Liam

Remind me - where is Barry Hawkins yard again?

I quite fancy one of the R.W Davis Northwich replicas... lot of pennies though.

A Northwich is a specific type of boat. Yarwoods built some of the Cowpar boats, that are nothing like Northwich boats. If he meant it was a Cowpar, or another type of boat Yarwoods made he would of said it was one of those and not a "Northwich".

My uncle has a Large Northwich, they're beatiful boats. I did check out the link you gave me and had a look at the pictures, but, unless it's just me - it doesn't really look anything like. Beatiful boats though!

Yeah, I know Joshers are completely different to Northwich's. I only class them as washer joshers because of the washers used to imitate the rivets Is it based on a large, or a small?

A washer josher! Who was it built by?

Might be a really silly/obvious question.. but I'm going to ask it anyway... Have you had the weed hatch off and checked the prop?

Slow revvers are great aren't they I've got a single cylinder Sabb in mine, 10hp and although it takes slightly longer to get going, it sure flies along at very few rpm. It does take slightly longer to stop than it would with a modern engine but I'm more than happy to put up with that... you can't beat the simplicity and reliability of the older engines.

Doesn't sound like there's anything wrong there Richard. Just a slow revving monster which has to get 70ft of boat moving. You could always replace the Gardner and put a 'wasp' in its place ( Wasp - high revving 4 cylinder engine )

Out of the cut? I bet it took some cleaning!

Just did a google on "Friends of the working boats"... http://www.nb-president.org.uk/ Talking about President & Kildare.. did anybody catch Fred Dibnah on TV last night? He was at the Black Country Museum.. although I'm sure it's been on before.

Possibly.. but even when they give way, they don't acknowledge my thanks etc. I'm putting it down to ignorance - they don't know any better.

Richard, What's the length of your boat, what engine, gearbox and prop (size) do you have?

Didn't quite get that?

The Bridgewater may be wide and deep but it doesn't mean you don't have to slow down when passing a boat. I've got a mooring on the Bridgewater and feel very strongly about slowing down for other boats. I always do so I would expect people to slow down whilst passing me. This is obviously not the case - I was last out over the bank holiday moored up in a popular spot with lots of other boats and the hire boats, time shares and the private boats all continued to whiz past. I do normally ask people very nicely if they could slow down but I shouldn't have to, I get tired of being ignored and being abused so I just let them get on with it. There's a few cruising clubs along the bridgewater that have been very suitable renamed flying/speeding clubs. I think it would be a good idea to keep some sort of list in the back of the log book or something of all the local speeders. Fly past them the same way they fly past us and see how they like it. Going off subject a bit here, but not off topic... How many people do you actually let on to whilst passing other boats. And how many people let onto you? People used to slow down whilst passing and give you a smile or a wave, now they just throttle past you and either don't look in your direction or stare straight through you. It's the way I see it - not sure how you lot see it.

If the system is congested Onionbargee, why don't you get your boat off the cut and make room for others

If it wasn't for the working boats, you wouldn't have a canal to cruise on.