boatyboy

Utter cobblers ! To say the loop is not strong enough is wrong.They are usually 9mm steel heavily welded to the pin.If your rope manages to 'A' break the weld on the loop,or 'B' stay in the dirt and break the weld. Was the pin put in By pile driver into cement ? We've been mooring up like that for nearly thirty years.When i had to weld on my own loops. Mind you..The ones you buy in chandlery's have a habit of the weld cracking after several months of being beaten on the head.

This might help..There is a company advertising a 'fit it yourself'side hatch in the latest Towpath talk.

Spell check

I agree that it makes no differance if your ropes are inwards or outwards.(As long as you don't have one in and one out of course)Reason being the pivot point is the bollard on the deck.therefore its ok to do it both ways(IMHO).I've done both ways for years.Main reason for being inboard is mooring between other boats when space is tight.

If you have just come up the horrible Rochdale nine.Turn right under the buildings,just as you come out there are some moorings on the right.Its quite secure.But that also means its a bit of a job getting out of this mooring to go shopping.Alternativly after coming under the buildings carry on left under the road bridge.Turn left. There are quite safe off tow path moorings on the right.Right outside some nice respectable looking houses/flats.We've moored on both,and found it to be safe.Plus you can get to the city from there. Hope that helps........Dave

No its not Rubbish!!Firstly i never mentioned a word about passing boats at speed!!Do you not possibly agree that people emptying locks before a boat was out is not good? Like you,i love doing long days,though maybe not 12 hours a day. My point was about people rushing up to the lock on bikes and taking over operating the lock without even asking,as i always ask if its ok to help. Whilst we are on the subject of Tardebigge.Three years ago we arrived a the top lock to go down.Before i could fill the lock i had to shut the bottom gate.No problem i thought,must have been the wind. No it was a single hander driving out and leaving them open. After 6 locks left like this i was getting more peed off.Obviously as we were a crew of two we caught him up.Even though he could now see us behind him he continued all the way down leaving them all open. There you go pick the bits out of that,and give me a reason why its ok to do that!!

If you are in a hurry on your holiday.you are on the wrong type of holiday

In a word no.old Sp***gers are crap.I've had one.It was about as thick as bacofoil

We did the Tardebigge last year going up.Another boat started coming up 3 locks behind us.They had bikes.I hate people who roar up setting the locks on bloody bikes,as much as three locks ahead of the one they are in.When there is no way they can see if there is a boat coming down just around the corner. They caught us up in no time.Running to the top of the lock my wife was in,and winding up the paddles before she was happy with her position in the lock.I let it go the first time,but it happened the next lock.I'm afraid i flew off the handle at this guy and his lady to "can you please leave the paddles until i say its ok to help".Which the guy replied...But we are in a hurry Geazer.That was it.I' don't like being called a Geazer!!I told them to go away and wait their turn.(or words i can't tpye here).Which they did much to my wifes relief.Why do people have to be in a hurry so much that they use a bike to do locks because they are in a hurry.This was a private boat.not a hirer. Forgot to mention what really set me off.As my wife was exiting the lock,they were starting to wind up paddles to empty it before she was past the gates.Hence making the gate slam on so hard it could have damaged the lock. By now i guess that you have worked out that i hate lock wheelers on bikes.Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Cheers Kev. I will lurk a bit.

Afternoon all.Well the time has finally come to sell our beloved Narrow boat Urquhart Castle.We set off three years ago with a plan to do one continuous year.Well we enjoyed it so much,and met some really nice people. But we got a bit carried away and stuck with it for a couple more years. So now we have part moved off the boat and she is for sale at the N** and U*** B*** C****** at M****a Marina. I would like to thank everyone who has responded to my questions in the past. Bye for now Dave and Di xx

Don't know if any of you have seen this....Boats going along with their dog running along side on the tow path. We were Just coming down to woodsend lock at Fradley.The driver of the boat coming the other way was shouting at his dog to "COME ON" very loud.As it was in the middle of emptying its arse on the tow path.He could see what it was doing,and just carried on going ahead.The Dog was an Alsation.So how could he possibly be in control of it regarding walkers and other dogs.Plus the bloody great heap on the tow path,just right to be stepped in.

