scruffy boaters to be very nice people. Never judge anyone by their appearance (or accent), you're as likely to be wrong as right -- maybe more so... 😉