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jimxtc

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Everything posted by jimxtc

  1. jimxtc
    Thank you all fro your responses. It would seem that what I was thinking about has already been done which is reassuring. I think I will post a wanted ad for such about and see what comes out of the woodwork!
  2. jimxtc
    Thank you Richard, you input has been very helpful. I am sorry but I am struggling to cope with this forum with just speak output from my iPad so will wait until I get home and on my PC. I am on a hire boat on the Oxford canal next week with friends.
  3. jimxtc
  4. jimxtc
    Is that something you feel you need?
  5. jimxtc
    Thank you Alan that is very interesting. I am sorry that my postings are coming out in the wrong place, I also need iPad training! I am used to working on a PC and this screen is very small.
  6. jimxtc
    Thank you Richard, that is va very good point, I am so used to getting off at the back!
  7. jimxtc
    Yes for the last 42 years.
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  9. jimxtc
    I had thought of remote control as I would need to move to the rear of the boat to Denise bark for mooring and would like to retain control as I did so.
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  11. jimxtc
    I have been looking to find a skipper for my own boat or someone with a bout looking for crew without success for quite a while. I have decided that the only way Iam going to get on the canal network is to do it all my self. I would like to hear from boatyards, aircraft engineers, universities/engineering students who would be interested in converting my narrowboat to remote control operation so that I can control it from the bow where I can see where I am going! I know this is possible to do, if it can be done on a Jumbo jet then it can be done on a narrowboat! I have limited vision which stops me from skippering from the rear of the boat so another solution has to be found. I really don’t want to hear from the nay-sayers about how it is too difficult or I shouldn’t do it thank you. Please e-mail me with any ideas or suggestions you have with regard to remote control. My e-mail is rhoda1@sky.com
  12. jimxtc
    Thank you Roland, like your friend I am also registered blind and have always worked despite the difficulties and obstacles presented by others.
  13. jimxtc
    Thank you for your words of encouragement Furness, if I were they type to lay down at the first hurdle I would not have been in full time employment all my life and now in the position to retire early and afford my own boat. You have listed many great examples to follow but I don't want to set he world alight - just to follow my dreams and enjoy the retirement I have earned. I will achieve my goals by hook or by crook as I have done all my life. I have an eye condition called Macular Degeneration which is the most common condition in the world and affects one in thirty people in the UK over the age of 50, unfortunately for me mine started at 19. It is a nuisance but no more than that, I have no central vision and my most accurate vision is the same as yours out of the corner of your eye. It does restrict me from some things (driving a car for instance) but I refuse to let it rule my life and hold me back. We only get one life and it would be very easy to sit in a corner and say 'I can't do' but I am made of sterner stuff! I have considered a number of options using a variety of visual aids to skipper my own boat but they are not practical and would not be sensibly safe so I have to settle for being crew in the same way as I have to settle for being passenger in my own sports car. I am a competent mechanic (trained by Suzuki), chef, launderer, bottle washer and rope coiler even if I may not be able to handle multi-boat large locks, I can still do the smaller ones or be an effective crew member on my own boat if not on someone else's.
  14. jimxtc
    Thank you for your advice and concern, I am sure you come across many inexperienced and probably incompetent boaters in your travels. Thank you, I am undeterred and will fulfil my dreams - where there is a will there is away!
  15. jimxtc
    I understand what you say but would be directed by the skipper. I won't offer to operate the locks for you!
  16. jimxtc
    The other difference between riding a trials bike and skippering a narrowboat is that on a bike you don't have 25 tons of steel boat coming at you also doing 4 mph!
  17. jimxtc
    My sight is just about good enough to ride an off-road trials bike at 4 mph (it is a sport of control and balance not speed) but a trials bike is only 7' long and you steer from the middle. I don't some how think you would be happy seeing me holding my white cane stood 60' from my prow and heading for your boat! I have tried the local papers and Gumtree for travelling companions for foreign holidays and I have had some interesting offers but very few seem to involve travel! With or without benefits are optional ;-)
  18. jimxtc
    Thank you for your good wishes, most people in my position are not as tenacious as I am! If I can ride a motorcycle trials bike in competition both here and in Europe (albeit badly!) then I am sure I can crew on a boat. I have done it before on a couple of narrowboat holidays and last year on a cruiser on the Great Ouse. I recently sat in on the RYA Helmsman course where I paid for a couple of friends to be trained so I know I can do it. The two skippers I have in reserve don't have the free time to go on a long trip unfortunately. I am sure there is someone out there who would welcome the chance for an adventure but don't have their own boat - I just don't know where to look to find them, hence my post!
  19. jimxtc
    Thanks very much, I like my style and have a whole wardrobe of dresses but I dress in 'drab' (male clothes) most of the time.
  20. jimxtc
    Easy for some but I only have partial sight and cannot see distance. Not may boaters would be happy to see me holding the tiller and heading their way, although I am sure I would be more capable that some holiday baotaers! No commitments as in retired, no partner, no pets, nothing to stop me from going off for months at a time.
  21. jimxtc
    Can anyone please advise me of the best place / forum / publication / venue to find a travelling companion to undertake a narrowboat adventure around the UK for an extended period of time? Someone with a boat would be good but I am willing to buy one myself. I can crew but not able to skipper. It has been a long held dream of mine to tour on a narrowboat and I want to make it happen! I am a 62yo man retired with no commitments.
  22. jimxtc
    Hello Alan, I am also in the SE and thinking of buying a marrowboat, happy to consider part ownership, please get in touch - I am a complete novice other than a holiday or two which gave me the bug. Sharing costs must be the way to go. My e-mail is rhoda1@sky.com please e-mail as I may not find your post on here! Cheers, Jim
  23. jimxtc

    Summer is almost upon us and I don't have a boat or a skipper!  Not looking to buy until the end of the season now but interested in a week or two hire in 2/3 week in September if anyone has any ideas?P1030635a.jpg.75b915d14970df6d485102b3808bb2be.jpg

    1. jimxtc

      jimxtc

      Hoping to find a centre steer boat to hire...!

  24. jimxtc
  25. jimxtc
    Thanks Rusty, a picture paints a thousand words - now I get it! Haha, I do remember Timothy West telling his wife that boating was a contact sport!
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