Steilsteven

At the back of a house? I take it you mean one of the houses on Elgar Road, B.W. licence required I'm afraid. If your boat is more than 15' long you could be in danger of upsetting the neighbours as these gardens are quite narrow ,apart from one the owner of which wouldn't be very happy about you not abiding by the rules. Keith.

Ah but you should then single out, drive the motor in, tuck it behind the closed gate which then leaves room for the butty to follow in. Keith.

You're not a real boater until you find yourself drifting downstream backwards on the Thames above Oxford with a fifty ton barge after wiping out your prop and snapping your prop shaft! This happened to us in August 2007, we were heading down stream having just passed Newbridge when the Mrs says "I remember seeing a sign on the next bend saying beware of grounding, looks home made by some disgruntled boater". Sure enough as we rounded the bend there was the sign, as we took that turn the stream pushed us sideways straight up the bank and in the process almost demolishing the sign. There was a tremendous bang and then we slipped off again, I put her into forward but the engine just revved. Next thing was the barge started to turn around, I called out "throw the mud weight out and drop the anchor" At this point you need to realise that Maria (Mrs) is not what you might call a strapping lass and I had my doubts whether she would be able to throw 25k of concrete but when she realised what was happening that concrete took off! As the barge was turning I looked around and to my horror noticed the stern was swinging towards a small plastic cruiser tied to the bank, as it happened it cleared by about five feet but it sure looked close from where I was standing! We drifted for about three quarters of a mile of twisting river (it's very confusing steering when doing this and I had to keep thinking which way to steer), it was about nine in the morning in the middle of nowhere so not much hope of help.I started thinking that it was about six miles to the next lock and there was no way that I would expect Maria to make a jump for it, we were travelling too fast and couldn't get near enough anyway. Just as we came round the next bend I could see two cruisers and a narrow boat moored on the outside of the next bend but no one about. I sounded the horn over and over as we approached them and thankfully a guy appeared from inside the n.b. He manged to catch a rope from us and brought us into the side bringing an end to the drama.You never saw two happier and grateful people than Maria and myself! Keith.

There should be no need to close all gates when leaving a lock unless somebody is following, in this instance I would not only close the gates but also lift a paddle to start the lock filling/emptying. The only reason we are told to close all gates is because of poor maintenance.Why is it that many top gates leak like seives but bottom ones don't? Keith.

I bet that was bridge 24 Long Itchington, you certainly weren't the first and I certainly wasn't the last! Surprisingly that wasn't when my teeth fell in, cheers Neil mate. Keith.

Exactly, as land already existed before man set foot on this planet how can anyone say they own it? Before the Norman enclosures land was not owned by anyone in this country. Keith.

I think you mean the Diggers. All land ownership is theft. Keith

Hi Neil, she's 20m x 3.64m (66' x 12') Keith

50ppl for such a small amount sounds decidedly dodgy. Our moorings landlord, who also sells diesel had to buy a couple of 200L drums of red the year before last, it actually cost him more buying it this way than what he charged. Keith

I took a delivery of 800 litres on 6th Jan £378 you work it out. Keith

The mark up at marinas is around 30%, the mark up at filling stations is around 5%. Keith.

As I said previously, Nuneaton's stern throws to the right when in reverse.I can't imagine why Nick, or anyone for that matter, would want to put the motor in the path of the oncoming butty,this would only cause the butty to crash both the motor and the lock wall. Keith.

Thanks Tam, interesting stuff, now I know what they're for. Keith.

Contrary to what David said in the second video, Nuneaton's engine turns anti-clockwise in forward which,when entering a lock and reverse is selected, causes a ''paddle wheel'' efect at the stern to the right. So for ease of handling with this set up I've always found it best to always have the motor enter the lock to the right.Although David has had a lot of experience with N&B, he's had a lot more experience with boats set up in the ''normal'' way so probably forgot himself for a moment. Also, when travelling breasted, I've found the pair handle perfectly this way. Keith.

Oh go on Tam. Keith.

I'm just there to give scale to the picture Keith.

Thanks Carl, it all makes sence now Keith.

http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu198/S...en/DSC00341.jpg[/img] Hoping I've done this correctly, This is Petra at Scheepswerf Vooruit, Zaandam just prior to setting out for England June 2005. Keith

Yes, I'm sure there will be people queing to buy boats Keith

The ideal would be the same currency world wide.That, at least, would put an end to our lives being disrupted by the faceless dealers. Of course we should join the Euro, we are Europeans! Staying out is as daft as having different currencies for each of our counties. I haven't yet heard any form of reasonable argument for keeping the Pound.Please don't give me the one about giving more control to the E.U., it's a weak and unfounded point of view.I'm sure the Irish would confirm that. Talking to a business man in The Netherlands a couple of years ago, I got the impression that he thought it comical that we hadn't joined and we must like making our lives difficult. I tend to think he was right. Keith.

I thought it was the Chinese about 3000 years ago? Keith.

All good points and you're probably correct, this was not my theory by the way but can't remember who it was that suggested it. It would be nice to have a definitive answer to this but it's highly unlikely that we'll ever know. Keith

Well put Tam, perhaps I won't have such an issue with it from now on Keith

I believe the term narrow boat was quoined by Tom Rolt when he wrote his book, prior to this they were known as canal boats. London Lighter men refered to them as monkey boats with reference to Thomas Monk. People living ''on the bank'' have always called them barges from what I can gather, as they would with any other type of cargo carrying craft that wasn't a ship. Some people call them long boats, which is understandable. I don't have a problem with any of these but I do have a problem with ''narrowboat'' and I wonder why whoever it was decided to join the words together. I think it originaly must have been a typo. Keith.