TheBiscuits

If she can't handle the usual grumpies on Canalworld forums, she probably wouldn't still be letting her own property out via AirBnB! She quite sensibly asked in advance rather than just went for it - but the OP states that she has been knocked back by the first few marinas she tried, which suggests to me that the marinas don't like the idea, even if you pay them more. Most of the grumpies only read the thread title and not the detail ...

Me too. My clearance between skeg and uxter plate allows 2" clearance on a 17" prop, which smells about right. I was looking a buying a longer pitched prop off the forum last year, but @mrsmelly beat me to it as he wanted a spare eggwhisk for his overly long and heavy boat that he doesn't want to take anywhere this year ... (No I'm not bitter ... why do you ask? )

As my father grew up in occupied territory, I consider this crucial. Have you any proof that the EEC/EU has had more impact on this than the Cold War did? I think that NATO and the Warsaw Pact had more impact than the EEC did on peace in Western Europe ...

You don't have to. I can borrow or steal your boat and pay for insurance, BSS (as needed), and licence. They are the three conditions for having a boat on (CRT) waters. It's a bit like the V5 for a car stating "The registered keeper is not necessarily the legal owner" but without the registered keeper bit! Why? If I was to buy a boat with a "marine mortgage" if they were still available for boats, the "owner" of the boat would be the finance company, not me, until I had paid off the loan. I challenge your counterintuitiveness!

The other approach I have seen is to use C-section channel rather than square box section to make the handrail. All the ones I have seen have been rusted quite severely inside the channel though, so it might not be a good idea! They are much better handholds than the square box section rails though. A decent open rail is quite high on my wishlist for the next boat, as we have them on this boat and on the previous one and use them a lot. @mrsmelly isn't doing enough singlehanding if he's not walking the gunwales a lot. I don't have him down as much of a roof scrambler either ... Oy! Tim, do the Huddersfield Narrow. The only way to do that is to stick your nose into the lock mouth or tail and walk down the gunwale to work the lock. None of this fancy dropping off crew at lock landings thank-you-very-much!

You are behind the times Mike, no self respecting top trumps player would consider less than a 43 these days, and bigger is preferred, just in case they ever go near one of those river things .... (I have a Beta 38 in my 45 foot boat but only a 17" eggwhisk prop so it doesn't count ...)

The OP did say that it's not a strictly business proposal. It's just one possible way to offset some of the costs of boating, so if you buy the boat but get enough guests to pay for the mooring and the licence you end up with a "cheap-to-keep" boat for your own use.

That's a very good point. I'll go with the blokes who cut up the tree knowing where they were then!

I will have several someones under the influence on my crew

It's all about the profile. The more tumblehome you have the better your chances of getting through. Gauge at the last lock: 4" drag across the junk on the roof. Gauge at the tunnel entrance: Dragged on the solar panel, but I went in very slowly and still bashed the panel! The tunnel itself : round 2 after removing the solar panel ... Note that we have a small cabin with lots of tumblehome. You can just make out my head in the tunnel pic, but usually the cabin roof is about waist high on me! It is very low, but easier than Standedge as it is only very short. I recommend trying it carefully if you are anywhere near fitting, as so few boats go through it. There is a lovely mooring and a service block in the basin at the top of the Uttoxeter canal, but if you can't fit it is only a short walk round the hill on a good path to the cafe and basin.

The metre of cable between the float and weight wouldn't be of much use there then!

I don't know where it is either, but Brian reckoned it was New Mills :

Those were the photos we had posted earlier today labelled as New Mills ...

"Anything you confuse, I confuse better." ?

That sounds a lot ...

Waxoyl is about the worst coating you can put inside your boat hull. It will hold water between itself and the steel and allow oxygen through, causing worse rust. It is great stuff underneath a vehicle where the water drops out and the air helps dry the chassis, but you might be better off leaving it than Waxoyling it. Dry it out, grind off the loose stuff, leaving some rust behind and cover it in Vactan. Fertan is good, but you need to rinse off the residue so you will end up with a wet bilge again! If you want to overpaint the Vactan, feel free, but do NOT paint it in primer, as that will hold water too. Aldi sell a straight-to-rust metal paint for a fiver a tin if you are on a tight budget. It works well, but takes about 16 hours to dry ... ETA: As Matty says, make sure you have some steel before worrying about paint!

Have you never seen Godzilla? Radioactive sludge and an irritated newt could cause the destruction of Todmorden! More seriously, where are you looking? I may know contractors in the area. PM is fine if you want to keep it offline. If you speak to Alan Oliver, ask him if he has any archive photos of Achilles, because I would like some as a present for the current owner.

Worse than that, we find that people who have never been to a place report third hand experiences as a reason to avoid a whole canal. We have been around Wigan for a month, but the kids on their school holidays have been a minor irritation, not a reason to avoid the Leeds & Liverpool canal!

Try cutting through the curve of the link, not the straight bit. The link only then needs to bend a bit, not shear the other side of the link. If that would give too easily, try partially cutting through the other side of the link to weaken it further.

I though horses generally pulled, so no pushing power required! More seriously, has anyone ever recorded an attempt to have a horse drawn boat pull against a propeller driven boat like the famous test of propeller vs paddle steamer (HMS Rattler vs HMS Alecto)? There is a massive mechanical advantage gained by firm purchase on land compared to spinning a prop in water, but I don't know how massive, and I don't have a horse ...