Tam & Di

How old is this boat and what sort of a life has it has that its 10mm plate needs rebottoming? And if the bottom is in that sort of state, what is the rest like? Tam

I can't think where that might have been. The nearest was probably High Line at Iver on the Slough cut. They had some concrete hulled hire boats in the 60s, and pretty much every one of them tried to make holes in the tow path as they stormed straight out of the Slough Arm at the Tee junction onto the main line at Cowley Peachey, never having had to do any much steering to that point - the location does feature in the Bargee film in a contretemps between Harry Corbett's pair and Eric Sykes' cruiser.

To my mind if a person as a DIYer wants to enter a field that is normally carried out by professional tradesmen he should learn the professional language - not demand that the profession adapts to his lack of knowledge. When I worked as a plumber in the mid 50s there was no question that a rather box shaped thing in the kitched was called a sink, and a more bowl-shaped thing in the loo or elsewhere was a basin - where's the problem in that? The same as a hot tap was always on the left and cold on the right - it's now quite random, and the number of times I've found them fitted the wrong way round must be at least 1 in 4. It did get to be a pain when international measurements were adopted, and in many respects it is a messy bodge, but it was nothing to do with EC rules. There was always conflict between the different thread systems.

It was pretty much impossible for boats to be left littering the towpath when working craft held sway. The terms towpath dosser or towpath squatter came into use when it first started to happen, in the 60s. I've not heard them used much since that time. They are obviously perjorative, but do express how such actions were regarded by those wishing to use canals in the normally accepted manner right from the beginning, long before it became such a severe problem. Even back then BWB never gave their lengthsmen sufficient back-up for them to nip it in the bud.

I had a cover made pretty much the same as Alan's (but a tidier fit 😁). Mine also had rectangular clear panels which were pretty much the size of the rectangular glass they covered. It was easily removable, but in reality I seldom removed it other than when I painted the roof and revarnished the pigeon box. We did have alternative opening Lewmar hatches though. Tam

Certainly not there when our son Jason owned it in the 70s. They're pretty small, but it would be interesting to know how they affect the handling. I don't think I've put this picture on before - Jason and Mike Carter taking two Joeys down onto the Thames on hire for a civil engineering job. Tam

OK, but don't then moan if your boat rocks when another boat passes or when someone works the lock. Tam

I have been recommending this for years to anyone taking their narrowboat to France, as locks can be very fierce. Other than a few waterways such as the Canal du Midi the crew stay on board to mind the lines, and this allows them to take turns around the tee stud for control of the length while the supplementary bollards or fairlead keep the line away from the crew - also away from the corners of the cabin. It is also useful for mooring lines as it moves the contact point away from the tee stud and towards the straight side of the boat which is the problem LadyG highlights. It is probably ott for most UK waterways, but here are a couple of examples. Tam

Tied with two lines as you describe, when a boat passes you surge forward. This means the stern lines comes tight and holds the back in, but the fore line slacks slightly allowing the bow to move out. As the surge reverses you get the opposite reaction. With springs, although you still surge forwards the bow and stern still remain tight to the bank, and as you surge back the same reaction. To explain further, as you surge forwards the stern line will tighten, but so will the forward spring, and then the converse. So although the boat will still move slightly forwards and backwards you will no longer have one end or the other swinging out and bouncing back in. Although you may think your two lines are as tight as they can possibly be, the water level will change slightly as a boat passes which will immediately mean they are less tight (or more, depending upon the relative levels) Tam

I'd agree - to a greater or lesser extent a canoe stern echoes the shape of a canoe, as one would expect:

Looking now at his previous posts on threads about being offered a boat which was almost certainly a scam, deciding that a survey is a waste of money, and now disregading advice that wooden boats need a faily permanent injection of money, sadly I think you are correct and he really wants people to tell him how lucky he is to have these cheap boats being thrown at him all the time. Unfortunately that means he is simply a rather disillusioned time waster. I'd be happy for him to come back and tell me I'm wrong, but .........🤷‍♂️ Tam

There was quite a bit of helpful comment plus the usual jokey stuff - about Noah's Ark in this case. Then stagedamagerer posted the above which was very to the point. Sadly this was also the last time the OP was on-line looking at the thread, so I guess either he did not see it or decided not to bother - a pity either way, but it does seem to happen a lot, and does influence the sort of replies the next enquiry of a similar nature receives. Tam