Lily Rose

Spookily, Still Waters went past me about 15 minutes ago. It took a moment to realise why it looked familiar. As in the photo, he was standing inside the back doors. I tried that myself yesterday, it was easily do-able but not as comfortable as standing just outside the back doors with the tiller just behind my back, my feet positioned more or less at the edge of the 4 inch step down to the engine cover board and my belly very slightly overhanging. I did try it, before setting off, with the doors closed. I could just about do it but could only just swing the tiller behind my back if I sucked my tummy in. Doesn't matter though, can't think why I would ever want to stand outside of the closed back doors. I didn't get the chance to compare sterns and tillers as he was past me before I realised why it looked familiar.

No problem, don't suppose we'll have long to wait for the next little spat.

What's occuring? No insults! Have you two kissed and made up?

I think I'd leave out the word almost. I hate being followed and unsure if the boat behind wants to overtake or not. If they make it clear they want to pass I'm relieved and happily let them do so. On the other hand I sometimes wave a following boat past, even though I'm unsure that's what they want, only to find they then don't pull away from me. Even worse when they end up mooring in the last remaining spot at my intended destination.

https://www.canalboat.co.uk/boats/boat-tests/boat-test-time-of-life-by-finesse/

I haven't got a photo with the tiller in place but this one does show the shape of the stern. Without seeing Still Waters and Lily Rose side by side it's hard to tell if I have more room outside the back doors.

The stern on the boat in in MJ_G's photo looks very similar to mne. My tiller, however, does not reach that far forward and leaves me room to stand immediately in front of it without having to step forward of the doors.

I have and I do. As do many other people. I never suggested all boats or all tillers are like mine. You, on the other hand, said... "I should also point out that on a cruiser stern you can stand or sit safely forward of the arc of the tiller, on a trad you can't." To my mind, and to others on here by the looks of it, that seemed to imply that those last 6 words applied to all trad stern boats.

The stern looks pretty standard to me. The tiller is the one that came with the boat, again it looks pretty standard to me though I have also seen longer ones. I can only assume plenty of other folk have a similar length tiller judging by the number of people I see standing in the same position.

But even your "corrected" version, with the word stern added, is simply not true. I've been standing directly in front of my tiller, outside the trad stern doors and not in the arc of the tiller, for the last 8 years (I really must sit down now!) with no problem whatsoever. I've also seen many other people doing exact same thing. So either you're not properly explaining what you mean or you are wrong.

I'm not sure it's worth worrying too much about stern types. Just go look at boats that you think would appeal to you and buy the one that feels most right regardless of stern type. There will be times you're pleased you have whichever stern type your chosen boat came with. At other times you may wish you had a different stern type so you just need to remember that it's swings and roundabouts. The boat I bought just happened to have a trad stern and (to mention another discussion favourite) a cassette toilet. Most of the time I'm happy with both but occasionally I wish I had a cruiser stern, or a semi trad, or a pump out toilet, or a longer boat. Despite that I'm still very happy with the boat I bought for the vast majority of the time. On the subject of centre lines I'm firmly in the camp that favours longer ones. Much of the stepping off I do on the approach to the bottom of a lock would not be possible with a shorter centre line so I would end up climbing on to the roof and up a slippery lock ladder far more often. I'm aware there is a risk of the line meeting the prop so I take extra care not to drop it and also have centre lines made from floating rope so that if I was careless enough to drop it there is a lower risk of a problem. I also try, as far as possible, to only step off with one of my two centre lines when the engine is in neutral.

Actually I do manage to stand (just) outside the hatch and still get the tiller behind my back. If I couldn't then I would move forward slightly or look to replace the tiller with one slightly shorter. I can put my tiller on in two positions as there are two holes for the tiller pin. Less than two inches apart but the shorter position is usually fine, the other is better if I want to stand just inside with the hatch pulled forward for protection from cold, rain etc

I would dispute that, I manage to do it perfectly well on my trad stern. It probably depends on the combination of tiller length and belly size. My boat also came with suicide seats but I never sit on them whilst underway. I have often been known to sit on them whilst moored up and chatting to someone on the boat behind me.

Have you looked under the bed? It's often located there in a horizontal position. Mine isn't though, it's vertical and located to one side of the engine but mostly hidden behind boards. I always feel this is the most vulnerable part of the system in winter on my boat as it is located above the water line (so not protected by the relatively warm unfrozen water outside) and all my attempts to empty it before winter have met with failure. For this reason I always leave a thermostat-controlled tube heater under it in winter. If yours is located like mine then it would empty into the engine bilge, not the cabin bilge. I suppose that could overflow back into the cabin bilge if there was enough water but much of the engine would be under water before that could happen.

I mainly use the BBC forecast but if I want a better idea of just how much rain is forecast to fall then I also use Metcheck. I also find this weather radar to be far superior to the version on the BBC weather forecast site. https://www.netweather.tv/live-weather/radar I use the netweather app on my phone, rather than the website, for the radar as I find it easier to use. It's not infallible but it's often very good for dodging showers.

Damn, I was thinking of going to Cropredy in early July and staying until the end of August.

Well hopefully they won't be able to for too long as Ofgem review the price cap every 3 months now. The next, or next but one, time should see it go below the current government cap. At home I was fortunate (very!) to fix for 2 years when the cap was under £1400 for typical use so I'm hoping prices will have come down a bit by mid-September when that deal ends. Obviously there will be a big hike for me then but not as bad as it seemed it might be a year ago. The marina rate is a lot higher at 32p per kwh vs under 20p at home but even that doesn't seem too bad compared to some marinas, from what I've heard.

As far as I'm aware energy costs are coming down but it's not noticeable (yet) due to the fact that, although reduced, they are still higher than the rate subsidised by the government. That may change later this year if recent trends continue. https://moneyweek.com/personal-finance/605440/will-energy-prices-go-down

I don't know anything about that phone but I assume it works like my 2nd phone, a Moto G which has two SIM card slots. For incoming calls the phone rings whichever of the two numbers has been called. For outgoing calls it prompts me to ask which sim I wish to use. Each time it does this it gives the option for the choice I make to be just for that call or for all future calls. For data you have to go into settings to set which sim is to be used. If you can't get a signal at any time just go into settings and choose the other one. For this to be of benefit you want the two sims to be on different networks. If you don't already use the Martyn Lewis Money Saving Expert website then it's worth giving it a go for many things including the SIM card deal finder tool. Applying filters works really well. There are a couple of cracking "blagged" deals on one month contract sims. Very useful for getting a 2nd backup SIM for as little as 1p a month for the first 6 months then ditch and switch. e.g. 3Gb per month is 1p per month on Lyca Mobile (O2) and 99p on Lebara (Vodafone) for the first 6 months. You can get a bit more data for a bit more money on both of these. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheap-mobile-finder/sim-only/

The next one along would do nicely though. Reasonable visibility from either direction if I recall correctly.

The trouble with Newbold (and other places) is that you can never be sure what the response from the other boater will be. I normally wait if the other boat looks to be more than halfway through. If they look like they've only just entered I go for it on the basis that if I wait for them to traverse the full length I'll probably then, and only then, spot that some other bugger has nipped in behind them.

It seems that Great Haywood Boat Sales no longer trade under that name, it's now Nationwide Boat Sales.

Presumably a while ago? Over £16 on eBay these days as far as I can see.

On the whole I suspect living in Wales (well some of it) is better than living in Surrey. But there is such a thing as too much rain.