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Showing content with the highest reputation on 24/08/15 in all areas

  1. No not at all,but i don't look for it and nor is it any of my business who has been where for how long and whether they have a license. In fact I'd go as far as to say that the waterways i see every day are very different to how you'd assume they are if you predominantly spent your time on this forum rather than out on the cut.
    3 points
  2. Perhaps we should start a logging of different CaRT data gatherers complete with mugshots. Just to ensure they are moving on every 14 days.
    3 points
  3. I have just had one of the worst experiences on the waterways last weekend. We are moving our from Roydon on the river Stort back to Mercia Marina on the T & M. This has, of course necessitated travelling through London. All was well until Actons Lock where there is a cocktail pontoon moored just below the lock, it was virtually impossible to moor before the lock due to moored boats, some had been moored and there was nobody aboard but one narrowboat was actually tied up to the lock bollards with probably 25 people sitting on the top of the boat, so there was no chance of them moving. We and 6 other boats were forced to drift around for over an hour whilst waiting to get through the lock. On Sunday morning we left St Pancras at 7.30am ready to attack the Camden locks and arrived at the lower lock just before 8. What awaited us made me feel ashamed to be British. Around all the locks were dozens of bottles cans and God knows what other detritus. The whole area smelt like a public toilet and there were probably 30 youngster sitting on the towpath having I guess been there all night, surrounded by dozens of bottles and cans. To top this there were 2 couples having sex on the towpath in full view of their friends and whoever else was passing by. This area is a major foreign tourist venue and people were already arriving as the various food places were opening. I cannot think what impression people will take back to there various homes. Apart from all this it is obvious that CRT have completely lost the plot with regards to the mooring problem in the area with boats moored up to 4 abreast and every mooring unavailable, also the green weed seems to be covering most of the water surface. Thank goodness this will probably be the last time I will travel through London as the whole canal system through the captital is a disgrace
    2 points
  4. Particular if using 'nappy pins' I can secure the boat so it would have to be passed by another boat at full chat to really annoy me (usually use two at the bow and one at the stern)....however what does get my 'goat' up is when I am trying to tie up the boat, so am clearly holding the centre line and people go past me at full speed whilst I am trying to hold on too a 20t boat.......
    2 points
  5. Kris, there is already a thread discussing it at length. You started it yourself. In that thread several posters defended you mooring for 9 months (at the time) in one place on the towpath asking "what's the harm?" I suggested that once other boaters see you 'getting away with it', a few might also decide to moor on the towpath for extended periods instead of shelling out a home mooring. This boater could easily have read the thread and decided "I'll have some of that too", and resigned his mooring to copy you. There could well be other boaters out there too, doing the same given your very public success in bending the rules. That is the relevance of my comment. ***Edit to add: But yes I take your point that it was a bit snidy and I apologise. On reflection it would have been less snidy to have written something like: "Or even be settling into an 11 month wait for parts as Kris88 has recently shown can be done."
    2 points
  6. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  7. The problem is that if you spend time and effort restoring a navigation, you find that you are soon overwhelmed by swarms of pensioners demanding manicured moorings, dredging, toilets and stuff...
    1 point
  8. Think I'm voting for the closure and the bridge on this one. We need the public on our side and loving and valuing their local canals. Drowning them or their nearest and dearest in a lock isn't going to further this aim and objective . I'd just organise my trip to cope with the tempory closure and probably attend the event if it was free.
    1 point
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  10. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  11. "However, the disruption that will be caused is minimal" So to stop Boats on Moorings on the Trent & Mercy + others from spending the Bank holiday weekend on the Caldon Canal is minimal, they will be unable to to return to their moorings late afternoon/evening on Bank Holiday Monday. Most Bank Holidays if the weather is fine there are long queues at these locks. This is anonther case of CRT not caring about Boaters. People in Stoke On Trent cross back and forewards across the the lock or exsisting bridges all the time.
    1 point
  12. There's an awful lot of boaters who would do better to concentrate on their own lives instead of interfering in the way others chose to live theirs. IWA I'm looking at you plus a couple of canal societies that have a track record of persecuting boaters who don't fit their personal grand plan .
