David Mack
Patron
-
Posts
20,309 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
6
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by David Mack
-
-
When I saw the thread title I was expecting some combination of a children's song and this.
-
1
-
-
33 minutes ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:
Would it be simple enough to begin with requiring some sort of helm certificate as a starter?
Rather misses the point! The ability to handle a boat is not the issue. What matters is that someone applying for a boat licence without a home mooring needs to demonstrate to CRT that they intend to use the boat bona fide for navigation, and not merely shuffle around a limited area with almost all stays being of 14 days duration.
-
2
-
-
3 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:
Have you read and understood what CaRT requires from people who licence as CCers? If you don't "satisfy the board" that you are moving far enough, it is possible that you could lose the boat to CaRT - you would normally get plenty of notice that CaRT are not happy with you, long before court action. You can't stay in one spot for more than 14 days, or less if the notices tell you (there are afew with only a couple of hours, but usually near shops).
The Lancaster Canal is 42 miles long from Preston to Tewitfield. In order to demonstrate to CRT that you are a genuine CCer (with a boat that is too long to go further afield) you will need to travel the full length of the canal a few times a year, and staying at a number of different places along the way. You aren't allowed to just switch between a couple of places - you probably need to visit (and have been sighted by CRT at) a couple of other places before returning to your first location.
1 hour ago, Birdie2601 said:as I have a health issue (that still allows me to cope with life but in a slower more thoughtful way) I will be allowed one month on a yellow card and I feel I can manage to move every month as a CCer
I doubt CRT will accept regular one month stays on an ongoing basis, particularly from a new licence holder. The concession which allows you to stay in one place for longer than 14 days if reasonable in the circumstances is intended to accommodate being unable to move the boat due to illness/injury, breakdown or unplanned canal closure. It would normally be expected that when the circumstance giving rise to the extended stay had ended you would revert to maximum 14 day stays. And CRT will be more willing to accommodate extended stays by an existing boater who becomes ill or injured than by one who cannot achieve the movement requirements on day one.
-
3 hours ago, Birdie2601 said:
yes it was to have spare beds for visiting teenagers on Uni breaks, so a flexible layout that can convert low bunks to sofa spaces during 'quite periods',
For how long and how often will the teenagers be staying? Or in other words will they be happy to camp on whatever facilities you can offer, or will they need dedicated home-from-home type accommodation? We had a tale on here a while ago of a chap who accepted significant compromises in his boat layout in order to be able to accommodate holiday stays by his children and grandchildren. But in 5+ years of boat ownership the family had only come to stay once, meanwhile he had suffered the inconvenience of the boat layout for 5 years for virtually no benefit.
-
1
-
-
1 minute ago, cuthound said:
My understanding is that CRT can't refuse a licence if the boat is insured and has a current BSS certificate, however I do like @MtB's suggestion.
The applicant for a licence for a boat without a home mooring has to 'satisfy the Board'... It seems to me to be perfectly in order for CRT to apply some test to determine that the applicant is aware of the conditions of that licence, before it is 'satisfied' etc. etc. And it follows that if CRT is not so satisfied it is entitled to refuse to issue the licence (or to require that the applicant obtains a home mooring).
-
9 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:
It would appear to be self propelled so cannot be a houseboat! (On uk navigations anyway)
The news report does say it is being towed, but in the drone shots I couldn't see a tug, although there does appear to be a small rib nearby. But hardly big enough to tow a thing that size I would have thought.
-
1 hour ago, Birdie2601 said:
I have been researching boat builders etc and understand I don't have the budget for a traditional Less Allen, Dave Harris, Malcolm Braine, Norton Canes, Steve Hudson, Roger Fuller, Roger Faringdon, Reeves Coetc (from forum research) but maybe an older Colecraft or Blackprince ex hire boat might suffice?
Older boats by the top names do crop up at reasonable prices from time to time, especially if they have been neglected. But in your position I wouldn't get hung up by the identity of the builder. As well as the products of the big boys, there are lots of boats out there built by small boatbuilders who only produced a handful of boats and many of whose names are all but forgotten. At the age and price bracket you are looking at condition is more important than pedigree. Just choose a boat where the lines and steel detailing appeal to you and the condition is reasonable for the price.
