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I don't think that BW know if my boat is my home or not - certainly I've not told them, and unless I was to be paying for one of their residential moorings, I can't see how else they would know. BW do have a land address for me, as I belive they require for all boaters, and I would expect then to not be able to give that out. The physical location of my boat on the network is no secret to anyone who walks past, so I'm at a loss as to why it is beyond BW's power to tell what is visible to anyone who happens to be in the right place.

Now thawing good and proper here on the Macc. Still over an inch of ice left mind you, but if this weather holds maybe I'll be able to get back to my mooring soon without wrecking the new blacking...

My tip of the day. Walking along a very narrow gunwale while carrying a 15' length of cabin floor is a bad idea. I didn't go in but it was a close run thing and getting the board back out wasn't much fun. My tip of the day. Walking along a very narrow gunwale while carrying a 15' length of cabin floor is a bad idea. I didn't go in but it was a close run thing and getting the board back out wasn't much fun.

I think it is taken as read that pushing ice about doesn't do the blacking on moored boats any good, however it is the case that wood and grp boats are at risk of much more serious damage.

Cabin is composite with oval metal handrails. I wonder if they were added with the now removed bridge bars - maybe while she was at Anderton. I looked at Jim's list of current registered boats for Rugby Boatbuilders, and found she is the only boat listed as 31'. However, the same search does find a few that are 30' so I imagine that they may really be 31'. A couple of clouds still exist with their original names, doubtless several more survive renamed.

With all this talk about how long one can go without emptying ones tank, surely a lot depends how much use the thing gets. I liveaboard and have a cassette, but only have to empty it about once every 5 weeks. However, a major reason for this is that I work very long hours, and tend not to spend *that* long onboard and awake most days.

Sorry to bring this back from the near dead - I've now got some more pictures, to try and get an I.D. This is the old photo I have, showing her in the red and blue - any idea's for date and location. This shows a patch of the green on the cabin roof. The item on the left with the norrow scrape in it is the handrail - I wonder if this is a later addition, as it clearly has red paint under the blue, and the red is the bottom coat.

I suppose it all depends what you mean. Because of the way moorings tend to be obtained, normally ones neighbours are not of your choosing. However, there is a certain friendliness within most mooring areas, much more so than is commonly found on land. As for peoples employment I don't know of any performing artists, but I do know factory workers, boat engineers, airline pilots, the retired, window cleaners, the unemployed, driving instructors etc who own boats - its just like the different types of people who own houses.

So it sounds like claiming for the calorifyer is out (waste heat), but the alternator that is charging the cabin batteries is not (as it uses power that would not otherwise be needed.)

I could be wrong, but I imagine the expert eyes asessment went as follows: 1) Its it pretty for the uninnitiated general public 2) If its indoors, do we want the space. 3) Is it an "eyesore" that might reduce the cafe earnings Right, we'll scrap it then. I can recall climbing over what I'm pretty sure were the sad remains of Ethel as a kid on a visit there (probably in the early 90's years ago) - I seem to recall a boat that looked like her and in about the same state. Doubless these-days kids aren't allowed to get within a 100 yards of a boat, incase they sue. Out of interest, what are the crieria for "b list" boats to get new homes - do they want money for them, do they want assurances as to the way the boat will be treated/used, are they only allowed to pass boats on to other museams, or could they end up in the hands of private individuals...

He's down to two now, both of which look like they were built the same time as the ark. I belive that this summer is the last season for them, after which hireing will cease completely.

How many of these are semi-derelict and under theat, against boats in fair condition which they are trying to sell in order to raise funds - or does this list consist entirely of "last chance saloon" boats? At least one of those boats - the concrete barge - surely needs very little work(unless I'm much mistaken), so why do they want rid - I presume it has little or no value, but I wasn't aware that they were short on space.

I once had dinner with a man from the EA - he was involved in the polution control of the Macclesfield canal. I asked him if diesel spills were a major problem - he said no, unless they were really really massive.

There is a difference between a poor quality of survey report , and a survey that reports the boat to be in bad shape. If I had a survey, and the results were the former, I would be inclined to complain. If that latter, then I might well be greatful for having not wasted a lot of money. However, in this case, the argument is irrelivent. The owner hasn't yet recived the survey to complain about it. Unless Tom's manner of surveying involves hitting expensive fragile bits of it with a lump hammer or somthing, I can't see quite what the person commssioning the survey could have to complain about.

