StephenA

The bywashes on all the Shroppie locks can be a bit harsh if they're running strongly, but to be honest they're as bad when you are going down as they push you sideways into the bank or the bushes. The Middlewich branch can have some long delays on the locks either way. Also going anti clockwise means you've basically got the run Tyrley locks (with only Wheaton Aston in the way) to allow you to catch up if you've lost time else where.

If it doesn't recognise a place then you can always add it ... its not that hard to do. But I'm not sure if you can still add places on the version at mihalis.net which is the one that reports Barton Turns Marina as a new place.

It is functionality Nick is adding to the new version, and he's always looking for suggestions to make it more "dynamic". One thing he's added (but its turned off at the moment) is the ability to rate any location for mooring, the idea being that it can suggest on its routes stopping a little earlier or pushing on a little bit further to find a mooring with a good rating. Suggestions for new features and bugs can be recorded at http://code.google.com/p/canalplanac9/ Steve

Is it legal to hold races on BW waters?

This is the Nene we're talking about? I find it hard to believe that the amount of water that can run through the paddles on the top gates can outstrip the weir on the next lock down. Now if the top gates were open and held back and the bottom gate had been lifted I can understand how it could cause problems above and below the lock. But the way you describe it, it does sound a bit odd

Our BMC 1.5 doesn't seem to have a number like that, its longer and has more zeros in it. Haven't got the details to hand but its got the heavier flywheel on it and a bell housing that has the rear engine legs on it. We think marination came rather late in its life.

They never were very good locks at The Slipway, even when it was The Lathom Slipway. Actually its a pretty dismal bridge compared the other ones along there.

it looked quite impressive when we went past the other week. We pulled in at the caravan dealers to pick up a Calor gas bottle (and they sell diesel too). It's not a bad place for a marina, on a nice section of canal,.

A lot of it depends on timings. especially when it comes down to tides. We've done it both ways and we did Kingston to Uxbridge in one day (leaving Teddington just on the top of the tide and making Limehouse with just enough water over the cill to get into the lock). Admittedly it was a very long day (14 hours I think). Going up the Thames if you can get out on an early tide from Limehouse then you'll get a good long way. We've also found that taking the limehouse cut and using Old Ford Lock and then swinging back round to the GUC up the Hertford Union is nicer than the bottom end of the GUC If you can get the time it really is worth going beyond Oxford on the Thames, the bridges are lower so the big cruises can't get there and the river gets smaller and more fun.

It looks like Chris's server is now back up, I've let Nick know and he'll fail the main domain back over onto Chris's server. However if people could please keep using the development version as it will help Nick fix bugs. For example it was only when the main site failed and we switched over to the development version that he found a problem with locking in the database used to support the new version. Steve

It looks like Chris may be having problems with his server. As its in the US we can't just pop in and reset his router. But the data in the development version is a lot better than the "live" version so for a lot of stuff its much better. But some of the more advanced features are missing.

Here in Cheltenham where we have a "Very Good Signal" I can't actually maintain a 3G connection on my G1 and the Slide often looses data connectivity when its just sitting there. My phone download speed is about 22Kbit if I'm lucky Linux recognises the Viewty as a 3g modem and supports T-Mobile because I tried it with my Medion Laptop on the boat. Nick and I are going to be working on a "light weight" template for the planner which basically has things like the pictures and maps turned off by default, or at least that's the idea

The problem with things like the Viewty (wife has one, as well as Motorola Slide) and the G1 and the n95 is porting the applications and on some phones of course you can't put your own apps on. Even though the G1 runs a Linux variant the apps for it primarily are java based and although the main data for CanalPlan is quite compact the photos bulk it out and of course its designed round a webserver and AJAX. CanalPlan AC runs on Linux, in fact the dev version is running on an AMD64 box which sitting just a few feet away from me,

Isn't that why you want to follow it downstream? Better to be trailing behind it that have it breathing up your exhaust pipe!

The schools are still in so the majority of people on the move are people without kids (young couples or retired people) so it should be relatively quiet at the moment.

And the new version (currently under development at http://www.canalplan.eu ) allows you to add new places on the fly. For example this morning I added 5 places on the River Weaver and now any routes planned on the Weaver, by anyone using the site, take those places into consideration. The same "immediately available" feature applies to photos too. Add it to a place and its just there. Nick is also adding more "user input" style features and if there is something you think you'd like it to do that it doesn't, within reason of course, then you can always raise them through the google project page at http://code.google.com/p/canalplanac9/ Of course being web based means that you can even using it from web enabled phones (such as the G1). Yes, I do have a vested interest - he's my brother and we've been working on parts of the new site together, and original idea was mine ... rather a long time ago! Steve

I pointed Nick at this thread and I get the impression that he'll be tidying up the export method in the new version of Canalplan AC.

So who were you insured with? That is a huge drop in premium and its something worth keeping in mind when ours comes up in the summer

Lots of stuff on the beta site does not work at the moment because Nick needs to bring the new features in one at a time (like dynamic editing of places which is rather impressive!). There is a huge rewrite of a lot of the code and major changes in the Database behind it. The beta version has a google project page associated with it for tracking bugs: http://code.google.com/p/canalplanac9/ One big change in the beta is the introduction of Templates using clearsilver which will allow different layouts for the whole site (apart from the main static home page) which should enable better functionality on mobile devices.

Private Eye dont seem to like BW much so even if all you do is give them some hints and let their journalists do the digging it might be worth while.

The primary CanalPlan AC website is now back on line.

There are DNS issues with the site over in the US which could take a while to resolve the site on tty.org.uk is a test version for the next release and has a lot of new code in it so isn't fully functional.

That's the Beta site for the new version which is a total re-write of a lot of stuff that Nick has been planning for ages. So its still got bugs in it so don't be surprised if it throws some odd errors. The main site is hosted in the US on a friends server in his house and sometimes it goes down and if he is away....... The beta is also running on a home hosted server (mine in fact!).