    1 point
  13. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  14. I don't think that anyone has called you an idiot, and by reading about your experiences, you seem to be able to fly big aircraft and pretty big ships too. But .... have you ever handled a simple canalboat ? There's not much comparable between handling (stopping) a narrowboat and a plane or biggish ship. I myself have only been at the commands of a small plane 45 years ago with the pilot next to me, so I can say that have no experience flying really, and I've never been in command of a big ship either, the biggest ship I've steered as a young boy 50 years ago during my school holidays, was a small coaster that belonged to a cousin of mine. My own experience is limited to barges for inland shipping, when I started bow-thrusters didn't exist, and the barges were very much underpowered, still a huge improvement for independence, no need to be towed anymore, and also before the VHF became a common part of the equipment on board of barges. I'm Dutch and as you may know, Holland is a very flat country with often lots of wind blowing, which made it very difficult if you arrived at a closed bridge just after a bent while driving an empty low-powered barge in a strong side wind, therefore we often had to use our anchors to have something to stop our movement while waiting for the bridge (or lock) to open. I have a ticket as captain for inland shipping without a lenght limit that I have to renew every year, to keep it's validity, and it's not all that likely that I'll ever need it anymore, but one never knows. Back to your project now : wouldn't it be a lot easier to make your narrowboat that may need a lot of extra thrust sometimes (maybe) a twin screw, twin engine boat, by installing 2 small (E.U.) clean engines of which you'll use normally only 1 at a time, 1 engine 1 day, and the other one the next day, (which is what I'm doing with my twin engined boat) and with the second engine to start if you'll need the extra power all of a sudden. A boat like that will be highly manoeuvrable, and will be able to reverse in a straight line without any problem, and turn at the spot too. These small engines will be (could be) almost completely silent, and you could play a tape with loud noise of a Bolinder, or even if you prefer of a Samofa 2-S-108 without the smoke and pollution they produce, and if you want peace and quiet you turn the volume down or off. If you go the hydraulic way, you could install a remote controled hydraulic Anchor-winch if you have to make your emergency stop, but you may find out that you'll never need it, as it's quicker to just move the tiller and get the boat quickly in a different position to avoid a collision, or to avoid a head on collision. You may touch, or even scrape another boat, but the damage will mostly be limited to only paint damage as narrowboats are strongly built, and can survive pretty well to what some people call a "contact sport". Plenty of food for thought for the more than a year and a half before the building of your boat is due. Good luck with the planning of your dreamboat in the meantime. Peter.
    1 point
  15. Dodgy ground !!! They have allegedly given up their mooring, if they have not notified C&RT of their change in 'circumstances' they have broken their licence conditions and, could have their licence revoked.
    1 point
  16. I don't follow the reasoning behind that. What great effort is there in one letter and a 28 day wait. It seems to me like just another example of C&RT's preference for using imaginary powers instead of the appropriate and correct statutory powers. Could it be because they're fully aware that their 'new rules', as well as good many of the old ones, go beyond the intentions behind the existing legislation and the powers they actually do have ?
    1 point
  17. Alright, but make sure you slow down enough while you're passing all the other Topics.
    1 point
  18. to be honest it was only about a fortnight ago that I taught my wife how to change one, it takes less time to do it yourself than to phone a plumber, and they will charge about £40/£50 quid to do it, I find learning to do it yourself is far more pleasurable, than just going to work to pay someone else, obviously if it's beyond my means I will pay for someone's skills but in general I carry out nearly all my own house and vehicle maintenance, and repairs keep hens for my eggs cut all my own timber, and am about to start growing my own veg I also gather odds and sods from the countryside like the mushrooms,berrys and even the od rabbit,squirrel etc, Idealy I would like to live off grid in the middle of nowhere,but life's about compromise and my wife and kids are of a more modern material, so I walk the line, I hate paying for anything and also adopt the barter system whenever I can, people that know me say I'm a hundred years to late, and I don't dispute it,
    1 point
  19. I struggle with neither technology nor counting beyond the number of fingers and toes I have. However, on a device that doesn't show the post numbers, it is rather time consuming to count through to find the referenced post. If somebody actually wants an answer, they will make that process easy by asking the question. If they just want to posture and grandstand, they will make inane comments. Post numbers aren't much good in a thread like this where certain people are flinging personal abuse, as when their posts are deleted, the numbers will change.
    1 point
  20. Not flawed as such, more incomplete. When I get a gas bill, based on a "estimated" reading, it may not reflect my actual usage, and is simply an assumption based on my past usage. Of course I could feel outraged and write to my MP, and demand that they send a meter reader every day. Alternatively I could take up their offer of taking my own reading and submitting it, so they can adjust their records (and my bill) accordingly. It's the same here. That is the reality of sampling systems, which are based on a balance of cost and effectiveness, and so they ocassionally require a bit of user input/feedback to keep them on track. It's not malicious, it's just a practical reality.
    1 point
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