Mad Harold

I get this red flag most times I try access CWF.It does work ok sometimes,and when it doesn't I go onto Thunderboat where they are still kicking poor old Tony Dunkley's arse, or Facebook, where there are more " experts" than you can shake a stick at. It's only social media, after all.😝

Sounds like standard 6/8 standard rootie toot rhythm, shall we have a competition to see who can write the rudest lyrics about CRT.

Glad to see there are still some optimists around. 😄

But hopefully Arthur, we should get another couple of years before this decline becomes too awful to be enjoyable any more.

Having cruised past several times, I thought would be a good place for me to moor as I live in Huddersfield. However I was put off joining the club as I once moored up opposite and went across to have a look, but someone stopped me at the gate and refused to let me in even though I told him I was a boater. I think I have mentioned this before, and as I don't know if this bloke had some position in the club, I carried on walking to the Pear Tree for a pint. I will apply for membership.

Also you could get your boating "fix" rather cheaper with a small,trailerable sailing boat or dingy on inland lakes and reservoirs. Don't know what club membership fees are, but Probably a lot less than £15K.

That may be acceptable to some of the people that live on their boats, but not to hobby boaters (except wealthy ones) Housing is expensive and if you live on land (renting or buying) a £15K licence fee will push most hobby boaters off the canals and I would guess a great many live aboards too, unless they moor in expensive areas of the country. I would be interested to see if a straw poll of CWF members would be prepared to pay a £15K licence fee to keep the canals maintained. Such an increase would I think would result in the canals being used by the better off, and people on benefits who get their licence fee paid as housing benefit.

Er, what's a "Swift Block"? A sort of mudweight? A ballast weight? A block of birdboxes for Swifts? A boxing defensive move? I give up. 🐴

Quite interesting, but didn't tell us anything we don't already know. Mr.Parry said the same things; a cut in funding in real terms, and the possibility of having to close some canals, above inflation licence and mooring fees and the same statement from DEFRA that there will be no increased funding from them. GLOOM! 😞

My local church has ringing practice Mondays from 6pm to 8pm.Personally I love the sound, to me it sounds very English. Once went up the tower with a friend to observe and found it quite interesting.Bells described as "she" and the boss ringer shouting "Bob and Cambridge Major" all Greek to me of course, but quite funny when the ringers get out of sync and you get a dreadful cacophony which sounds like the bells are rolling down the church steps,known I believe as "firing out" As a young lad in Hull on a calm Sunday evening,by the docks, you could hear the bells of Holy Trinity, and the bells of whatever church is on the other side of the Humber echoing across the river, punctuated by the metalic clang of the bell on the red marker boat which is used to mark sand banks. Very evocative.

That's not a narrowboat! It looks like the living room in my house with a decorative steering wheel nailed to the wall. 😝

Me too! It looks very rustic and varnished wood looks nautical as well.If it was mine I would leave it as it is.

Sounds like the same engine as fitted in my old Ford Sierra 2.3D. The cam chain did in fact break on it, and although my local garage stripped and repaired the engine, it was never the same again and sounded like a sack of spanners.

Last time I went through there I didn't see any " nature lovers"! I was too busy trying to open the bottom gate.The bloody mechanism kept slipping before opening. Got through by pushing the gate with the boat and someone winding the opening thing.