Doug Scullery

Traditionally they are either for deterring mice and rats or for companionship. I keep mine around for both. I have also noticed that when we take our boat (and also cat) away from the mooring for more than about a week molehills start popping up all over the lawn. No problem with moles when the cat's about.

I know that the anchor questions (How big do I need? How much chain? etc) are hotly debated topics but I was hoping to get some of peoples personal opinions on this one: Where do you keep your anchor when cruising on river? The way I see it there are 4 possible answers with different reasoning behind each one (we're talking narrowboats here, I know the rules are slightly different for different boats, also, this being an emergency anchor for use in case of engine failure etc). 1. Always at the bow. Because you want to be facing bow to the current if you drop anchor. 2. Stored and fastened at the stern. Ready for fast deployment by steerer in an emergency. 3. Always at the upstream end of the boat, moving the anchor whenever you change direction on river. Because you don't want to be turning 180 in the river or swinging into the bank (although I can imagine times when that could be exactly what you want). 4. Stored at the stern but fastened at the bow, with the rope running the length of the roof. For a combination of reasons 1 and 2 I have alternated between 1 and 3. I switched to 3 after a slightly scary sudden-engine-stoppage-single-handing-downstream incident. edit: To add option 4, which I hadn't thought of

Wind up, I reckon

I'd say the local guy had it right with “There is some sicko killing the cats as there are way too many to be accidents”. Cats are great swimmers and excellent at scrambling out on anything they can find. My cat has been in the Avon at Saltford when it burst it's banks and in Hanham when the tide was going out, and many more times, she's even been in the canal when it was full of broken up ice, they just naturally know what to do. If it had been one elderly cat, sure, fallen in and drowned sounds plausible, but those numbers? I'm going with sicko but I guess very violent swan could be a possibility?

Oh, yeah. I remember the one at Diggers. It's less the (fake) rivets and more the overall hull and cabin shape that do it for me, although I do think RW Davies place their weld on Smarties more thoughtfully than alot of builders.

The only Northwich Trader I can remember seeing frequently on the Western K&A was a fairly well maintained looking one that used to moor on the online moorings in Claverton, haven't seen it in a while. I suspect I fall into the category of crusty boater, but I do try to do it in style.

I think I know the pretty one you're talking about. I have to say, if I had lots of money for a new narrowboat RW Davies would be getting that money, they manage to look so pretty and so rugged at the same time. I'm still open to the idea that they may have some sort of good reason for being there, I'm really not sure what that reason could be but as you point out it really doesn't look like a nice place to be moored, even if you're not concerned with the rules or putting other people out. I don't know the area at all but I'm pretty sure I can see attractive looking visitor moorings in that picture, and I think spotting nice visitor moorings from a distance is something we've all developed a knack for.

To a Hudson owner even tarmac is a form of mud. When you're used to red carpets bring rolled out ahead of you . . . .

It is odd, isn't it. I mean, the finish is excellent, it seems like such on obvious error, It reminds me of an apartment I rented on holiday in Morocco, it was beautifully tiled with patterned tiles throughout, but at one point I noticed that one tile out of the hundreds of tiles was the wrong way round so the pattern didn't line up. I was subsequently told that there's something in the Qur'an along the lines of "Only Allah can make something perfect", meaning that muslim craftsmen deliberately put a "mistake" like that somewhhere in their work because not to would be trying to outdo Allah. Islamic boat painting method, perhaps?

Nice to put a face to the username.

Yeah, I'm waiting for spring to finish that side. It does make it especially difficult on the hirers, and it's not making it any easier on the guy turning there right now. Personally if a boat is on a lock landing I take it as given that they are inviting me to use them as a landing stage, but hirers can't be expected to automatically know what is going on, and so many people seem to make point of being unhelpful to them when they find themselves in a tricky situation. Which is your boat, then?

I'm moored right next to them at the moment (on a visitor mooring, I hasten to add). I did wonder what the deal was with the boats on the lock moorings.

That seems fair to me. I mean, I don't think I'd do it because I don't know how people would react, but it would seem fair for people to be allowed to do that in that situation, it's not like the boat in question was paying for 2 moorings.

Personally I've always found that things like people mooring on service points attracts the whole spectrum of different boats, from the scruffy livaboards through to hire boats and shiny boats. The only people I really think can be forgiven for this are the hire boats, based on some of the conversations I've had with hire boaters over the years certain hire companies seem to send hirers out with virtually no training (I even met one once who had been told "you can moor anywhere there's a space") and chances are if you see a hire boat moored like this they have absolutely no idea they shouldn't be doing that. What goes through other peoples minds I have no idea, the other day I was passing through Dundas aquaduct, there was only just space for Phoebe (55ft) on the waterpoint because 70ft(ish) boat was also moored there with a guy on it doing some sort of work with an angle grinder. I can see absolutely no reason for this, there were spaces on the visitor moorings on just the other side of the basin (not that a lack of space would excuse mooring on a water point to do work on your boat, imho), and I'd say that if you're well enough to use an angle grinder you're just about well enough to move a boat 100 feet, no? In this case it was a liveaboard looking boat, but I think anyone that spends much time out and about on the cut knows that this type of thing takes all kinds, and in fact affects all kinds, it doesn't matter if you've got a scruffy 30 year old Springer or a brand new RW Davies boat with a beautiful paintjob and a shiny vintage engine, if you need water on a windy day and someone's blocking your way, that's a pain in the ass. The thing that I wonder is what goes through their heads? How do they justify it to themselves? I'd love to know but i really can't be bothered to get into an argument with a stranger to find out. edit: I'd like to add that if I was, for some reason (mechanical failure, say?) moored on a service point when I shouldn't be, I would be waiting outside my boat to explain my situation to passing boats and to invite them to moor alongside/ask them for a tow to somewhere more suitable. It's not rocket science.

