Graham Davis

I would have thought that a motor home is a far greater risk than a narrow boat. It would be much easier to steal a MH when the owner is in the supermarket, for example, and it is much easier to hide a MH than a NB.

If you have an Amateur Radio 2m licence, do you still have to do the Marine Course?

When I was a sales rep in Brum, years ago, I used to spend lots of Friday afternoons at Frank's doing my weekly paper work. Bacon butty for lunch, sometimes a haircut from Bunny's(??) mobile barber shop and helping Frank in the yard. He always had a good story to tell! He's probably still telling them now, where-ever he passed on to!

I don't suppose you can get a brill bacon sandwich at Lyons Boatyard on the North Stratford anymore? And no more lip from Frank for getting it wrong as you tried to moor-up (R I P)

I see; none at all. I shall continue following the advice from the Comms Engineers of the various bodies then.

Mayalld, you are obviously an expert in this field. What qualification do you hold?

Mayalld. No-one moved more than 5 metres, since we were all at the scene of an RTC on the road between Staylittle and Dylife (look it up on Google Maps!) This is an area that is well known locally as having NO mobile coverage, for several miles in all direction. 999 was tried by several of us but didn't work, but when 112 was dialled we got a very poor but adequate reception. Unfortunately, in the type of situations I teach about, moving to another position is often impractical or even impossible, and getting to an area that does have mobile coverage could involve some distance. I shall continue to lecture the use of both numbers, no matter what you say. The Emergency Services have seen and heard all our lectures and have NEVER criticised or corrected the information about the number useage. And the use of "utter crap" about me is extremely rude. You know nothing of me or the background to our lectures, but looking at past threads here this was typical of your attitude.

Why not ask one of the suppliers directly? And some of the cells around here are so big there is NO signal in some areas!!

There does indeed to be discrepencies or difference between different Police/Fire/Ambulance services over their useage of either post code or map reference. Around here a post code could easily cover 40 or 50 square miles, and I'm sure the same applies in other less well populated areas, but go into the nearest town and a post code may well only include 20 houses. As I said previously there has been a large exercise with the local Young Farmers coordinated with the Emergency Services in this area to provide all remote dwellings with their map references if they ever need to call them. I also know from our (see banner below) dealings with them we have always used the same coordinates. Certainly when I have had to deal with the Air Ambulance to a remote shout they have asked for the MR of both the incident and a landing site, if that was seperate. I also know that the County Council Emergency Response Team here also use MR's to deal with problems, as that is invariably what we are given when we are called out by them I know that the local 999 Centre don't really care what number you ring on; they just want to know that they are needed and will respond to both.

I can sight you at least three examples of where 999 was tried on several phones, all showing NO signal, which got a nil response from any network, but when 112 was used connection was made. I don't know why, but it did! On these grounds I shall ignore you usual rudeness and shall continue advising people that they should use both numbers.

As a First Aid instructor we have been pushing the use of 112 for a while, especially in the more remote areas where "roaming" is sometimes the only way to get a signal. I have needed to use it and can confirm it does work. Re the iPhone app; beware as this has been found not to be particualarly accurate for some reason, and certainly doesn't seem to work in very marginal signal areas. See the last couple of sentences on the link! In Mid Wales the Ambulance and Fire Services work from OS Map references as does the Air Ambulance. Recently the Young Farmers Clubs have been issueing all out-lying residences with stickers to go by the main house phone with both their Post code and 6 figure map references. The same is also used by the Mountain Rescue Teams. In urban areas I can see the point of the Post Code because they are often very small areas, but in the country they can cover huge tracts of land.

Alan, why is the "6 of clubs" from your link in the middle of Faversham?

1/ They are not barges!! Those are those nasty wide things you find on some northern canals and some rivers. You will be in a NARROW BOAT!! 2/ If you meet anyone from this forum you must enter the nearest pub and buy them a drink.

Ian, having been boating for a similar length of time, mostly as a hirer, I would say that things now are very different to what they were then. Training now is much better and given with much more understanding of the hirers needs (in general) As I said, what you see on that video is on the Broads, and is not something you will see on the canals.

Network Rail have been doing a similar thing for a long time, especially with small village stations, and it has worked very well. Vandalism has reduced and the community feel they "own" it so look after it. And there are plenty of canal banks shared with factories that have been, presumably unofficially, adopted and tidyed up.

Just remember that the top bit, from Trevor, is very busy and narrow. It can cause lots of delays.

BelgiumBrit, I suspect that you are basing your whole arguement over inland waterways training on what is in fact a unique place, namely that bridge on the Broads, where hirers are forced to pick up a pilot to navigate it. I suspect that a lot of the skittish moves being made there are actually made by the pilots, so not a true representation. In general the CANAL system is much less frantic, so scenes like this are rarely seen, even on the busiest canals at peak holiday time. If you have looked at past threads on this forum about hirers and their training (there have been many) you would have seen that although some will complain about poor instruction I think all will agree that SOME instruction is given. Like any situation, some companies are better than others, and instruction can vary from a pre-holiday DVD to an hours instruction on the boat. I am sorry, but to expect a holiday hirer to have a halfday course, for which he will pay extra, on top of an already expensive holiday, is cloud cuckoo land. And to be honest it isn't needed. The ratio of serious accidents to the thousands that holiday is so low to be inconsequential. I think there have been 2 deaths in the last three years, and very few other "reportable incidents" (HSE speak) I get the impression that you haven't yet experinced the UK canal system, so please don't compare them to Belgium, and come over here and see what it is really like. Only then will your comments have some meaning.

Drastic, but get one of the "flea bombs" used to clear a room of flea infesrtation. They work on everything!!

We seem to share them out, fairly evenly, so we will often do a couple each in a flight and change over as the boat finds a level.

Pardon my ignorance, but why are a train builder (Bombardier) recording an advert by the canal?

We've done Fradley, Great Haywood, Middlewich Arm, Autherley and Aldersley Juncts, up the 21, a day at the Black Country Museum, then back to Fradley via Farmers Bridge, with just the 2 of us easily in 2 weeks.