Bacchus

I completely agree with the OP - it's just not acceptable when the outdoors gets dirty. Somebody should clean it for me.

I wonder whether there is a simple, practical reason for this -- namely that the roof of a GRP cruiser isn't strong enough? My boat is a steel cruiser so a foot in both camps. It has two centre-line rings on the coach roof which I find very useful, especially when single handed. I sometimes use centre and rear which gives tremendous control, but it can be necessary to take a turn or two in strong-ish streams to prevent the boat from removing my arm from its sockets.

I'm driving from Huddersfield to the Thames tomorrow if you want a lift? (c:

I am not going to claim to have invented the phrase universally, but a girlfriend and I certainly invented it for ourselves when cruising on the Thames in a little Shetland in the early nineties. We made it a policy only to stop in towns with a McDonalds for that very reason - for us the phrase rapidly morphed into "a big McEartha" -- mockney rhyming slang with the American singer... (and came into common usage even off the boat)

Just buy it from John Lewis and ask them to deliver... When I lived in Reading the kitchen was down a very narrow staircase leading from the sitting room. I bought a washing machine from John Lewis, the delivery guys brought it through the front door, through the sitting room, out onto the flat roof over the kitchen, and lowered it on ropes, then in through the back door. Not sure whether they are as good now, but fifteen years ago they went the extra mile!

There are weird VAT rules that mean that you don't pay VAT on a 60x12'6" widebeam whereas you do on anything smaller making them considerably cheaper to buy! If you want a big static home on the water and maybe already have a small boat for cruising, they look like quite good value. Anyone who thinks they can cruise a 60' x 12'6" lump on the canals will soon be disappointed, and they are very unwelcome on the Thames because they take up a huge amount of mooring space and look like a pig with a prolapse.

I think the freeman 22 mk 2 is almost the perfect little boat - it will probably have a bit of osmosis, but was laid up like an oil-tanker so that shouldn't be a problem I would look for good original woodwork rather than enthusiastic upgrades, and I would probably be wary if it had the original ford petrol engine (I think it's a marinised anglia lump) which dribbles petrol into the bilge and causes fires

I don't think you're in any imminent danger, but, yeah, it does sound like bad form to me. I think it is considered bad form to even put the second boat's lines on top of the original on a bollard, they should be passed underneath! As @MtB says, they should have asked first, and it does seem odd to raft spanning two existing boats - apart from anything, it would be very difficult to get ashore without clambering over the original boat's roof, which also sounds like a bad show to me.

That's a very difficult question to answer - there are a lot of variables. If they are in a rowing boat and you are on the QE2, then - no, probably not. On the other hand if you are in a rowing boat and they are on the QE2, then, yes, there is a very good chance that they will drag you down alongside - BUT, we now get into more variables. Rope length for one. They won't drag you down if there is enough slack in their lines to allow for the increased length demanded by their decreased bouyancy. And there is more; if their decreased bouyancy is exactly equal to the slack in the lines, the coefficient of extensivity of the lines that they have used will come into play. It's not a simple yes or no answer On the other hand, life is a turn of the coin, my friend. Not many boats just "sink". But some do.

NO! We don't want him either. (with the possible exception of Henley during regatta week, in which case make as much noise as you like)

I don't know, but it may have been directly responsible for the great 2020 bog roll famine... Either that or we should hail @bizzard as a prophet???

That will be the things. For some reason, whenever people come out for a "nice afternoon on the boat" they feel the need to bring the damn things. Now if they took the trouble to go to Gawthorpe the butcher in Denby Dale it would be a completely different matter, not only "edible" but, in fact, completely delicious. I suppose it would be a 400 mile round trip though, which is a bit excessive.

Do soles get bored? I suppose being the bottom of a shoe must have its limitations... Back on track - a friend had the misfortune to lose his boat this summer (due to weird EA behaviour with locks causing a sinking), RCR guys came to help float it and he has nothing but praise for their professionalism

I don't think the anti-syphon fittings were there last year (EA were all sitting at home with their feet on the collective windowsill wondering how to spend their furlough payments...) But WRT the helicobacter thing; this from t'internet "Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection occurs when H. pylori bacteria infect your stomach. This usually happens during childhood" (my italics). The article goes on to say that "may be passed from person to person through direct contact with saliva, vomit or fecal matter" (American so can't spell faecal) as well as "H. pylori may also be spread through contaminated food or water". It cites growing up in crowded conditions and/or a third world country as risk factors, although it stops short of labelling Surrey and Oxfordshire as the third world. I generally find that, if I have to start taking buckets full of Rennie on a Thames Cruise, the best thing to do is lay off the pork pies and tinned lager. Others' experience may vary.

If you want to do the Thames thing, Le Boat run out of Penton Hook Marina - it's quite a hike from the station if you were walking, but there are frequent buses to Thorpe Park (good luck with that) or it would be about £5-10 in a cab (not so many cabs hanging around post-covid, but there is a taxi-firm based at the station, and there's always uber).