Chertsey

We have two tanks, each of which is, I think, 100 gallons. Only one is currently in use but next year we are going to balance them. With no bath and no shower we'll probably manage to stay out for a month without needing to refill. Lots of 'historic' boats don't have any significant fresh water capacity but it is incredibly useful. Basically we've two salvaged domestic cold water tanks on 18" hign platforms in the back end, with a tap at the bottom. The space underneath is good for keeping stuff cool too. I once knew of a Liverpool boat with an integral tank which never emptied - it turned out to have a leak below the waterline. I use tank water for tea - I won't drink it raw but PB does, with no ill effects.

Gosh it's hard work isn't it :-) Winterised Chertsey yesterday - put the last topcloth on. Do endorse what Bizzard says heaters - especially Palomas, the original and best but replacement parts hard to come by.

Yes, we can accept both that they weren't originally called that, but also that it's a useful term to use now, post hoc as it were.

Cor blimey, good luck going fast through Nuneaton. I think it is quite hard sometimes for people to judge where is a good safe place to let someone pass, so instead pretend not to notice that they're there. It's worse in a way when someone tries to let you by somewhere that's not really suitable.

It's not you (or any of us); NC is (deliberately?) missing the point. I thought she'd got over that years ago.

It's not 'fendering' the fenders, it's covering them - it's part of the fender. If it both makes them last longer and slide up lock gates better, what's not to like? A traditional rope front fender will start to fray and wear out quite quickly; a covered one will last years, even decades. Why wear things out and replace them for the sake of it? A fender is there to do a job, yes, but it's not meant to be sacrificial. Some people do just use a tyre (or two - wasn't there a photo on the forum recently?) but they don't give the same protection, and it's a devil of a job to get them to stay in the right place.. If something has been tried and tested and used for decades, then there's probably something going for it. But surely that's exactly what a traditional rope fender covered with a section of tyre is. (Apologies if that was deliberate irony) That's not Naughty Cal in the photo then...

It's payable on the broker's services, not on the boat. My sister, in the course of her job, once came across someone who was genuinely called Helen Highwater.

Blimey, that was quick! I seem to recall it took us two and a half hours - that was with the electric tug though. Can't believe it's ten years now since we did that.

Yay, less politics, more philosophy!

Oi, keep this stuff in the pub so I can avoid it!

Who is pearlygeoff? He seems to be a rather rude and unpleasant character. I thought this was quite a good discussion up to post 22.

Yup, that's the one, tho it no longer has the Hingley's livery it is still grey. I saw it again at the weekend on the N. Oxford.

Well it is grey...

There is a modern(ish) (Jim Forester??) tug style boat called Zulu which has panels as described inside, painted by Kevin Scragg, or so I was told at any rate. There may well be a similarly decorated old boat, but that's the only one I've seen.

FTS will have chapter and verse on this but I thought that a condition of the 'council' moorings was that they were residential? The NBTA are as a rule a bunch of people considerably pushing their luck (that is the euphemism), but I think the moorings in question in this case are not normal leisure moorings.

If you do need to replace bits Midland Swindlers at Braunston have them - at a price!

But which of you had your fenders down?

But that's a reason for not sharing a lock at all...

That's not a reason though - that's the fear. Can't find the other thread about this that ensued shortly after I came back from August hols... But the gist was that there are some people I would be perfectly happy to trust to steer with my boat breasted up to them, and did so to very good effect in the summer. Obviously there are also plenty of people I wouldn't trust, likewise with working locks and no doubt many other things.

Just keep it in its plastic bag on the deck. It's coal, not the crown jewels!

Convenient timing but I swear this is true (because if I was going to make it up I would have done so long ago). I was coming up the Coventry towards Hawkesbury on Sunday and went over something in bridge 22. Immediately knocked it out of gear, rode over whatever it was, and the tiller swung wildly to the right and was snatched out of my hand. Going forwards. Not with as much force as I've had happen when reversing (I've had the rudder out twice), but certainly enough to knock someone off balance if they had been caught by it. So don't stand in range of the tiller. (By the way, I've just spent an absolutely perfect weekend (Sat-Mon) single handing from Alvecote to Braunston; it was utterly brilliant. And what weather!)