Angry and impatient boaters

[Ronaldo47]

In the late 1950's, when quiz shows were popular on TV, you could buy books of quiz questions from Woolworths, with one topic per page. I remember that the heading of a page of "English language" questions, included a drawing of two bargees angrily gesticulating at each other from their barges,  suggesting this was a contemporary view of how bargees behaved. 

Edited September 13 by Ronaldo47
typos

[LadyG]

I was passing a boat today and he hammered on his Swan hatch at me , as my bow passed his hatch  ( only third person in four years anyone complained), he was moored in a narrow bit, so I can only assume that I was pushing water in front of me, else how could he tell I was speeding as I'd not actually reached him when he must have felt some motion. I suggested he move,, maybe not diplomatic, but not a good permanent mooring right before a bridge hole and opposite a few narrowboats.  I needed to keep the prop turning to steer the boat through the zig-zag.

Another small event today  a guy who said he could not find his dog mess to pick it up, I won that one, felt sorry for the dog, it got a right swearing., 

Edited September 13 by LadyG

[sigsegv]

16 hours ago, LadyG said:

there is a problem getting rid of the old ones

is there? 😬 oops, I had one that had gone kaput and left it by the bins. Big no-no?

[Ex Brummie]

3 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Suspect if you stood the old ones outside your boat they'd vanish soon enough  

If they still worked, you may find the contents squirted down a vent. Don't ask my friend how i know.😱

[matty40s]

On 08/09/2024 at 17:05, Naughty Cal said:

 

 

Aldi is cheaper and I do tend to do a monthly stock up of store cupboard stuff in there. Get there super early though before the masses have even considered getting out of bed 🤣🤣🤣

I go to aldi at the quietest time...5pm.

Our nearest one is Daventry, but its dirty and doesnt stock everything. So its straight down the A5, over the A43 roundabout at Towcester and there it is. 

The traffic jams in and around Towcester from 3.30-6 every day means nobody bothers shopping at rush hour, empty car park and store lovely and quiet!!

[dogless]

We jumped on a bus at Blisworth a few weeks back ... about 15 mins and the bus stops right outside Aldi at Towcester. Nice shop and very convenient  especially as there's so few shops accessible from the GU in that area. Worth remembering when passing through that stretch.

 

Have bus pass will travel (for now at least 😉)

 

Rog

[Tony1]

20 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:

Suspect if you stood the old ones outside your boat they'd vanish soon enough  

 

On a similar note, someone I know recently installed a Fogstar lithium battery, plus a couple of those lovely 50 amp victron B2Bs, but she wasnt sure what to do with the knackered old lead acids (and when I say knackered, I mean totally knackered). 

As an experiment she left them out in full view one afternoon, next to the towpath but a short distance away from her boat- in an effort to indicate that they were 'homeless'.

Sure enough, next morning the three lead acids were gone. 

But I also know a boater who's had a couple of knackered batteries on his stern for months, and they've never been touched. 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

16 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

Sure enough, next morning the three lead acids were gone. 

 

If they were ~100Ah then they fetch about £10 each at the scrappy - an easy £30 !

[Tony1]

3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

If they were ~100Ah then they fetch about £10 each at the scrappy - an easy £30 !

 

I do recall an electrician telling me I could get up to £30 for my old LA batteries a few years ago, but the scrap yard was a few miles away  and I had no easy way of transporting them.  

 

 

[Ronaldo47]

4 hours ago, Tony1 said:

 

On a similar note, someone I know recently installed a Fogstar lithium battery, plus a couple of those lovely 50 amp victron B2Bs, but she wasnt sure what to do with the knackered old lead acids (and when I say knackered, I mean totally knackered). 

As an experiment she left them out in full view one afternoon, next to the towpath but a short distance away from her boat- in an effort to indicate that they were 'homeless'.

Sure enough, next morning the three lead acids were gone. 

But I also know a boater who's had a couple of knackered batteries on his stern for months, and they've never been touched. 

 

In the 1970's, a friend had read a reader's letter in a car magazine saying that the writer always disposed of his old engine oil by putting it in the now-empty new oil can, carefully wiping the can clean, and leaving it on his drive next to the pavement,  from where it had always vanished by the next morning. When my friend tried it, he just had a stream of passers-by knocking on his door to say that he had left his can of oil out and someone might steal it!

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

If they were ~100Ah then they fetch about £10 each at the scrappy - an easy £30 !

 

"Easy" is going a bit far. There are far easier ways to earn £30 than lugging 75kg of battery a few hundred yards up the towpath then driving perhaps ten or 20 miles to the nearest scrappie then spending 20 minutes weighing them in and getting a cheque you'll need to pay in....

