magpie patrick

What are you trying to achieve? My temperature gauge basically runs cold to hot with no markings, do you need the actual temperature, or just an indication that it is "normal". If the engine runs happily, with all the symptoms of running warm when your gauge shows 66 degrees, then get alarmed if it creeps past 70 degrees

For the handling contest, the judge should be on the bank or on another boat, just like rowing contests etc... ideally the handling crew are on the boat alone, to make sure that no one accidentally turns the fuel tap off at a critical moment... However, I think we can agree that we'll be on each others boats together, just to be on the safe side! Ripple can crush a small fibreglass boat, and Cal can take off at a speed that would leap a flood barrier!

In my long standing tradition of considering whether the situation ois fair on the other person, rather than on me, I'm not sure Baldock is impartial...

Okay... We need to coordinate calenders Must confess actually, while assuming I've understood you description correctly, I don't believe you regarding narrow boats I've long felt we'd enjoy a look at Burton Waters and the Fossdyke and You would enjoy the G and S, and I quite fancy a go steering Cal... I'll have to check if the Bell serve Bud...

Phylis, I will give you an invite, come down to Saul, and use your techniques (not just that one, all of them) on a 62 foot narrow boat. I don't expect you to get her on the plane, as Ripple is a displacement boat. I'll try and arrange ot on a day witha cross wind, where 56 feet of cabin side is exposed. , bear in mind the front end of that is 56 feet from the prop... The wind doesn't care what boat you have but the boat does care of there is wind. There is a condition, I have a go at manoeuvring yours. A bit like those Rugby Union V Rugby League exhibition matches they used to play, Wigan V Bath, one game in each code. I don't belive that you have seen someone get a narrow boat in with wind blowing OFF the mooring with the technique you describe, and if the wind was blowing ON the mooring, they didn't need forward gear...

As I suspect it's in the Aral Sea probably not, but can't comment about the Kazakh Government policy

Phylis, we get on well together, but please don't tell me how to steer a narrow boat. It has never worked as a technique with any narrowboat that I have steered, and I've seen many people make monkeys of themselves trying. It worked on Gondola a treat, (it works on channel ferries as well) but not on a narrow boat

If you posted that in the unStable Bar heaven knows what would follow! For the record, I've never tried to get under the motorway there, just got to the junction at the start of the pools and turned round

Having steered everything from an 8 foot car top dinghy to the "Gondola" on Coniston Water I can't really agree with you Phylis. A 62 foot narrowboat has a much lower power to weight ratio and a much higher profile to the wind than an 8 foot car top dinghy with an outboard does. If you tried the technique you described with Ripple, that is tie up the back rope and the engage forward gear, she'd just strain at the rope and I'd end up using the centre rope anyway. I suspect the main reasons why compared to Cal are (1) fixed prop and rudder and (2) the T stud on our boat is in a very different location relative to prop, rudder and overall boat length than yours is meaning the prop is exerting no real leverage. What would work on Ripple is tying the front rope and then using the engine in forward gear to get the back in

while I would prefer them to work properly, please don't encourage BW to get rid of handspike gear they've already stripped the L&L of it's prize exhibits, Health and Safety mean that gear operated while standing on the gates is on the way out...

That might be what some people would like the rules to be, but it isn't what they actually are Some services are provided by the state and are free to all, these include roads (so long as you aren't driving a motor vehicle) canal towpaths, parks etc. There is no link in these between whether you pay any tax at all and whether you can use them, even an American Tourist can use these. Some services are provided exclusively to those who have a valid residence in an area, rubbish collection being the obvious one. Mr CJ, I'm pleased you are allowed to be a member of a library in an area you neither live nor work, but I am only able to be a member in either Bath (Live) or Bristol (Work) I could probably try it on in any town where Peter Brett Associates have an office actually but you get the picture. A service only for those who are eligible to pay the tax. The first set are all that is avaialble to a visitor to the area, and are in no way related to whether that visitor pays tax anywhere else, unless you wish to argue that a visitor from the Gobi desert pays all the taxes the Mongolian Government ask on his yurt, and that therefore this visitor too is also under a reciprocal arrangement

I'd say that, much as Aldersley and the Bratch will bear Repetition, if you haven't done the Stourbridge route go that way. It's always a dilemma advising people who've done neither! Shame to hear that Windmill End has had problems as it's a great place to stop, one of a few places where I've stopped for a whole day (2 nights). Even if you don't stop overnight, back into the Boshboil Arm, have a walk round the now discontinuous old loop and up to Cobbs Engine House. As this route is shorter you should have time to divert up to Hawne Basin, Gosty Hill tunnel is in stark comparison to Netherton! Also, go down the Stourbridge Arm, and if you like your real ale, borrow a copy of the Good Beer Guide as Strourbridge has some cracking real ale pubs Other diversions that are a bit of a hoot are up to Titford Pools (if it's open) and doing a loop the loop over and under Tividale Aqueduct

Sank on the Weaver?

