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Showing content with the highest reputation on 20/08/13 in all areas

  1. 18-20.. old enough to drink, have sex, fight in a war, drive a car, vote. Clearly not old enough to inhabit the same space as some of the sad old grumpy gits on this forum.
    3 points
  2. I have to say that in common with David I cannot understand why anyone would go boating and then spend the time tied up. For recreational boating I would have thought that most of us would be moving daily. How other people use their boats is up to them of course but most of the debate about mooring restrictions does seem to assume that wanting to hang around for several days or even weeks is the norm and in my experience leaving aside boaters resident in one particular area for whom moving at all seems to be an imposition is not the case.
    2 points
  3. Sorry but comments, copied from a post about about Moorings at Stoke B. made by you seem pretty personal.......... It's crap. Jeff whyatt shows fully how incompetent his research has been. What's even more ridiculous is the fact that overgrowth from both sides of the canal coming into stoke bruerne is disgusting. No provision for alternative 14 day mooring is being provided. As far as I am concerned, Jeff whyatt is unfit for purpose. This whole sevm has probably been one of his wet dreams since youth. I have always found Jeff helpful, not sure I would want you representing me if that's the best you can come up with. Leo. Well used to getting his own way due to manipulation and the gentle art of negotiation!.
    2 points
  4. Says the person who doesn't live aboard... My life is already simple enough. I've been living on a boat for 10 years and don't have a house to go back to when I feel like it. It just seems a bit rich for someone who lives in a house and also owns a boat, to tell people who live aboard permanently that they should be living the simple life! We all know that there is no need for a shoreline. I lived aboard for 3 years without it. However, some of us choose to have shore power because it makes life a bit easier. Edit: In a country full of decadent consumers I don't see why liveaboard boaters are the ones who are expected to "live the simple life"? It reminds me of a non-boater who once told me I shouldn't have my small (Honda EX650) generator onboard my 45ft Springer and should use solar panels instead because it would be more environmentally friendly. Then she drove off in a 4x4 back to her comfortable house (with mains electricity)!
    1 point
  5. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  6. I think to be honest people would be objecting just as much if there were boat loads of octogenarians navigating boats while under the influence.
    1 point
  7. I have commenced filling in the survey several times, but like all such things it only allows you to answer in the way that the survey commissioner want to receive answers. That is not a complaint, merely an observation, The problem is that some of the the questions over simplify the response, particulary where information is sought regarding availability of CRT moorings, as the question seeks only the outcome on the last occassion, In most instances the last attempt to secure a mooring will have been successful, but that gives no account of how many unsuccessful attempts were previously experienced and therefore the survey answer produces an inaccurate and biased impression of the actual situation. I will give an example, on our last trip we cruised four canals over a period of eleven days:- On the Grand Union there were no short term moorings and only two fourteen day visitor moorings vacant, both in a loction where I know it is far too shallow for us (and most other boats) to get anywhere near the bank, On the Northern Oxford all the (many) fourteen day moorings were occupied by boats which had either been left, or were being lived upon. I believe there are a few 24 hour moorings near Tescos in Rugby but these are nearly always fully occupied. On the Coventry there are a number of seven day moorings where there were a few spaces, mainly a good walk from facilities. On the Ashby there are no moorings which permit more than a forty eight hour stay, and finding a mooring was never a problem. Apart from the other comments box at the nd of the questionaire, the survey does not offer any facility where more than the most minimal amount of information can be collated, and my perception is that the survey is constructed in a way that lends itself far more towards the boater who moves perhaps only every few days (or weeks), rather than every day together with a lunchtime stop as well. That risks making the results unrepresentative of the true experience of many boaters. I may make a further attempt to complete the survey, but I hope the comments box will be big enough to accomodate my observations.
    1 point
  8. Good luck with your application for Funding. We live in a very democratic world and I respect your views. I and a few others just might not think having a few organisations such as the IWA trying to influence policy is a good thing. You say you want the waterways run in a democratic way (not many would argue with that) but then you go and spoil that statement by saying you want it run by the organisation you happen to be a member off. What about the rest of us.So you are saying that Non Compliant Continuous Cruising problems is caused by the type of organisation you belong to that is trying to take over and control things well I wish you would stop encouraging boaters to be non compliant and tell your organisation by doing this they are upsetting a lot of boaters. Anyway back to the survey the numbers are jumping up and thank you everyone that has entered into the spirit of what we are trying to do
    1 point
  9. Not a hirer, but my daughter at age 4½ steering Fulbourne, assisted by her 6½ year old sister:
    1 point
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  11. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  12. I can't really answer your specific question, but a few points might be worth bearing in mind: The size of the alternator is not really determined by the size of the battery bank, but more by how much charge you intend to take out of the batteries. Even then, what is affected is how long it will take to recharge. Even a small alternator will get there eventually. Provided the engine starts reasonably well, the starter battery is only slightly discharged by starting and will be recharged in a few minutes, so it barely comes into the equation. There is a limit to the size of alternator for a couple of reasons, one is the shear horsepower required to run it with low batteries and propel the boat at the same time. Your engine is not hugely powerful, and therefore for example fitting a 175A alternator would be a bad idea. As you fit a larger alternator, more HP is needed to run it and the engine doesn't produce this at idle, therefore you would have to geared to only run at adequate speed for charging with the engine running quite fast. That would be a pain! We have a 43hp engine and it manages to charge at full output pretty much at idle, but you can hear it struggling. Then there is the amount of load you can put on a normal belt. Too big an alternator with a normal belt means it will be prone to slipping, therefore it will have to be highly tensioned, therefore the belt won't last long and the alternator bearings will wear rapidly. Larger alternators need the likes of a polyvee belt, but of course you need a completely new engine pulley for that. So in summary I would say that 70A alternator is the most you should fit. Your existing alternator looks relatively modern, what is its output? It might be quite straightforward to swap for a 70A one. The other consideration since you are going to live aboard, is to get a generator instead. Then you don't have to wear out your expensive main engine just to recharge the batteries. And of course solar for the summer.