 

You can have them while I do something quicker and easier! 

 

 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, MtB said:

 

"Easy" is going a bit far. There are far easier ways to earn £30 than lugging 75kg of battery a few hundred yards up the towpath then driving perhaps ten or 20 miles to the nearest scrappie then spending 20 minutes weighing them in and getting a cheque you'll need to pay in....

 

You can have them while I do something quicker and easier! 

 

 

 

I have a 'little man', I call him when I have 3 or more and he comes and picks them up and pays cash.

[MtB]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have a 'little man', I call him when I have 3 or more and he comes and picks them up and pays cash.

 

Illegal.

[Ronaldo47]

I had to give my local scrap merchant my bank account details so he could make a direct payment. Bank charges mean he won't accept anything with a value of less than £10 as this is what it costs him per transaction. 

[Alan de Enfield]

30 minutes ago, Ronaldo47 said:

Bank charges mean he won't accept anything with a value of less than £10 as this is what it costs him per transaction. 

 

I doubt he is being entirely truthful - maybe he said its 'not worth him doing it' on transaction below £10.

 

My Nat West Business account charges me £0.70 for a BACS transfer or a Cheque, but also charges for cash (deposit or withdrawl) at £0.70 handling fee + £0.70 per £100, so when I deposit £1000 in cash I'd be paying £7.70  for the privilege of allowing them to 'look after it' for me.

[Mike Todd]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

I have a 'little man', I call him when I have 3 or more and he comes and picks them up and pays cash.

And here was me thinking that buying scrap metal for unrecorded cash was now illegal. Am I wrong?

[Naughty Cal]

7 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

If they were ~100Ah then they fetch about £10 each at the scrappy - an easy £30 !

We took ours to Liams work. Scrap man gave us £12 each! 

[Paul C]

Its "easy" if you can 1) get the batteries to a car eg you have a home mooring and park near the boat to load/unload it, 2) have space in the car at the end of your boat trip to take them home, 3) are going to the scrappie anyway in a forthcoming trip, or its on the way home (and its open) or its not too far out of your way to make a trip to it later, 4) you have the time to do it (within their working hours). 

 

I took my boat batteries home once and did that, got about £30 or whatever the going rate is. Its obviously more "worth it" than scrap steel, but for a lot of boaters its not really logistically possible.

[peterboat]

6 hours ago, MtB said:

 

Illegal.

I weigh stuff in all the time, I have an account and it's stuff from the boatyard and work, gets me nearly 100 squids a month for a bit of work

[Paul C]

9 minutes ago, peterboat said:

I weigh stuff in all the time, I have an account and it's stuff from the boatyard and work, gets me nearly 100 squids a month for a bit of work

 

But its the cash bit which is illegal, not the collection or the scrapping/recycling service.

[Quattrodave]

18 hours ago, MtB said:

Weighing them in and getting a cheque you'll need to pay in....

 

Cheque, blimey can't remember the late time i even saw one! Last time i weighed something in was a few years ago and was paid by instant bank transfer.

[MtB]

9 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

 

Cheque, blimey can't remember the late time i even saw one! Last time i weighed something in was a few years ago and was paid by instant bank transfer.

 

I got a cheque from my local scrappie just w few weeks ago!

 

But to be fair I paid it in by sending a photo of it to my bank....

 

 

[cheesegas]

12 hours ago, Paul C said:

I took my boat batteries home once and did that, got about £30 or whatever the going rate is. Its obviously more "worth it" than scrap steel, but for a lot of boaters its not really logistically possible.

Agreed. There are some people who earn a bit of extra cash by collecting people's old batteries for free and then taking them to the scrappy, but it's a lot of work! One of the pump out boats down south used to do it as he'd pass by Southall frequently, where there's a scrappy within staggering distance of the canal. I gave mine to him as I'd much rather not have them cluttering up the boat for months.

[peterboat]

13 hours ago, Paul C said:

 

But its the cash bit which is illegal, not the collection or the scrapping/recycling service.

They are knockers basically and probably have a waste transfer license?

[Alan de Enfield]

4 minutes ago, peterboat said:

They are knockers basically and probably have a waste transfer license?

 

When they came earlier in the year they took (paid for) a 7.5 tonne horse lorry that we hadn't used for about 10 years - started it up, (10+ year old diesel) airbrakes unlocked themselves,  and drove it away. (onto a low loader). The were going to scrap it, but about an hour after they left they phoned me up and said do not put -'scraped' on the V5, they intended to get it back on the road as it was in such good mechanical condition.

They also took my S-Type Jag that had sat for about 4 years, some batteries and about a ton of assorted scrap, lawnmowers, washing machines, etc etc.

 

Had a good clear out of the yard.