furnessvale

£1000 of the £2000 is being provided by the manufacturer so you can guarantee that this will be part of the former discounts on offer. I intend changing my car but the fact that I have a trade in will only be mentioned AFTER I have agreed the final cash price for my new motor with the dealer. George ex nb Alton retired

This is how I made mine. A variation, less likely to scratch shiny(ugh) cabin roofs, uses a nail with a thin rubber cover protecting the head but I never had any trouble with mine. 1. Obtain mop shaft. Needs to be more substantial than a standard mop and long enough to dip in cut while standing on top plank. Shafts sold as smaller boat hook shafts can be suitable. 2. Make and fit metal(brass) ferrule to fit on mophead end to stop it splitting. 3. Obtain long brass screw (3" or so), a large repair washer and make two thick rubber washers half inch or so larger diameter than shaft. 4. After five winters take donkey jacket off Tim's back, beware it will be welded on. Cut it into strips 2ins wide by about 20ins long. 5. Feed repair washer, one rubber washer and then the centre of each strip in turn onto screw until you have a nice full mophead. Add final rubber washer. 6. Drill pilot hole in centre of shaft end and screw mophead on. 7. Learn how to spin it dry. George ex nb Alton retired

A remote possibility but.....a spot check by revenue on your vessel could see them asking where you purchased your diesel and what you paid for it. As with all things revenue, you will have to demonstrate that you have paid the correct duty. Fortunately the revenue men have lots of other more important things to worry about but if they ever suspect large scale fraud a few spot checks and confiscated boats would encourage les autres:-) George ex nb Alton retired

You have hit the nail on the head! Exactly like new freight depots opening in greenbelt land which have a condition of rail access. No freight is sent by rail and after a few years the rail access is quietlysevered. In the case of the marina, after a few years the developer will apply to fill it in because "there is no demand". George ex nb Alton retired

John, I believe you are correct. A few "incidents" with careless boaters has forced the H & S dept of BW to put up the big red notices to cover themselves. George

I would not recommend that others try if you don't know what you are doing, BUT I have frequently locked through with two full length boats, the last time being Maundy Thursday with a big Woolwich and a Josher going downhill. The distortion is very limited in area and can be overcome with care. A shorter boat hanging back on the right hand side going downhill misses the distortion completely. George ex nb Alton retired

I know of two that have found there way into preservation so far. One is called HAPTON and is a tug which used to moor at Fools Nook on the Macc. The other is a short open front workflat, I think the name is SPIDER. George ex nb Alton retired

Ah the joys of marina purchases! No wonder the marina owners scowled as I steered past with my price clearly displayed as required by trading standards. Apparently, marinas are exempt:-) George ex nb Alton retired

I certainly used to use my grapple to take out shopping trolleys because BW never did. After a few were returned to Tesco they started to recover them themselves but I don't think it lasted long. George ex nb Alton retired

Why buy from a forecourt when 100% propulsion red diesel is only 1p per litre dearer from your friendly neighbourhood diesel boat? (It is on the Peak Forest and Macc anyway). Make any sort of declaration and you are immediately cheaper, sometimes by a large margin. George ex nb Alton retired (totally unbiased:-)

I certainly laced up the cratches on ALTON with various screw eyes and thinnish line. Without it, I would certainly expect to collapse into the hold on occasions when walking the top plank. (I couldn't permanently fix things with the need to collapse all into the hold occasionally eg Lumb Lane Ashton.) I also built the deck board on ALTON with a 6" forward rake as well as being 4.5" lower than standard GU. I believe this was done in any case by BW/Willow Wren on large GU boats moved down the north to allow for Stoke on Trent low bridges. My take on the 6" rake is that, when running empty a vertical deck board leans back. It just doesn't look right. George ex nb Alton (retired)

