Sir Richard Head

I’ve read with great interest the varying views on this somewhat emotive subject and at the risk of having my head shot off would like to add my observations. BW quite rightly states that its variable costs are related directly to usage. This is a reasonable argument in that the greater the usage the greater the impact upon wear and tear on lock mechanisms, water usage and bank erosion. The basis that is used to determine the license fee as set out in Table 3.1 of the consultation document is also reasonable. Where I do take issue is the proposal for a two tier banding; higher rate and basic rate. BW asserts that, on the basis of their 2004 survey, that CCs do the greatest mileage and thus cause the greatest damage; the survey indicates that CCs are cruising for 177 days in the year whereas Hire Boats are only cruising for 130 to 150 days in a year. What is not in dispute is the number of cruising days per group; what has been overlooked however, is the relative number of lock/miles covered on each of those days. I would suggest that hire boats are likely to cruise many more hours per day during a hire period than any CC. Hirers are likely to have planned to complete a ring or linear cruise within a hire period and will thus press on for as many hours as necessary to reach their target. CCs on the other hand, whilst they might have an ultimate destination in mind, are much less likely to commit themselves to reaching a particular location by a specific date. Continuous Cruisers could probably be more accurately described as Continuous Drifters!! Another difference between a hire boat user and a CC is likely to be experience. It is arguable that a CC will have more experience at boat handling that a hirer and will probably be more likely to have greater respect for their chosen environment; therefore a CC is likely to have less of an impact upon the system than a hirer. To lump CCs into the same higher rate bracket as hire boats and shared ownership boats would be unfair in the extreme, particularly in view of the fact that the survey indicates that the vast majority of CCs fall into the lowest Household Income bracket in the survey results. (Table 2) One has to accept that there is a higher cost impact upon BW incurred by CCs when compared to home mooring based boats. They will travel more; they will use the canalside facilities more and because of that they should be prepared to bear a greater share of that cost than home mooring boaters. I would suggest that an Intermediate Rate be introduced and set at around 1.5 times the base rate. If my views seem naïve, then you will have to forgive me as I view this as an outsider looking in, but as an outsider with plans to become and insider as soon as my boat is completed. It is also likely that for a year or so I will have to be a Continuous Cruiser until such time as I can acquire permanent base. Right! Tin hat on! Hatches battened down! INCOMING!!!!!!!!

Gary Thanks you very much for the very complete explanation. I shall indeed ask the appropriate questions and hopefully avoid the need to part with such a princely sum.

It is indeed the Worcester where I leaned the gentile art of seamanship and boat handling from the tender age of 13.

Gary That's really the question that I'm asking. I've read a little bit about it and it would seem like a good idea at the right price, but what, if any are the real benefits? Thanks for the response.

Hi All, If you were having a boat built and shotblasting was on offer for £1200, would you consider it a worthwhile investment? Would be very grateful for any advise.

John What sort of fault would take it all out? One assumes that a box that is reasonably technically advanced will have protection systems. Are you speaking from personal experience of this equipment? Why would a company with a 'diseased brain' be awarded the Queens Award for Innovation 2005 ?

At the risk of changing the direction of this thread, I would like to ask for views on a possible alternative to having a 240v engine driven generator. The boat that I'm buying will come with twin 70amp alternators, a Victron 1200watt Inverter and a standard arrangement of 5 batteries (one start battery and 4 110amp domestic batteries). I'm planning to spec the boat with a washing machine and clearly the Victron unit will be insufficient to power that, even if the engine were running. My original idea was to take the option of having a 2500watt Victron Inverter plus a 3.5kwatt 240v engine driven generator. The cost of the two options will be £4,750. I have however discovered an alternative in the form of the Sterling-Power Alternator-to-Battery Charger. This unit takes the power from BOTH alternators and then by some very cunning electronics and programming, manages the charges to both the start battery and the domestic battery bank, given obovious priority to the start battery. Sterling claim that this solution, when coupled with their 3000watt pure sine wave inverter, is a far more cost effective and efficient than the previous options I was considering. Excluding labour, the cost of the Sterling products would be under £1500. Their regular full page advert in Waterways World describes this system rather better than I have! A more complete description of the system can be found here: Sterling Power Products Ltd then click on Products , then Alternator to Battery Charger. I would appreciate anyone's input on this subject.

Whilst I would agree that one could cruise for may years without any serious problems, it's worrying to read news items such as: Vandals Fire Second Narrowboat in the Breaking News section on: Narrowboatworld.com If you read the article it would seem that there's been a group of vandals who've been causing havoc in that area for the past six months

Sorry about that. I've fixed the original link and repeat it here. Retirement with No Problem

I've been following Sue's excellent weblog: Retirement with No Problem and notice that she and her husband Vic have had yet another run in with yobs on the canal. How widespread have to found this problem to be be? Where are the blackspots? How did you handle such a situation? Any (legal) suggestions about how best to defend oneself?

That reminds me of an incident I saw in Constantine in Algeria many years ago. I was the co-pilot on a B707 freighter and we'd hauled a load of oil rig equipment into there from Marseilles. The heaviest pallet is always loaded in the number 1 position, the furthest forward and on it was just one item, a three and a half tonne pipeline valve!! The pallet lifter at the airfield was unserviceable so the handlers decided to use a large forklift truck to offload the aircraft instead. Said forklift at full stretch only reached up to a point about a foot below the cargo door sill. The technique that they employed was to give each pallet an almighty shove from the ball roller floor, effectively flying it out of the aircraft. All went ok until the final pallet, the BIG ONE!! They got about 12 guys into the aircraft to manhandle this monster onto the ball rollers and then, with the forklift in position, arms oustretched, they launched three and a half tonnes out into space. The forklift did a magnificent job in catching the flying pallet, it didn't tip over; the alluminium pallet just folded very neatly in the middle as the valve passed between the forks on its way to the ground - one of the funniest things I've ever seen!!!

I know that you're building a broad beam, if it's a dutch barge replica then semi-naked ladies in the windows and red internal lighting would be entirely appropriate!!

I'm still working on the final spec for my Aqualine which will go into build in mid-August. I've decided on the 240volt generator but am still undecided as to whether its worth spending an extra £1800 to upgrade from the 1200w Victron to the 2500w version. Also still not sure whether to go for the 60' boat in preference to the 57' verson.

Sounds as if you're building a floating 'knocking shop'! I certainly wouldn't want to block free enterprise and wish I'd thought of it first!

Please discuss