Ewan123

Indeed 👍 and some trad sterns have seating added to them, but I'm pretty sure everyone still refers to them as trad sterns.

Quite, we don't skimp on water but on average use about 50 litres per day for two of us on board full-time. Less when we need to stretch the water for two weeks or if we're working off the boat during the day. I think the average figures for land-dwellers aren't very useful as with such easy access to water, many will waste 10s of litres a day without even noticing.

Ah fair enough, that sounds like a good approach! I've not seen many practice it though to be fair. I don't think a semi-trad is hopeless in bad weather... your lower half can still be be shielded from the worst of the wind and even from some rain if it's coming from a convenient direction. Just wear waterproofs and it's all good . I'm not pretending a trad wouldn't be more comfortable though - no denying that.

One advantage I think (I've not had experience of a trad personally) of cruiser/semi-trad though for cruising in the rain, is that you can keep the doors shut so that the rain stays on the outside (correct me if I'm wrong, but I figure you must get some rain coming in to the stern cabin if the hatch is open on a trad?).

I wouldn't say the seats are particularly relevant to the trad/semi-trad/cruiser distinction. They can all have varieties of seating or no seating at all.

The only way to really know is to find out how much comes out of your system when you drain it to be honest, draining into known volume containers as cuthound suggests. Someone could have the boat that was made the day after yours by the same builder and have a totally different answer.

I did wonder what the prices must have been like before being lowered lowered - I was looking at them and saying my boat must be worth more than we bought it for (in London, Dec 2020!), judging by their prices.

OK fair cop, hadn't thought that one through too far. I don't think it is a new one. Why do you think I'm making that up? For one, I do. It simply isn't practical to avoid doing so in some areas, when CRT facilities are increasingly absent and/or malfunctioning.

As for blacking the baseplate, maybe check out the Facebook page of MarSurv surveys. He regularly shares images from surveys and quite a few times now he's surveyed a boat with no baseplate blacking, only to find Bad News levels of pitting on that baseplate only, not on the blacked sides. I'm sure that the main reason for any yard not doing the baseplate is just that they don't have the facility to do it and don't want to invest in that ability.

I think it's arguable that boaters with a mooring who are more likely to cover large distances over shorter time periods, moving every day or two, are more likely to be using the free CRT facilities. CCers (like myself) who move every week or two, one or two towns along each time, are less likely to pass the increasingly infrequent CRT facilities and more likely to end up paying to use a marina's facilities. Of course those are only two of the many varieties of CCers/ home moorers, but I do think it's a significant flaw in the "CCers use CRT facilities more" part of the argument. Although I do empathise with some of the motivation behind protests from the likes of the NBTA, I'm astonished that anyone thinks attracting the attention of this conservative government on to boat dwellers is likely to lead to any improvements for us. If it stirs the government into putting enough energy in to enacting significant changes, I doubt such changes would be to our benefit .

One further addition, Anglo Welsh at Haywood Junction offer all services.

I had a brief chat with a chsp at Great Haywood marina the other day - they've just put the prices of all their boats down a couple of weeks ago, they've noticed a seasonal cooling off in the market.

I don't think many electric boat owners are demanding lower licence fees. CRT is deciding that all by themselves, because they presumably think it a good idea. You would be better off quizzing CRT for their justification rather than having a go at people that benefit from CRT's decision. Just like on Facebook where most pages seem to be full of people throwing mud at the "other" group (CCers/liveaboards/those with moorings...). This energy is all misdirected and it's sad to see everyone turn on each other when CRT would have gone ahead with all of these changes regardless of any consultation result.

You're right, we had the same issue. I heard a rumour that they might add more banks to the list but I wouldn't rely on that personally. You should be able to collect in person but PayPoint locations don't always have enough cash to pay out, so I've heard. We opted to set up a Monzo current account just for the purpose of receiving the money, then transferred it straight to our regular current account. It took about 30 mins to set up the Monzo account online, dead easy.

As I understand it, the focus on smoke from woodburners is really more about air quality and related health impacts than effects on climate change. Any policy will mention climate change as well, just to tick another box, but it's like the issue of car emissions in urban areas.

Hmm... no canals there. Unless they want to restore the one near Stover but I don't think that's affordable! There's the River Dart but I doubt that's an easy option. Mind you, plenty of people in Totnes would love to take that offer if pontoons etc were made available. The challenge would probably be keeping the prices low there. Otherwise there's only tidal water really. I expect it was a fairly glib comment that reporter jumped on.

It basically comes down to whether you can properly compost the solids yourself (or know someone who will do it for you). The only service for not DIYing it is in London currently. It can't go down the elsan without putting loads of water down with it and even then it still risks blocking it. If I had the means (well, the space) to compost it myself, I would certainly go for it. Otherwise it's not really practical.

I reckon it might end up as a clobber after we've seen a few years of the increases.

Crikey, I never claimed I was doing better than anyone else. I'm saying I (and others) should make efforts to improve, because it's not enough to say that others have a greater impact. I will defend myself a bit though, since you're making assumptions about me/digging through my post history. Yes I have a diesel engine and CC. I couldn't afford an electric boat. I was completely converted to HVO until it got so much more expensive, and intend to go back to it ASAP. No I don't run a car. I do intend to take up electric propulsion when I can afford it, but currently I can't. Hopefully by then it will be a more feasible prospect (charging points etc.) to enable me to continue with my privileged lifestyle travelling the waterways. By profession I'm an ecologist, so I'm dedicating my working life to pushing/enabling developers etc. have less impact on our environment. Let's drop this tangent then and let the thread get back on track.

"But them over there are polluting more than me" is a terrible argument against reducing emissions in pretty much any given case. Just because someone else is doing worse, doesn't mean that I (we/boaters) shouldn't be expected to improve ourselves.

In London it's a viable option so long as you can afford it - there is now a company there collecting and managing solid waste from separator toilets: Circular Revolution. I expect this might not catch on elsewhere though as London has the advantage of a high density of potential customers.

That's the ones I assume LadyG is referring to, same as on my Caprice 2020. I can only say there was no trick to getting mine undone (reduced flame from the rings turned out to be due to a load of rust flakes from the black top blocking the gas), except that quite a few have worn to the point that no screwdriver can gain purchase on the head now. WD40 might help if they're not too far gone... We're about to condemn ours and replace it too. Shame as I quite like the weird green colour, they're all just white/black/silver now!

Which bolts - do you have a picture?

If you get it done to a good standard for £2000, please let me know who does it (seriously!). I didn't get a quote much below £5000 I think it was, for off-the-shelf type cabinets to be fitted (once you include removal of the old stuff and the gas fitting).

Yes that's true. In my 62' narrowboat I think it would be fun going downstream against it, if it went smoothly. I can see it going very badly though.