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Stephen Fulcher

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Stoke Prior
  • Occupation
    Railway S&T Technician

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  1. Is it true that customs look for a red marker in diesel engines that is left behind when a car has been run on red diesel, and that is how they prove that the vehicle was being driven illegally. That being the case then a similar line on narrow boats will not work because the engines will have been run on red diesel for many years. The trick will work for new boats, but not for anything that was in the water before the law comes into effect. That being the case, all they can do is dip the fuel tank!
  2. Thanks, I can try and see if my possible journey will work now.
  3. This is all a matter of personal views. People exercise differing degrees of caution when deciding where to moor. For example, as someone who lives in Kidderminster I would never entertain mooring near Falling Sands Viaduct because I know the local area. I do however see lots of boats moored in that area, and I am sure 99.9% never have a problem.
  4. Can someone tell me exactly where the Anglo Welsh hirebase in Oxford is please? I know that it is on the Thames to the north of Oxford, but would like to be more precise to enable me to calculate whether what I was considering is possible.
  5. At a guess, unlikely to be one available, but perhaps worth further research.
  6. It does seem slightly strange that the Police would board a boat then even after an officer has fallen into the water simply disappear. One would have thought that they would at least have explained WHY they boarded the craft in the first place.
  7. Looks like it was calculated by CanalPlan AC, which states times to the nearest minute.
  8. It is a fair way from Norbury to Tyrley for a lock demonstration, so you might just get away without one. I had an Anglo-Welsh boat out of Norbury back in May, and they didnt show me how to operate a lock, although with the nights closing in, you will do well to get anywhere near Market Drayton, although I personally doubt you will get that far. When I was last up the Llangollen in August 2005, there were no real holdups at all to speak of. The only wait of any description was to go through Grindley Brook staircase, in both directions, and going up this was only caused because someone thought they should ignore the instructions of the Lock Keeper who had the cheek to insist they waited their turn! Personally, I found the Lock Keepers along the route at Hursleton, Grindley Brook and Frankton (Montgomery Canal) were very efficient, which helped to keep delays to a minimum for everyone. The one at Hursleton should be congratulated for setting the flight for us to go back up, even though it was hammering down with rain. It must have cut nearly 30 minutes off our journey because a boat had gone up in front and there was nothing coming down so I would have had to set each lock as we got to it. Have a nice week.
  9. I think that the danger is not the practices themselves, it is people who have not got a clue attempting to use them. I would theorise that David is in a position that very very few boaters, even private ones, are in. This is that he was shown by people who clearly knew what they were doing, and also the dangers of it. It is quite often you see people who approach a lock in a smug manner, do something like ram a gate, drop a paddle etc. and end up making a complete pratt of themselves. The trouble is that one day they may lose their windlass or snap a pole, but the next we may have a Caen Hill-type incident. The other worrying thing I have noticed recently, is the ridiculous number of people who leave windlasses on paddle gear unattended. This is clearly dangerous, and to be honest even the most inexperienced boater should know better because common sense dictates that if the paddle were to drop for some reason (like on one occasion when I saw a boater raise a paddle and not apply the catch, so it consequently dropped straight back down again) then the windlass will most likely fly around as a very dangerous projectile. If this is to happen then they might get lucky and it could land harmlessly on the towpath or even in the canal, but there is also a chance that it could hit someone causing a potentially serious injury.
  10. Have you asked the marina in question?
  11. I recently paid a visit to the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal at Talybont-on-Usk. It is clear that this canal runs through some very interesting countryside in the Brecon Beacons National Park. What I am interested to know is that if I were to hire a boat on this canal, is there enough to keep us occupied for a week? It would seem that it is possible to navigate the whole length of the canal in each direction in less than that. CanalplanAC thinks 3 days at 10hrs. There is no way that I would travel for 10 hours a day, but am interested to know if there is enough to do for 4 or 5 hours a day, because only about 5 hours navigation would be required for the trip to last a week. On a separate issue, does anyone have any experience of any of the hire fleets on the canal, and if so, what are they like? I did see a couple of hire craft, but did not get close enough up to them to form an opinion. Are they value for money?
  12. Probably not because the 75 has more toys and uses slightly less fuel.
  13. Thats a bit harsh on Rover to be honest. The Rover 75 is a very good car. I would not swap mine for any other vehicle currently on the road. They are easilly one of, if not the, quietest cars on the road from a sound deadening point of view and recycling material that deadens out road noise so effectively in a luxury car is certainly a good idea from a marine point of view. Sorry for going slightly off topic.
  14. To be honest, Marinas are different. For the most part, they are privately owned and almost all marinas offer better security and probably have better facilities than the average visitor mooring.
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