It's the other way around on our boat.We have been going along solid for 3 years now.And done nearly 4 thousand locks.My wife takes the boat into the lock all the time, and hardly ever hits the sides or the end gates.I think i can count the amount of locks i've taken the boat into on one hand,at least six times. Dave

One for the guys ....We had just come down the locks at Etruria,my eyes nearly popped out of my head .I had walked on down to set the next lock.And came across a couple of photographers shooting a set of pictures for a girlie mag.It was certainly for a mens mag. Both girls were posing on the lock beam.They carried on as if i was not there. How do they get away with that in a public space? I'm not complaining mind :wub:

Whats he on about.We love the thames,been all the way up to lechlade from Brentford twice now.Never ever had a problem finding a mooring.We have always managed to find nice spots.I'm always a bit miffed about paying to moor though.But thats just what you have to do.they are usually nice spots too.The guy who collects the mooring fees is as sharp as a knife.you only have to pull up for a lunch stop,and he's on you. Go on give it one more go

Hi Shaun.Its quite a strait forward job.Just remember when you do decide to drill the drain hole in the hull,that your boat sits a lot deeper in the water than you might think.Sounds daft but forwarned is forwarned,and better than flooding the boat.I've fitted two washing machines in our boat,Both The Candy ones that are somewhat smaller than the usual domestic type.They are quite small capasity though.Ours have both been 3.5kg. One thing also to check is that your inverter is a fully syne wave model,and not a quasi syne wave model.As most modern washers are digital,and do not work on Quasi invertors.I know this as our first Candy was the old fashioned machanical model,and worked fine on our Stirling 1800 Watt Quasi Inverter.The new one was Digital,and would not work on our inverter.I never knew that at the time of purchase.Funny thing is it works fine connected to our 1kw Honda suitcase genny. Hope that helps...Dave

Duncan Bannatyne (Dragons den)started on his way to making his millions selling ice cream over twenty years ago.Perhaps he might give this a go

We have noticed that even the fuel boats are charging 85p.The hasslle green shop on heart break hill are charging 95p.Having a laugh ain't they.I've now met two boats who buy their diesel from a garage at top rate,and claim back the VAT,as they both had thier own companies. Does anyone know how much Norbury junction marina is charging at the moment? As they were well cheap last year compared to everyone else

Last year during the leeds and liverpool stoppage because lack of water,Farmers were still drawing water off to irrigate fields.I contacted BW.And they told me they were allowed to because an old act of parliment sighned during the construction of the canal across their land.

Do you moor up permanantly at Bingley? If not why the hell are you getting involved? We nearly all move around the system,and we should be the ones least affected by this proposed building site.Perhaps you would have an argument to fight for if it was next to your property. I only add my ten penneth because of a Nimby who lived next door to me a few years ago.He had heard that a small one man garage 2 miles away was trying to get permission to increase his amount of cars for sale on his forcourt from 6 cars to 8.He told me he had written to Felsted parish council to put his reasons why the guy should not be given permission. This neighbour of mine was bloody house bound,and never went out for christ sake!! How could this very good little village garage affect him in any way??? Far to many Nimbeys about today,and you are one of em mate.

Mind your own business.If you think you may be offended by what you might see,then bloody don't look!!

Cor blimey !!! Just had the hardest afternoons work i've had for a long time.Done em before going down.But this time it was going up.I know its unusual to moan about too much water,but today there was.Every lock had a torrent about 4" high coming over both top and bottom gates.I just could not get them open on my own.Di had to keep tying up and giving me a hand. The lock second from the top took me the wife and 3 passers by to get it open. And every one of the locks stunk of piss:angry: All of them are worn out,and only a few of the locking things actually locked the paddles.I remember thinking these locks we shite a couple of years ago.And they are even worse now. Is BW ever going to sort them out?(email on the way) Or are they too scared to go through the Gay area that runs along side the canal at c(anal)street. Anyway tomorrow we are going up the Ashton flight starting off at 5am. No doubt that will be fun too.With even more shite in the canal.Over the last 3 years we have traveled nearly 4 thousand miles.And the Rochdale locks are the shityest one in the country. Rant over.Time for a beer

Nice Pictures.Well we are heading towards winter now.

Evening all.You may not think this topic connected with narrow boating.Buy bare with me.We recently cruised the Ashby Canal.Having read up about Measham Barge ware pottery.On reaching the end we met Terry who runs the little shop.He was selling late copies of Measham tea pots.So i bought one. Now i've turned into a small time collector of original tea pots,and now have 4! Well three and a half. I've recently taken delivery of a lovely original in near perfect condition.Well it was until it was taken for delivery to be delivered by forcel parce(you can work it out) When i recieved the parcel and went indoors to open it up the package rattled a bit.Not good sound me thought. My suspicions we confirmed. Even though the teapot was packed so well the spout was smashed into hundreds of shards of pottery. You can imagine how disapointed i was.So now i had a teapot that in its previous state was described as 'slight chips around rim' and was worth £150. was now worth nothing at all.I let the seller know straight away,and sent her lots of pictures of the damage so she could put in a claim. She strait away refunded my money,and said i could keep the pot.subject to the company paying her claim.Nice lady eh! I'm only posting this as i had a chat today with a driver who has worked for lots of couriers.Fragile tape on a parcel to a loader in a depot spells kick the sh*t out of that one,and they launch it into the vans with no care at all. Is there a courier users ombudsman do you know? Night night...Dave