Tigerr

Apologies if piss takes above caused offense. In fact I think the BBC got their coverage right for the audience and the audiences perception of the royal family and the jubilee itself. I would expect that the decision to trivialise and marginalise the content of the occasion and the boats themselves in preference for a focus on the celebrities and 'ordinary folk doing stuff today' was quite deliberate. For the mass audience the boats were just a pretty but pretty dull scenery item for the actual event which was about them and their celebration of what was a national festival/party. It was about 'people like us' not the 'them' in the boats. Since the Diana event when the populist sentimentalisation and hijack/transformation of the monarchy into an emoticon of the suburban estate family started in earnest, it has become less and less acceptable to consider monarchy seriously. (Partly because to do so invites questioning and that involves challenging thinking which is not wanted). The queen is a blank cypher onto which a mawkish daily mail caricature is painted. Specifically she is mostly portrayed as the national grannie, whose role is to approve the celebratory antics of 'us' - more specifically a mass consumerist, sentimental narcissistic society. (No surprise that her rating among 'grans' is so high - they think she has something in common with them - which is ludicrous, she is a billionaire aristocrat driving a huge corporate edifice, not a 'grannie'). That society increasingly sees itself reflectd in the media mirror of careerist, intentionally superficial 'common touch' TV celebrities who interpret and trivialise any factual content. That is what they are for - to eliminate content, unless its emotional/sentimental, because its inherently 'boring' for an audience with an attention span no longer than an X factor winners song. For these people the 'content' of the boats and indeed the 'content' of the jubilee itself is to be avoided. Its the party and an entirely content free, vacuous 'we love her, she's wonderful and I am so proud to be part of this - being British - waved my flag' was the point. No thought required just emotion - we can all do that so that's what its all about and we are all equal at it.

No its absolutely true. He did sing 'Happy Birthday' and she was wearing earplugs. Nobody needs to make stuff up when reality is as surreal as this! Mind you I might have missed the point - there are so many 'points' to be found in the general sense of outrage and affront that it is hard to spot which one is being 'made'. Personally I think the etiquette one may be the big deal - the Beeb has gone to pot since announcers adopted lower middle class clothing and speech patterns to reflect the audience.

Reading the OP, there is also the shocking issue of the BBC reporters, many of whom were dressed in so called 'casual' clothing, without ties let alone morning wear, hatless or with so called 'beany' hats, referring to 'Her Royal Highness'. This is quite insufferable and sent a shockwave around the world to rival a Japanese Tsunami. I understand that Pimms were spilt across the globe as the vile phrase echoed across the upturned dusky faces of the commonwealth. It is the final humiliation as the sun sets on Victoria's Empire, as cruel a blow as Steven 'Wonder' singing 'Happy Birthday to you' at the so called 'concert'. One can only thank the good Lord that the old dear was wearing earplugs.

Mind you I don't expect there will be boats in the arena for the opening ceremony so probably it isn't really relevant here. Unless they are going to drag a flotilla of little Dunkirk boats around the arena on wheels with motorised coke cans to stir up a bit of the old Dunkirk Spirit and get the crowd going. Not a bad idea actually. Hoorah! I just became a member - broke the 50 barrier. No stopping me now chaps. Havent quite got the hang of posting sequentially though. The bit about the Dunkirk Boats on wheels in the arena is intended to address the issue of dumbing down of the Olympics - which was concerning the OP.

I am also very concerned that the olympics may be 'dumbed down' as mentioned in this excellent petition. The Olympics is one of, if not the most, important corporate sponsorship vehicles in the world, and international brands invest millions in promotional activity to ensure that carbonated sugar drinks, confectionery, high fat burgers and expensive trainers are associated indelibly with an untarnished image of individual sporting excellence to the global consumer. The jingles and theme music developed for this are intrinsic to their corporate goals and if they are dumbed down they may not be heard properly. This could seriously undermine the purpose of the Olympics and its future as the premier corporate global event. The concern about dumbing down is valid also as it may be hard to see how much dumber the Olympics can get (good to see Jedward 'running' with the flame) before the consumer mass spots the wall to wall corporate branding whitewash they are being sold at every turn. The sponsors may take some solace from the maxim - 'nobody ever went bust underestimating the audience', so probably we can look forward to some truly awesome stuff from the opening ceremony.

I was disgusted with the coverage of the flotilla. I tuned in expecting a thorough analysis of each boat's history and crew, interesting anecdotes and technical rundown, with closeup inspections of e.g. NB Presidents engine room, only to find the viewing of the boats was constantly interrupted by completely irrelevant footage of somebodies grandparents apparently standing in the rain for hours on end. Not only that but the whole place was swarming with people waving flags of some sort and cheering/shouting so it was extremely hard to concentrate on the boats themselves. The whole thing was a shambles - many of the boats were right out in the middle of the river and it was hard to make them out in the rain. The whole thing had been organised wrong. It should have taken place on a sunny day, and the boats should have been moored up for viewing and closeup detail, interviews with the crews and so on, by serious boating journalists, before a short parade was held. They had the wrong emphasis entirely with all the coverage of crowds of silly people and the family in the royal barge. How could they get it so wrong? The whole thing got worse when I tuned in to the concert expecting a retrospective of teh last 60 years of rock and pop only to find it was a load of middle of the road old pop knights and bland comics. Where were the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, Pogues, Eminem, Deep Purple and other landmark bands? All in all a complete washout in every way.

