RichM

It is a hex socket screw. Judging by the size of the screw, I am guessing it was intended to be a weak point perhaps as you described. Interesting to read. Since losing one I noticed many boats don't have one but without it, it would make a mess of the paint which would in turn lead to rust. What do you use/do instead?

I'm sorry to hear that Mike. If you wish to provide feedback in relation to the matter or in regards to how the site is run, I recommend raising it via our support section and it will be reviewed by Daniel. I've been on the team nearly a year and from what I have seen in that relatively short time is that Canal World is very much a community driven & focused community in the way in which it operates. Sure, by human nature we won't always get it right no matter how much we try.

A large boat went by causing one of my fairleads to buckle along with the fixing screws sheering off. Is it just a matter of drilling out the screw hole or is there another way to do it? Cheers

We are indeed well established and that is largely thanks to you, our members. People come and go but it makes sense to do what we can to keep people coming. The likes of Google make the job a lot easier but it's still not quite like auto pilot. I'm not aware of any plans to re-brand the site, I'm sure Daniel would have mentioned it if there were. If we do display ads to guest users and if it doesn't work out for any reason, we can review the situation again. I'm sorry if it comes across as being "prim & proper" to use your words. Canal World is one of the most active UK Canal & Boating forums in the world. We do what we do with the intent to help keep it that way. Without meaning to digress and bearing in mind I don't oversee the whole operation of the site; I appreciate the waters may get rough from time to time but we do what we do with the best of intentions and much of what we do is up for discussion with a view that we can continually make improvements based on the views expressed. This topic being an example. If and when we do display adverts to guest users, we will look to embed them in such a way that does not intrude or degrade the appearance or performance of the site in any way of significance. They would likely be in the form of small images or text links, no popups. If we do go-ahead with it, we would welcome feedback. Potentially we would use Google Adsense to provide relevant ads and it's true that we would not have complete control of the adverts displayed. However, we can choose ad pools based on categories, e.g. "DIY", "boating", "outdoors", lifestyle and for arguments sake, opt-out of "fashion", "music" or anything otherwise irrelevant to Canal World. IIRC, we would also have the ability to block any ads we feel are not appropriate should the need arise. We have a number of donators, many of whom have donated again since we improved the donation system but there is a slight shortfall largely due to the increase in operating costs. We look to continually maintain and develop Canal World for the benefit of the site and its members. Canal World needs to be maintained, just like our boats. Cheers RichM

Thanks for your feedback. Results should be hidden now. As with any online forum community, some members will naturally drift away over time for various reasons (e.g. after selling their boat etc etc) and as such it's important to attract and encourage new members to join. We don't have any problems in this regard at the moment but it is something we continually keep an eye on. While I may be relatively new to the staff team here (nearly a year now) I have been involved in the operation of large discussion forum communities for nearly 15 years. RichM

We have no immediate financial concerns but we do have a funding shortfall that we need to address in some form or another. We have improved the donation system including the front-end page that members see when they donate (more on this here) and while we may occasionally look to encourage members to donate, we don't want to be pushy in doing so. - All members contribute/contributed in some form or another by submitting content and by engaging with each other. While we welcome guests to the site I think it's perhaps fair to say that they do not contribute to the site in the same way that our members do and as such it seems appropriate to display relevant non-intrusive adverts to them. They would always have the option of registering/becoming a member whereby they would not see the ads. This is something we would make awareness of in such a way that increases new member registrations. But of course, I am still interested to know what our members think about it. The ads would be small banner ads/boxes and possibly text links. We would only look to display relevant ads. Again, at no point would they be visible to members. Cheers RichM

Evening all, We would like to hear your thoughts and opinions on how Canal World funds itself. As such, I'm running a poll to gather thoughts on what members think about the possibility of Canal World displaying non-intrusive ads to those who are not members aka 'guests' only. Please kindly vote in the poll and/or provide constructive feedback in this topic. We will take all views into account before displaying any advertisements to our guest users. To clarify, there are no plans to display advertisements to registered members. Canal World is mostly funded by members who kindly donate to us. This helps pay towards the running costs but does not currently fund the costs associated with developing or promoting the site. This is something we need to do so that we can continue to grow our community. However, we also have a slight financial shortfall in that our costs have increased somewhat in the last year and our operating costs are currently more than the total amount of donations we receive on a monthly basis. We have made several required improvements to the site and also the infrastructure which powers it and we look to make continual improvements, most of which are based on the feedback we receive from our members. Recent/upcoming improvements: - Much faster server to help ensure the site performs well and also reliably - New theme in response to v4.1 update feedback carried out in February - Improvements to the support area so that we can efficiently respond to user enquirers - Up-coming new chat functionality to replace the previous discontinued chat functionality Cheers RichM

