sigsegv

The only quick example that came to mind for me was minimum alcohol pricing - which when introduced, I expected to not considerably reduce drinking among problem drinkers, just make them more poor. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in-between. Reduced deaths caused by alcohol by 13.4% and related hospital admissions by 4.1% [1]. Of course, those addicted (which we can use as a vague analogy to those on the system that are not in a position to change their circumstances) cannot stop and will simply pay more and end up poorer. [1] - https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1477.full

Aaah so that *is* the Goliath from this forum. I too saw him on the move on the shroppie a few weeks ago, at Norbury junction I believe.

I spent about 10 minutes practising it one day and managed the final bit maybe 2 or 3 times. Obviously nowhere near as quick, and definitely not consistent, but it’s not outside of most people’s abilities with a bit of practice. Helps to visualise what needs to happen to the rope as the flick ‘travels’ to the cleat. Give it a go the next time you’re at a cleat and have some time, you’ll surprise yourself! … that being said, I tried again a few weeks ago and couldn’t do it so maybe it was all beginners luck

people *do* like seeing boats, and they probably *wouldn't* like it more as just a water transfer channel with etc etc... until you make them face the costs of keeping the boats on it (were it not paid by boaters). Then I imagine they'd adopt a much less favourable view of those people messing about in boats at their expense. Now, if they were instead paying for something they benefit more materially from.... towpath and picnic area access maybe.... hmmmm 🤔

I'm sure the boat builders see this as a feature not a bug But yes that's the downside of closed-source, proprietary solutions (as well as custom-built stuff).

Indeed and my solution is close to what I used to do for a living (among other things ) so it was perfect! We did look into going the venusOS route but why go for a turnkey solution when you can hack together a frankensolution I considered offering this as a full solution to other boaters but after running the numbers, it just didn’t make sense cost-wise for myself or the consumer - too small a market, too costly a setup

Been dying for a reason to post this for a while I actually built up a fairly nice remote telemetry system for my boat - stuff mostly goes into a raspberry pi then pushes it to a remote server running Grafana so I can make fancy charts of power, weather, movement, etc. Wouldn't be the cheapest thing to do if building it from scratch but it was cobbled together mostly from stuff we already had installed, it all just needed connecting to the pi in some way. http://blog.narrowboat.life/2023/09/19/narrowboat-telemetry/ Your use of teamviewer to remotely control the device is ingenious by the way!

@Isher1883 Hope you stick around mate. Once you've got enough posts, feel free to DM me and we can have a chat - as another relatively younger boater (well... 34...) that moved aboard a year and a half ago, I can probably give some relevant and useful information about the transition to life on the water.

Already been reported to CRT, who say contractors are going to sort it out (though not today). We actually only found out about it a few bridges away after crossing the aqueduct upstream. Hopefully it gets sorted soon - we've got a dinner reservation in Llan on saturday 😅

Not entirely sure what the point of this topic is. Yes, I imagine most boaters are aware that pollution has effects on health, and that setting fire to things for heat contributes to localised pollution. Or maybe they're not and read this thread and suddenly become aware. But then what? Are they going to decide to stop burning wood and coal, and simply be cold in winter because they cannot afford a less polluting solution to heating their homes in winter? There's an interesting line between 'making people aware' about things and chastising them about things they are not in a position to change. For better or for worse, there are a lot of people living on boats and the most energy and cost efficient way to maintain a comfortable living situation in the depths of winter is to burn wood and coal in a big iron box. Informing them of the effects of PM2.5 particulates on the respiratory system essentially does fxxk all except potentially make them feel guilty - they have no other option. To be charitable, because I apologise that this is a bit of a rant and I guess I'm coming off quite abrasive, maybe you are targeting those that *are* in a position to do something different - those that have a reasonable amount of money and therefore *can* choose other options for heating their boats in winter, or have other abodes that can be heated with methods that don't cause as much localised pollution such that they don't need to worry about the issues with heating a 50-70ft floating steel tube in winter.

I've run into Elektra on a handful of occasions, most recently on the Peak Forest this summer. It's a very well kitted-out boat, with both bow and stern thrusters so it's certainly a boat that would be able to handle the situation, and the helmsman (sorry, don't know his name) seems very capable if, in this situation, maybe not the best judge of risk to go on the Soar in these conditions..... Very fortunate that such a capable boat was in that situation, not sure I'd've been so comfortable with it

Employing full-time staff at the border of each region would possibly be cheaper than employing thousands more spotters. But then without reintroducing/maintaining stoplocks at those borders (which would create massive boat jams at peak times as well), there's not much to stop an unlabelled boat cheerily flipping off the border guard as they cruise past into pastures new. Not sure if that'd end up cheaper, monetarily, than an automated tracking and charging solution but it'd definitely be cheaper politically. I would not comply to being tracked (I track myself thank you very much), and it'd be an absolute political nightmare as well as likely running into the failures/struggles of any large-scale IT project

