cuthound

Some time ago I read a thread about entitled Historic boat owners, here. At the time I took it with a pinch of salt but experienced it first hand today. The historic boat owner completely misread the situation ahead of him and then tried to bully his way past me. No chance! A dredger, spot dredging around the entrance of Kings Bromley Marina had become stuck (perhaps he should have dredged his exit route first?) and was stuck across the canal. A boat coming the other way had already stopped and was waiting for him to get the dredger unstick. I stopped and after a short while the dredger freed himself and began to move on. The oncoming boat indicated to me that he wanted to enter the marina, so I let him go as I was likely to be slowed down by the dredger until.we got to Fradley Junction. Instead of entering the marina the boat winded and set off after the dredger towards Fradley Junction, albeit at a fairly low speed 2.5mph according to my Ullysse Speedometers app. Soon I became aware of an historic boat bearing down in me from behind. He positioned himself about 2 metres off my stern, sounded his horn and gesticulated that he wanted to pass. I assumed he could see I was following a slower boat so shrugged at him He then tried to forcibly overtake me, so I cut him off, not wanting to be further down the queue at Wood End lock. Then the boat in front pulled over to moor for lunch so I sped up and left the historic boat behind, then stopped at the lock, which was occupied by the dredger. He came partially along side whilst we waited for a boat to come up, but didn't look at it speak to me I shouted to my wife to close the top gate in front of him if he attempted to enter before me and he reversed his boat back behind me. We went through the locks without him catching me again and he past me soon after I had moored. I asked why he was in such a hurry that he had to try and pass boats approaching and queueing at locks but he ignored me. Spoilt my days cruising.

I don't think that the country could be that unlucky

True, but the 1968 Transport Act allowed the canals to be developed for leisure purposes, which the previous government had not thought of. i expect a change in government now will result in new ideas, but accept that given the shit show the current incumbents have left, that canals will be way down the priority pecking order.

I'm not so sure. After all it was Barbara Castle that saved them from closure with her TRansport Act of 1968.

Can goats be trained to pull a boat? 1/2 oz Golden Virginia tobacco on a stick dangled in front of them would help...

I prefer torpedoes... 🤣

Soon after we bought our boat I managed to upset one of our boat owning near neighbours. I went to the nearest winding hole and caught up with another boat. It pulled into the side, so I overtook it and then almost immediately turned at the winding hole. As I passed the boat that had pulled up he accused me of stealing his winding hole. Apparently he always stops adjacent to the towpath before winding. I apologised and we have had a good laugh about over a beer since.

I found his "Landscape" trilogy autobiography fascinating (Landscape with Machines, Canals and Figures).

You guess correctly. The mobile mast do (usually) have a connection panel to allow the rapid connection of a small.mobile generator.

I think, (but an not sure as I am going by what I have read in the press as I no longer work for them) that they will let the phones fail during a power cut, because most people have mobile phones which can be used as a back up. The press have said that vulnerable customers and those without mobile phones will be provided with mobile phones to use as a back up. When I left BT at the end of 2007, there were about 6,300 telephone exchanges, all with one hours battery back up and at least one standby generator. VOIP was being trialled in a couple of very small hamlets, and would then be progressively scaled up until it could replace the PSTN. The end game was to have around 300 telephone exchanges, (which would still have battery back up and standby generators) and thousands of street cabinets which would be solely reliant on the mains. I think, (but an not sure as I am going by what I have read in the press as I no longer work for them) that they will let the phones fail during a power cut, because most people have mobile phones which can be used as a back up. The press have said that vulnerable customers and those without mobile phones will be provided with mobile phones to use as a back up.

Indeed, when I was working for BT I led a team to investigate the feasibility of outsourcing critical power maintenance. The exchange batteries had been specified to last for one hour, as the large number of direct employees, many living locally could respond in that time . No contractor tendered could guarantee to respond to all of the telephone exchanges within this time, so I also presented the bean counters with the cost of quadrupling the battery capacity at over 6,000 TE's. They decided that retaining direct labour was the better option. Now that Voice Over Internet Protocol is being rolled out, the network is moving mainly to street cabinets which no longer have battery back up so BT are again looking to contract out the maintenance.

It says the accident occurred in the early hours, so possibly the driver fell asleep.

I do the same, even though the boat has an auto changeover system. I label the bottle I'm using and only use the other bottle when the first is empty, when I replace the empty bottle at the first opportunity. Although it runs the risk of the bottle in use running out in the middle of cooking, it eliminates the risk of having two empty bottles because the auto changeover swapped bottles and I failed to notice.

Ah, I didn't realise birds were scared of snakes. I guess this boat must have been plagued by birds crapping on it before then...

The approach into Chester is one of my favourite views on the canal system. It is like boating in the moat of a castle.

Sam Matts. Foxton Boat Services. 0116 2792285

I always think the natural habitat for baby moorhens should be on the end of ladies slippers and on the top of bobble hats...

That's a shame. Jim Sparks built some lovely shells at reasonable prices.

That probably explains why they always look so thin...

Alexander Boatbuilders do some nice medium price shells. alexanderboatbuilders.co.uk