I'm going to make what I think may well be my final entry here, for those who wonder why, see the note I left in the unStable Bar a few days ago, I have other things to do. Three instances from my own personal knowledge where a CCer would not have access to services. My in laws live in Dorset (okay hypothetical as a CCer can't get to Dorset by boat!) Ma in law is diabled, paralysed on her left side, and has a variety of support, home visits to get her in and out of bed, and one day a week at a day centre to give dad in law a break. To get this service you have to resident at a recognised address in Dorset. A friend of mine lost his father recently, by coincidence the father too lived in Dorset. Towards the end he became to frail to live at home and he was placed in a care home. My friend lives on the Surrey/Hants border and would have liked to move hid Dad closer to home. This was very difficult because his dad's last address had been in Dorset. The move never happened Not directly related to council tax as CT doesn't fund this last one, but related in that you have to be resident in a property liable for CT. Royal United Hospital (RUH) in Bath have a fertility clinic, and you can only receive treatment (as we are doing now) if you are resident at a recognised address in the Avon and Wilts Primary Care Trust area. This applies to IVF even if you are paying for it because you are only paying for the treatment not the facilities it takes place in. Also, if you are BANES CT payer you get one free cycle of IVF whereas if you are a Wiltshire one you get three cycles because the Wiltshire bit provides more funding. It may be different elsewhere, but on the basis that the above are all legal that's three specific instances of fairly major services not available to a CCer

Not me because I don't but then, perhaps I should just look after myself rather than standing up for others who don't live like me... it's what you and AlanH seem to think I should do, how dare I stand up for people who don't pay council tax when I do

One point you have point blank refused to answer local taxation (which is what it all is) is local people paying for local services, SOME of which are available to non-locals... a genuine CCer (and you had a jab at Cotswoldman so don't say you aren't targeting them) IS NOT LOCAL... And I'm sorry to disappoint you, but someone not officially resident, or who can't give a valid address, will have the mother and father of all jobs getting anything out of social services education is a bit different as most local authorities look at the need to protect the child ahead of the need for them to be registered locally, but a CCer not paying council tax will come at the bottom of the queue for school places. It was an adult insult, expressing what I genuinely think of your stance

okay, it should work, but I'm not sure that "laps round Braunston" is the best thing to do... take the corners slow...

Okay, I'm loser.... errrm, not according to the majority of this forum, I've just pointed out that your argument is baseless and selfishness is your motive.... There is NO comparison between a genuine CCer and someone who lives in a house. You are pursuing an agenda against CCers, but not, for example against students. You have aldso made comments that suggest that it is not valid for someone with money to defend those with less. You have picked on a deliberate statement of my view of you (and believe me I'd toned it down) and avoided answereing the many valid points that Natalie, Carl and I make. It is obvious that Natalie has some knowledge of public finances, my job involves degree level knowledge of socio economics, and macro and micro economics, and the operations of public taxation and demographics, Yours seems to be based on belief alone.

Okay, in the past cars have been carried on narrow boats, but generally IN the hold not ON it. Even with a small car you are putting a lot of extra weight above the waterline, and be aware the moment the first wheel lands on deck the boat will heel. On a much bigger scale, wheeling large loads onto seagoing barges has the same problem. If your serious, first try gradually putting loads on up to a tonne (20 gallon drums, one at a time) and seeing how the boat responds, otherwise you risk boat on it's side and car in the cut

the house is in the same place year round Cotswoldman has his home in Stourport for a week As to your previous argument on connection fees, if they are abolished the money has to be found from somewhere, all other fees would go up, so the CCer would pay a contribution, it's just your grasp of macro economics and socio economics is either hopeless or you haven't really thought this through I go back to the Steve Knightly statement from you. He isn't that well off, I'm guessing that if you include future earnings and existing capital I may be better off than he is, but it was the implication that a well off man singing about rural deprivation wasn't to be taken seriously that showed you for what you are. Insult time, you are a selfish git who envies other people paying less than you, even though they get less out of the system than is available to you, it isn't that dramatic a leap from where you are to "I don't have kids, why should I pay for schools". Watch the slope your standing on, it's slippery

Ah yes, just hadn't realised it was him Okay Alan, one last time on one specific instance, Cotswoldman at Stourport. Council Tax is a tax to fund a local authority, paid by those who live within it's area. I pay BANES, yet most weeks I use Bristol City Council Facilities, I Often Use Reading Council facilities, sometime Taunton Deane, Stroud District and City of Gloucester, because I visit these places, but I pay no tax there. Cotswold Man does not live in Stourport, he happens to be visiting it. He can use PUBLIC facilities that happen to be paid for by the council, specifically he is using the footway of the highway. The adopted highway is "maintainable at the public expense". It is often, but not always, paid for by the local authority. Cotswold Man can not borrow a book from the library, he can not send a child to school, he would have a mountain to climb if he needed social services, in many respects he is like a tourist in any other town, he just happens to be a permanent tourist. You, like me, either choose not to use a number of facilities and services, or have no need of them. Cotswold Man CAN NOT use them.

He's done it before then?

The bike was a good way of getting to the venue when I was underage but I only used the towpath as part of the route...

you really are getting ridiculous now, poor bloke will have been there a week and you presumably want him to pay council tax pro-rata so he can use the pavement. Okay. we'll put turnstiles at the entrance to town shall we? and £515 in three days is some going, I doubt many residents of Stourport have paid that much even if you include bills and mortgage, which of course the town doesn't see. there are around 8500 hours in a year, perhaps we should all be fitted with pay as you go meters adjusted to the local council tax rate...