john6767

The canal at Start City is by the car park, almost round the back, so I don't think you will find it too noisy. The car park certainly has cameras and security patrols.

The only place I have moored in that area is at Star City, which is fine, and almost at Salford Junction.

You've seen me

I live in Dickens Heath and there is no reason not to moor there. The thing that people take exception to Dickens Heath about is that is is very modern, but I don't believe there are issues more than anywhere else, let's face it one forum member had his boat broken into a Warings Green, so you can get issues anywhere occasionally. There is a good spot to moor just before you get to Dickens Heath from Earlswood, just after you come out of the cutting, there are often 1 or 2 boats moored there. Shirley Drawbridge either side is fine as well.

I have got these from Tradline's ebay shop, had them 3 years and very pleased with them.

So now that we know where the OP is, they have a nice easy 3 hour run into the centre of Birmingham. Being on one of the longest pounds in the country (I think), you could go out for a week and not do any locks if you wanted to. If you do 3 locks (each way) you could spend an additional week of lock free cruising too. A nice day or overnight outing from Llyons would be to (almost) Lapworth, which gets you out into the country. You have to turn at the winding hole at Swallow Cruisers at Hockley Heath, as that is the last before the locks. Like others I always take a full turn round the bollard and tie off on the boat, but you see lots of people who don't do that.

Not noticed then being hard at all to be honest (but then I am usually on the boat!). The paddles do need lots of turns though, and that is tiring when you do a lot at once. The ones that always seem harder are Knowle, which I always put down to less people going that way (many going up the Stratford), but I believe someone on here has stated that the paddles at Knowle are a different size to the other ones.

I would second all that. Don't get too over concerned about what may happen, because mostly it is all good. To further Nicks final point, I don't know where you are but even if you exclude the locks, ie start from above Lapworth, the run into Birmingham is a good 6 hours. From Kingswood you are really a longish day from both Birmingham and Stratford, Stratford being the most locks.

That is a full copy, if you have an XP licence (and the key and disks) you actually only need an upgrade copy, which should be cheaper. However that price on the looks good to me, so you may not find an upgrade copy much cheaper anyway.

Yes it was tongue in cheek. I get a new high end laptop (or what Dell call mobile workstations) from work every 3 years, and having just has a new one, the one before last (so 6 years old) on XP still works fine. If I were in your situation I would invest in an upgrade copy of Win 7 and rebuild it (not upgrade it), you will then get a few more years out of it.

Impossible to answer without more info I would say, but here are some ideas. Assuming that the internet access is needed on a laptop, the 2 basic routes are to use a smart phone as a wifi router and a contract that allows tethering, or to use a dedicated device such as a dongle or "mifi" unit. If they already have a smart phone that is probably the way to go, but if they don't and this is just one off or irregular usage then a dongle is probably the simplest/cheapest. You can buy a dongle completion with credit, and then by additional sim cards from ebay/amazon which is cheaper than topping up with the provider. This is just the first example of such a dongle that I found ( there may be better deals) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Three-Mobile-Huawei-Dongle-Preloaded/dp/B0091RBMAA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1380352264&sr=8-3&keywords=3g+dongle

You could try Kate Boats, they don't specify a limit on the number of pets.

you jest sir surely, 4 year old computer is a museum piece (not that is in going to have any impact on the problem you are seeing). I have never had any problems with the font size, have you tried clearing out cookies. LOL

Perhaps give Kate Boats a call the day before and see it there is any chance of picking it up early, you may be lucky and the boat has not been out the week before.

I probably requires the extension to be jpg.

You say next Saturday, do you mean Sat 28 Sept? Even if you mean Sat 5 Oct, it is not really going to be autumn. I know the weather is cooling a bit over the next few days but it has been like mid summer on the GU between Calcutt and Braunston this week. There has been a constant stream of Kate Boats boats going past, they seem to be doing much better than some of the other hire operators at the moment, at least in getting the numbers of boats out. There are still lots of boats around in general too. You easily have 11 hours of daylight available if you want to put in long days too. Make certain you understand the hours of operation of Watford and Foxton locks, as that could constrain you. From the CRT boaters guide So you just need some warmer clothes and wet weather gear, other than that much like mid summer, or perhaps just like summer 2012 really. Unless you get off promptly on the Saturday, I think Braunston for Sunday lunch is a push, probably safer to plan around Saturday night there, with lunch being the optimistic plan. At Foxton you can see where you are time wise, as to going down or turning at the top, given it will be last boat in at 4:15 when you are there.

Thanks, email sent.

Who in Kenilworth?

Thanks Alan, I appreciate there is a single certificate and that the same syllabus has to be covered, it was more the slant and practical use inland that I was hoping for. There are many training establishment around the Southampton area that probably give the best choice of dates, but I think I would feel a bit out of place there! Last winter the Willow Wren trainer did a course at Longwood Boat Club on the BCN, which I was thinking of attending, but the dates did not work in the end. I would hope that in that environment you would get at least some relevant discussion around inland use, at least with the other attendees. So irrespective of the content, and recommendations in the Midlands?

A bit off topic, but I was thinking of doing the course over the winter. Any recommendations of where in the Midlands is good for the course, preferably one that is more focused on canal/river usage rather than off shore, although I appreciate the syllabus is fixed there must be different slants taken by different trainers. I was thinking of Willow Wren Training in Rugby, are there others?

I don't think the bow and stern rope rule is particularly new, it was in place 3 years ago at least. Coming up I don't think a centre line on a narrowboat is good enough on the Avon, those un-baffled top gate paddles can be vicious, but going down particularly on the shallow locks I can not see any issue with centre line only. I guess ANT's problem is that they need to have one simple rule that is obvious to all, so what else can they say?

I understand the sentiment, and I sort of agree with it, but the thing that I am not so certain about is the labelling of someone as a "CC'er" and what that really means. It seems to be being taken here as based on the definition of someone who has ticked the "no home mooring" box on the CRT licence form, and that does seem a bit narrow. After all that is only an artefact of the current CRT licencing system. Surely what one aspires to in the above sentient is not the joy of ticking that box on the form (to become a CC'er), but the freedom to spent the time that you want cruising the system in a way that suits you. Why does it matter if you have a home mooring or not in that case, or even own a house for that matter. What matters is the time that you are spending on the boat and that way that the rules and regulations effect you.

Pleased to see you back too. We moored by the Bridge on Sunday night, but having been up at 2:45AM to take our daughter to the airport we were so tired we did not come in, I know lightweights. Next time we are passing we will call in.

Be aware that there seems to be 2 grades off high temp silicon, some is 300 deg C (or so) and the other I think 1250 deg C. So pick the appropriate depending on where you are using it. I used fire cement at the weekend to full some gaps where the stove collar meets the stove, I don't think I would have been able to push silicon into the gap in the same way as I was able to with fire cement. Time will tell how well it lasts.