Our 52ft ex-Black Prince has had I think two previous owners who changed the layout. When we got her, from stern to bow the layout was Stern -> Bed -> Bathroom -> Big empty space -> Dinette -> Galley -> Bow. We shifted the dinette back into the empty space and fit a sofa between it and the galley such that it was then Dinette -> Sofa -> Galley, the idea being that since the stove was installed directly next to the galley, it made more sense to have the L sofa there facing the stove for those cold winter evenings. Not a lot I'd change to the layout to be honest, though I do like the thought of having a reverse layout with a closed bow a-la Ian D's boat.

I'm probably not one of them. Not due to malice or anything, but sheer laziness and a tendency to forget things, and I doubt I'd be the only one. Having to fill out a form on a weekly basis for where you are, and update your license would be forgotten/not gotten round to by so many people unless CRT *also* drastically stepped up their enforcement - which I doubt they have the resources or people to do effectively.

I can! Based on the info in the spreadsheet Daniel sent to me, I can tell you the following: She was built in 1990 and was originally based in Chirk. I'm afraid that's basically all I have on her. I also have her license number but I'm guessing you already know that The spreadsheet also says there was originally a picture of her on the old site, so it might be worth getting in touch with Daniel to see if he could grab one for you? If you send me a message, I can give you his email address. though we probably shouldn't make a habit of pestering him for pictures of our old boats, I'm sure a couple of times wouldn't be much of a pain for him.

I was at the Shroppie Fly earlier and had a flick through a Waterways World issue dated April 2007, thinking it would be amusing to see the issues of the time. Now, this is *way* before 'my' time (though my parents bought a holiday boat in I think '05), so naturally I'm missing a great deal of context but I'd be remiss if I didn't post my findings in this thread.

There's a CRT pumpout at the Anderton services too. £20 but it takes debit/credit card, no need for a pumpout card

A chap on the canal by middlewich claimed he'd heard from someone NBTA-affiliated that they'd heard something in the realm of 30% for CC surcharge but I suspect this is baseless speculation

How about a dwindling surcharge. It starts at 200% of the current license fee and reduces a percent for every 10 miles genuinely navigated. Boats could be fitted with tracking devices to verify distance travelled (welded to the boat, so it can't be removed and put in a car or something). This has the added benefit that when you're stuck due to a CRT stoppage, CRT end up getting even more money so they can fix the network! I'm full of great ideas, me

I've never heard of sceuomorphs being used to refer to things that don't directly reference objects and concepts in physical reality but ok, sure. Maybe at a stretch we can agree that sceuomorphs are a subset of simulacra that fit certain criteria.

certainly the use of fake rivets etc. might be considered skeuomorphs (the term I'm more familiar with, didn't know the alternative word), but I think it goes a bit deeper than that, with behaviours, practises, etc.

Ours has one of these. It's a particular characteristic of Black Prince (and other rental companies they or the yard that built them also sold boats to), along with the big rubber bow fender. I know they're far from traditional but I love them. In theory yeah, they can hinge upward but I've got a feeling mine's held in place with a clevis pin... I'm going to have to check this in the morning because I honestly can't remember now. But its design means it definitely wouldn't bend downwards. It can sometimes work as a nice little platform to stand on to clear any gubbins that have been caught around the rudder. I'm finding this thread a little bit fascinating, I must say. Obviously, there are very few truly *traditional* working boats on the network, but plenty of boats (and indeed everything we do on our wonderful network) certainly attempt to simulate, pay homage, whatever you want to call it, to those working boats and times of days gone by. If you'll forgive me for sounding a bit pretentious, it really makes me think of Baudrillard's thoughts of simulacra There are things we do on, to, and with canal boats that are certainly attempting to pay homage to and retain the traditions of a bygone era but in that act have actually become their own things entirely. And that simulacrum that has been created in itself has value, and ought be preserved by those that wish to do so. But at the same time, obviously, I genuinely find it fascinating to see how much better we could potentially optimise the vessels we use on the system, the system itself, while still retaining the aspects which I think are a common ground. But maybe that's just my engineer brain getting the better of me.

I see what you mean, and I don't think you're alone. There is a certain joy, maybe some type of base desire to feel the cold and do something about it thus becoming warm.

Probably didn't need to but to be honest I just fancied the comfort of a nice warm fire. Plus I've got an excess of wood from a downed tree near New Mills from this May (or was it June) that was just begging to be tested for dryness. It was already dead (hence them chopping it down), so has dried out fantastically. Plus the missus is away for the week so I've gotta do something to occupy my time that's not the pub.