magpie patrick

Mum and Dad hired from them also, 1965 and 66 - Easter in 1966 as I was due in July and mum didn't want a holiday with a one month old baby! You couldn't get past Talybont then. Dad also recalled that the cabin layouts were slightly different, with the fore cabin a foot longer and the cockpit correspondingly shorter on one of the boats. he asked Todd the reason, expecting some gem of wisdom based on experience of the earlier vessel, but apparently they just measured up incorrectly the second time!

Me too! It's good to see this We had Wirral Dawn and then Willow Mist (I think in that order) in 1972 and 1973 - I was 6 and 7, crew was Mum, Dad, Aunty Vera, @1st ade and me. 1972 we went from Haskayne to Rodley and Back in a fortnight, In 1973 we picked the boat up in Rodley (the previous hirers and wanted a one way) and went to Goole, Selby and Sowerby Bridge before returning over the Leeds and Liverpool. Dad's slide collection is currently being scanned so gradually pictures of these trips will go online. Prior to this we had gone with Tingay from the Ashby Canal (and previously from Atherstone, but I don't remember that)

When doing my grand cruise from Manchester to Bath on Lutine Bell I found the most agreeable section was the Southern Oxford canal between Banbury and Thrupp - so good I did it three times on a one way trip!* a lock every mile or so, pubs in each village.... *actually I had to do this because of engine trouble, but if there was a bit of that grand voyage to be stuck on, it was that bit!

Now I know they're droning on for profit I'm even less likely to watch them! I suspect that's got an upper limit - I follow a variety of vlogs, some of whom are living quite well off the proceeds - The Tim Traveller for example makes travel vlogs for a living, lives in Paris and, until recently self funded all his work* (i.e. paid for his own travel to make the vlogs) - his videos are typically 7-10 minutes long and give the number of followers it's clearly a winning formula. *He's recently been paid by the Olso Tourist Board to make two videos, but before that his vlogs paid for his adventures and he has no other job

Apologies in advance to @matty40s if it's your video! I'll probably watch this and the other video later, but its too long for coffee break I've noticed a lot of these types of video are around the half hour mark, when ten minutes would probably get 95% of the message over and be much more watchable - is there a reason for this?

Whilst this is undoubtedly true, and we are drifting slightly from strapping to general abuse of gates, I do not know of an instance of single leaf gates "blowing" when hit, whereas I can think of several where this has happened with mitre gates on both wide and narrow locks.

On a busy profitable canal anything that wears the infrastructure is accepted as the price of keeping traffic moving - if gates need replacing a year or two earlier so be it, the abuses are getting traffic on it's way faster and maintaining profitability. On a less used, less profitable canal avoiding wear and tear may be paramount, what we don't know is what went with not strapping boats to stop them, but we can be fairly certain it didn't involve hitting the bottom gates with a thwack. More likely the boats were carefully roped in and out and the whole operation was more bucolic. I suspect (although @Pluto might know more) that early lock operation on early canals, and the T&S was relatively early, was probably a relaxed affair until they got busy and/or until the railways started competing.

The bit in bold I was watching Bangers and Cash (whilst sorting Magpie the Elder's slide collection) last night and they were restoring a 1970s Saab. The materials were about £5k, the labour costs were north of £40k If that's what it costs for a 1970s mid size car, gawd knows what the equivalent is for a full length narrow boat!

They're certainly bringing them into line with what one might expect in central Dublin! And as Grand Canal Dock is about the only place to put long term moorings in the middle of Dublin (James Street Harbour was filled in years ago) such moorings locations are at a premium.

Somewhere down the line you have to compromise - the best bike is the one you can take on board. When I bought my first narrow boat there were deep scratches in the paint on the roof, probably being caused by a bike being dragged along when caught on a tree. Somewhere on the bed of the Cam there is a folding bike that was dragged off the roof.... I see you have dismissed Brompton's, my experience with them was good, even on towpaths. Bear in mind you shouldn't be going fast on a towpath anyway, and that very few towpaths now are the muddy, eroded, bramble strewn horrors of yore. I did most of the southern Oxford on a Brompton getting my car back after cruising. For me it was a Brompton or some very long walks. The Brompton can also be taken on buses, especially handy when the train you'd planned on turns out to be a bus....

The basic premise here isn't accurate - Juno has probably the best internal headroom of the boats I've owned, yet her cabin isn't significantly higher than a modern narrow boat. However there is much less boat "under the floor" than on a narrow boat - no stretchers, bearers or ballast - so you feet are only an inch above the water underneath in places. Add to that the gap between the ceiling and the roof is less (less insulation) and there is good headroom without excessive cabin height. The price for this is that it's colder in winter!

Viking still make them so obviously it is worth "producing boats for such a small market" I agree with all that. For information, Juno is a Viking 23 and has always had a 10hp engine, easily big enough unless you want to stem the tide in the Avon Gorge. Can I add, it would be helpful if those of us who do own grp cruisers weren't frequently contradicted by some posters who clearly do not. Some of the things said about GRP cruisers above can only come from people who've never had one. GRP cruisers are economic and practical - I'd have given up boat ownership long ago if narrow boats were the only option. Even a 23 foot steel narrow boat would cost far more to run over, say, ten years, than a fibreglass cruiser does.

This is from the Viking Owners Club website - gives it as 6 foot 6 inches. Vikings are all over the canal system so I can't think it's a major problem. Fir bridges and tunnels if you could stand on the back deck of a narrow boat to go through then the Viking should fit. The only places I can think of where mine almost certainly wouldn't fit are the M5 culvert on the Droitwich Canal and Froghall Tunnel on the Caldon. The highest point is the top of the windscreen. The canopy is higher when it's up, and needs to be taken down going under the lift bridge at the entrance to the Somerset Coal Canal. Not doing this early in my ownership was expensive, but I've had the frame rounded so it's lower at the edges and higher in the middle. I prefer cruising with the canopy down anyway. Viking website spec for 23 The first coffee of the morning, sitting on deck looking backwards, canopy up, rear screen raised, is exquisite. The photo is me on Christmas day And if you need to be sold the dream - this is me and Lady V out for the day near Avoncliffe

I have a fibreglass cruiser - a Viking 23. To be honest you'll hear a lot of rubbish about yoghurt pots, they're fine for canals. However I am beginning to think I'd like a boat I can step onto rather than need to climb onto, getting over the side deck and combing onto Juno's back deck is not something for dodgy knees and bad backs, especially as these small boats rock more readily - there's a Viking 26 centre cockpit moored near me and the combing is even higher and combined with a narrower side deck. In the medium term as my years advance I'm pondering a Wilderness Beaver or possibly even a Sea Otter for this reason