magnetman

The original term was 'dump through' which is quite appropriate. it will always be a problem if the bowl itself is used as an air displacement vent. I know there might be another vent but the easiest route out is the bowl flap. Or whatever its called. At least a dump through does not need a joker valve. It is no joke having to clean or replace one of those.

I was never keen on pompous tanks. It seems wrong.

Not particularly. I deposit into a bowl of ash and put the material in the fire. It is actually useful to inspect the product from a health point of view. If it is too hot for the fire I will resort to the shit suitcase or bucket. I do have a good disposal point nearby. Not a fan of pumpouts. Its great chatting online about Boat lavatories. Its such a brilliant subject. Nice day for it. I find it particularly amusing that people get all het up about a daily natural output which is usually small enough to hold in one hand unless one is a boxer or bodybuilder. A dear friend of mine once pointed out that if things get really arduous for humans it is the people who can comfortably defecate anywhere that will survive. Return to basic animal behaviour. Not that I advocate land based defecation unless it is ones own land. That is a conflict problem.

Thanks for the correction on that. I was told by someone else that they don't take visitors any more. Good news if they do. I have only been in a marina for one night in 31 years of living on Boats and it was South Dock Marina. Near their lovely crane. £460 a week is perhaps why some people think they don't do it any more. I seem to recall more like £30 per 24hrs for a 58ft barge. That was in about 2012. To be fair everything else in London has probably doubled or more in price so it is reasonable. Some big changes coming to South Dock Marina apparently. Council owned site and they have plans.

So why did Biffa tell the CRT that they would not accept lavatory waste in their bins? There must have been a problem with people putting bagged crap in bins otherwise it would not have been mentioned. Keeping ones waste for months seems very bizarre to me. ---- South Dock don't take visitors any more. Nor does Limehouse. St Kats is ridiculously expensive. You can get in to Limehouse with a Gold or CRT licence and moor on the canal as the lock is a CRT asset. The marina is now run by Aquavista who also enforce a 24hr only mooring on the 'public' wall above the lock. For longer stops there is no paid visitor option so one would have to go round onto Limehouse cut and join the slubberdegullions of inner East London.

I think it is mainly pointing out that licensing on canals is permission based. One must jump through various hoops. Maybe an extra hoop is being considered. Anyway that is wandering off topic. It is about secondhand prices. I suppose brokers would know about trends because they actually see the selling price. Other than that it would be very difficult to get the data.

Yes. It will also be interesting to see if the CRT Commission come up with anything serious with regards to 'how we licence Boats on our waterways'. I sometimes wonder if social media may be having an impact as well. facebook for example has algorithms which tend to promote negative content so taking the Thames Boaters group as an example all the lock breakdowns are promoted on the feed. It is useful information but it might cause people to be rather put off the idea of having a Boat. Things are changing on inland waterways it will be interesting to see how it all is in ten years time.

I don't really look at prices much and it could be a marketing strategy but a random example of a Thames brokerage has 'price reduced' on almost all of their list. This is not for canal Boats but it could be a general theme. https://hutchinsmarine.com/used-boats/

Yes it seems likely the northern network would suffer more. I was just thinking because the K&A is not really a through route and may prove problematic in terms of the land use it could be considered a nuisance. It would depend what sort of traffic was viewed as desirable in terms of managerial aspirations.

"Cuts to the canals" is a good bit of wordplay. But also Parry did mention it so its probably real. I reckon some canals are going to be lost soon. Not sure which but the K&A seems to be a bit of an awkward one.

It is wicked. Or as my now teenager kids would say 'that is sick bro'. Power of nature is impressive but one does need to be tied up well and have waders or a dinghy or perhaps a paddle board. Not sure how good a paddle board would be in freezing temperatures though to be fair. Windsor is interesting as it inside the Jubilee river flood protection zone. Windsor is a bit of a dodgy area with [word removed] do as you likeys and all that but it does not flood because the flood chanel takes half of the water. It is not the real River but it does mean the water does not go over the side so in terms of practicality it can be quite handy. It would not be enormously silly to look into mooring in Windsor between the railway bridge and the M4 feeder road during winter.

Its a bit like life. All that is happening is water being drained off the land. Nothing else. It is the simplicity which does it for me. Just a very basic phenomenon which will never change.

I really like it when the River floods. I was here at Cookham during the January 2024 floods and it was brilliant! The River was in charge of the situation and it was marvellous. I suppose it depends on one's attitude to the River but my view is that it is a wonderful part of nature and when it fills the flood plains there is nothing to do but be impressed. Tie the Boat up somewhere sensible and enjoy it.

I still think when loving aboard 24/7 it is mostly about the lavatory rather than the steering arrangements or chines as such. i also think that a Lady who has a pleasant residence unencumbered by others could prove to be useful asset. Cookham does have some ladies as I understand it. Cookham is actually really good as the domesday book describes it as 'Boat Place'. I tend not to disagree with this. Good place to fend off the hoards of Viking invaders.

my 'out of shite out of mind' GPS guided compressed air instant freeze mortar lavatory system is still in the prototyping stage. I have achieved a throw distance of 1.8km and a target radius of 85 metres. Subscription service planned for sub 3 metre target accuracy. The unit is self seeking and broadly similar to an automatic satellite dish with some extra internal plumbing arrangements. App baased or manual operations with dual backup winding handles.

