Doug Scullery

I'm glad you're on the mend. I do think it's entirely possible that the people on said boats are going somewhere else to empty their toilets, I have a neighbour, for instance, who drives his cassetes to work more often than he uses the boating facilities. Of course it's also possible that they all empty their toilets straight into the cut like the person you witnessed but I kind of doubt it, I can't see more than a very few people being so disgusting, especially right where they live! As for the photo, go on, post it, name and shame, it's totally unacceptable and if C&RT and EA aren't interested I'm sure plenty of boaters (dirty. shiny young and old I would've thought, it's gotta be a fairly unifying issue this one) will be.

I think alot (not all, but alot) of the problems people face with hireboats is really the fault of the hire companies. I can't count the number of hirers I've met whose training has consited of "that's forward, that's reverse, push this right to go left and left to go right, seeya later", they can't really be blamed for a lack of boat handling skill or knowledge of waterways etiquette. Two examples that spring to mind are the honeymooning couple I met at Bradford Lock who hadn't even been told to expect locks on their journey, let alone how to operate one, and a stag-do (some drunk, but a fairly sober steerer and a couple of sober-ish crew) I met in Bath Locks who were heading down onto the river unaware that they were heading onto river and the different challenges they were going to face when they got there. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to expect a fairly decent bit of training before they're sent out on their own, it's marketed as a relaxing holiday for all the family, after all. There are better and worse hire companies for this, I know for a fact that Moonbeam (I think that's the name, Moon something) take their training pretty seriously, and I've never encountered a Foxhangers boat that wasn't confidently crewed, but some round here are truly awful, which leads to this anti-hirer sentiment among boat owners which only exhaserbates the stress the hirers find themselves under on what should be a relaxing holiday. Up until the time that all hire companies start training their customers properly the best we boaters can do is provide that training as and when we encounter them out and about.

Do you mean The Green Tree or does this place have a bar? http://www.appletreeguesthouse.com/ Shiny side to the river, of course! It is getting to that time of year, though. If only we'd have a day or two without any of those tiny showers, nothing like a little spatter of rain at the wrong moment to waste a mornings work and 20 quids worth of paint..

The guys at that boatyard are always so nice, but it really annoys me that they do that all the time. I'll try and give you a wave as you go by tomorrow. (bright yellow NB on the left hand side between Kelston and Saltford locks)

Please post the photo of the boater emtying the Elsan here, that is totally unacceptable and if it's anybody I can track down I will go and have "words". As for the snobby comments about "dirty boaters" that haven't moved all winter, I'm sorry you got ill and all but get over yourself, not moving your boat is not evidence of emtying sewage into the canal, I have a cassette toilet and often empty it at official points without moving the boat. Sure you have a photo of someone emtying a cassette into the canal and maybe that person is a "dirty boater" that hasn't moved all winter and bla bla bla but that doesn't mean all "dirty boaters" that haven't moved all winter would do something that disgusting, if you, like many, have a chip on your shoulder about bridgehoppinghippytypeswithrustyboatsthatlikenevermoveblablabla then that's a completely seperate issue to the dumping of sewage. As it happens I have two friends have seen people dumping sewage in the waterways, one was a very smart widebeam on a permanent towpath mooring self pumping into the canal in the dead of night and the other was a very upmarket Dutch barge with a sea toilet who moored in a marina and went for a little river cruise every few weeks and dump it there rather than buy pumpout cards. So certainly not the "dirty boaters" you are so keen to blame. Totally with you on the sewage issue but the keeness to blame every bad thing that happens on those with less money than you makes me (figuratively) sick. I hope you get well soon.

I'm still really curious about this bit. She was built for use in Nigeria? I've never seen a boat styled like this anywhere other than Britain (although I've never been to Nigeria), are there other parts of the world where they have boats like this?