Now that I look at that picture again I'm inclined to agree with you. I have a friend with a Liverpool Boat (smiler vintage, 2004, I think) and the two distinctive things about their well deck are the way the inside of the gunwhale is a continuous curve rather than following the angles of the outside and also that the steel of the gunwhale is folded upwards in a 1cm lip around the inside of the bow and stern decks. Also, their gas locker hatch if a perfect square rather than the trapezoid shape of mine (and it appears at least, the one in the picture. I don't know if Liverpool have made different styles or grades of narrowboat, though, the one pictured is somehow more expensive looking than my friends Liverpool. Is a Premium Liverpool Boat a thing? I would say you are missing something, I'm not sure what that something is but I think we're all missing something here. This clearly isn't as cut and dried as "This boat's been stolen. Has anybody seen it?". If the OP would tell us a bit more about what he's really looking to achieve here maybe we (CWDF and the wider canal community) would be able to help him, although I wonder if there are legal reasons stopping him telling us any more.

More info about what exactly is going on here is definitely needed, not just to satisfy idle curiosity but also to let the forum and the towpath telegraph do its thing. Looking for a 58ft Liverpool Boat which could be anywhere and could be any colour really is a needle in a haystack (actually, no, it's a bit of hay in a haystack), we're talking about a really popular length from one of the biggest boat builders in the country. If we knew specifics about exactly where, when and how it was stolen, and details of any sigthings/possible sightings then it seems entirely possibkle to me that boaters will remember seeing it, who was on board, where were they going etc. It's impossible to move a boat far on most canals and rivers in this country without meeting people, talking to them at locks etc, if you go round giving people the cold shoulder you will be remembered for that. I'm afraid that without giving the community some more information about this crime I really can't see this going anywhere.

They do (or did?). For a few days about 15 years ago we had two police officers and a video camera in an office building I was working in filming a decoy car parked outside. From memory it was a Peugeot 406 and the "bait" was a laptop and a leather jacket.

I was gonna say that. Ooh, that's a goodun Other than that I've got nothing. I did stay at my mums house last week and she's got an electric blankets in the spare room. If I'd ever enjoyed the luxury of an electric blanket before I'd miss that.

The orange Ordnance Survey maps (the maps in Nicholson guides are tiny bits of these maps) show all canals and rail stations, and much more besides. If you want accurate paper maps of the UK they really are the only way to go.

Very yellow. Although the other side is still undercoat and the side hatch is now green. Slow business this boat painting when time off/good weather coincide.

How do you fix your sticker temporarily? I feel like we need a removable sign if some sort to invite people to moor alongside. I wouldn't want to invite people to breast up on my private mooring, but I can think of alot of visitor moorings round here where if you take the last one you are forcing any boat hoping to moor to cruise a few miles, often including locks, to get to another visitor mooring. On canal it's fairly easy to stop next to a boat and call to people inside without actually touching, but on river that's often alot more tricky, I've skipped lunch a few times travelling on the Avon because it's too much hassle to slowly cruise past the moored boats trying to get someones attention, and nobody really wants to have to mess around with long jumps into muddy banks to get pins in and ropes round trees just to stop for an hour to make some food. I know the vast majority of boaters on a full to capacity visitor mooring would be fine about someone mooring alongside, but if you can't find someone to ask you always run the risk of finding the one boater who finds that objectionable. A few weeks ago it was getting dark and I was in a short pound of visitor moorings in a flight of locks, there was one gap which was just (and I'm talking inches here) long enough for Phoebe, I knew that to get to the next stretch of visitor moorings was three more locks so I backed into the gap (as I do getting into tight spaces) and hopped off with the centre line to pull the bow in. My girlfriend (who was on the towpath having just done the last lock) walked to the front to ensure that I didn't bump the boat in front as I pulled it in, and when it got a bit close she stepped onto the guys stern deck to keep the boats seperated with her feet. That was the point when the very angry boat owner shot out of his back door and started shouting at her for daring touch his boat. I feel sure that this guy wouldn't have had a boat moor alongside him in any situation. Now that I think about it maybe the onus should be on boaters that don't want people mooring alongside to display that somehow.

I once saw a lynx in some woodland in Gloucestershire, I was very close, close enough to be sure not only that it was actually a lynx, but specifically an Iberian lynx.