Bacchus

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).

Interesting. I did wonder whether the low power one that I bought was adapted simply by wiring the "full power" button to the "half power" setting, but it would appear that it's not that simple

I have a Panasonic combination at home which I have been very happy with for the last fifteen years, my mother has one which she has been using for longer - I think the old ones are better (Panasonics, not mothers). I only use it for things like jacket spuds and warming pies, whether it would work for a souffle or Yorkshire pudd'n, I have no idea. Microwaves do have a huge power draw - the listed power is the output power, not the input - so an 850w microwave will be drawing 16-1700w, and if you add a 1.5kw heating element on top of that, it might be a bit much even for shore-power in a marina. I love the convenience of a microwave, so for the camper I bought a low power version to work via a 1000w inverter (this one from Kitchenware Online) which I am very happy with - it's perfect for reheating a pasty, heating tinned vegetables, or warming a cup of soup with reduced washing up and faff!

Nice. this one I suppose - will fly off the shelf as a holiday rental.

Just to wrap this up - I ordered the rough surface tape as recommended by @Paringa and @Tracy D'arth - I have yet to peel it off, but I certainly managed to get it to stick! I wish I had known about it before, not least because it is wider than standard masking tape and I can get away with one strip per white line which would have saved a lot of masking!!! Big thanks to everyone.

I have both in the camper (well a 500w "travel" kettle and an inverter) but tend to use the electric more. It is far less efficient, true, but much less hassle to replenish... I think it would make a difference if I was living there full-time and needed the batteries to last forever. Also I do love the impatient whistle of a stove-top kettle!

We use to call it "bobbing" or boat-rock. Something to do with the ears apparently, but, as others have said, it does pass fairly quickly, and - importantly - it tends to dissipate the more time you spend boating; hardly ever happens to me nowadays (although I shan't say never...) The other weird thing I experience after time afloat is driving. However hard I try, I don't seem to be able to drift the car towards the kerb... and as for putting it into reverse to stop -- shall we just say there's no prop-walk (c:

I have ordered some of the rough surface tape to collect first thing... fingers crossed