I have recently updated the donation page (link) to give it a more integrated feel and hopefully it should now be easier to use. It's also linked at the top right of the page. I will be interested to see your feedback. As many will know, Canal World is currently funded almost entirely by donations received from our members. All donations are gratefully received and are used solely to fund and develop the site. Cheers RichM

Ok so I'm sure everyone posted with the best of intentions but it looks like this one went down quickly and has run its course. In response to the initial question; You should receive some form of notification if a change was made to your account or to any content you have submitted. If you think there's something we could have done better or if you have any other feedback, please let us know. You can submit a contact request on the page linked here. Cheers RichM

In that case the HooToo would be better in your scenario. - I use my TP-Link Nano "Router" only to repeat my "MiFI" 4G/LTE connection. Public wifi networks are great if they're reliable/fast but there's many which depend on slow broadband circuits which can easily become congested or overutilised. I used one recently where I frequently got 1mbps down!

In theory no, but I haven't tested it as I've not had a limited number of sessions. - Repeaters don't usually have DHCP configured on them, as DHCP will be configured on the gateway device (CPE router or firewall appliance) that the access point connects to. With this in mind, they will know how many IP addresses they are leasing to you and can limit the number of sessions based on that. RichM

I use a TP-Link Nano Travel Router which although reported to be faster, it's similar to what mross suggested. As the name suggests, it is also a router but can easily be set to repeater-only mode and it does a reasonable job of that. It extends wifi coverage about 30ft which isn't amazing but reasonable given its simplicity and physical size. For me I found it to be good value for money though TP-Link tend to focus more on the budget end of the market. https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Support-Hotspot-Extender-TL-WR802N/dp/B00TQEX8BO If you use a username & password to authenticate with the public WiFI network iin question, it's likely you will still be limited to the same number of active sessions.

So today we replaced the battery bank but since then we now have no 12v feed going in to the boat for some strange reason, so we've lost the use of the water pump, fridge, radios and lighting. Though the engine will start and the battery gauge reads full and the inverter works... Everything was reconnected to the same terminals on the new bank. Have checked the isolators and the trip switches. Any suggestions as to where we should look? Cheers Rich

The time on the server got out of sync and was incorrect. I corrected this last night but as the order posts depend on this, it jumbled things up somewhat. Should no longer be an issue going forward. Cheers

No problem. Looks like you received an email from us at 18:07 to your new address. The logs show that your mail server accepted the email, so looking good. Cheers RichM

I have checked our mail server logs and can see that your mail provider is rejecting the emails sent from us. It appears this is not just happening to you, but to others also using the same email provider. We're investigating this but if you do have another email address with another provider, using that instead (For Canal World emails) will workaround the issue in the meantime. RichM

I leave my fenders down pretty much all the time but I am predominantly on a ship canal where there's no narrow locks and there's a 6mph speed limit, not to mention much bigger boats some of which weighing 80 tons. The edges of the canal are lined with iron sheeting(?) and what looks like old rail line. I have recently ordered small (junior) go-kart tyres as the small pipe fenders don't always cut it. It will look something like this but a bit smaller: Source: http://lottied.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/its-raining-acorns.html

I have spent hours this afternoon cleaning out my engine bay and fixed a fuel leak. 6 rolls of kitchen towels later, it's looking much better. Half the problem is that it's awkward to get to being a semi-trad. Someone previously recommended using a wet vacuum for this job. - Does anyone recommend these for this purpose? Cheers RichM

I have 2 identical JVC head units at the bow and stern. They have bluetooth & USB functionality but I don't think they're brilliant head units. Only reason I went for them was because it was to replace two old JVC units, meaning the wiring harness was the same. Ideally I would have preferred a Sony head unit as those are better designed in my experience. http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/dab/car-stereos/sony-mex-n6001bd-cd-mp3-usb-dab-player-with-bluetooth-ex-demo

I have a JVC car radio and a pair of 13" Alpine speakers mounted beneath the hatch. It's ok I suppose but the engine noise drowns out the music somewhat. Here's an old photo from last year but you can just about make them out below. I usually pair up an old iPad to the JVC head unit so I can stream music from spotify.

Further to the feedback received, we've set the attachment limit to 200MB, up from 100MB. Images should now be compressed once again on upload to prevent large files consuming excessive space. RichM

Curious to know what caused this, anyone know?

I know some people go up to Droitwich Marina as there's hard-standing there. But for those who don't want to do it (blacking) themselves, who would you consider the most reputable + reasonable value for money Boat Yard on this stretch out of the few options available? That could be a very useful and lucrative service if they provided that service though not sure if they do.