Horace42

I'm a fine weather boater myself with a End-of-Garden mooring so I only go out for a few local trips and hopefully an extended cruise or two in the summer somewhere further afield, myself not staying more than an hour or so or less, to 'fill up' or 'empty' at service points, moving on to find an overnight mooring and maybe an extra day if the weather is bad (or maybe too hot), so I know very little about the problems of long-stay moorings, other than finding visitor's moorings at popular places sometimes blocked by boats the seem to be permanently moored. It does not happen very often and is no big issue, but it is annoying when you find the 'blocking' boats (often empty and locked up) have overstayed the maximum time limit. But would it make any difference if forced to move, because if it was a 'busy' place then presumably a 'permanent' boat would go and the space be immediately filled by a 'passing' boat - and unless it is me - not a lot of help. The issue of a 'permit' (to stay longer) makes absolutely no difference whatsoever to the number of mooring places and the number of boats.The problem is a shortage of moorings (or too many boats). But I sympathise with those expected to move on because there is an official time limit, when there is obviously plenty of room if you want to stay longer. I guess the option to 'apply' for an extension is a good idea.

The strip of land for sale seems to be the whole area between the road and the canal with 3 houses close together at the end of a long drive. Who will own the remainder of the land not used for the drive or houses. Although having asked, it will be the builder who parcels up the land when selling each house. For mooring purposes, if off-side mooring is allowed in principle by CRT, a license will not be issued for a boat longer than the garden - ie, a boat that extends beyond the boundary of the house and overlaps the adjacent garden - it seems there is not much room even for a small boat at any of them, unless the end one has access to the remaining strip. It's all very complicated, and probably the reason mooring rights have not been mentioned in the sales brochure - and would a boat owner want to live/moor in a spot like that anyway. What sort of price will they sell for, bearing in mind £55k is not a lot for a price of land big enough for three houses.

"Maybe this is a daft question" it's OK really! quite good by my standards. But you might think my answer is daft. Me' I would use plastic labels. But reading between the lines, you don't seem to like them, So stick some sellotape round the frame to mask it. Go over the panel with a roller repeatedly until all signs of the old name have gone. Get an aerosol spray for the new name.....or a passing yobbo would be happy to do it for you..... show them the name in writing....they probably can't spell, Or as a last resort, follow the advice others have given

Burn it off with a blow lamp, hot air gun, in the stove, in the BBQ...then paint it with an aerosol spray - it is so thin it won't chip or affect the magnet, Easy

10.00pm ? surely you mean 12 noon today?

Following comments already given it looks like your best bet is to stay at Castle Marina - sounds a nice place to me from what has been said - and you will be amongst other boaters who know the area and able to give help and advice if you need it. But have you organised your home mooring? That is where you need to make sure you get it right. Good luck.

If you have done the trip before you will remember the Thames is tidal up to Richmond and half tidal to Teddington and important to get the times right to suit the tide. And best to avoid mooring on the tidal section - so get to Brentford in in go. Are you going up the Grand Union? I did the trip once a few years ago, and very pleasant indeed. (I lived at Hampton in the 50's in my schoolkid years) so we stopped there for a while. We did however feel a bit stressed when looking for moorings for the night, There were a lot of places at first glance - and a lot of 'No Mooring' signs. And quite often you could moor if you paid a fee. The good thing was you could go past the area you liked, picking suitable places (if any when late in the day, and then turn round and go back to the one you liked best. You can do U turns on the Thames. It did however seem we had to make land visits to suit the availability free moorings - there's no towpath for much of the Thames - not a serious problem but worth knowing about in advance.

Dogging - is that a canal term with it's own meaning? - Oaks Woods - Norton Canes ? is there something I don't know. Tried Google and searched - 'dogging' - blimey! - the mind boggles - I've lived a sheltered existence it seems - unless it means something else boatwise.

Used as fuel, I don't bother with drying. I burn them wet. It slows down combustion. I only dry them out for kindling to light the fire.

Waterways World magazine publishes an Annual (with a map I think) with extensive details of boating things, marinas and facilities etc.

As others have said. Litre is a volume. You can measure it with a ruler. Gramme is a mass. You weight it. The distinction matters only for reasons of technical accuracy. Personally, I would not worry because 10:1 is an arbitrary ratio anyway. It does not really make any difference in practice. Any combination of 10:1 mixture by volume/weight in your case will be good enough - as long as you don't get your kilo's and milli's mixed up. .

I wrap mine with coloured self-adhesive pvc insulating tape. Or if painted I use spray paint - too thin to chip.

Apart from Tony Brooks #6 negative comment, has anybody else had personal positive experience of using a legal insurance policy where it actually worked. I've had minor insurance no-fault claims (not boating) when nit-picking trivia ran up costly legal bills and delays that gave even more hassle trying to add them to the claim. If you want to save money, economise on gas - 1 bottle only. Fill tank with just enough fuel to get you to the next boatyard, ....assuming you have a choice (you have the money) ..saving on insurance boils down to peace if mind.

Have you ever been involved in an insurance claim? - especially when your own insurance company nit-picks - that is where the small print comes in - and solicitors love small print - it is their bread-and-butter - meaning it could cost a packet to make, or defend, a claim. So £10 insurance is a cheap and easy way to cover yourself - just in case.

Nah mate, they came ter london yesterdie'

I have no idea of size, or access of the tank, or whatever. Is the bitumen inside the tank. If it's full of diesel, it won't dry out anyway. When in use, the bitumen will dissolve in the diesel and will be picked up by the filter or will get burnt. Or, if safe, set fire to it, or burn it off with a gas lamp, and if accessible, scrape and wire brush, was out with water, and dry it.

It was already wet.

