And another one!

[David Mack]

Passing through Common Moor Lock on the GU today I met this boat. 

 

Brand new lined sailaway (presumably just craned in at P&S). Three chaps on it and one walked up to the lock as we were rising in it.

"This is our first lock. Do we just open the doors?"

"We don't have a licence. Where do we get one?"

"We are going to London - Kings Cross. Is there space?"

"How long will it take to get there?"

His face fell when I said Little Venice is at least a day and a half!

Oh dear!

[MtB]

Far canal...!!

[Peter X]

Ah bless! Did his face fall a little further when you mentioned that after Little Venice there will be a short tunnel and four locks to reach Kings Cross? Including a big crowd of onlookers at Hampstead Road Lock aka Camden Lock?

 

There is a little room for optimism here though. As a new boat it'll probably be all in working order and safe to begin with, and at least they know they need a licence and intend to get one. Ditto a windlass! I take it you mentioned that the canals in central London are rather full, so they'll know that too.

 

On the other hand they may get a bit nervous when they see the high bow of Nuneaton approaching some time in the next few days, with Brighton in tow, on their way home for the winter. I'll be on the pair going from Camden to Uxbridge tomorrow and Friday, and we're unladen having pretty much sold out of coal over the last few weeks. If I spot them I'll say hello and offer some advice if it's wanted. As the photo doesn't seem to show a chimney on their boat I doubt they'll be potential customers.

 

They could of course opt to hang around Common Moor lock for a bit while they make their plans, it being the last place up the GU with a tube connection (Croxley Green, Metropolitan Line).

[MtB]

22 minutes ago, Peter X said:

Ah bless! Did his face fall a little further when you mentioned that after Little Venice there will be a short tunnel and four locks to reach Kings Cross? Including a big crowd of onlookers at Hampstead Road Lock aka Camden Lock?

 

There is a little room for optimism here though. As a new boat it'll probably be all in working order and safe to begin with, and at least they know they need a licence and intend to get one. Ditto a windlass! I take it you mentioned that the canals in central London are rather full, so they'll know that too.

 

On the other hand they may get a bit nervous when they see the high bow of Nuneaton approaching some time in the next few days, with Brighton in tow, on their way home for the winter. I'll be on the pair going from Camden to Uxbridge tomorrow and Friday, and we're unladen having pretty much sold out of coal over the last few weeks. If I spot them I'll say hello and offer some advice if it's wanted. As the photo doesn't seem to show a chimney on their boat I doubt they'll be potential customers.

 

They could of course opt to hang around Common Moor lock for a bit while they make their plans, it being the last place up the GU with a tube connection (Croxley Green, Metropolitan Line).

 

I think you're all being very cruel. Surely it is an EXCELLENT plan to spend £60k on a brand new boat (instead of £600k on a flat) and take it onto the forgotten and abandoned waterways of London town to live on. After all didn't Tom Rolt do something like that a while ago and write a book about it?

 

 

 

 

[Ray T]

7 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

I think you're all being very cruel. Surely it is an EXCELLENT plan to spend £60k on a brand new boat (instead of £600k on a flat) and take it onto the forgotten and abandoned waterways of London town to live on. After all didn't Tom Rolt do something like that a while ago and write a book about it?

 

 

 

 

Yes but Tom Rolt was campaigning to try to save the working boaters way of life and the canals from wholesale destruction.

Are you taking the proverbial? 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Ray T

[mark99]

8 hours ago, Peter X said:

 

On the other hand they may get a bit nervous when they see the high bow of Nuneaton approaching some time in the next few days, with Brighton in tow, on their way home for the winter.

I think I passed those under the M25 on the Wey recently?

Edited October 18, 2018 by mark99

[roland elsdon]

Im sure they will find a residential mooring with fitting out facilities easily.i know of one right in london at the moment. I think its about 21 times the cost of the boat. Actually fitting out may be an issue

Just checked with my broker its gone. Cheap

[Sea Dog]

Surely some culpability lies with the boatyard, doesn't it?  Not legally perhaps, but morally.  It must at least be good business sense to ask where they are going and if they have everything they need for the voyage. 

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Surely some culpability lies with the boatyard, doesn't it?  Not legally perhaps, but morally.  It must at least be good business sense to ask where they are going and if they have everything they need for the voyage. 

Does a car salesman ask you where you are going to use that 'dirty, gas guzzling 4x4', if you are just using it as a Chelsea Tractor should you not be allowed to buy it ?

Does the house builder ask you how many people are in your family before they will sell you that 5-bedroomed executive detached house ?

Do boat builders say, if you are living alone then you don't need a 70 foot NB ?

 

No - if you have the money you can buy whatever you want ?

[Sea Dog]

8 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Does a car salesman ask you where you are going to use that 'dirty, gas guzzling 4x4', if you are just using it as a Chelsea Tractor should you not be allowed to buy it ?

Does the house builder ask you how many people are in your family before they will sell you that 5-bedroomed executive detached house ?

Do boat builders say, if you are living alone then you don't need a 70 foot NB ?

 

No - if you have the money you can buy whatever you want ?

I know that really, but even a dodgy used car salesman might wonder just a little if you turned up and had no licence, ergo probably no insurance, no real idea of where you were going or how long it would take and then needed to ask a stranger how to get through the first set of traffic lights. 

 

[Peter X]

7 hours ago, Ray T said:

Yes but Tom Rolt was campaigning to try to save the working boaters way of life and the canals from wholesale destruction.

Are you taking the proverbial? 

As if MtB would do a thing like that.

 

Caveat emptor of course, but I feel a little sorry for those guys who will probably have trouble with their plans and have to either adapt themselves to the realities of London boating or move elsewhere. I really wish them well, who knows they may grow to love the boating life and be looking back in 5 years' time and laughing about the difficulties.

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

I think I passed those under the M25 on the Wey recently?

Yes, not easily mistaken for anything else. I wasn't on the crew for that bit, but the pair were up at Godalming about 9th October, so you'd have seen them either side of that.

[mark99]

We passed near a narrow bridge and was concentrating on giving way letting them through without bashing each other.... nice looking pair.

[MtB]

7 hours ago, Ray T said:

Are you taking the proverbial? 

 

Of course I was!

 

My point is, that this is exactly how most people unconnected with the canals still perceive them... forgotten, abandoned, under used and under threat. 

 

The reality being quite the opposite. Or at least, the threat is not what they think it is. 

 

 

[mark99]

Well they are deffo under threat. Under threat of being overrun with static boats.

[Machpoint005]

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

Well they are deffo under threat. Under threat of being overrun with static boats.

Not in the prettier parts of the country (the further from That London the better).

[roland elsdon]

Been down the cov recently? Councils could solve their finance problems by applying council tax

[pete harrison]

20 hours ago, Peter X said:

On the other hand they may get a bit nervous when they see the high bow of Nuneaton approaching ..............................

We might all be guilty of that nervous feeling on seeing 'the high bow of Nuneaton approaching' 

[pete harrison]

On ‎17‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 23:10, Peter X said:

On the other hand they may get a bit nervous when they see the high bow of Nuneaton approaching some time in the next few days, with Brighton in tow, on their way home for the winter. I'll be on the pair going from Camden to Uxbridge tomorrow and Friday, and we're unladen having pretty much sold out of coal over the last few weeks.

Is Peter Clutterbuck still an active member of N.B.T. Ltd.