dmr

Anyway, more seriously he's moored in Cambrian Wharf so is right under the Flapper which is Birmingham' Heavy Metal pub. He's gong to be very very unhappy at the weekend!!! A surprisingly good and friendly pub, two real ales, and they let the dog in (she coped surprisingly well). Good quiz (on Wednesdays?) but the music can be very loud! ............Dave

In winter, on days when we don't move, we always run the engine 6pm to 8pm to charge the batteries etc. This gets the back cabin nice and warm ready for bed, and the engine works like a night storage heater and holds some heat till the small hours. Still cold first thing in the morning though. Another slight advantage s that as power consumption is minimal overnight the batteries are spending longer at a higher state of charge. .............Dave

Look on Google, either the map or the satellite picture. Past the pub, under the two road bridges, the river then does a little a dog leg, then before you get properly into the flash you turn to the left, almost 180 degrees, and there is a little inlet, almost heading back towards the pub,. The new moorings are there. .............Dave

Sounds good. What's your phone number? Might get to Middlewich late today but weather not so good so will probably stop somewhere on the arm. Have heard a few people say this, but some locals say there has been a lot of silting in the last few years. We started gong upwards about n the centre and the water was deep, we turned putting the front over to the left and that's when it got shallow. ............Dave

As said above, Red Lion is a good pub, best not to go beyond that. ............Dave

We went just a bit beyond the new moorings to wind and just touched the bottom. We are about 32 inches deep at the back. Plenty of water at turn into the new moorings but did not go in. Just take it slow in case! I second all the good things said about the Red Lion. Open mic night is great Only issue is Beer quality can be a bit variable but when its good its fine! Just left Chester, Will be in Middlewich probably Tuesday then South on the T&M. Where are you?, Could do with a bit of diesel! .............Dave

Take care here. It sounds to me like your survey found some welding required and you had this done badly. Others may correct me,as I may be wrong but I am not sure that it is the job of a pre-purchase survey to specify exactly what welding is required? The survey says welding needed then you discuss the extent and implementation of this with your welder (extensive plating vs patching etc) so I fear your claim may well fall somewhere between the surveyor and the welder which is not good...... And you have already learned that your welder was not a good one! Get the work done by your new good welder, put this behind you, and enjoy living on your boat! Boating is all about learning! ..............Dave

How many "numerous" thin bits and what is the rest of the steel like? A surveyor will test several spots on the hull, and hopefully use experience to choose potential bad spots.. If the boat s mostly solid but has just a very few very thin spots (as can certainly happen) then its quite likely they won't be found, but if the hull is in a bad way throughout it should have been spotted. Rusting from the inside out in particular can give very localised pitting Did the survey say the boat was solid, or just "ok"? Don't get legal people involved unless you are sure that you have got a very strong case, better to spend your money fixing the boat.

Not 100% sure but strongly suspect it is now owned by a member of this forum. Fuel is expensive and hard to get on the Eastern K&A so a new boat above the flight would be great. There is fuel usually available at Honeystreet (must stop calling it Gibsons) at a "mddllng" price though fuel sales are a bit secondary to their hire boat bossiness. Only other canalside sales are Newbury and Aldermaston. Both very expensive and not easy to get to when the Kennet is flowing, especially since Newbury took the winding hole away. ...............Dave

With a slow tap it can take a couple of hours to fill a big tank, preventing many other boaters from stopping and spending money. We stopped at a chandlers just outside Manchester, got a very cheap and good pump out (I doubt he made much money on that) and then agreed that we would put some water in the tank (for free) but would move on quickly if another customer turned up. ............Dave

I wonder if the people who are voting for a toll system are the very same people who complain that CC'ers don't move far enough? .............Dave

Do you have enough boating experience to specify what you want the builder to build? What sort of boat are you dreaming off? When asked to suggest a boatbuilder this forum will always list the names of the "top" builders, but these are mostly specialists. Norton Canes has been mentioned but these specialise in big solid trad boats with portholes, recessed panels and often an engine room and back cabin. If you desire a floating apartment with big bus windows and a cruiser stern then many of the "top" builders will not enjoy working with you! ............Dave

It would be interesting to see figures. I suspect that more and more Narrowboaters are becoming comfortable to use the Thames as a transit between Brentford,, K&A Wey, and Oxford, and that as more do so the fact that the Thames is very pleasant place to be must spread by word of mouth. I think the less good news is the decline in the Thames plastic cruisers. A Thames Lockie suggested that a few years of floods and bad weather has caused a lot of owners to sell up. It costs a lot to keep a boat in a marina on the Thames just to use it for a few weekends each year, and if you don't even get those weekends its not good.. I would say in the just 7 or 8 years that we have been using the Thames there has been a noticeable shift from plastic cruisers to NB's....and the majority of the plastic stuff is hire boats. (however we usually use the Thames Spring and Autumn, maybe its different in the summer???) ..............Dave

The boat museum is surprisingly good, in fact one of the best museums I have visited. The Canal from Chester to the museum is not the most exciting and the staircase locks in Chester are a bit intimidating. Aside from the museum Ellesmere Port is not the best place and the only pub in the area is the roughest (and also friendliest) boozer I have been in for a long long time, though if your not faint hearted I would recommend a visit, they don't make them like that anymore! Nice moorings in the museum. ................Dave .

One, if not both, is/are used for permanently housing historic ships as part of the museum. Not sure if those could be easily moved. It would be a bugger if they sank! ............Dave

You need to go down the Walsall canal, then you will understand! ............Dave

Eek I didn't realise that sinking looked like this We sank at Middlewich a couple of days ago, and in the winter we sink on the K&A most nights!!!!!. ...............Dave

Been there and done that, and at least you have an excuse. If its a modern "round window" then the maker may well carry spares. If its a proper brass port-hole then it can be harder. Assuming you have another similar one then take it to a good glass shop and ask for a copy. But note... It should be safety glass, most glass shops can't do this in house so they just act as a middleman for a company who can so...... It will take a few days The glass shop only makes a small mark-up so might not be too enthusiastic, they might tell you that you don't need safely glass. If you order 2 or 3 (as spares) they might be a bit more enthusiastic. Not cheap! ..............Dave. Like daytime!!!!! Did you see the best jokes list from the Edinborough festival??? Red sky at night shepherds delight, blue sky in the morning....day!!!! .............Dave

You need to use your boat "bone fide" (genuine) for navigation. Its pretty much up to you and CaRT to decide what this means. There was a court case a while ago that concluded that if you want to stay in one place but move your boat just enough to avoid staying in one place then that is not "bone fide". There is another very interesting and well informed thread running here right now where it looks like a judge decided that "bone fide" may depend upon where you are are your individual personal circumstances. Others would say that if you even need to ask this question you are on dodgy ground! ................Dave

I have never managed to properly measure our top speed, but estimate it to be over 6mph but probably less than 7. The JD3 is only 30 to 35 horsepower, and we are a big boat (71 foot, about 32 inches deep and maybe 24 ton), so if you can use your full 50 with a decent sized prop you should be faster, 8mph would be impressive.. .............Dave

That's the River Weaver! Wide. deep, almost no flow, and very few boats if you go beyond Northwich. Even better it has a 6mph speed limit so you can take a JD3 to full revs (onset of black smoke) and still be just about legal. .............Dave

My bigger concern is that the trip boats makes navigation through the right hand arch a bit tricky, especially in a longer boat, I would now chose to go through the wrong arch. The shape (huge overhang) and height of the bow on the trip boat is such that if you did hit it the impact would be against your cabin side rather than "gunnel". ................Dave

Its not something you see everyday, in fact this example is the only one that I am aware of who does it properly. I know there are a couple of engine-less boats on the Western K&A, one that is pushed along with the boat pole (shaft) but I suspect that is just to avoid attention from CaRT or due to inability to organise an engine rather than as a chosen life style. I might be wrong though. Its not uncommon to be towed by a friends boat when a boater experiences long term engine problems. .............Dave

The new CaRT definition of CCing is only a handful of miles each year. There are a very lovely family on a very interesting boat who CC on the Grand Union and North Oxford, easily exceeding CaRTs definition of CC'ng and do it entirely by bow hauling. These are probably the "exception" rather than the "Rule", but they prove it can be done and they are certainly self sufficient genuine boaters rather than scroungers!.. Last year we met a bloke bow hauling an old butty from somewhere up North down to London. I dunno if he continued to move once he got to London though! ..............Dave. ..............Dave

He wont be the first to put a smart and expense interior into a no-hope shell though!. Maybe he should come clean and say the money is to set up a boat based business and buy a better boat? When things go wrong some of us sort it out ourselves, some ask their mates for help, but the new way to fix anything is to ask the www to help! In this case it very nearly worked too I personally think that you have the better way of dong things. .............Dave