starman

Echo Blackrose's comment - I've been to the Aqualine factory and seen them machining the timber! There's not a trace of MDF and the insulation was high quality, properly applied. I'm not qualified to talk about steelwork but it's laser cut and machine and hand welded so to my inexpert eye it looked pretty good. BTW I'm not in any way connected with Aqualine nor do I particularly want people to buy Polish rather than British boats - but it doesn't help the argument to talk nonsense about them as some do.

Next stop up from the Mezzanine Levels

To be fair, the prices were permanent and visible on big boards but it was a hot day, a captive audience and you don't necessarily want to lug a picnic lunch round with you as you hope from boat to boat. Besides, the smell of bacon sarnies, hog roasts and burgers is pretty irresistible.

Agree entirely! The prices were a rip-off. I paid £1.50 for a styrofoam cup of poor coffee the size that you'd get from a slot machine for 20p and £4.50 for an alleged 'gourmet' burger that certainly wasn't.

Not sure I can see the point of it really - what's the sense in having a wheelhouse if you have to collapse it every time you come to anything resembling a low bridge (and there are plenty of those on the Fens where you were planning to go.) If you take a chance at squeezing through without lowering it and get caught by a side wind as you emerge, that's one big repair bill. Agree with you about the price/quality too. You can have a conventional narrowbpat with a cabin right across the front if you wish.

Also a nice little EA landing stage type mooring not far outside P'borough at Wansford - opposite the Nene Valley Railway base.

What - like the Braidbar hybrid, the Debdale Wharf AC electric powered boat, the William Piper reclaim timber interior, the Big Fish 'Buffalo' tug , the Daddys Boat Co 50ft tug with Dave Moore paintwork & boatman's cabin work, the GWV pink n'boat with disabled access, the Navigation NB Co sliding glass roof? There was more genuine variety than I've seen in several years. Did you actually go or are you just having a pop for the sake of it?

Not very encouraging that they can't even spell the name right, is it! Take a look here link for some better examples.

You might get it off with oxalic acid which you can get from some chemists -- we used it to get rid of the dark stains in oak caused by dampness but do, do test it on a small out-of-the-way area first. Otherwise I'm really not sure as danish oil type products work by soaking into the wood. Best thing I would say is to ring the technical department of Colron - I guess they're part of a much bigger paint and wood treatment company.

Great description. Any damage to the boat? We're thinking of going that way ourselves this summer - a bit anxious about the tunnel's tight dimensions in some places/

Gazza, with your local knowledge what do you recommend as an overnight mooring spot in Northampton. We usually moor by the big pedestrian bridge over the river that heads towards Morrisons. Anywhere else that ok (eg safe, not too noisy)?

Never mind the ventilation, I just choked when I checked the price of these!

I'm guessing you mean Canal Boat mag in which case the answer is almost certainly they'll be giving something away and offering special prices so wait for the show. I don't think Canal World forum does any subscription deals. Mind you I can think of a few 'The Collected Replies of Carlt', 'Galvanic Isolaters - your questions answered, Vols I, II, III' etc

Definitely - I used to live there (in the town, not in the boat)

And specifically on the Freedm of Information Act issue, from the direct.gov website... "The Freedom of Information Act does not place restrictions on how you may use the information you receive under it. However, the Act does not transfer copyright in any information supplied under it. If you plan to reproduce the information you receive, you should ensure that you will not be breaching anyone's copyright by doing so." You can do what you like with it - but you can't breach any copyright. Quite what that means I really don't know! I suspect it possibly only means that you can't breach any copyrighted material within the information like, say, photos, maps etc. It certainly isn't able to stop journalists asking questions and publishing the answers - as we see and read all the time.

No you can have it for free -- and this is a Forum anyway where members chat, but read the Forum rules there's lots there about copyright... "You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or you have the permission of the copyright owner." "Please note that all content on this site is © Copyright of its respective owners. Permission from the owner should be sought before reproducing any aspect of this site." A pity, I could do with pinching one or two of your witticisms, Carlt

If the owner of the material chooses to make it copyright free and put it in the public domain they can. It doesn't have to be 'marketable' to be copyright. The copyright laws are there to protect the owner of the material from plagiarism or other sorts of mis-use. BW's Waterscape site, for example, has material that is already copyright elsewhere - eg OS mapping - which it has paid OS for. Clearly people can't just download that, re-package it and pass it on. If you want to use or copy other BW material, you ask. News items, public announcements are just that, public -- the copyright prevents someone from - say - printing off the stoppage list and flogging it. (And why should they be able to - they didn't do the work and incur the costs to produce it.) Or worse, producing one with half the stoppages missing and labelling it 'BW Stoppage List'. As a long-time freelance journalist I'm very protective of my copyright on material I've written -- I'd be sending an invoice to anyone who used it without my permission. If I choose to let them do it for free, well that's up to me not them.

Copyright simply defines who owns the material. It's got nothing to do with making a profit or stifling comment. It does prevent wholesale copying - or mis-copying - for some third party's profit or to mislead. If you want to use material you find out what the terms and conditions are or ask specific permission. If you want to comment on specific items, you can make reasonable quotes to argue your point. Press releases from any company are issued with conditions - the most common one being that they are for editorial use and not for commercial use (eg not copy for adverts. Ditto photos - press can use them but you can't sell them or use them in adverts. Please don't spoil some great fact-digging by seing conspiracies where none exist.

We have a gas fridge and it's fine; works brilliantly. A bit of a generalisation but I would say that if faulty they tend to stop working rather than leak gas but a BSS (or a survey) would test the gas system for leaks. 12v fridges are more modern but do need a lot of power so you need to make sure your batteries and charging regime are up to it. You could ask for a new BSS but this is no substitute for a proper survey and a survey should pick up any BSS fail points and more. Hopefully you've looked at plenty of boats; it's an obvious thing to say but there are lots around in your price list and they're all different. If you haven't seen many try to get to somewhere like Whilton Marina where they have loads on sale that you can view at your leisure - they'll give you the keys and leave you to look at them.

I don't disagree with you about its looks but that is what Piper calls its 'Trent Barge' not a Dutch barge. It's got those on its site too and they look pretty okay to me for a modern barge.