Chris Pink

That's my understanding. I thought I may have misunderstood. Shared ownership would presumably be need to be declared for a comprehensive insurance policy, though why there should be a problem I don't know, but, for instance, what about Basic Boat which insures the person not the boat?

There are many things that are not discussed in a national and public forum. As I pointed out to Lady M, the L word has lots to do with it and the T word is absolutely paramount in all such cases.

Perhaps the clue is in the 'L' word - just saying like. Is the BSS different for a shared boat?

Have you tried Trinity Marine (in Devon?) They have some chunky stuff.

GIven that I enjoy teasing pompous prats and buffoons and, over the years, I've got quite good at it, I confidently assert that I could have you jumping up and down in impotent rage within around 45 seconds. indeed so, though I believe, from his accent and a nice conversation with his femme later in the evening - as with all that 'rushing' we all ended up in the same port- that he was from Paris so not strictly speaking local. And, as I say, I made a good new friend earlier in the day, much better than playing up to le Mayall de Paris. Anyway, enjoy your cheese-flicking, I'm off to explore.

yes.

Excuse me for contradicting you (I do so hate doing) but you wouldn't. These aren't those cute little English hire boats these are great monster things usually with 6 to 8 people aboard and the canal is big and wide. You would have done exactly what I did (or was intending to do) moor up and then explain to anyone who was worried that I wasn't interested in their queue, purely this inviting tree. To whom exactly would you have explained? And how would you have stopped your mooring manoeuvre mid-flight to make those explanations? I understand that baiting me is your favourite pastime but I'm afraid in this instance you're out of luck. I got no approbation from the witnesses who were there and I am satisfied that I acted reasonably and properly except that I teased one pompous idiot. If you behave like a pompous idiot in my presence, expect the same.

I treat as I find Nick. Pompous fools and idiots get just as short shrift in real life as I give them here. I wonder what you're like for real?

I do think the pay-in tariff has some ethical issues but wouldn't blame anyone for taking up the offer. But I see that even with this level of generation you still use gas for boiling water. Camping over a damp tea bag are you? Maybe the boaters can moor alongside an electricity bollard and sell surplus at FIT to pay for their installs?

1. No.I was perfectly aware of what he wanted to say, in your scenario I would take action first. As the intention in your scenario was benign (unlike this one) I wouldn't have an issue with the communication other than to privately observe that your communications skills were pretty crap. 2. No, exactly one person was rude / confrontational, all others that day were pleasant. 3. That's exactly what I did do once I moored up. Without raising my voice. I am not going to indulge geezer's pomposity in front of an audience. As I have respect for you Pete, unlike most of the other plonkers who are having a greenie fest seeing who can flick their knob cheese furthest, I will ask you to turn the tale around. If I come on here and said "a boat went passed a line of waiting boats" (let's drop this 'queue' crap) at a lock closed for lunch and I shouted at him but he ignored me. I went up to him and shouted at him again but he was rude to me and then had the temerity to sit there and have lunch instead of telling each and every one of us his intentions" - your sympathy would have been with me? And, even if I had wanted to mollify instead of ignore said gentleman, I would have struggled to control my boat and explain over the noise of the engine my exact intentions in French. I did what I though best, moored first and afterwards reassured the polite ones politely and the rude one with disdain.

Do you mean the internal baffle plate? Possibly replaced with a back boiler?

see post #27

So you'll call me a xxxx in french but you wouldn't do it in English? Bless. You like things in neat rows do you? you are incapable of working out who is next in line or who is due to go up the lock? You'd see a boat go past and immediately get on your pathetic high horse "oh he must be queue jumping". Where do you get this queue in a neat line for locks rubbish from? I'll moor my boat where it's safe and there's space. And if there happens to be a bit of shade while I have lunch great. And if it annoys your sense of propriety and neat lines of boats waiting in turn, then tough. I will excuse your ignorance about lock moorings because you obviously haven't been there. As I say, there were 6 boats waiting plus the other 2 that went up with me, I had pleasant conversations with all of them except one. You would obviously be that one. If you want to boat looking for confrontation, you'll find it. I boat to have a relaxing good time, And that, is exactly what I did. At no inconvenience to anyone else. If you have a problem with that then that says far more about you than it does about me.

If that's you best way of telling somebody they are standing into danger then your communication skills in the real world are a lot worse than they are on here. As for your other point. If someone, in front of another 6 boats wants to have a go at me then I will choose the time and place. And that was once I was moored up. Three people spoke to me after that, only one was confrontational, the other two were happy to have a normal conversation. As I say, I don't respond to "OY' and I never will. (although I have thought of one exception "OY, you get orf of my land" emphasised with a shotgun ;-) He could come and speak to me as others did. He could call the name of my boat (as you do). So you're another I can come up you and go "OY" and you'll respond positively. yeah right.

Is that why your boats have such a bad reputation? Because you don't know the courteous way to hail another boat?

Fine. If I see you out on the cut (La Toc, easy to remember) instead of hailing you conventionally and with courtesy. I'll shout "oy" at you and see how you react. You are just arguing for the sake of it. You certainly would not react favourably. I'll ask you again. If you're hailed would you prefer to be hailed "La Toc, ahoy" or somesuch, or even just "ahoy" or "OY"?

If that's what you want to call it, fine. Just don't ever call me "Oy" if you expect to get my attention. But if you're happy to answer to it that's also fine by me. I will also point out, seeing as you are determined to have a go (again), that the name of my boat is signwritten in three places so if he had wanted to be polite it was entirely possible.

I told you Mr B. I don't respond to "OY", never have, never will. Do you?