-
1
-
-
-
Not sure it's wise for the former chandlery owners to be so up front in public about the reasons for closure, especially as they make allegations against a named business.
If that is their attitude I can understand why the marina management didn't want to discuss them staying on!
-
37 minutes ago, IanD said:
True if you can find a boat in the exact colour you want, and it's been relatively newly painted.
Well the OP was asking for a photo of a boat in Cobalt Blue. If someone here has a boat painted that colour, the OP would be better viewing it for real than looking at a photo. As to being newly painted, surely that depends on whether the OP is interested in how his boat will look shortly after painting or a few years down the line!
-
4 minutes ago, BuckbyLocks said:
The upper of Ian Moss' photos looks rather like Beckets Park in Northampton just below the lock.
My first reaction on seeing that picture was Northampton, although I haven't been there by boat since 2007, so not sure why I would remember it!
-
3 hours ago, Higgs said:
You seem to be saying: Home moorers have to behave as CCers. They can't stay moored for longer than 14 days. They can slip back into the marina, and possibly get the count to start again. They are also required to leave VMs, as the time states.
Would you, by any chance, be trying to find rules that home moorers can follow, that CCers are not permitted to follow? Like, CMing, for instance?
Read what I wrote!!
Under the 95 Act CCers have to move every 14 days. Under that same Act HMers can moor anywhere they like for as long as they like.
However under CRT's Ts and Cs, which may or may not be legally enforceable depending on who you listen to, HMers are also subject to maximum 14 day stays, or such shorter periods as indicated on signs at visitor moorings and the like. However the key difference is that the HMer's clock resets every time they return to their home mooring. So a HMer can leave their home mooring every weekend and tie up at the same spot for a couple of nights before returning to the HM. A CCer has to visit a number (undefined) of other 'places' (also undefined) before returning to the initial location.
-
1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:
1. It only has 6mm hull sides and if they are pitted by a bit over 2mm the boat may be uninsurable fully comprehensive, although you could get third party.
Almost every narrowboat on the market has 6mm hull sides, apart from Springers which are thinner, so this isn't really a thing to worry about.
It's an ex hire boat with multiple cabins. Fine if you have a family to house, but if you are a single or couple you will probably want to take some of the bunks out. Which then leads to the question whether having several small 'rooms' is what you want, or whether you would be better with a boat with fewer larger spaces.
Forget about compost toilets. CRT have banned the disposal of 'compost' (in reality just bagged poo and paper) in their refuse bins, and if you have nowhere on land to store it while it decomposes, it's just a headache. The boat has two pumpout toilets. There might be one or two waste tanks which they empty into. Remove one toilet and the second tank if there are two, and keep the other one. The saving in cost by not replacing the toilet will cover your pumpout charges for quite a while.
In queries like this I normally suggest the buyer move the boat themselves rather than paying for road transportation - the saving in lorry and cranage costs could allow you to take a week or two's unpaid leave to make the move. But in this case with a length of 66ft I think the boat may be too long for the Rufford Branch, and possibly also too deep a draft for the Ribble Link.
That in turn leads me to wonder whether moving a boat this size to the Lancaster canal would materially devalue it. Not an issue if you intend to keep it long term, but could be if you need to sell.
-
1
-
-
Colour rendition will depend on the characteristics of the camera used to take the photo and the screen used to view it. You can get an idea of the colour by looking at colour swatches on a paint manufacturers website, but to get an idea of how it will look on a boat there is no substitute for actually viewing the boat in the flesh.
-
1 hour ago, Higgs said:
When home moorers are out and about on the canal, the rules are the same for them as CCers.
As a matter of law that is incorrect. Under the 95 Act, those without a home mooring are required to not remain in any place for more than 14 days (or such longer period...). There is no such constraint under the Act for those with a home mooring. However CRT (and BW before them) have sought to impose a similar requirement on those with a home mooring through their terms and conditions. The enforceability of this requirement has been questioned here, but as far as I am aware has never been tested in court, so it's a moot point as to whether a home moorer can legally stay longer than 14 days in one place.
