kazbluesky

There is way too much offence taking and banning in the world in my opinion. Agree with you about the cyclists. It's a tow path, not a cycle path.

I remember a student got into big trouble for shooting a deer in a field next to one of the Oxford colleges (apparently he had to shoot one because his daddy and his daddy's daddy shot one there before him. I think, or seem to remember, they mentioned the Queen and stuff then too

I think it was ISIS. Your supposition doesn't hold water anyway as all the Council houses were given to Jonny Foreigner years ago

I'd find a way to burn it somehow. Burning it to produce heat is the cleanest thing you can do with it. YouTube videos of waste oil stoves are endless, just go and have a look. Also if you have a diesel heater it must be safe to pop the oil in that tank - wouldn't you think? Or perhaps not (but I'd certainly give it a shot).

What scumbag would fire a crossbow dart at a duck? Some people suck, they really do. On the other hand governments suck too, years and years ago I used to be in a pistol club and then Dunblane (sp?) happened and I went along with the government's idea to make it illegal to have a handgun at home. I put my hobby of 20 years aside for the common good. Then a few years after that the government unmanned our borders and now every criminal in England can pop down to a London pub and buy whatever he wants (I read that that girl in London was mowed down with a Mac10!!!!I think it's impossible to get a bigger, clunkier machine gun - how the heck did that get in the country!!!!!!!). So now the government can have guns and criminals can have guns, but the normal, decent, ordinary people who make up England can't. My points is to the poster who says we should ban these crossbows, I disagree. We should just prosecute the crime effectively. I appear to have fell into a rant. I'm off for a cup of tea and bicky. Poor duck.........

I guess this is the boat you mean https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.215058768534220.56443.142699135770184&type=3 Looking out from the inside I like it. Looking at it from outside I'm not so sure.

When I was in America on holiday the other year I went into an old cabin and they had these big 'soap stones' with handles on them. After you had your boat warm you could pop these on or around your stove to suck up the extra heat. Kind of like Red Dwarf's idea with the added value of them being portable.

I'll have a look at their website, thanks. The reason why I don't want to hire a boat is 1 that it's really expensive (8-900 a week last time I looked) and 2 I want to potter about on the boat and do bits and pieces. My hobby is fixing (breaking?) stuff so that's going to be a big part of what boat I buy. Nothing too hard though, I can just about pull the trigger on a Black and Decker and hold a hammer - that's my level.

Is it much to have your boat taken out of the water and put on land and 'stored' than having it in water? But then I guess it costs an arm and a leg to to get it lifted out and then again when you want it lifted back in again.

I'll be coming back to live permanently in England at some point, but am wondering if it would be possible to buy a narrowboat now and then work on it/live on it the times I'm back in England on holiday. With my job I get really, really big holidays. I could come back for the months of August, September and February, March. Does anyone on this forum do this kind of thing already? Cost is a big issue, so I couldn't just throw money out as a solution. I don't care at all where in the UK the boat would be moored. So what do you think is the absolute, most cost effective answer to this problem?

Thanks for all the replies. I guess a lot of the posts that I was reading about running out of water were by people who were liveaboards that moored along the towpath for a few days or a week or so at a time. Thanks alot.

I keep reading posts that say getting water for showering or bathing every day when you are cruising is difficult. Is this not so? Of course I'd prefer to use tapwater from BW if I had the choice. Maybe it's not such an issue then. I last was a on a narrowboat 20 years ago so maybe I'm trying to work out a problem that doesn't even exist.

I don't have a boat yet ( a couple of years away I think). I often read on this forum about people who find water management difficult when cruising - because of showering, bathing and the like. Has anyone tried filtering canal water for bathing and showering? I live in Japan and after the earthquake in 2011 there was no clean water available anywhere for a week or so (the mains water had become irradiated). All bottled water, coke, orange juice - EVERYTHING - disappeared from the shelves, so after this, when things got back to normal, I researched filters and eventually bought a set up which we now use in the house (we are very, very happy with it). According to the manufacturer's bumf this thing can filter anything, so I'm wondering if anyone uses something like this when they are cruising. I do love a hot shower to wake me up in the morning so I'm thinking this might be a way to sort it out.

Interesting, thanks for your replies.

Hi, I'm a new member and this only my second post. I went on a narrow boat for 4 days 20 years ago just by chance (my girlfriend's flatmate worked for British Waterways and he lent her one of their boats for free) and for some reason I'm getting really interested in it again. Anyway, I've been looking at lots of posts here on this forum and looking at lots of boats and galleries and have noticed that virtually all the boats have portholes or those small 'U' shaped windows. Is this a rule or something? Seems to me having a great view is one of the pleasures of narrowboating and that bigger, lower, wider, prettier windows would be a good idea. No? I do love the traditional canal boats and all but I'm just curious.

I am new to the forum, don't have a boat and am just kind of hanging around learning things. But i do know a little about solar panels, so for what it's worth - I got solar panels 6 months ago for my house, 4.8kw, the cost was 11,550 pounds. Best month so far was June when the electricity company had to pay ME 144 quid !! On a good day we generate 31 kw a day, but if it is cloudy - nothing, absolutely zero. So from my short experience I'd say home solar panels are a good idea but for a boat in England I don't know, our green and pleasant land isn't famed for it's sunshine. Maybe a small wind turbine would be more reliable.