    1 point
  13. For obvious reasons I wouldn't have thought it would be a popular look, but every other boater who goes past seems to looks like this.
    1 point
  14. See here: http://www.brocross.com/canal/joel.htm Some of the history is slightly inaccurate, it was written about 10 years ago. The LNER livery has now given way to a C1950 British Waterways blue & yellow which did not feature the BTC roundel or curved "BW" on the cabin side. Other boats that had Kelvins at some point are: ex S &CCC "Willow", as featured on this forum and the Wooden Canal Boat Society motor "Forget Me Not" neither had these originally though.
    1 point
  15. 1 point
  16. I know how you feel, having gone from an 11 ton 48' boat to a 26 ton 72' boat! Some very scary moments. The main difference I found between steering a modern shallow boat and a deep drafted full length boat is the effect that the depth will have on steering. The back end if you're slightly out of the channel will want to head towards shallow water. This can make steering hard work and problematic to say the least! You can use it to your advantage on corners- put the back end near the outside of the bend at the right time and the boat will steer itself around without using the tiller- it's like magic. I really recommend Chris Deuchar's "A Boater's Guide To Boating" to explain all this clearly and well, and membership of HNBC if you're not already a member.
    1 point
  17. Thanks, but if two responsible adults have reached the stage of trading personal insults (in public) in negotiations, give up. Learn to rise above it. Leo
    1 point
  18. I'm afraid I don't know who John Sloan is and that was one of my points that I was trying to make. John Sloan did not email me nor did he telephone me or write and ask me if I wanted to attend (I am not complaining about that, why should he contact me in those ways ). I do not always read the forums and when I do I generally only look at the recent posts list rather the view new content. So I may well have missed that invitation. As I have said I am moored in the Selby Boatyard and there at least a half dozen other boaters there, probably more, who also had the right to ask for one of the limited places at those meetings for northern boaters. There are at least three of those boaters who have never even heard of CWDF but might have wanted to go to one of those meetings but were never given the opportunity to make that known. Canal World Discussion Forums is not the centre of the boating world therefore a lot of boaters, I would hazard a guess at the majority, have no idea about the discussions that go on this forum or that this forum even exists and that, to my mind at least, is unfair on some boaters who are paying their way like the rest of us Pete
    1 point
  19. Firstly I do not agree with a lot of the twoddle which is being aired in this thread, there are an awful lot of axes out, about all sort of different grips, from someone who believes that all the towpath is a walking surface - wrong only the path part is maintained as a walk way, the green bit is grass and may well have holes in it which is why one should have a gang plank. The only part of a canal bank designed to tie up to is a wharf, not very mile of towpath. I'm sorry for the guy who knackered his ankle but be more careful this is the outside world and I for one do not want it to become a linear garden, for continuous moorers. Canals are a mode of transport not a housing estate, which they are becoming in certain places. If we need flaoting housing estates let build them offline somewhere, not have yet more linear moorings. CRT need money, the Government have just given them £10M for towpath improvements mainly for bikes but walkers will benefit as well. Yesterday on The Ashton Canal which I walked down, between 9am and 3pm, I saw, 3 boats with a family on each, 5 families out walking 2 of which had canal side picnics, which I saw - not bad in urban Manchester, at least 47 bikers, of which a good few, maybe 10 were out and back bit hard to remember those you have seen before, 7 dog walkers, 9 joggers - 3 which were out and back, 5 fishermen. 7 boats moored at Portland basin and several moored in the new basin at Fairfield, didn't walk there to count them. 1 Continuous moorer who is now lurking up the old Isslington Arm. As someone else has said getting boaters to collectively do, something is worse than herding cats, it has always been like this, the canals which have re-openned have not been because of boaters, except in a small minority, but because of activist who have a wide view than boaters, some of these have gone on to become boater owners but still have a wider view of the world. I am one such, as is John Dodwell. It is very hard to communicate with a herd of cats, which is why I suspect C&RT have now run away, it was taking a lot of time and effort and the cats would not agree, a thankless task for those on both sides.
    1 point
  20. As many people stop and ask to look at my old boat bits, as stick their noses in the air. The majority are to busy admiring the beautiful views on the other side, to cast judgemant on what was a work in progress and has become, as a result of vandals, too depressing to visit. Could I ask a moderator to close (and delete) this thread, as airing the destruction of my boats, and a few snobs' opinion of it, is upsetting.
    1 point
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