Jess--

Enjoyed every minute on the boat again. not sure what this steerer was trying to do

I seem to remember it being about 2 feet of mud back then, certainly waist deep if you found a soft bit. I used to carry a 4 foot long plank so that when I sank I could spread my weight with it and get out (9 year olds that have grown up on the canal are quite resourceful)

When I was younger I used to make pocket money over the winter when they drained parts of the canal at Braunston, used to jump in and wander between the locks fishing out windlasses, then sell them to the shop at bottom lock, who then sold them on cheaply over the following summer to people that had dropped theirs in the cut.... circle of life for a windlass

Yesterday went smoothly, currently moored about a mile past hawkesbury junction. Planning on heading on shortly towards atherstone, reckon we have until about 2 before we have to turn and start heading back.

Congrats on getting the boat, hope you haggled a bit on the price.

re-tied plenty of boats in my time on & alongside canals. mind you I have also helped move a couple of peoples boats from the towpath side to the offside when we knew they had had a good night in the pub

I have very clear memories from my youth on the boats of it being quite normal to catch a rabbit in some way, skin & gut it and eat it that evening. apparently I frightened away a health visitor at 2 1/2 years old by demonstrating (quite accurately) how to skin and gut a rabbit. tools for the demonstration were a wooden knife and a teddy bear

mainly silly bit's replace dipstick wire in the tv and antenna properly (making the antenna booster run directly from 12v instead of having to run an inverter) find the air leak on the shower pump find the temperature sensor on the engine and reconnect it (unless lister engines really stay at 0 degrees when running for 8 hours) measure up to make some seating for the main cabin (there's currently none and deckchairs get uncomfortable)

I though it was meant to delete any member reaching 12,310 posts

planning on heading out on the boat for a couple of days again (weds to friday). only doing a quick trip from brinklow up to atherstone and back (maybe a little further if time permits) It's mainly doing a couple of small jobs on the boat, but we would rather be out of the marina and on the move than sat in the marina.

I find it interesting that an analogy is being drawn between parking a caravan / motorhome on the side of a road and mooring a boat on the canal. if we follow this analogy through the it should follow that if the motorhome hasn't moved "far enough" the owner would then find themselves unable to tax the vehicle for the following year (using car tax as the nearest equivalent to the CRT license) which would then make it an offence to have that vehicle on anything other than private land. Obviously this doesn't happen on the roads since licensing and enforcement are kept separate,

guns (or markers to give them their proper name) are long gone, they were the cheapest markers on the market (inferno MkII) we ran them for 5 years and to the best of my knowledge nobody was ever shot by one. the 1/4 turn trick used to be done on the oldest ones just to keep them up to a similar firing pressure as a brand new one (working right next to a beach means that salt & sand wrecks everything fast), of course you could get exactly the same effect by shooting the gun on it's side.

I run some fairground type rides at a seaside location, we used to have problems with local drunks sitting along a wall all day drinking and causing chaos, this went on for a few years until we set up a paintball shooting alley. after a few of their empty cans vanished from the wall next to them with a bright orange splat of paint they decided that they should find another place to drink. ETA undoing the gas tank on a paintball gun by 1/4 turn makes the gun draw liquid Co2 instead of gas (at 1300 psi you can get some surprising accuracy and power)

if you did that in any major city you would soon be in deep sh*t

Don't be too sure, we made an offer on the boat we bought that was well below the marked price (almost 30% below) abnb called the owner and the price was accepted on the agreement that full payment would be made within 3 working days

all this talk of mooring lines recently is making me nervous.. I'm using 10mm or 12mm braid on braid (normally used as climbing rope) because I had a reel of it spare. I know in the past I have used the same rope to pull fully loaded (probably overloaded) transits out of ditches, to my mind if a rope can withstand a 3.9 v8 rangerover in low ratio being floored it should be able to handle mooring loads.

because their workers like to have a ciggie while they work

the usual scam is that the emails you receive from "paypal" are faked so it appears that you have been paid but paypal are holding the money until the goods are delivered they will overpay and ask you to pay "the courier" via some other means (moneygram / western union) this money that you pay to "the courier" is where they make their money. Other variations include actually paying via paypal with a stolen card and picking up the goods in person or having a courier pick it up, paypal then hit you with a chargeback but the goods are gone and because you didn't stick to paypals rules of only shipping an item to the buyers registered address you don't have a leg to stand on

surely a lease agreement would be better, similar to how cars are leased an agreed monthly lease fee (in other words rent) with an agreed final payment at the end of the year if the lessee wishes to own the boat outright

a small selection of nuts bolts and washers. carrying them with you at all times will ensure that you never actually need them. The second you don't have them will be the time you need them. seriously though... A decent selection of screwdrivers (flat and cross blade), avoid the cheaper ones that will fall apart (Stanley has always been my go to make) small spanner set, the type with a ring one end and open the other (you can tie string through the ring to save losing them in the cut if needed) small socket set 2 sets of allen keys (imperial and metric) some hose some jubilee clips tie wraps (6" and 12") Not sure what the previous owner of my boat was up to, their toolkit consisted of 1 bent screwdriver, 1 pair of molegrips, 1 saw, 1 hammer and a spirit level

I remember it being fairly common practice to push (not ram) gates open with the bow also remember using ropes from the stern to close lock gates too

Cheers for the advice, I am trying MES at the min (phone engaged) I don't think making a dipstick is an option as the tube goes through quite an S bend and the stick itself is quite a flexible coiled spring type. so I am going to stick with the original design and use a new tube / stick. Sue (Tawny Owl) your name & boat name seems familiar to me, were you ever based around braunston (late 70s - mid 80s)?