Naughty Cal

No amount of dredging and cutting down trees would have stopped the level and extent of flooding experienced this winter. It has been an exceptionally wet winter with back to back heavy rainfall events. You can't dredge river channels to cope with this amount of water.

They have been planting trees in some upland areas to slow down the flow of water heading downstream. In some cases trees can help to prevent flooding!

You also have all the water from Sheffield that is now held between flood walls and channeled through the city as quickly as possible to contend with. Flooding in Rotherham and further downstream has only been made worse by the "improved" flood defences that defend Sheffield from flooding. If you stop the water escaping onto it's flood plains you just push it downstream faster and make the problem worse elsewhere. Still no let up in the rain!!

Gutted for you. There has been a spate of garage break ins in Sheffield and they are targeting the tool boxes for the Snap On and Mac tools and tool boxes. The insurers at the garage where Liam works have insisted on extra security to the room where the tool boxes are locked away!

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/river-trent-reaches-highest-level-3865545

But is it enough? Almost certainly not. London and other major cities have a major problem with old combined sewerage systems where the foul and surface water are mixed together. In times of heavy rainfall they are easily overwhelmed and the systems have to overflow somewhere. More modern systems separate the surface water and foul water flows and send less to be treated at the treatment works.

Stopping sewerage plants overflowing into adjacent watercourses would mean spending untold millions on extra storage facilities at the each of the plants which for the majority of the year will remain empty. I somehow can't see that happening anytime soon!!

Extreme?

They are not challenging the law though. The law allows it!!

I guess it depends where you plan to use the boat. There were certain harbours we visited where we would not personally have been happy discharging into the crystal blue waters.

You are a nutter!!

It was an optional extra on ours. You could choose to have it direct to sea/river/canal or pay extra for the tank, deck fitting and pump. I assume yachts will be the same.

Our boat has the set up you describe. The toilet contents always discharge into the holding tank and then you have the option of having the tank pumped out via the deck fitting or by opening a through hull fitting and using the onboard macerator pump.

Not just the canal du midi, the hire boat we had in Brittany discharged straight to the rivers and canals. We certainly didn't drop the ropes in that holiday. I expect the boat we are hiring in Belgium shortly will be the same.

The weather doesn't look like it is going to let things dry out. We have more weather warnings for Thursday night through to Saturday morning for yet more heavy rain!

You would think so!

River Trent Location: Bridge 10, Wilford Toll Bridge to Lock 8, Holme Lock, River Trent Starts At: Bridge 10, Wilford Toll Bridge Ends At: Lock 8, Holme Lock Tuesday 18 February 2020 17:45 until further notice Type: Advice Reason: Police Incident -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original message: We have been advised that a 15ft x 10ft craft has capsized and partially sunk upstream of Bridge 12, Trent Bridge on the River Trent and is currently travelling downstream. (Please be aware that the information we have is there is no one aboard and the occupant is safe.) This is an advice note to any craft moored in the vicinity. You can view this notice and its map online here: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/17146/bridge-10-wilford-toll-bridge-to-lock-8-holme-lock-river-trent

River Trent Location: Bridge 10, Wilford Toll Bridge to Lock 8, Holme Lock, River Trent Starts At: Bridge 10, Wilford Toll Bridge Ends At: Lock 8, Holme Lock Tuesday 18 February 2020 17:45 until further notice Type: Advice Reason: Police Incident -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Original message: We have been advised that a 15ft x 10ft craft has capsized and partially sunk upstream of Bridge 12, Trent Bridge on the River Trent and is currently travelling downstream. (Please be aware that the information we have is there is no one aboard and the occupant is safe.) This is an advice note to any craft moored in the vicinity. You can view this notice and its map online here: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/notice/17146/bridge-10-wilford-toll-bridge-to-lock-8-holme-lock-river-trent

In your budget you are probably better off buying a boat that has a proper 240v system and heating etc, as the cost of fitting this stuff will soon add up to a large percentage of the cost of the boat yet a boat with this stuff already installed wont be much more if anymore expensive in the first instance.

The cost of transporting depends on the size of the boat. That Broom 30 is too big to go on a trailer behind a 4x4 hence the extra costs as you will require a low loaded and a lift on and lift off either end rather then using a slipway and trailer.

We did have a mooring sorted for the outside of the pontoon. Had to turn it down due to the horses and livestock in the field next to the boat due to Syd's chasing instincts!!

Images from another forum of the river Trent at Fiskerton. Not much rise left on those pontoon poles!

You have to weigh up if you could afford to lose £15k if the boat turns out to be a proper lemon?

A decent surveyor will always find enough wrong with the boat for you to haggle at least the price of the survey away. They are however not worth the paper they are written on as there are that many get out clauses you have no come backs on the surveyor. We know several people with the Planar heaters installed and they work very well. If it breaks just buy a new one for what little they cost. We used our little cruiser in some very cold weather over the years and the 2kw blown air Webasto kept it toasty warm, we were never cold onboard. The other advantage of blown air is that it is a dry source of heat and the movement of the air helps to keep condensation at bay and the boat nice and dry. We always did our own servicing on our boat. It isn't rocket science. One thing I don't think you have mentioned is the drive system? Is it a shaft or sterndrives? If the latter beware that parts are becoming a bit hard to find for some of the older units.

We adopted the SOS policy (s**t on shore) wherever possible and will do similar with the van. (Note that S0S was not taken literally and we did bare all on the towpath )