Thats a bit much really. Disgusting.

its add the edge but well in the swill zone.

not quite the same point but related. My water tank filler cap is in the cratch deck, at deck level. I am always slightly uncomfortable when filling it because the deck is not a clean place at all and gets al the soil off the towpath with its dog residues etc trailed through it on boots, and dirt gets into the cap etc too. It has always seemed odd to me that the water filler is not raised a bit above the level of the dirty deck. We don't drink tank water but it has always struck me as design flaw. Nobody makes a filler riser though as far as I can see.

Thanks for the suggestions. Clearly whats needed is a good load of old tyres, tied on with baler twine so I can 'drive' my 'barge' (as we say) up the K&A, shedding a few as we go past Newbury and on. I look forward to watching Chris fishing them out as we veer past. Happy days 'on the cut' (that's boat speak for the canal).

No problem Chris - thank you for your interesting perspective. I hope you feel better soon. Be careful you don't bust a blood vessel pulling all those tyres out.

Thanks - just the ticket. Very helpful.

Chris - thanks for replying. Its a Reeves hull and they tend to have a slightly less generous back-end on the rubbing strake - all the Reeves boats locally have bashed hulls just behind the strake. Hence I want to see if I can use a rope to give a little more protection. I am hoping that someone on the forum might have had a similar idea. Thanks for clarifying the purpose of the rubbing strake - its always good to be put in ones place by an expert.

Just had the boat repainted. Its a huge investment, and the boat looks lovely. Hopefully that will be it for the next 14 yrs apart from some retouching etc. We go on teh Thames and K&A - both are quite tough on boats. And the boat is used by crews of varying experience. The bows area, back past the big rubbing strake gets a hammering - seems to bang on everything in sight and very quickly looks rough. I have in mind to enhance the rubbing strake with some heavy rope from the front, connected to a fixing on the gunnle just behind the cratch. I think it might soften some of the bashes a bit. Shouldn't impact the witdth or provide a dangerous hangup if I do it right. I thouht it might be possible to taper the rope towards the back with splicing. Anyone dome anything similar - is there someone selling these somewhere?

We need to bring our boat from Devizes to Aldermaston this weekend. When is a good start time from Devizes to miss the race? I am hoping they will all haver gone from Devizes by Saturday...

The Fat Duck at Bray is really good if you are on the Thames. There are a couple of other good eateries in Bray as well if the Fat Duck is full.

Hows the situation at Hungerford Wire Lock now - is it looking good for opening end of the week? Took the newly painted Compass Rose out for an outing from Devizes last weekend (originally our plan was to get to Aldermaston in one long weekend). Had a great time cruising up to Crofton and back, esp the long pound at night which was a treat.

Spoke to the crew at Monkey Marsh on Friday - they say it is ready to open but that Wyre Lock work is only now just starting and will take at least 3 weeks. So no movement through until Easter basically. That's stuffed up my plans nicely. If anyone knows better than that post please. Spoke to the work crew at Monkey Marsh on Friday - they say it is ready to open but that Wyre Lock work is only now just starting and will take at least 3 weeks. So no movement through until Easter basically. That's stuffed up my plans nicely. If anyone knows better than that post please. The Website still shows both finishing 23rd March, so either website is out of date or workmen spinning a yarn. either is quite possible I guess.

Just putting this back up the list - is Hungerford Marsh Locks/Wyre Locks work going to schedule? Do we think it will open on the 23rd? Or is that an optmistic dream?

Thats encouraging - thanks.

Any advance on this onformation - Hungerford Marsh 23rd? Is there a huge backlog of jammed up boats either side? Asking because planning to go through there on 24th and BW extension of the works will create havoc in a carefully designed plan.

I am also very interested to hear any news on this stretch. As far as I know Hungerford Marsh lock is closed for repairs and one of the others is delayed in reopening. Says till 23rd March on the stoppages chart. I am confused if peopel are actually getting through the locks.

Question to the experienced - how reliable are the finish dates on stoppages? Reason being I have booked time off to transport boat from Devizes up the K&A over the weekend of 24th March. Fairly intense long days and possibly overnight to reach destination, and crew have also booked time. Its the only timne slot we have in the spring for other reasons. There are 2 locks round Hungerford with works extensions due to finish the day before we go - and the plan is crashed if they are not open. The extensions are due to delays and problems etc. I am hoping the opening dates are going to hold - but if in fact the record shows these dates given are merely indicative I need to replan. Advice?

Thanks for the reply. I admit to having missed out the priming part - the varnish is very sound, so I just sanded back to roughen it. I am on 2nd coat of gloss now with another 3 in mind. The issue is the paints 'grip' on the varnish seems weak - almost like a rejection. If I carry on putting more layers on will it eventually take or is this a writeoff & start again? I really don't want to start again if I can avoid it - I had hoped that successive layers of gloss would eventually win - but I wonder if it may all slide off anyway in a year or so.

Is it possible? I have some yacht varnished heavy ply top boxes. I want to paint them up with harlequins to brighten the view from the stern. sanded the varnish down to key it, marked it out and then when I applied my exterior gloss colour - the paint acted like it didn't really want to stick. 2 coats in and there are still pinholes to the varnish. Can I carry on painting or must I strip back to the wood and apply primer etc? Its a bit of a PIA as I have acrefully measured and masked it all out perfectly which took a solid 9 hrs and I have invested a further 6 hrs in painting so far!