Does anybody know if the Wessex Water waterpoint between Saltford and Swineford locks on the Bristol Avon is on yet? It's supposed to get turned on on the 1st of April every year but I remember it being a bit late last year, if it's not on I need to head upstream to Bath Marina so a heads up from anyone that's used it or tried to use it yet this spring would be awesome.

I'm interested to know what he said? It's pretty hard to justify that. I have to confess, though, to having run my engine pretty late on occasion. Never that late and I have always knocked on boats nearby to ask if they mind, but as someone mentioned before, back late-early shift in the morning-flat batteries-have to shower before work. I've been there.

I'm starting to feel about nicknorman the same way I feel about Jeremy Clarkson. I doubt I agree with him on very much but he is making me laugh.

I learned something today. Thanks for that.

I was gonna mention that. I had a bright white undercoat on my roof for a while and steering even on a cloudy day was absolute hell. I don't know how much better cream would be but I'm definitely sticking to my raddle red now.

1. No idea and 2. Yes, but I don't. The theory being that it's the last rope I want to become weak from wear and tear

There's alot of questions I had about anchors when I took a river mooring about a year ago and decided it was time for a "proper" anchor (I got a 15kg grapnel anchor and a couple of meters of flimsy chain with the boat, definitely not enough). Bear in mind here that I have absolutely no experience using an anchor, I've just tried to follow the best advice I can find on what to have and how to use it in an emergency. Danforth is definitely the type I have usually been recommended, apparently it's a good multi tasker when it comes to digging into different surfaces, which is what you want when travelling on river. I'm still a little unsure what the ideal requirements to attach the warp (rope, from the end of your chain to the boat) to the boat are, there are scare stories about T-studs snapping under the load and some people recommend having something bolted through the steel of the hull. I don't have that, but the bollards on my boat are chunky (what I assume if a short length of 2"-3" diameter steel tube welded to the gunwhale with a little egg shaped sheet steel cap welded on top, that's what it looks like, anyway) and I hope that the scare stories I've heard are about the T-studs you see that are basically a T shape of 1"ish steel bar welded onto the gunwhale. I have been told that the correct way to deploy it is to slowly lower it by hand and wait for it to "bite" before tying the warp off at an appropriate length, not sure how easy it is to judge that process for the first time in an emergency situation so I always have the end of my warp looped over a bollard so if the worst comes to the worst and someone panics and just chucks it overboard, at least it's attached to the boat. As for recovering the anchor you've got it spot on, from what I've heard, it's all about pulling the anchor in the opposite direction that the boat was pulling it in the wind/current. The other thing you need to bear in mind is the total length of your warp+chain combined, I've been told that you want 6 times the maximum depth of the water you're in, which I believe can vary quite a bit river to river. For the Avon (as far as Bristol, not into the channel) I have been told that over 25m is ideal, so I've ended up with 17m of rope and 13m of chain. A friend who is setting off from Bristol to Sharpness soon was recommended quite a bit more, I believe they've ended up with 30m of rope and and 10m of chain, but it might be even more than that.

Wow, so do you keep your warp and chain across the length of the roof when cruising?

I don't wanna ask him. I do want to know, though.

I really, really agree with you in theory. In practice the nagging doubt that this might be one of those narky bastards you meet from time to time usually keeps me from doing things like that, though.

I reckon one of those false riveted shiny jobbies would suit you. You could get one of those captains hats and start paying a boatyard to do your oil changes for you.

That's a good point. Both Phoebe and the boat next door have cats, yet the keen birdwatcher next door loves being there because of the variety of birds she can watch from the window. Personally my cat has brought me a great variety of 4 legged things, but never a winged thing.

I felt safest with 3 after my incident. I didn't have to drop anchor in the end as I was a long way from the next weir and I managed to get the engine going again, but in the seconds after the engine stopped I became suddenly aware of the dangers of rushing to the front of a moving boat, since then I have definitely felt safer with it at the stern when going downstream. The problem is lugging the thing back and forth every time I go and fill the water tank.