-
My ISP provides HTTPS for free, and the tutorial on their help pages made it easy to do the conversion.
While you can set a browser exception so that you can view your site without the security risk being flagged, other users will still get the warning, and that will put many off making use of a valuable resource.
-
15 minutes ago, Oz Mandius said:
Hi all, it looks like this is now sorted. I bled the system, which didn’t take much to be honest and re-run the unit with all the radiators turned off. After 40 minutes the water coming out of the hot tap was like lava, so it appears that I now need to turn the rads off to get the water to the required temp which is no great shakes. From now on if I’m just after hot water I’ll close off the rads and bang the Webasto on for 30 or so minutes. Thank you for all the suggestions and advice.
Sounds like you need to balance the system so that the hot water flow from the Webasto is shared between the radiator and calorifier circuits. If your radiators have manual valves at one end and lockshield valves at the other, with the manual valves fully open, try closing the lockshield valves a little, starting with the radiator closest to the Webasto and then on those progressively further away. The aim is to get the pipes leading to the calorifier to be at a similar temperature to those feeding the radiators.
-
Do you mean water comes out of the top of the rudder tube bearing when the engine is in gear at full tilt? This is not uncommon, and there isn't much you can do about it. My only concern would be where does that water go? With a trad stern it usually just runs onto the stern deck and harmlessly over the side. With a cruiser or semi trad stern it usually ends up in the bilges. In the latter case, if the flow is significant, you would do well to make sure your bilge pump is working so you can pump it out a couple of times during the trip.
-
1 hour ago, Jon57 said:
Well all this this talk about shutting the Huddersfield narrow seems unlikely as they are installing a new communication system in the tunnel. Simalar to what network rail use on their network by the same contractors? It's supposed to tell them where the boat is at all times and the chaporens are. Been informed by the very knowledgeable chaperone that the cost is in the region of £800000 don't know if that cost is true but a total waste of money as the present system works OK for the maximum 6 boats a week if fully booked. 😡
At present the CRT staff follow the boat using one of the parallel disused railway tunnels. I have heard that as part of the Transpennine Upgrade rail services might be reinstated in one or both tunnels, which could prevent the current arrangement. So having an alternative means of communication and monitoring in place might be a necessity.
24 minutes ago, Jon57 said:Apparently the risk assessment suggested that they put signs on the wall as to how far and what direction the nearest escape route was.
Every canal tunnel I have been through in the last few years has had luminous arrows pointing towards the nearest portal, along with distance markers. I would be surprised if Standedge didn't have them fitted as part of the restoration.
-
2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
I did not suggest that it was a legal requirement.
The document you quoted starts off with the words "The requirements..." and goes on to quote British Standards. The average reader could be forgiven for thinking that there is a legal obligation to comply with these 'requirements'.
-
16 hours ago, magpie patrick said:
And finally - some customers must have been quite ambitious in their cruising plans judging by this paragraph!
I had already noted that Anker is stated to be suitable for the Welsh canal - some trip for a hireboat from Shackerstone!
-
'Continuous Cruising' as a concept only exists on the CRT waterways. Other navigation authorities do not give you the specific choice of either having a mooring, or of continually moving within specified criteria. That said some other authorities do not require you to have a designated home mooring, and on rivers, mooring against private land (out of the main navigable channel) is just a matter between the boater and the landowner. But public mooring places are far fewer and most have significant time restrictions.
The OP should start looking at marina moorings in the Oxford area.
-
31 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:
The Oxford canal is a narrow canal,
Apart from the section between Braunston and Napton and, in limited circumstances, up to Barby Marina on the northern section.
-
On 22/04/2024 at 13:19, Heartland said:
Now this image from the 1990's shows a barge wide canal which was close to an earlier river navigation
It would be of interest to identify those on the working boat,
This is Large Woolwich narrow boat Fulbourne approaching Weston Lock on the eastern Trent and Mersey Canal on 23 September 1996. The steerer is the then part owner of the boat, Stuart Anderson, accompanied by Jan.
-
1
-
Brass 'sliders'
in General Boating
Posted
The ones in MtB's link seem rather confused about their sizes: