roland elsdon

Yep carbon monoxide blame it on the weather, 34 degrees and 100kph wind, distracted in mid post by power going out and trees getting blown across paddock

I'll get my tapping hammer and ready faded paint out...and do some ageing

How many people put petrol generators on their back decks and fill them with the fire lit...its down to the prevailing wind and luck. Petrol and boats just don't mix. No of boats I used to see with petrol genies running on the back step "venting" through the doors. I remember an incident when a family in Ricky with a residential mooring shed etc put the genny in the well deck turned it on for the telly....and had a long hard sleep. Day after when they were released from hospital with co2 poisoning I walked past. Guess what genny in bilges going again... Co2 and petrol vapour cannot climb out of a hull

Err I deliberately missed out the wide northern canals that he may legitimately wish to access with a wide beam boat, I'd Calder and hebble and Leeds and Liverpool, as I assumed that why he set out looking at 58 ft. My point being that after 30 years of full length boats 71'6"" I changed to 55 ft to increase my own range.

The minute you realise the reality of not being able to do the best bits of the system will be the minute you realise you do not need anything bigger than 58' by 6'10. Llangollen out, Oxford out, Coventry out, Leicester out,Huddersfield narrow. Trent and Mersey out, There is no point coming from here ( Oz) to uk and then being stuck on canals with immovable wide boats. Unless Europe is your ultimate destination. buy a narrowboat, go play, if you still want a fat boat then buy secondhand, when the reality and the fees start to bite there will be loads about. They depreciate faster than a pile of scrap over a cliff as well

She is as pretty underneath as on top..id come and do the bottom boards for reminiscing but unfortunately we haven't flown home yet...

I love this idea. It brings a whole new method of getting my boat fixed and I shall try it. Nb wotsit on dock next week. Come and visit the docking of my historic motor. admission fee. Bag of oakum , bag of horseshit, barrel of tar. Feel free to assist. carpenter with own elm tree particularly welcome. enjoy the docking and don't have too many surprises .. There's usually one or two...

Most boats in London have knackered (Tm) engines. It means you can contact cart and say I have a knackered engine . They understand this and let you stay for years. Then when you want to sell the boat you ring up rcr and say fix it they state actually we are a breakdown company not an engine rebuild service, and you broke down some years ago.... Most boats in London have knackered (Tm) engines. It means you can contact cart and say I have a knackered engine . They understand this and let you stay for years. Then when you want to sell the boat you ring up rcr and say fix it they state actually we are a breakdown company not an engine rebuild service, and you broke down some years ago....

Birmingham always used to be bad I'd heard such good reports in the last few years I had almost decided to go back last visit 1990s. Maybe won't bother. In the 80s it was glue sniffers.

Yep and rebottoming fenny cost more than our first two year old fully fitted 45 foot colecraft...

4 years to find these two. Both watertight. Both second hand. Price £110 total Didnt want to repaint thaxted and Mecca's cans. Our cans are home painted always have been . They are not traditionally painted but show aspects of our life at the time we own them. So Thaxted is towing Atalanta on her can and the cats and bikes have a place too. We reckon that in itself is a tradition, rather than buying from a shop. I like these new ones. Sue might get them finished this year drawing ...Australia on a can is tricky.

First time went into smethwick with thaxted there were glue heads dancing around the place. Wishing to get through fast we were thwarted by the need to remove all fenders bow and stern and hold the tiller over. Nearly went the other way. It's the little things you remember...

Back in the early 80s before boats got complicated we had a colecraft with 1 yes 1 battery and a Perkins electric only start engine. As impoverished people our solution was simple. Buy a second battery and take the flat one on the rack of the cycle to work every other day. ( work being in the physics lab at Brunel university) in those days you knew when the battery was flat when the lights dimmed to nothing. At which point you gave up we always filled the kettle when the lights were good. Weekends were spent boating which helped. Charging the batteries by running the engine while stationary was a cardinal no no, and pretty pointless given the low output alternator. Starting the Perkins was always done fingers crossed. When we bought a car, it was equipped with a battery box in the footwell and a set of flying leads to attach to a spare battery for the boat. We went through a lot of pairs of trousers with battery acid...

The third party only is interesting. I asked for it last year. They asked for my postcode I said irrelevant they said cant insure you without postcode...I said your only paying out for liability. They said we need your postcode to calculate premium..why you might be in London you more likely to hit someone. I said I might live in rural Scotland and drive to London and hit someone, they said...we need your postcode. I did get insurance in the end. As an Australian resident driving my uk car in England, with my uk property postcode address. Third party fire theft.over a year premium was 25% of value of car. The excess was £1000 all claims including third party claims.

Personally I would be happy to pay for liability insurance only if there was such a scheme. If the car gets stolen it's one thing if you hurt someone another. However having run old bangers for years living on the boat with no trouble, we bought a house in napton of all places, and a decent car. Yep.in spite of steering locks immobilisers etc the car went, from the designated parking, within 6 months.

So much lost knowledge getting pieced back together. In the 80s we found a load of toll tickets and documents in the abandoned yard by common moor lock. Offered them to bulls bridge..no offered them to canal museum no.. They disappeared we couldn't save them having only a small cabin and no storage.

Kelso was a motor and a big one hence strange to cut into a front only ( hence my postulation re other reasons) a town class bow isn't ideal for a short boat. interestingly just looked on working boats .com to check that she was a motor ...and the comment about sterns at Cowley tip is referenced with p.h. As source ! We may need a seance...

We keep the car in the garage of the house we rent out and use that as the overnight address. We avoid using the car as much as possible but if we do need to drive we cycle back to it. It never is away from its permenant garage for more than 30 days. Looking in to the system just coming in of paying by the mile, or giving up now we no longer need a car for work. cancelled my own insurance last year knowing it would never pay out realised I was going to transgress the Brit resident part of the policy. Took out day insurance for 28 days . Third party and lethally expensive but at least they had all the facts. in the old days we had all our insurance with mike Stimpson and by having all our policies with him as under writer he was able to negotiate with companies. Unfortunately in today's inflexible world of computers they don't evaluate risk except statistically and therefore cannot insure without postcodes. thousands of people in the uk are not insured by accident or design. Here in Australia they are in front at least on this. If the car is registered it has injury liability built in so is insured, at least at a minimum standard, so at least there's some protection regardless of who is driving it .mind you £400 per year rego ( road tax and basic liability )on a knackered Nissan in a rural area is criminal . ( oh and there's no mot).

I think John and Madeline Forth had her for a while before going for 2 motors.could be faulty memory though. Our photos are in the uk but I think I have 1988 photos of our boats at brinklow with them having a pair. They didn't like butty ownership.

Unfortunately they are no longer around, and he did have a big fund of stories. I remember him getting Kelso he was so proud, but he was already getting on in years .strange also that a motor was cut, and a big one too. Just postulating a combination event blown engine/ stove in back end/ damaged cabin, might lead to such a decision , unless you know more.

Don't blame me for going off post... Kelso was owned for a period by Sam and Alice Lawton at Cowley lock. They rarely used her being elderly. Sam informed me one day that the stern was on Cowley tip. Given its proximity to bulls bridge and his occupation he was probably right. The discussion centred around creating a full length Northwich butty to pair with thaxted, and who we could upset...

At least you found the hole somewhere you could get to... Our leaks used to be in interesting places under the Rayburn, on the swim behind the lining .. The cat used to be good because she was intrigued by the sound of a leak, and would go to the source. Unfortunately she couldn't mix cement or weild a screwdriver... That involved delegation. In the end we just lost the whole 18 inches of boat and rebuilt.

I had a halfords 'intelligent' charger bought as no choice some 5 years ago, bought as distress purchase as halfrauds was within walking distance and the nearest boatyshop 50 miles away. sounds similar, it had 3 lights, and the only way of ascertaining it was automatic ing was watch the voltmeter rise. I used it occasionally for a few years having no landline. I plugged it in on landline this year nothing... Did normal checks nothing. They auto sense to make sure connection is right way round but this wasn't the issue and the boat batts were at 12+ volts. I came to the conclusion the China limited life function had operated gave it a bloody great kick, and cycled to braunston for a new small charger. Same thing happened the year before with the bilge pump. It's built in obsolescence and why smart stuff is cheap

It's obvious to me because it's night here and you lot haven't digested your coffee.you can see the boats too long for the lorry so easier to cut the front off Than the back. No pesky cables and stuff to re do.

It's Atalanta. It is a constellation 'Zeus, recognizing the immensity of their love for each other, felt sympathy for the lovers and turned Atalanta and Hippomenes into a constellation of stars so that the couple could remain together throughout time. She is the Greek goddess of the hunt. ( my father was an authority on Greek mythology) She also had a fat behind and got stuck at marston doles for 2 days and until 1996 was banned off the southern Oxford. We got her stuck in many other places. Right now I will get my anorack and shut up.