Ex Brummie

Spiders are a sign of a dry boat, so you should welcme them. We have one on the boat that drops down between us as we watch TV. We always have plenty at home, and last time I repapered the hall and stairs, I found several skins in one corner as Istripped the old paper. If we are quiet reading or similar, then one of the larger o es can be heard crossing the laminate floor.

To provide a little balance, boat clubs are ofren not empowered by local councils to offer residential moorings unlessthey wish to move onto business rate terms which would make their leisure, sometimes charitable status, unable to provide reasonable costs for leisure pursuits. Unfortuneately this requires rules and enforcement of them a necessity. Also, to keep costs to a reasonable level, much work is kept in house and e bers are aware of these requirements upon joining. If Clubs have waiting lists, then to many such terms are not a problem. A club can be a focal centre for social ⁴activity, and an invaluable assistant when problems with a boat occur. There are plenty of examples within the postings on this and other forums that illustrate the circumvention of such situations is almost a pastime and challenge to some individuals.

Thank you , fat work hardened fingers don't like touchscreens!

A lot of the problems are compounded by the lack of experience on the ground. As e ding Atherstone this week, we came to a queue atlock 9 wnere there is oftenlekage problems between 8 a d 9. Avolunteer came down from the top to assist a 'heritage boat' , Stanton, that was stuck in lock 8. The top gate of 9 was open with water pouring out of the bottom gates lowering the whole pound by a foot every 10 mins. The volunteer let water in from the long pound 7 to 8 to flush Stanton out. After seeing it out, he returned to the top locks. Stanton thengot stuck in lock 9 and tookmuch pulling a d shoving to free it. Once free,a boat entered to rise. It rose to shallow pound and an empty lock 8. The next boat to go up decided that the gate should be left openfor a deacendi g boat above anempty lock 8. I tried to poi tout this would exacerbate the problem as we watched the poundgo down 2ft. In the end I shut lock 9, emptied what was ,left a d enter the empty lock, filling it as the descending boat emptied lock. 8. There were still 5 boats waiting below , lock 9 who after 3hours stood ochan e of ascendi g the closed section , and with nochance of mooring in the long pou d where there were 2 stranded boats. a A lengthsman would have sorted it easily.

The only notice I've seen says ongoing, and originally I hadnt scrolled far enough down to reach that notice. Now I know times I can plan accordingly. Thanks Rob‐M

Yes, I know there are restrictions, but if I need to wait, it would be nice to have a choice of where in the locality, especially in this hot spell.

Yes to both, but it gives no indication of times etc.

Is it just me being a technophobe or is the CaRT website useless. Cruis8ng down the Coventry, I tried to find out about restrictions at Atherstone, having heard various rumours. A search for "atherstone lock restriction" produced a link to the stoppage page, with a random list of such in no particular order or locality. The only partial success I had was a google search where an AI notification suggested restrictions between locks 1 - 6, but no times. I^m in the position where I am not on a schedule, but a little planning would be nice. Maybe CaRT REALLY dont know what they are doing but I bet so ene is being paid handsomely for IT services. If you look at sites that rely on presenting information, it all works better. If I want to buy castellated widgets on Amazon or Ebay, the source is immsdiately displayed.

But if you had fenders thicker than that you'd get stuck in locks! 😱

I'm happy to go along with volunteers, but not other boaters who I do not know. Just one thing that bemuses me is why, when descending, volunteers only crack the paddles by a 1/4 for the first 1/2 lock.

Some years back, we booked a Viking Riverboat cruise which was affected by low water to the point that half of the cuise was by coach as water on the Maine canal was too low to take a loaded boat. Also , one day was taken up by changing boats as a lock was broken so pack your bags, they will be transferred to other boat and we all got on a coach , ended up with a verypoor lunch in a pub, then got taken to our new boat in Vienna. 30 mins later the boat we had left moored alongside us. Other friends have reported similar disorganised with Viking River Cruises. We were most disappointed particularly with a flight to Munich from Birmingham with a 4 1/2 hour chandeover at Schipol when there were 45 min direct flights.

I think New Marton causes delays because they are the only locks many hirers encounter, and everyone othe 8 or 10 crew wants a go. And with it being busy in both directions, entry and exit times can get stretched. The last time we did this, on the bottom lock we were told there was only one paddle working. I pointed out to the operator that theyshould uss the small hole on the windlass and things moved much quicker.

I have Raw water cooling on a Perkins 4108, and the symptom certainly indicates a blocked inlet. Does the flow stop immediately or does it tail off? have you disconnected the outlet of the Jabsco and checked if the flow still stops ? That would at least narrow down the fault to inlet or outlet.

I suspect the originator of the text does not know the difference between barges and narrowboats, especially when the term 'wide beam narrowboat' is widely used

https://www.birminghambeheard.org.uk/bcc/smoke-control-order-2025/ Another Council looking to extend control over moorings/residential boaters. Will this be another weapon in the armoury of the flat dwellers who suceeded in closing the Roundhouse?