Be on your guard. There is a (fairly) new plant disease in the country which is spreading. Up to now it has only attacked rohdodendron (which I think is no bad thing) but it is mutating. It is now on Cannock Chase and an expert there said "we may have to close the Chase to the public LIKE WE DID DURING THE FOOT AND MOUTH OUTBREAK" (my capitals). Remember the foot and mouth outbreak with all the totally unnecessary canal closures? We must be on our guard that the canals are not used again as the token "look how we are doing things to protect the public". As in the foot and mouth outbreak, the real spreaders of the disease are the roads and motorways but we cannot close them, can we? George ex nb Alton retired

Thanks for those kind words. 68.3 litres at 49.5ppl on 10th August 2006 I remember it well:-) (or to be truthful I keep my records). Yes I am enjoying retirement but I miss the boat a lot. Fortunately the new owner Brian McGuigan works the same patch so I get the chance for a day out when I want steering. I leave the coal to him though:-) George ex nb Alton retired

When I first set up in business and had a visit from Trading Standards, they told me I MUST have my prices clearly displayed. I pointed to the 9" high numbers on the board on the foredeck and then asked them what they intended to do about marinas......no reply! George ex nb Alton retired

At 3ft you will generally be OK although be prepared to "touch" bottom at frequent intervals. At 3ft 6ins you will touch bottom frequently AND get stuck at least once on every trip. When I loaded ALTON to 3ft 6ins it was a real pig until sales lightened me a bit, and that includes canals other then the Peak Forest and Macc. My advice is, do not exceed 3ft and if you can, stick at about 2ft 9ins. Exceed that and you join the army of unpaid canal dredgers. George ex nb Alton retired

If you carried the generator with you in the car so you could top up the batteries on the move you certainly would have to pay road fuel duty. If not, I think car manufacturers would have taken that route many years ago. George ex nb Alton, retired.

Thanks for that Graham Richard, I have now done it. George

I have done that and so far it hasn't bounced. Thanks for your advice. George ex mb Alton retired

This morning I was telephoned by a lady wanting boat fuel. I have been retired over 2 years but I tried to help her. She said she lived in London on a "barge" (could well be a nb). She sounded of foreign extraction. She wanted to buy diesel. Obviously I couldn't supply being retired and well outside my area in any case. I offered to get details of the diesel boat page <www.lock13.co.uk/boats/coaldiesel.htm> She gave me her e mail as *******@yahoo.co.uk. Attempts to e mail her are rejected by demon. 1471 on my phone gives number withheld. If anyone knows her can they inform her or me so I can establish contact. I don't want her getting disillusioned with fellow boaters before she even starts. Thanks George ex nb Alton retired.

I have back read all comments about this man that I can find on NBW and can find nothing offensive in them. The harshest comments, but by no means libellous, are in e mails from readers and not to print them would be censorship by NBW. The comment by NBW AFTER the event seems to be most respectful in the circumstances. The only alternative is that in future ALL comment about unlicenced boats or chronic overstayers should be banned. George ex nb Alton retired.

The only clause in the smoke control regulations that applies to canal boats is the one about producing BLACK smoke more than 30 minutes after lighting the fire. George ex nb Alton retired

I get the feeling they are to restore two side ponds BUT they will be locked out of use unless being demonstrated. George ex nb Alton retired

Why should he? The act of dying does not convert one into a saint. I once knew a man who was a dangerous knife carrying yob. When he got older he became a dangerous knife carrying OAP who wasn't afraid to use it. He has since died but my attitude to him remains the same. Any comments made about this man, if true should stand. If false they shouldn't have been there in the first place. George ex nb Alton retired

Just make shure that the receiving tank is capable of taking delivery at full speed from the tanker driver's standard 2" nozzle and you will be OK. Several mini "co-operatives" have come unstuck when the driver arrives to find a line of boats with 1" fillers.....oh... and numbers 2 and 4 are slow fillers. You will get that company to deliver once and that's it. Also don't forget that unless you get separate invoices, technically the person ordering and paying becomes a dealer when he supplies the other boats. One north west company always refused to deliver to ALTON because of a bad experience, despite my protestations that I had 6" fillers and 2750 litre tanks! Their loss, the other companies got the business. George ex nb Alton retired