Stroudwater1

Neither I’m afraid. I would keep looking for a boat that is a fit for us at just over £50k and keep just under 10k in an ISA for contingency A 20k boat will most likely chew up time and money. You can earn the money but anno domini won’t return the time. The only benefit is personal satisfaction etc and all that goes with that.

Yes that’s one of the boats that carried porcelain around on the Caldon canal.

It isn’t a problem to do the same stretch. Canals in Summer often look surprisingly different in Autumn Spring or Winter, and even at the same time of year. Besides the backdrop things are always going on round and about and travelling slowly allows us to appreciate that better. You couldn’t do much better to appreciate that by reading Harnsers travel blogs that @ditchcrawler writes to see how things change and interests happen. He’s covered the same area many times yet each time it’s different in many ways. Just a small example House just above Hillmorton locks Rugby in Spring Same house a bit further away in Autumn

This morning, (early) hot air balloon view of Porthaven moorings, Keynsham. Bristol. Avon Severn bridges and Bristol And hereabouts

I would agree with Tam and Di, there are places that would remove the concrete at a cost but that’s likely to cause damage even if a small possibility. Unless water is coming from leakage of the hull then best left well alone. Different I know but a couple of friends go on car ralleys cross Europe. One has a car untouched other than oil and usual servicing the other two strip engines down, change seals etc on clutch and brake systems and service the carbs. Etc etc. They have both broken down and been shipped back twice yet in 20 runs the guy who just has a service has got beach in time every occasion. Tinkering however good you are is not always the best unless there really are true issues.

I doubt that Braunston would have the facilities for removing concrete these days personnel wise. There are people around who could do that but it’s unlikely to be cheap, you probably would be best with the boatyards that Alec has mentioned. Our experience of buying from Braunston was actually very good three years ago. The personnel have changed since then though. They seem pleasant enough still. They do sell a number of boats. There hasn’t been grumble on here about many brokers recently. Theres much grumbling here generally so that could be a yardstick?

That doesn’t seem to happen on staircases, or Bratch. Vlockies pretty much run the whole show without asking which is a shame. What is difficult about the Wolverhampton flight? Not sure it’s any more difficult than Tardebigge these days?

That’s a very well known scam of an emergency stop so someone goes into the back of a scammer. The scammer then suffers terrible whiplash. 550,000 whiplash claims in 2019/20 year. Many genuine but that’s just under 1% of the population annually with a claim. Seems pretty high! https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-1-billion-savings-for-motorists-as-whiplash-reforms-come-into-force

It’s clearly the boat running into you at fault as they had an insufficient array of LED lights. 😀 It seems like it’s similar to a rear shunt. It’s rarely if ever the fault of the car driver whose rear of the car has been stoved in. I expect there are exceptions but not often

Oh dear, what a let down. I hope at least you’ve saved the red carpet on board to mark a Hudsons arrival?

Can’t you use your prop or leg her through like the rest of us Alec? 🤣😉 TBH it would be interesting to see if legging would be any good at the end the tug was in. It’s shallow/ muddy as mentioned and even an ABC boat with a small draft that followed us through struggled. Probably more than a large propped boat. I think Oates may have tried this? Hopefully the Coombeswood canal trust dredger will fit and work its magic.

Agree, or watched as they came to try and turn and offered to help. It sounds like you are moored too close to a winding point @LadyG TBH. It could be in the map or blurb that the hire firm supplies. I remember that Shire supply detailed advice on these sort of things.

I doubt anyone is saying it’s no risk when reversing, or suddenly swinging the tiller. People say the risk when sitting on back rails cruising where sight ahead is good is minuscule. This seems to be right. It’s hard to see the rudder can be forcibly pushed so far over when travelling forward in the middle of a canal, even with a heavy submerged item. It looks like a Napton hire boat so could be Autherley or Napton. However IIRC the Autherley incident was last year and the poor person I believe may have died. Such a sad story though.

Access is easier at Tardebigge but these things do take a while to resolve and as we know Tardebigge top lock is very deep. I can’t remember how long other locks like Hurleston took to do, but imagine it will be similar. I wouldn’t think it will be done too soon though TBH. Im not sure how boaters will know the specific beam of their boats with great accuracy. I hope that it won’t affect fuel boat Roach but fear it will.

A trip through Gosty Hill tunnel is a must do for any boater, especially as once you have gone through you realise you have to return through it. Hawne basin is lovely but watch the entrance bridge. It’s quite low but pretty much matches Gosty Hills profile apparently.

I’m not sure any surveyor would be quite right to survey Vigilante. Are there any specific surveyors appropriate for Vigilante ? Re inspection launch on the Leeds and Liverpool I wondered whether this was one there as well? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166959774221?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=O2P-icTrTIy&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=XllhT-BWQmi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=WHATS_APP

You need to open the lower lock top paddles ideally just as opening the upper locks bottom ones otherwise if you leave the lower locks paddles closed till a bit later much of the upper locks water will spill down the bywash. However this is not particularly applicable on paired locks, just crack on there surely.

Don’t see what’s wrong with that, what’s the point in mooring up waiting causing a queue and possibly grounding when a lock is available? Using two locks like this happens all the time on Hillmorton, though the depth of each lock is less the utilisation is more. Can you go to the angry or impatient boaters section for some therapy?

I’ve had two punctures in the 6 years I’ve had my car. The first was sorted by fortune as we were passing a friends house at 10pm. They kindly dropped us home. I sorted the tyre the next day. The other time was not good, on the M5 at 17.35. RAC came fairly fast and as we had missed the tyre depo had to call the emergency car tyre fitter . Overall we spent 2 hours up the bank of the M5 and £250 for the tyre. You would have thought I’d have learnt and got an emergency tyre but no. Total distance travelled by me RAC tyre fitter would probably be much more than any amount saved by not having a spare tyre. Re the fenders. Is there any benefit in tying a black plastic bag or a small tarpaulin over when not using the boat to save from UV damage?

Good thought though the toilet rolls would have gotten properly soggy staying outside so long at Fazeley. It looks like AJ was holidaying up there so it probably worked well with all parties and AJ probably clocked up business mileage to go on holiday up there.

They look really good. I’ve sometimes seen fabric or black plastic clipped over the top of these sometimes when the boat isn’t in use. Presumably it slows down UV damage. Wonder if anyone uses that on here? What a fantastic service- suppliers and delivery to Scotland of Glitz toilet rolls too.

Would be interesting to hear @IanD perspective on this. He may have insight that could be carefully skirted round in a round about manner. I’ve altered your post as I’m sure that’s what you meant on a public forum 😉

The location states uncertain on the sale. Presumably it’s a Grand Union lock. It’s a very low pound by the looks! So probably on a flight which narrows it down from Buckby to London but rural and towpath on the left. Would it be Buckby locks? Love the NatWest logo

Afraid it’s not quite right with blood tests the level can be lowered during an attack. As per the NICE guidelines. So it’s probably better to have a non urgent blood test. “If the serum urate level is below 360 micromol/L but gout is strongly suspected, an additional serum urate level measurement should be done 2 to 4 weeks after the acute flare has settled. This is because serum urate levels can be lower when a person is experiencing a gout flare” https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/gout/diagnosis/investigations/#:~:text=not have gout.-,If the serum urate level is below 360 micromol%2FL,flare [NICE%2C 2022].

What a great paint job bet you are very pleased with that. 👍