Cheese

Depending on how quickly you realise there is a problem, your engine may overheat, and possibly then cut out. You might need to top up the cooling system with hot water and bleed air out of it.

In May you can probably cruise from around 05:00 to 21:00 if you really want to. If you only want around 6 hours working the boat that means you can arrive at a popular destination by late morning. Or not leave until early afternoon, although that might make finding a suitable mooring more tricky

Have you checked with ABC that they are okay with the plan? They might regard the Challenge as some form of "race" ...

Picture 21 in the link shows the island. It's the first of the two islands you reach before Sonning lock.

I'll leave it to someone else to comment on whether that stretch was the B&F or some other canal. I can now see it on this B&F link you quoted, but not yet on the 'Railway Stations near canals' link from the start of the thread.

The canal between Warwick Bar and Aston Top Lock seems to have gone missing! (Or it has on my tablet)

I would tend to agree with you if the broker is selling a boat as owner. They are a business, so a distributor and have to comply with RCR. But if the broker is purely linking up seller and buyer they are NOT selling the boat, just marketing it. They are taking a commission from the seller for providing a marketing service.

Not a lawyer, but agree with the OP that RCR does not create an offence for a private seller. Explanatory notes for RCR make it clear that the legislation is designed to apply to small businesses. Any offence under RCR would be a matter for trading standards, and I am not sure they (can?) ever take action against a private seller for a one-off sale. Sales of Goods Act might apply if you mis-describe something.

When did you last move the boat? Damp air builds up inside from cooking, washing, breathing etc, but can be cleared by a 5 minute cruise with doors / windows open. Ideally not at a time when the replacement air is equally damp!

'Deployed' is not the same as 'employed' (which you initially claimed). I suspect most have just been temporarily taken off other tasks.

Any pics of the port side? Is the window layout the same?

Not sure what criteria you are using for "near" but perhaps: Hook, Winchfield, Fleet, Farnborough Farnborough North, Frimley, Aldershot Shalford Hampton If you are including London Transport stations: Croxley, and many others

If an app provides live data so you can easily see if an issue at your location has already been reported that could be really helpful, to both boaters and C&RT. Currently I suspect some things are reported multiple times, and many others are not reported at all because everyone assumes that someone else has done it!

I don't fully understand the map linked by David Mack above, but it seems to suggest you you can (or could in 2007) get from Liverpool to the A47/A1 junction near Peterborough, and then from Stamford a few miles north of that to Newark. But I don't think there are any over bridges on the A1 between the A47 and Stamford, so it looks as though there was a feasible route at that time.

At 5.4864m their boat IS 18ft, so there may be a solution. I think specialist haulers have access to software that will include all height restrictions.

Agree that at 5.5m you won't find a standard haulier to move you by road. But in England there are (or used to be) acknowledged 'high load' routes which could accept up to around 6m/20ft. A specialist haulier ought to be able to check if they could get you from say Liverpool to Newark, by a convoluted route. Not sure if there is anything similar for Scotland, where there are limited route options out of the west coast. No doubt it would cost more, so you might decide it isn't worth it.

Agree with your point about hirers and meters. Hirers generally have no idea how much water they have used (and some will use much more than others) or the tank capacity, and as a result fill up every day. Not suggesting that all water points should have a 30-minute limit. But at popular points it would be the same principle as councils putting a 30-minute limit on central high street parking; if you need more time than that for your shopping you have to park somewhere a bit further away that is less popular.

Depends on how popular the water point is. A time limit may make sense if it means everyone who needs it can at least get some water, to say 75% full. No time limit could mean some filling up but others getting none.

But 'every 14 days' doesn't mean that every metre of waterway is checked simultaneously, just that a particular length is checked at some point in any 14 days. So a boat moving through multiple checking areas could be validly unseen for many weeks, even months. Being 'unseen' on that criterion wouldn't mean anything. The purpose of checking is presumably primarily (or only?) to pick up non-moving boats without a home mooring or those without a licence at all. I don't see how 'non-sightings' particularly help with either. It might partly support the first category by establishing that there has been at least some movement, but without a positive sighting elsewhere it doesn't give any indication of sufficient range to satisfy C&RT.

I have 'not seen' about 32000 boats already today; how do you think I should log them?

Confused. If it can be towed then surely it can be hauled?

The trouble with both throw lines and orange rings is that ideally both need practice to get them anywhere near the casualty. Which no-one ever does! If you get it wrong in a real emergency I think orange rings (on a rope) are quicker to retrieve and make a 2nd attempt than a throw line. As blackrose said, always on the roof when cruising. When moored up, depends if there is a risk of it going missing!