magpie patrick

good points well made, Sir Frank Price would not have stood for this, but then Robin Evans was given the job for a reason BTW I once applied to be a member of the board, it was 30 days work a year for about ten grand, and my employers were in principle happy for me to take 30 days unpaid leave to allow me to do it, but during the process it quickly became apparent that they didn't want someone who knew something about canals.

It almost certainly will but there are other ways as well a certain well know canal restoration scheme that BW pulled out of was due to have volunteer input under their stewardship, this would have been to the value of £76,500. Under the local authority that has now taken it on the value is £1 million, a fair percentage off a £25 million job, and this is canal restoration, where certain things like building highway bridges are expensive and off limits

Because an internet forum is a way of testing whether your feelings are justified. Not a very good one admittedly, I'm sure (I haven't checked) that there are forums somewhere discussing the wisdom of having sex with your mother in law, and on them there will be some nutter shouting "go for it" When I've been aggrieved I've sometimes looked for reassurance that I wasn't in the wrong, if my ex-wife had done the same we might still be married, as I got several "she's got a point you know" comments back and she remained convinced of her rightness. I know what you are now going to say, MD remains convinced anyway, but to be honest, so do you. Dave made his point over the pillaging Vikings, you are being argumentative. So am I, but at least I acknowledge it, and Dave's, deliberate exaggeration of your perspective made me smile, shame you didn't see it.

Can't find the article on NBW, anyone point me the right way?

Chris, it isn't just about whether you like the music, here is a list of some of my favourite tracks Roots - Show of Hands Uncommercial Song - Oysterband Green Grow the Issues oh - Keith Donnelly and Flossie Mallaviale (The first two can be found on you tube) When these come on in the car on the motorway the volume goes up to ten (assuming I'm on my own in the car). They are all LOUD tracks, but I don't want to her them at 2am if I'm trying to sleep.

If only Bugsworth Basin were the middle of nowhere! It's not, at the basin it's the equivalent of partying in a camp site or caravan site, and there are residences nearby, in one instance, the pub, whoe landlord would be up early next morning getting ready for the days trade. Middle of nowhere means that, wild camping in a forrest or, in a canal context, an isolated mooring away from other boats. I haven't counted, but I'd say more posters are on Dave's side than agin him

No Chris, that what wasn't what I meant. I meant that, when I pointed out to them they were inconveniencing me, they couldn't see that even though the action of moving to their own patio would only have a small effect on the noise levels, it would have the effect of them being see to be considerate, while refusing to move did the exact opposite On Dave's partygoers, all rights are restricted by responsibility, a right to revel if fettered by consideration for others moored in a quiet location, just aa a right to moor outside a night club is fettered by consideration of others right to pour out drunkenly at 3am. But I, (non vegetarian) would be with you on the radio v BBQ argument, and indeed made exactly the same point at Sharpness last summer while queitly playing my mandola on the front deck amid the smoke and burning flesh smell from three boats away (yes, they were making terse comments about people who dared to play a musical instrument outdoors, even though they had a radio on the roof and were fumigating the place)

A point of order Chris while it is practical to get a vehicle through a gate by lifting the gate off it's hinges, those who have done so KNOW they were taking a vehicle where the land owner had effectively instructed them not to take it. Locks are a matter of protocol as well as matter of enforcement. That is. That gate is locked, I shouldn't go through it On our work parties we regularly take gates off hinges because the land owner has given us permission, it's easier than him turning up with the keys, but if a bunch of revellers did it? And the students next door have had one complaint for loud music late. I appreciate that in the basin Dave was not working the next day, but in my case I did point out that while their first lecture was umpteen hours away, I was leaving at seven am. And, given our mutual tendency to get at daggers drawn, I will quote one more example, years ago, in Bali, I was staying in a motel style place and catching an early flight when a bunch of aussie students held a party outside. It was clear that one of them thought they were on the patio outside their own room: they weren't. I finally got up and asked them to move, the girl who'd made the mistake said "but I'm only next door, whet difference would it make". The difference,as I explained, was that moving in front of her own room would show she was trying not to be a nuisance. If Dave had had this problem with a bunch of boaters on their own boats (not on the bank) so be it, life sucks sometimes, but (assuming Dave's account is correct) this lot didn't give a flying shit about anyone else. That's what would get my goat

We'll be in Gillingham, Dorset for Easter. Dorset must be one of few English counties never to have a canal or river navigation, possibly the only one...

Norway keeps coming up, but it isn't in the EU

Residential or not, at the Western end forget it. Most marinas have more boats on their waiting list than in their marinas! You may have more luck at the Eastern End How are you going to get it off the Broads? Sail it or crane it? There are probably moorings on the Gloucester and Sharpness if that's of any interest...