Francis Herne

That will be lack of HTTPS, yes. With unencrypted HTTP it's possible for parties between the client and server to monitor and intercept requests - either just to snoop, or to pretend to be your server and return something malicious instead of what was requested. Examples I'm aware of in the wild: * operators of public WiFi networks logging users' device info and the pages they visit, then selling the data. (this one also needs encrypted DNS to fix entirely, but browsers are working on that too). * unscrupulous ISPs (looking at you, Virgin Media) returning fake ad-loaded search pages when DNS lookup fails [i.e. there shouldn't really be a page at the address at all] * poorly-configured public WiFi enabling other users to interfere with requests, inserting viruses into the response. * governments (our own, the US and China's among many others) forcing ISPs to let them monitor or interfere with traffic as above. Chinese entities have repeatedly used a technique called 'BGP hijacking' to redirect traffic between other countries that would never normally pass through China so they can do so. None of these are possible with HTTPS. The nature of the content you intend to serve is moot because the data is tampered with before you receive it and after you send it back. The browser vendors and other large companies don't gain at anyone's expense from using HTTPS - in fact as above it makes certain tracking techniques impossible. Certificates are free these days. It's just standard good practice. I'd also be happy to help with sorting it out, your site's a great resource and it would be a shame to lose it.

I'm not sure about that, if it's keeping the bitumen squashed onto the hull. On BCNS' workboat Phoenix, the open hold was floored with oak planks bedded very firmly onto a layer of tar on the baseplate. When we prised one up (not easy) to have a look, there was no sign of internal corrosion at all after 25 years despite the hold usually sitting with an inch or two of rainwater in it. [unfortunately the external corrosion and wear was quite bad so a lot of work was needed anyway...]

With such a long and narrow 'nose' at the top of the stem, I think you'd be better off with a more notched-shape fender: The wide straight one you have could go lower down to protect against piling etc., or just sell it on. Alternatively, I'd be tempted to try hanging it vertically rather than horizontally, something like the rubber thing on recent Black Prince boats: Not sure if it could be secured well enough laterally.

Good luck with the journey (and the weather)! Seems a good adventure. I realize now that was you moored next to me last week, can't be many turquoise narrowboats planning to cross the Mersey.

I heard pretty much the same (with the price an order of magnitude lower) about Blower's Green pumphouse. Offer from a party declined, went to auction, same party won it for a much lower bid. In that case at least it's again not really a fault of CRT - as a charity they're obliged to follow due process when selling off assets, and the Charities Commission is strongly in favour of public auctions for that to avoid any backhand dealing. If they wanted to accept an offer for a fixed sum they'd need a thorough valuation, a lot of paperwork, and they'd probably still get accused of selling it 'under the table' as they have been with other properties in the last few years.

At least for me, your second post quoted answers the first one. I don't care much about individuals, unless they're hogging a spot in a high-demand area with no spare moorings. I do see the requirement to move frequently over a meaningful distance as a way to differentiate between those who want to live on a boat, and use it as a boat , and those who really want cheap static accommodation. As such I think it needs to be enforced better (and have a significantly higher bar than the '20 miles') because in recent years it's clearly failing to do that. Raising the 'surcharge' doesn't differentiate at all between those groups, until it goes above the price of housing in major cities by which time many of the 'boat for its own sake' people would be priced out too.

It seems a meaningless question to me (as a continuous cruiser myself). If people consistently move just once every 14 days, to my mind they'd have to move many miles each time to be in the spirit of things. If you're travelling hundreds of miles overall and feel like moving a few yards around the corner one time, who cares? It would matter if CRT tried to rigidly police every movement in isolation, but they don't. Taken over months it's obvious who's really moving and who's shuffling.

It does. That's one of the reasons Phoenix was in such a bad way, moored just downstream of the pump outlet (where the inlet is right by the old tar distillers).

Obviously one, you mean. The foam is what absorbs the memories. Not had anything chucked me on Lark. Chap with a catapult was pinging stones at me at Diglis when I took the canoe to poke around the oil dock, autumn 2022. Last summer a couple of kids on the bridge outside Netherton Tunnel by the engine house mimed throwing stones at us on Atlas & Malus, but nothing real. I heard later they had chucked pebbles at another boat. Perhaps they appreciate the historic ones! I've thrown all sorts of junk into the workboat mid-channel from the towpath, or had others throw it at me.

Looks like it. Not exactly sympathetic... HNBC page claims she was motorized (as Kidsgrove), maybe stripped out during the latest rebuild or surely they'd have mentioned it! (being naive as usual) Is the argument that a day boat isn't a butty? In later working life and as she is now, with a cabin on, describing her as a butty seems reasonable to me. Built at Northwich seems correct? Obviously "Small" is nonsense for a non-GU boat.

Another Yarwoods butty with big steel 'undercloth' cabin: LMS station boat 56 'Naples'. https://narrowboats.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/yarwoods-northwich-butty-for-sale/759510

As per the post above, are you sure that's not the electric variant? On my manual-flush C2, the location of your 'press' button has a clip-in blanking plug. Flush is by rotating the second, larger knob on the other side forcefully clockwise. It doesn't always spring back all the way (feels like some component underneath is rotating that shouldn't be) so has to be turned anti-clockwise to its limit first.

A nicely shaped boat. @Grim Reaper was looking to buy it a couple of months ago per https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/108856-semington/#comment-3031597 -- must have fallen through?

Also at Titford were the Alfred Matty boats carrying white phosphorus sludge from Albright & Wilson to the dump pit at Rattlechain Lagoon. Filled directly into open holds (with sealed bulkheads) and pumped out at the other end. As with the tar, quite a lot of it got into the canal which is reputed to have spontaneously caught fire quite often. Both BW and the EA used tanks in maintenance boats for collecting sewage from Elsan points and lockkeepers' facilities. Boats were used in the 1990s for laying fibre-optic cable, with big spools in the hold. There are a couple of odd-shaped work flats moored opposite Stretton Wharf, I guessed for transporting lock gates at an angle to be 'in gauge', but not sure.