PS: to my earlier comments, I should have added that the other boat caught us up at the locks the next day, and in passing they said they were puzzled why we move off in the dark and moored up again further down the canal. We said it was to get away from the noise of their generator and loud TV. They apologised and said they didn't think the generator was noisy because they could hardly hear it, and explained they had never boated before and they thought mooring up close was the friendly thing to do. It takes all sorts!

By all means put a notice on your boat if you don't mind someone moving you. For my part I agree in principle with Nightwatch. I would not want someone moving my boat without my permission. If there is a shortage of space and I am on board I will move my boat myself on request. But logically, if there is no space of suitable length, where does the approaching boat moor whilst they are moving yours? As a general principle where it looks like a busy spot, we moor at a discrete distance from any existing boat, leaving room for others to squeeze in. There are others, of course, who seem to moor central in a gap without giving thought to others who might arrive later. But in their defence it seems a bit antisocial to moor too close to others when there seems to be plenty of room at the time of mooring. It happened to us once. We were well into the country and the only boat there. Another pulled in and moored up almost touching. That didn't matter at the time, until they set up their portable generator on the towpath to run their TV late into the evening. That was annoying. We didn't say anything - we moved out boat (in the dark) 1/2 mile away. But you cant't win, whatever you do. It is when the spaces fill up at random, and boats leave at random, do you find your boat is the one that seems to be awkwardly placed. .

If you really want to go via the Severn and Avon - then fine. But as others have said; the Severn is a bit boring. If it was me, I would go from Chester via the Coventry (wave to us at Polesworth) to North and South Oxford. Except for a couple of wide locks at your end, it is narrow locks all the way. Although I am curious about your route from the Avon to Cropredy. Seems a long way round to me. Unless that is what you want. I have no argument with that at all. But you did ask. PS: You don't mean Severn to Bristol Avon; do you? Wow! a trip down the tidal Severn and up the Caen Hill flight would be an experience.

By coincidence of timing I am bogged down with a mooring and housing development issue where the latter has to comply with lots of flood risk control measures. For which a Flood Risk Assessment is required. Although Environmental Agency guidance has been around for some time, the recent spate of severe flooding has focused attention on flood control and the need to incorporate these in any plans. The 'newness' off these demands means that any existing agreement might need to be modified greatly, for which the 'commercially aware' fraternity will see many opportunities to introduce all sorts of new conditions that reflect in charging much more money. It seems CRT are well aware of this, and will exploit the situation to their benefit. The age old problem of CRT having to get enough water to maintain canal levels (and having to pay for it) has morphed to you having to pay them to take your 'flood' water away. In your case, and me being a complete novice in this respect, I can't say how much affect it will have on your plans - if any. I mention it for what it is worth. But one thing is certain; if what you are doing involves local authority planning departments, you are likely be hit by these rules. But it is not all gloom and doom. If your scheme has a net effect resulting in less flooding then you might be a beneficiary. And as such these things need to be built into any agreement - which do not exist yet. Good luck.

Now you mention it I don't have to put my clocks forward an hour. We are fine weather boaters, so we are usually moored up late September for the Winter, and don't go out again until April, so our boats clock will be bang on the right time - if the batteries have not run down that is. As for your engine you need to tell us a bit more about it - size, cylinders, gearbox ratio, prop size etc.

Bang on! In both your replies. You seem to be aware of what is going on!. It's the system we are stuck with. The tax will (in theory) create two affordable homes. The same amount of money given to my grandchildren would pay the deposits of 4 homes. There's justice and equity for you. But back to CRT. I will keep on at them. Thanks for helping.

I suppose it depends on the driving force behind the desire to own a boat - and how essential a mooring is. Not forgetting the rural setting and position on the canal network. I couldn't afford both at the same time, so I reckoned to cut my costs by buying a 'banger' and doing it up. For that I needed an EOG so that I could work on the boat whenever the chance arose. The idea of loading a car with tools etc, and commuting to a marina everyday for an hour or so was a logistics nightmare - hence an EOG was essential. I bought the house first, then a boat a year later. It wasn't a banger by the way, but an ex-hire boat. It was a bit shabby and dated but fully functional. Then I slowly modernised it. I mention all this because if someone like me is out there looking for a house with an essential mooring then the least I can do is remove the guesswork over mooring issues. Although it will be the builder doing the selling. The price is up to them.

That's very interesting. I do not wish to pry into your personal affairs, but I am curious about the timing and logic of your purchase. Was mooring an essential requirement? Did you get mooring permission before you bought the house? If permission had been refused - would you have still bought the house. And with permission granted did the price go up? And would you have paid 25% extra. We would not have bought our house without mooring rights - that's for sure! However we were assured that mooring would be allowed, so we bought it. We could not apply for a mooring permit as such because we did not have a boat at the the time. That was to come. But on reflection the circumstance of boat moorings was a bit lax in those days. As long as you had a cruising license (and subject to common sense, good manners and safety) you could moor anywhere (and that applies today within reason). In reality I could have just moored my boat here without a permit. The fact that the land adjoining my garden was owned by BWB (remember them?) was fairly irrelevant. But for me, as mooring was an essential part of the purchase, I applied for a license when I bought my boat. I didn't have to. I could have moored here for years for free. The chap next door had a boat (almost touching the bridge) moored for free. In fact for a long time he did not have a cruising license because he became disabled and could not use his boat. He sold the boat when BWB caught up with him. The situation has changed, as we all know, because you can't get a cruising license without a home base, for which you need a permit (CC's excepted), Have you notice that law abiding citizens who try to do things by the 'book' are the ones put to most inconvenience and cost. The rogue boaters are one step ahead of CRT, and judging by the lax way my mooring enquiries are being dealt with, it is not surprising.