roland elsdon

Ive had 7 boats . All totally different. They suited my life at that point. None have been new 4 have been at least 21 years older than me. The current ? Last one is far from perfect but it suits our current needs. We arenot fixed in time and space.

Below the riser you can turn 70 but not 72

I got the boat round below bascote in 2021. 57 ft. Stern end into towpath and bow into the reeds.

Legend boats were built above lot mead lock and then in an industrial unit at Croxley Green. The first legend was launched across the towpath from the ex bw building compound out of sight of waterways by crane one day. I admit to being responsible for welding the baseplates, together on that boat, and putting down the engine beds. Not the curved or visible bits. The first was not a thing of beauty. The bows were curved by pushing with a forklift and tacking the plate, before seam welding. No wonder they were asymmetrical . I think the counter was rolled though. As for the outboard ones horrendous but they could be sold as an unpowered houseboat saving money. I only helped on the first while between my permanent jobs, and we left Ricky later that year. We visited 3 years later by then mass production in the unit was going on, cnc cutting etc. A better product, but built for those who wanted rock bottom prices.

Ahh so by changing the colour of the lightbulb i may be at risk. Bss coc safety cert its all garbage. A diluted scheme initially to save from worse excess of stupidity, now designed to protect others from our actions. Our first colecraft had a black rubber gas pipe jubilee clipped from a gas pipe end through the bilge, to a catalytic heater. That really was a no no but that was how it was built.

Mine are mounted through the battery box with the contacts inside and the switch outside. Passed 4 coc to date. Batteries have as yet not exploded.

We have just been through all this with dvla. Sold slum and shot off to australia Stuff in storage, virtual postal address and re direct. car insurance no prob they suspended. licences and registration big problem. wont allow virtual address on licence nor registration. Ended up sorning car, ignoring licences ( abroad) and leaving registration for now as car not on road. on return will drive on australian licences and hire until we can establish new uk address. You end up skimming close to law and getting it wrong and having insurance not properly in force is really stupid.

We hired for years in uk with australian licence. Not a problem. As a citizen but resident elsewhere you are not a resident until you declare yourself to be one, or end up resident by default 183 days. ( As happened to us because of covid.) You then need a uk licence. Owning a car as a non resident is a whole new bag of crap. We did it at one point very expensive.

Pardon? Medicare . Open to all. Public hospital system, funded from taxation. if you choose not to have private health insurance, you pay a levy on your taxes. if you don’t earn enough you don’t pay the levy. Working in public health my accountant did the maths and told us not to buy private healthcare. Course with out insurance you can pay as you go. Ive had various surgeries in Oz. I had to pay a gap fee difference between what surgeon charged and Medicare paid, but but but. It’s tax deductible. None of my staff in Australia worked in the hospital paying of debts.

Registered nurses and qualified teachers have a degree. Therefore they should earn more than the average salary. Nursing is a profession now . Its pay should not equate to that of people who are not professionals. It requires continuous professional development to maintain your paid registration, and therefore job.

Pump out or elsan?

New highway code makes it quite clear those causing most harm are the most liable. Motorists are towards the dark side of that continuum However there is a lot of mitigation to consider from the motorist side , when a vulnerable user does something foolish. The other factor is we are ( thank god) in the death throws of car rule, certainly in urban centres. How many of those mums would otherwise be choking up the roads with their vile polluting suv’s , now they are moving around without ton and a half of stylised stupidity to make it happen. Im not defending stupid cycling or stupid electric powered transport devices, my car did 4000 miles this year but my bikes 13000, and i never maimed or hit anyone in those 13000 miles. Hopefully soon the cars will be effectively excluded and us vulnerable people can go about our lawful business without having to defer to mr toad and his loathsome self importance. ( apologies for rant 35 degrees had to go into town on foot ( 4kms each way) and dodge the sodding great suvs on the footpaths on the pedestrian only area , down wrong way down the road etc.)

Just bear in mind a certificate and a survey are like an mot. Valid for the time they are issued. Surveys are subject to conditions( the boat was on bostocks i could not see that bit) , and there is no dismantling. Most boats have owner modifications of various quality, often electrical. My last boat had huge amounts of work post purchase, and I also did huge amounts after we bought it. ( gas electrics etc). The survey pointed me in the right direction. A 2 year old survey by the previous buyer didnt know left from right, and failed to observe the need for 28 feet of refooting, which we had done before purchase. If we had relied on that we would have had to pay for that work .

Didnt malvern eventually virtually get given away by the owner last time it was on sale? I recollect it got down to circa 10000 before being taken on, or is this the other Malvern.

Any solar is better than no solar no generator is better than any generator. Before led lights solar panels and decent charging systems we had generators. That was when there was probably 99% less people living on boats. Petrol servicing noise pollution and theft were all issues

Buy a cheap one first, learn to not crash it. my first drone was left 50 feet up in a tree in australia it having reached distance parameter and headed the straight route home. It probably fell down in autumn but by then we were back in borisland

Even when we did it ‘for fun’ it was bloody hard. Getting the motor off the bottom with a load on is hell, when the pounds dropped overnight, and going up Hatton and then up lapworth in the same day bowhauling the butty , is fine in the summer with no pressure on , but every few days, in the winter, ? No. We had days when we just gave up, wind rain snow ice, and that was going off our moorings on ‘trips’ . If you had to deliver or collect no way fun, and frequently unsafe. Sue went in at the top of the Aylesbury arm bow hauling the butty into the top lock, the butty started going over her and she had to swim through into the lock. Fortunately I had opened the gate, or she would have been under the boat against the gate, that was on a warm dry April day. Hard resilient people, many died young.

Work was something you cycled to, films were taken to boots, and a phone call involved walking to find a phone box. communication was chalk on the lock beams. I remember when we got cb radio on the boats!