Composting loos are interesting. As it happens someone living on a wide bean canal Boat in Cookham is leaving bags of their waste beside a 'dog waste' bin. It is one approach I suppose. Waste companies don't like it and the CRT have officially banned it in their domestic waste stream. Its not a negative point at all its just that all the used food must go uphill after disposal from the body. I'm commenting on this from a jovial position not an argumentative position. It is actually quite an interesting psychological position to be in. Body waste is something one wants to get rid of so the various different allowed circumstances on an inland Boat are all slightly unsatisfactory. If you did have a pump out Bourne End Marina have a good service for about £30 each time. There are quite a few people living around Cookham on wide beans so its obviously doable. Having said that if one puts the capital in then one could be committed so whether it was in fact a satisfactory life would not be all that relevant. Its not an attempt to discourage its just exploring things people may genuinely not have considered. Lugging coal and Diesel from the car to the Boat on a wheelbarrow seems arduous to me. I don't have a car or a wheelbarrow or use coal or Diesel. Solar power and firewood. Being able to provide enough electrical power in winter can prove interesting . Lots of people on the River have decent filtration systems for fresh water which is handy. I think drinking water wants to be bottled which again means lugging heavy articles across land. I suppose I only ever wanted to live in a floating shed anyway so perhaps not all that typical and I do not engage with road transport. If Henley area is acceptable you could phone SRB Moorings and ask Steve if he has anything. End of field mooring with a private car park, Elsan and tap 5 minutes walk from the Boat. Just off the Marlow road half way between Henley and Marlow. It is a really nice site with good neighbours. The River will go 2 feet over the bank in a flood so a dinghy or big waders.

Be careful with thinking that a wide bean canalboat is in any way similar to an apartment. It isn't. Not being flippant but the lavatory waste must go uphill. it is not legal for it to go downhill. In a apartment it will go downhill. i am sure you know all this but it really is critical to know and it is not meant as discouragement. For the last 31 years all of my used food waste has either traveled uphill or been burnt in my fire. So no it is not an apartment. It may emulate some characteristics but it is a completely different situation. The marketing around wide bean canalboats is pushing the idea it is a cheaper alternative to an apartment or flat but this is simply because they want to sell products to people. Crapping uphill can be arduous for some people. It gets right into the fundamentals of animal behaviour and depending on one's flexibility it can become a problem. I will always maintain the view that the biggest topic on inland Boats is the lavatory.

As a rule you don't really want a mooring just below a lock. It is better to be just above a lock. For example Marlow downstream level changes very quickly and in the 24 flood it was about 7ft above summer levels. Just above Cookham was more like 5ft up. It's how the River functions. Further down from Maidenhead to Windsor there is the Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood Alleviation Scheme (Jubilee river) which does prevent over-bank flooding very effectively. Generally a mooring above Maidenhead will be prone to severe flooding especially if it is just below a lock. Same applies to moorings below Windsor because that is where the MWEFAS discharges back into the River.

Level changes are caused by rainfall. But yes the lock/weir keepers obviously manage the flow and levels to an extent once the weirs are fully drawn the River is in charge and you have to be prepared. There are always vessels ending up on weirs or washed onto the banks from poor preparation. In the 2024 flood there was a barge on a weir and a wide bean canalboat on another weir plus various other vessels. When it gets going it really gets going. It is marvellous.

The River was two feet over the bank there in the big flood in January 2024. That wall is called the Cookham Wall it is indeed a flood defence structure. There are good deals for winter mooring but no facilities. So one is liable to be stuck for several months in the same position as it would a bit wreckless to navigate to the water point at the lock with both weirs drawn. The rule about finding safe moorings during red boards does not necessarily extend to using lock cuts because vessels may only be moored in lock cuts with permission. The whole area around Marlow does flood quite significantly and the River really shifts for the winter season. Lot of water big river. It is the enforced stationary position which may cause problems for some people. The canal is different because in a lot of areas one can cruise about subject to lock closures even if the rivers are flooding.

Halligan bars are good for opening padlocks from a distance. Useful kit Just twist it off. Easier than bolt cutters and the operator does not need to be on top the padlock.

I wonder why it was deemed necessary to put "GAS ISOLATION !!" rather than "GAS ISOLATION" on there. It reads like the person arranging the casting had experience some sort of terribly nasty gas related accident and transferred their insecurity onto a product commonly sold in chandleries.

Is this perhaps rather an erudite description of the English canal system? Nail hit on head. Someone else once posted 'I do not particularly like other people playing with my train set but I also know that without them paying I would not have a trainset' Interesting times for the canals which will only survive as viable assets if there is funding from others aka DEFRA. Its not particularly pleasant to lose exclusivity but the alternative is to lose everything. Shared asset.

Maybe if one could put other customers off by exaggerating climate change one could get hold of a nice little plot for not much money.

The term 'think tank' is part of the great dumbing down. It has been going on for a long time. It should probably technically be a 'thought tank'..