Captain Pegg

Fair point but you’ll have the traditional crowd tut-tutting calling that a cratch board.

Fencing of all railway lines in Britain is enshrined in case law in modern times. The pertinent case being one where a child was killed by a train while using a short cut that had been created by damaging a fence and this had been done repeatedly until such time as no effort to repair it was made. Not a modern H&S ruling but something that dates back over half a century. In Europe all high speed lines are fenced. In rural areas this is largely due to the risk of animal incursion. ETA - that applies in Scotland which has laws in access perhaps more akin to mainland Europe than to England & Wales. There are no designated “footpath crossings” in Scotland. That law presumably also applies to Northern Ireland which in general has a different legal framework relating to railways than that of Great Britain.

They don’t make ‘em like they used to. I dare say my great grandmother could have taught you a trick or two.

The law doesn’t require any form of long distance cruise. The term “continuous cruiser” is one invented by BW and perpetuated by CRT. A boat without a home mooring has to move regularly and in a manner that doesn’t belie that the boater is literally trying to stay in the same place i.e shuffling. It is possible to do this and keep a job - particularly post-Covid where working from home is more prevalent. It isn’t necessarily easy though. I’d say the number of people arguing for the change is greater than those opposed to it. Noting some of the inconsistencies in the arguments of both CRT and forum members is not the same thing as objecting to the change.

It’s only online that we’re all perfect boaters. I reckon if I do a full days boating one cock-up is par for the course.

I think cock-up - self inflicted or accidental - is the correct answer. I bowhaul out of locks when descending regularly. I find it can be quicker than going down to drive the boat out and then stopping to secure it to go back. I very rarely bow haul in though. Maybe the odd lock with a bridge over the tail where I’ve pulled right up to the lock to prepare it and there’s no easy place to step back off again closer than where the boat is already waiting. There aren’t many locks like that though.

Me too. I realised once the answer was known it wasn’t directly related to JKJ’s birthplace. Where did the Norton branch run to and from?

That’s one reason I also sometimes choose not to directly quote. Ultimately all posts are for general consumption. One of the most useful features I have in Vulpes is a foot step inside the hatches. It makes getting to the roof very easy. I’m not a big fan of lock ladders and do prefer to go via the roof simply to reduce the amount of climbing on the ladder. I know other folk will shimmy along the gunwale between the boat and the lock wall. That always looks the least safe option to me. Best of all is to step off (with a line if needed) below the lock and let the boat glide in unattended. Of course that’s not possible everywhere.

The last photo that @mark99 posted that was labelled as being Brentford was in fact taken in Nottingham. Hence this may also be the case with this photo.

Agreed. That’s about all I have on the roof of Vulpes, minus the water can even. But there’s still not much clear space on top 🤔

Because one person’s nice is another person’s hideous I would guess. To be fair getting stuck and needing the shaft is one time I use the gunwales. But we now have people talking about running down the gunwales. 🤷‍♀️ As for the handrails though I’ve never had any problem with a ‘box’ section. A bit difficult for mine to be any different as they are wooden.

When single handing there will always be circumstances where use of the gunwale or roof is pretty much necessary. But I don’t get the impression that everybody talking about use of the gunwales or roof is a routine single hander. I try not to use lock landings on intermediate locks in flights preferring to set ahead either before starting or on completion of the previous lock. Isn’t it only the top two at Bosley that are too far apart to do that? On flights like Buckby they’re nearly all too far apart. I choose to use the gunwales sometimes. Notably when delivering tea and biscuits to the steerer on the rare occasions it isn’t me at the helm. That’s a drawback of the trad stern, the steerer is in the way of your egress from the cabin. But my 83 year old dad is forbidden from using the gunwales. ETA - I was thinking Fulbourne rather than Belfast. Two similar craft in terms of origin but showing a vast difference in how easily they can be worked in certain circumstances. @David Mack’s suggested method is fine for Belfast but he might have adopted my suggested method if single handing Fulbourne.

That being a circumstance where you’d probably go through the boat if you could. No problem using the bow for dropping of and picking up crew if it’s easy to access the bow through the boat but I wouldn’t make my crew walk along the gunwales or over the roof simply to get on and off the boat in anything other than exceptional circumstances. It’s unnecessarily dangerous. And I have proper gunwales not like those unfit for purpose things that most modern boats are afflicted with.

In what circumstances do folk need to access the bow other than when the boat is alongside? The only time I do that is to operate a swing bridge single handed. I know some folk like to put the boat into the jaws of a lock when descending.

The original question by @David Mackabout handling of shorter boats was very valid but I think about 80% of all narrowboats fall within a relatively small band of variance. There’s certainly nothing that should make anyone used to either a short or long boat unduly worry about helming the other in general. Draught and weight are as much significant factors as length, obviously they are all linked. The most notable feature of short boats is that they don’t hold their alignment in the water as well as longer boats. Put a big heavy craft like a historic into hard reverse and it’ll likely stay pretty straight in the channel. Do that with a short craft - particularly one with a relatively large prop - and it’ll likely try and spin around in the channel. Using hard reverse, and even reversing in general, may be best avoided. A bigger prop might come with a bigger rudder and that will mean you can’t loose the tiller for even a nano-second without risk of heading for the bushes. Those day boats are very light having little fixed equipment on board and also probably have tiny rudders. Stand the crew on the back deck and the front end is as light as a feather. Then add the other obvious factors mentioned above. As for bows I find it amazing how difficult it is to access the front t-stud on the majority of boats. Not necessarily because of enclosed bows - which aren’t that uncommon - but cratch covers.

Particularly so, seeing as its wrong.

Jerome K Jerome was from Walsall. It could be Oxford though. Or based on past form of @Heartland it may very well be cryptic.

The canal at Birchills was higher than the local railway lines.

Up Walsall way somewhere perhaps?

Old boatmen wouldn’t have had access to a bathroom let alone a shower even in their own homes. (And yes many did live in houses).

You freeloader. You’re clearly the enemy of the house dwelling marina based folk.

Coombeswood Canal Trust also offer a week of free mooring before their next level of £4.00 a night kicks in followed by £8.00 a night. Saltisford is £8.00 per night. It was simpler to quote the full rate. Circus Field doesn’t seem that easily accessible for a visitor. I’ve been there a couple of times to collect boats.

This whole thread is about what happens when a “boat without a home mooring” takes a “paid mooring”. Absolutely nothing I have written refers to “boats with a home mooring” or the “home mooring” itself. I’m very puzzled as to how you draw the above conclusion from my words. Your question seems utterly non-sensical to me so perhaps putting those quotations around those particular phrases will make it clearer. (Edited to remove reference to new licensing regime as that isn’t specific to this thread).

You perhaps need to re-read my post a little more carefully. Particularly the bit you quoted.

Q1. As answered above, no. Q2. You will not be subject to enforcement action while in a marina. CRTs logging system can distinguish a marina mooring from a towpath mooring. However as a boat without a home mooring you are still required to move in a manner “bona-fide for navigation” when not on a paid mooring. Which in simplistic terms means you need to cover a sufficient range. If you spend more time not on paid moorings than on paid moorings then I suspect you will judged by the same criteria as someone that’s been on the towpath for the whole licence period. If however you use a series of paid moorings and spend up to say one month at a time travelling directly between them and moving from place to place at least every 14 days then that must surely be within the requirements of the law as far as I can see. It doesn’t though follow that if the range involved is small that CRTs enforcement system won’t pick you up and you’ll end up having to justify your actions. After all the onus is on you to “satisfy the board”. Unfortunately there is no absolute answer because the law is necessarily vague.