saladdays

You are lucky Alvechurch is great! For the best in high quality pubs with fine dinning along the way cruise to Stratford and back. Book a night at the theatre.Moor up in the basin walk along the river..Stratford canal is fantastic one of the best....Droitwich canal is a fantastic adventure too, Spoilt for choice you are.

I was a member of the IWA for a while but have let my membership lapse.Seems to me the only real purpose of this organisation is to keep the staff within it employed like a lot of trade organisations. They should join the IWA with the canal and river trust and have one single body in my opinion.

Running costs on our shared narrowboat ISIS work out for our group at £100 each per month. We have done quite a bit of extra work on our boat since it was launched in 2010.New fresh water gauge,DAB radio,locking fuel cap,top of the range matress,sound insulation in the engine compartment.and other small stuff. I suppose we are paying a little more than the average syndicate but we are also now trying to build up a fund to pay for major works like a full repaint or engine replacement that will come along at some future point. It is cheaper than hiring no doubt about that but you must really want to committ to at least Two weeks holiday a year. Also if you are a control freak then being in shared ownership is not for you. The point about paying for a mooring all year round is that we need a base to do the changeover each week and when its cold the boat is seldom used by its owners so we need a full time mooring.In fact at Alvechurch(ABC Boat managment) we have our own name plate on our pontoon and we insist that ABC do not use it,or anyone else! for any of the hire boats. I know that this is not the case in other schemes,well it wasnt in the Ex ownerships scheme and paying for a mooring without a proper designated mooring is just silly.

Thank you all for the replies.Will look at DAB as well good point and will circulate info to our group of owners. Regards, salladays

Hello and happy new year. We are looking for a new FM/AM Radio/CD/mp3 player for our shared narrowboat Isis.The radio supplied from new.. like all I have seen on shared narrowboats... looks like it was a cheap last minute purchase from Halfords.This is one area of our narrowboat fitting out that needs a proper bit of kit to go along with the rest of the £100,0000 boat. Has anyone fitted anything that could slot into the existing rectangular slot with a bit of class that they would care to reccomend? Cheers

I could help next(not the 28th as its our shared boat NB Isis AGM) Sunday up the Stourbridge 16 and the Delph 8 as I live in Stourbridge.Phone me on 07711 682342 and I will be available for the day. Dave Sheppard.

May I also add that the photo is really great and thank you for taking it and sharing it.Thanks also to the historic boat owners who made my week really great at Droitwich.I moored up Isis in the basin on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Easter and was able to take in the atmosphere. Having finished my week on our shared narrowboat I have another hobby running,had great pleasure,whilst out on a long Sunday run seeing a working boat and butty being taken through the lock at the navvigation pub, Staffs and Worcester. They really have made a difference to the midlands canal/river scene in the last few days.Please come again soon!

Just check that your dates and if they clash with the Liberal Democrats Annual conferance at the Convention centre in Sept..expect your boat to be searched,An escorted cruise through the canal near Gas Street basin and machine guns to be waved around.This happend to me during a Conservative conf so expect the same if not much more this September An expected TUC march down Broad Street could lead to general trouble,So on balance given what we have seen over the last few nights you might want to avoid that week. Or perhaps pay for moorings in Sherbourne wharf which is gate locked at night.I've moored up quite a few times near the NIA/Sealife centre and never had much of a problem.

A long shot,It's a limited company and sounds like another rouge one with no cash and no prospect of the bank lending it any money. So what they do is use customers money to fund themselves.It really is important to check that businesses have cash in the bank before doing business with them.

You are right about the contract that would help of course, but if a company has no track record of making regular profits with cash in the bank why would any sane person want to deal with them. I remember a certain OwnerShips LTD, company that claimed to be "a not for profit boat owners club" actually it was a business run off the back of strung along owners...Hundreds of them! to provide the cash for the late A. Matthews not "for profit" club what a con man he was. I mean no harm to your business and wish you well but as I say buyers must check the financial stability and strenth of a company for a major one of special purchase like a new build narrowboat. Very foolish not to.

I think the main problem is how very easy it is with no cash to enter the market as a boat builder. You need very little in the way of machinery and you can rent out a very cheap shed. I would not want to deal with any builder unless they could show me audited accounts that showed a company making regular profits and that most of the profit was retained within the company.I would also want to see the most up to date bank statements and would expect the company I was about to deal with showing a healthy balance. A no cash company is a disaster waiting to happen.

Having just watched the heros from the 1960's triumph in re opening the Stourbridge arm on TV golden age of canals (red button replay) tonight, what a great debt of gratitude I owe them. We have a problem with vandalism in Stourbridge with two historic bridge walls(on the Stourbridge arm) being torn down by unaware mindless young men. The situation is getting really quite bad with I believe the threat of collapse of one of these bridge structures a possibility. We do have somepeople who must be aware of the situation as tempory fencing has appeared from somwhere.However it is clearly going to cost thousands of pounds to restore and I am concerned and want to do something about it. I am going down the local police station in Stourbridge to see what they can do to police the towpath more often but it really needs a group of people to start the restoration. Who should I be talking to? or do these things get sorted out by british waterways or the Stourbridge canal trust? If any one can point me in the direction of a solution or the start of one, that would be great thanks. Saladdays 07711 682342

Did not get to go on the ones with the very long waiting times. Couple of things stood out.. Value for money boats good on steelwork and not bad paint are Aintree boats and the New boat (Collingwood ex Liverpool boats) Hanbury range but spoilt by poor interior finishing details like screws missing from hinges on cabinets .Really good boats start at a whooping £90,000 and Hudson boats are just ridiculous like the rooms you could never go into at your nan and grandad's house.Stoke on Trent boats fake rivits not good, never got to see any more than the badly finished rivits, waited for 25 minutes and gave up..Most people were just having a look with zero intention of buying at these kind of prices.Blue water boats for me was the best boat for value and quality and had lovely owners on board.Kate boats looked very nice as well. The BCBM share boat was lovely but again I cannot see the value in a share at £10,000 x 12.5 owners which values the boat at £125,000.00 The owners will be very lucky to get £7,000 per share after a couple of years and would value the boat at a more realistic £87,500.00 It seems to me that more boatbuilders will go bust as the price for quality is now quite a long, long way away from the reality of peoples pocket's. The second hand market is where I will be looking when I buy my own boat in a few years time it's much better value. Looked to me that loads of people were spending a lot of time looking at the second hand dealers stands. I think the Crick show overall is a good day out the boat trip was very nice and I enjoyed it but poor marks for a lack vegetarian food.

Going out on my shareboat Isis on Sunday afternoon down to Stratford. Never been out on a bank holiday weekend,What moorings do you think will be available in Stratford on Tuesday sometime and where? I have been lucky in the past to get in at the basin.Isis is 62 foot long. Any advice about Stratford? Cheers in advance.

Is it ok to use a hire boat for the weekend?