Tam & Di

I'm not sure it would be the simplest way even were we still part of the EU Alan. Maybe Pelinsu D could use his skills in the UK - they do have a common language. Tam

He appears to be slightly lost 🛶 >>> 🇫🇷 Tam

I'll give that a try, but as I am on mains power (and lazy) I generally just leave open the 5 or 6 sites I view regularly, so I'm not often starting it from scratch. Tam

I use ApplePowerbook and Firefox. Generally at top left of the screen and bottom left of the page I have "Home > Activity > View New Content". Top right shows "View New Content" and bottom right of the page too, plus also "Mark Site Read". Occasionally and seemingly at random I lose the option "View New Content", and can't even get back to it by using the back-arrow to all prior pages. Then suddenly it reappears again as usual when I close the thread I've been reading. It is mildly annoying when it happens, but not the end of the world 😉 Is this a known quirk?

And that is the major element. Working a lock is a potentially dangerous occupation, and anything else such as chit chat has to be peripheral to the main task which is concentrating on the job and doing it safely and properly. If you come across as rude, then tough tit. When we're on our own Di and me barely need to pass a word in a lock - we both know exactly what we are doing, and we do it. It does help if you're an antisocial git like me, but it's seen me well over our years of boating. 😁

Never had that happen. I think these terrible accidents are largely a matter of inexperience - if the boat suddenly surged backwards and I was for some reason on the counter I would know without having to think about it that the tiller would swing if I didn't keep a firm grip on it. I would almost certainly be stood in the hatches out of the arc of the tiller anyway, but I can't really think why I would be just stood on the counter in a lock. Tam

We'd certainly remove the butty tiller, but we had tiller strings to it hold it straight on the motor which was the normal way to go on in my experience. Tam

I assume you don't mean you actually used the pole as a lever? That's a good way to break them. Tam

This is extremely basic, but assuming it is a serious question, the 'swim' is the shape of the hull at the stern as it comes to a more or less pointed shape where the propellor is. The finer this shape is the easier it is for the water to be drawn by the propellor and the less 'drag' created. This means the boat has less wash, less turbulence, greater efficiency and greater speed. The counter is the deck platform above this where a steerer stands on an ex-working boat or anything based on that hull shape. It is much cheaper and easier to build a straight-sided hull until the last moment and come to an abrupt pointy bit for the propellor, but that gives you a far less manoeuvrable craft. At the extreme you can have something that is simply a box shape with no swim at all - simply a propellor poked through the back of the box. You get more internal space but the boat is virtually unsteerable. Working boats have a fairly long and fine swim as ease of steering, fuel economy etc was of prime importance. Most people buying their first boat now only look at the internal space and price, but never do understand why boating is then such hard work for them. Tam

At least some path improvements do prioritise trees and nature.

I hope everything is as you say and you find the replies helpful. Unfortunately the forum does get a lot of enquiries which are not quite what they seem, and people here waste a lot of time making replies that are completely ignored. You appeared to have very little knowledge of canals or boats, and your mails have been in rather strained English language or in Turkish, so when I saw that your name meant "Game" in Finnish it seemed to confirm suspicions. Hopefully I made a mistake, and I'll say no more on it now. Tam

Hmmm - Pelinsu is Finnish for "game" 🤷‍♂️ Tam

Google Translate thinks she is writing in Turkish - there is obviously something very odd going on here and I am rather suspicious to say the least 😁 Is Pelinsu actually a computer? Tam

I'm not for one moment trying to put the OP down, but is accelerator now the current word for that lever? I've always heard it called the throttle, or on most of our boats the speed wheel. I suppose that 'speed wheel' is in fact more conceptually allied to 'accelerator' than 'throttle' if I think about it. I've obviously not got enough to do today if I can waste time with such thoughts. 😏 Tam

Lindy and Mike Foster's Berko base would certainly be more convenient for a trip down the Aylesbury Arm. Tam

I assumed you were talking about a rather earlier period. I did wonder how you'd been to Aylesbury, but also to Camden and Norwood Top as that's quite a spread. Adelaide Dock is just up a couple of miles from Norwood Top, and the guy we sold it to did start a hire business but it only lasted a couple of years. Monica Emily has been owned for perhaps 20 years by a woman with another boat she keeps at our Spikes Bridge moorings. I think she bought it from John Bolsom who had the yard at Iver on the bottom of the Slough Arm and another at Norwood on the Paddington Arm, but his Iver Boats hire fleet was back in the 60s. There was a hire fleet in Paddington Packet Boat yard at Cowley Peachey at some point and that might be where you are thinking of. They have a mooring basin on the main line and their marina entrance on the old BW dredging tip is just into the Slough cut. I am pretty confident that there were never any boats operating out of the BW Bulls Bridge yard. Tam

I got one of the Makita ones - it was very handy to be able to hold in one hand and reach through a tangle of other branches to cut the one you wanted, virtually impossible with a hand saw. It did fall to bits very quickly but Amazon sent a replacement instantly with no qibbble, and that one has now has quite a bit of work. Yes, 3" branches no bother at all.