MtB

I'd have thought slugging it out in the FaceBook groups would gain a FAR bigger audience...

Once for each gate, perhaps...

Yes Walter Mitty, but why the need to post it all on here?

A psychologist would have a field day analysing why!! Similarly with Gybby's habit of asking a question then telling everyone answering they are wrong!

Surely leaky top gates don't matter that much. Just leaving the lock full overnight will stop the loss of water. Or do the bottom gates leak just as much? On reflection I suppose while the lock is actually in use in the daytime, the extra loss through leaky top gates will gradually drain the upper pound while the bottom gates are open, which is actually quite a good proportion of the time.

What? You mean PAY for it??!!!!! I can imagine at least one organisation that will try to frame this as racial oppression..... Or something equally ludicrous.

Roe has a Gardner 4LK and is owned by a member here IIRC. Also a huge cast iron roll-top bath in the front!

Yes. Just like a good car, it needs to 'suit you'. You need to be able to glance back at your boat on your way out and get that feeling of pride that it is YOUR boat and how glad you are to be its owner/custodian. Don't underestimate this.

Hmmmm "Connection timed out". This does suggest the domain remains registered and there is a server problem. Perhaps they haven't paid the hosting bill this year. You may find a copy of the site available to grab on the Way Back Machine, so the data may not be lost even if Martin is no longer able to keep the site up and running.

You're welcome. But its is a mistake to get too prescriptive about what to get. Blokes sure do tend to like their lists of 'essential' features to look for and end up buying a boat with no soul. My advice is keep looking at boats until one grabs you by the emotional lapels and screams at you "BUY ME". It will be totally inappropriate, have nothing on the list of essential features you spent so long preparing but you'll both be very happy together for ever after.

To state the obvious, it certainly isn't going to start with the fuel line disconnected as per the photo!

Probably. Springers have many advantages not the least being how little water they need to float in. What with CRT no longer keeping up with dredging needs coupled with worsening water supply problems, shallow drafted boats are going to get more common in future in my opinion. And V hull boats may well make a return. In addition all the rusty old heaps of genuine Springers have broadly gone now making the few that remain emerging classics. They are at the stage Morris Minors were back in the 90s. Just beginning to get treasured, very well looked after and appreciating in value. A good Springer right now *could* turn out to be a very good investment indeed.

Re Springers, I'd make two comments. 1) The term "Springer" tends to get used to describe any rough old boat of unknown builder, so the OP may well encounter supposed 'Springers' that are actually flat bottomed. But this will probably be because were not built by Springer and they have been mis-attributed. 2) V bottomed boats such as Springers can be a right PITA when it comes to internal fitting out. To get more headroom the floor height is likely to be low in such a way the slope of the hull is higher than the floor at the sides, and hidden by built-in seats, kitchen cupboards, bed etc. This can make it really difficult to fit say, a modern under-counter fridge or a free-standing cooker as they rely on a flat floor all the way back.

Cue the price of fibreglass cruisers going through the roof. Also cue a lot of inventive ways to keep a boat stationary in one spot without actually "mooring" it.

Yes. Mainly the £2k a year council tax bill.

Time of year makes a HUGE difference, I'd say. If ever there was a time in the year boaters decide to save some money by giving up the mooring its now. Especially if they are paying quarterly in advance as the next payment is due in three days and lots will be asking themselves why they are paying it, when they could go out CCing for free. Try asking again in October and I bet none will have any vacancies.

I suspect the physical size of them in a space-restricted narrowboat is another issue. Also, I think motorhome units go in the roof, and people might be reluctant to cut big holes in 4 or 5mm steel roofs. Also if they go on the outside, air-draft for gtting under low bridges on the cut becomes a problem.

Still faintly puzzled why aircon is so common in motorhomes though. Is it because there is mains hook-up at most campsites nowadays?

Oi you not all of the drivel is yours. Some of it is MINE.

Well spotted. I walked up Claydon the other evening to see how it was 'closed' and basically it wasn't. This explains it! Next day I took my boat up the flight and disappointingly the summit pound (the long windy bit around Wormleighton) was missing about 8" of water. I repeatedly bumped over rocks on the bottom and got proper stuck in Fenny Tunnel. So I winded at The Wharf and came back down again. I passed several other boat struggling with the shallowness including HECTOR with its FR6, one of my favourites!

Don't ask. They can be very dangerous to operate. DAMHIK.

To be fair, I think he has claimed ownership of lumpy water boats in the past. Or have you seen him now claim to have had a canal boat for two years?

The inverter. The GF only gets switched on intermittently 😂

Except none of this matters when the boat is permanently moored on a shoreline. My on/off GF's boat inverter has been switched on for at least the last decade! If you decide to get out of the marina and spend days on end away from the shoreline, having to generate all your own electricity turns the whole of this upside down and you'll be turning the inverter off at every opportunity!