I've been doing the practical today, in a couple of staircases and although I have a pair of bollards it's impossible (as I think Tam pointed out in his earlier post) to use them like in the photo and have the eye of the line on them as well. The eye must be on the bankside bollard for this technique to work. I was going up but realised that it would seriously worry me going down if both ends of the rope were on the bollard. If, for whatever reason, you needed to have it narrow-boat stylee and the eye was on one bitt then you would have to use the other bitt for taking the turns. I found that that was OK except when the angle changed (fore to aft in this case) the turns were no longer in the right place, there was potential for jamming or slipping off, and that's when there could have been danger in putting fingers down to adjust. It's not so difficult with a 15 tonne boat but I can imagine with an 80 tonne boat it has to be right. Strangely it's not the case with a t-stud, they work fine with both ends of the line from whatever angle.

Well perhaps a little but it was a very nice tree and I would have gone a long way back to find such nice shade. (which I reckon was what was making M Grossier so grumpy, being in 35° heat with no shade and the ecluse shut for lunch) And yes, I was aware of the potential for interpretation but that's not really my problem. I always thought it was the french that had no respect for queues. The english in the queue didn't seem to have a problem - or maybe they were sitting there seething waiting for someone else to have a go. le tease? Moi? mais non, je suis le petit chat.

Oh it does make me laugh. There's a lock coming up, never been here before, by the look of the hire boats waiting, it's just round the bend. I'm going to stop for lunch and let the queue clear but let's just see what's round the bend. Plenty of room to turn round if there's nowhere to moor. Round the bend and there's a right shady little spot, perfect. Right up by the lock. No-one moored there. I see if I get the boat in I'll be under the tree and can watch the fun and games while I have a leisurely lunch. So there I am, pootling along on tickover, and I hear "OY" someone behind my left ear. Now anyone who knows me even a little will know I answer to my name, or any polite form of address, I have never and will never answer to "OY". So, ignore. carry on. "OY", "OY". Anyway I get to my intended spot, stop, neatly because there's an audience. And geezer arrives, still shouting, "monsieur" this time but shouting "You can't moor there, we're all waiting". "I know" I say, quietly, "and I don't respond to "OY" (Actually now I given you a clue it was more of a "euh" than an "oy" but the meaning was clear. He was obviously asking his dog to desist at smelling a lady's arse or somesuch. So he repeats himself, a little louder, because I obviously am mooring there, my ropes are off, I'm off - it's a clue "You can't moor there, we're all waiting". I say in my best French (not that good really but I try) "Oui, monsieur, je ne suis pas stupide". He's been talking in English all this time..... and he repeats himself "you can't moor there" (a little louder, the English are obviously deaf as well as stupid) so I say again, in english this time (the french usually understand my english better than my french) "monsieur, I am not stupid" and pojnt out again that I never answer to 'heu" or "oy" - my french had not been really equal to this challenge - so this time he says, in English, "This is France,we talk in french". I am quite obviously straining not to laugh. So I say, "d'accord, nous parlons Francais" and he says, in English "You can't moor there we're all waiting" at which I told him in my best French that I didn't understand his french and he was being very rude. That my friends say the french are rude but I don't agree. At which point he stomps off to complain with someone else "au revoir M Grossier" I say, as I believe in politeness. An Australian woman comes up at this point and starts to explain, in English, that he was worried I was jumping the queue. I told her a. I'd gathered that b. I don't do being shouted at. So she says, "let's start again" I say "Ok, hello, my names Chris" - turns out she's Susan and I say, as the lock is shut for lunch I'm going to stop under this lovely shady tree and have a french lunch and watch them all go up the lock. We parted on very good terms. I also had to apologise to a scotsman because I didn't understand him (o these language issues) and I settled down in the shade and had lunch. All the queueing boats got to go up the lock. I am childishly glad to report that M Grossier was also Mr Incompetent, big style. I watched a bit of French holiday sunday hire boating (much like the English version) and went up the lock in turn. Ironically I would have been at the lock before all of them but by chance and stopping to help someone start his engine - I discovered someone who didn't buy my boat because it was for sale for €100,000 -so we had a great laugh and I have a new French friend. So it's not just Braunston Pickle on a Sunday or Bradford Lock on Easter Monday. It happens on the Canal du Midi too.

...got a big boy to hide behind now Nicky? good-oh. Indeed, and inverter and copper. If you throw £5,000 at a piece of bread you'd expect it to just roll over and die, sod the toaster.

the usual with peniches is a pair outside the wheelhouse door, so 5 metres or so forward of the stern post (or more importantly the rudder) and one pair on the front deck. The wheel house pair pull the whole barge in against a rope running back when mooring but if I have understood Tam right (and his posted video) it's more usual to use the front pair against the motor in a lock. So back to the OP. I would have thought, with a cruiser stern wide boat you want them at the front of the back deck. Possibly along the gunwales if the back deck is particularly short but I wouldn't think them easy or safe to use there.

Not really. In gear it will tend to go the opposite way to the prop turning and a small (emphasis on the small) amount of counter-tiller will be needed to go in a straight line. This is normal and due to the way a propellor spins (research 'prop walk') Out of gear, the boat should continue on the course it's on (wind and current allowing). It's the way to leave the helm for short periods to, for instance, put the kettle on. If it doesn't I would looking at the trim - is it flat in the water side to side - are there any fenders down, does the tiller return to a central position (easily) when you let go of it.

I think from reading the article, the caission came off its rails, jamming the boat under the gate. With the seal broken and the boat there they couldn't seal the top pound and thus the water. "for an unknown reason the 'bac' left its rails, the barge found itself thus trapped preventing the closure of the doors" 'bac' I've not heard before, the dictionary says 'tray' so caisson probably (though isn't 'caission' french anyway?)