Mine went up - £850 to £1000. Mostly because the owner of my moorings is cutting back at what is left of his old and tired hire fleet, and needs more income...

I would think there is potential for a case for Defamation of Character. However in order to win the case, the owners of the boat in question would have to prove that 1) they were identified and 2) wrongly labeled as people who don't pay the bills. If Tom is speaking the truth, and it does sound like he is, then the case would collapse on point two. However, with this sort of thing, it is the cost of the action, rather than who would win or lose that tends to cause posting to get withdrawn.

They are both politicans, so they never tell the truth except by accident.

Hang on a moment chaps... Here are three possible situations. 1) The boater owes money, and does a bunk. Mr Keeling does nothing, and ends up out of pocket. Whatever the boater's story, or reasons for not paying Mr Keeling, it seems to me that Mr Keeling suffers. 2) The boater owes money, and does a bunk. Mr Keeling asks for help on here, and finds the boat. Mr Keeling then talks to the boats new owners, who hopefully pay the bill, and recive the full survey details. 3) The boater owes money, and does a bunk. Mr Keeling asks for help on here, and we fail to find the boat. The boat owner in question may then be subject to some rather negitive comment, but surely if you fail to pay a bill that is hardly unjust. Unless people belive Mr Keeling is not telling the truth, or holding somthing back about this situation, (and all the evidence so far is that he is a reputable profesional, with no axe to grind) what exactly is the problem?

I can't say I'm very sympathetic to the developers of new marina's. From my personal observation, most of them seem to think of them just as a licence to print money. If someone proposed building a massive one just up the cut from me I would almost certainly object. I suspect that most boaters feel the same about their local patch. I live just next door to a small marina. That is totally different to the sort of things that are built now. It is basically a small basin, that combines some end-on online mooring and some jettys. If the sorts of marina that people propose now were like that, I'd have no major hassle. The nearest marina to here that isn't an adaped working days feature, has totally different. Miles of of regimented pontoons and artifical stips of grass "bank" to seperate the cut propper from the marina area. Its also got ten times as many boats as my local marina... so doubless in summer their are lots and lots of people mucking about trying for the swing in from the main line, or even more exciting, trying for the reversing out. I'd feel more sympathetic if those in said marina's weren't also being robbed blind by the owners. People who buy boats with marina berths I suspect frequently find that the fees are harder to afford than expected, and go looking for a cheeper online mooring - putting pressure on propper moorings in the area, making it harder for people like me who want to moor online, just because it is online. Ultimately, if BW want more boats on the system, one of three things has to happen. 1) Lots of people buy boats, park them in marina's and not use them. BW's desired senario, and totally implausable to anyone else. 2) BW open more canal's for the extra boaters to use. 3) BW double up existing canal inastructure, to allow more boats per day round critical points on the network. Otherwise, the canal network is going to end up resembling the M25 at 8.30AM on a monday morning, and people will be getting overstaying notices on the two day moorings waiting to accend flights of locks...

After I knew they were fairly thin, but before I found out just how thin they were... initally the boatyard said there was 2.3mm left at the worst point, but when they were doing the work, they gritblasted holes into the worst patch. That said, its still within a mm of build thickness in the vicinity of the waterline. Above internal floor line, she is all in reasonable condition, its only the bilge area thats a problem. I felt that the bottom of the boat at 2'3" draft was unlikely to encounter large slabs of ice, and it seems I was correct, as she didn't sink...

4 Cars, 2 diesel, 2 petrol. All qualify for classic insurance, two qualify for tax exemption. 1 boat (diesel) I once owned 13 landrovers at one time...

I went ice crunching in the freeze just before Christmas. Not from pleasure, but due to the fact that my car had broken, and so I needed get back down to somewhere where I could walk to world from. I was also rather late in the evening leaving Marple, and arrived back on my mooring in Macclesfield at 00:45... Reactions along the cut varied. Some people were clearly wondering why I hadn't been sectioned years ago. I got one rather nasty "your wrecking our blacking" type comment, and a few distinctly hostile looks. A lot of friendly reactions also, including one chap I passed on the towpath, who shouted over the sound of smashing ice "that looks like fun doing that", with a rather evnious look.

Yes, but if Mayalld is correct, it would then be legal to use undyed gas oil in diesel cars having paid 21p a litre tax rather than 43p. Cue eveyone starts drivng round on Gas oil at about 75p a litre, and the government going bankcrupt.