tony collins

We had a couple of holidays on Duke & Duchess when David and his mother were running them. The meals were fantastic. The boats are of different ages as David had a new butty built at Braunston. It was very pleasant and a good way to see the waterways but not a way to make lots of money i'm guessing.

We got shot at up the Erewash Canal, but then that also happened at Nuneaton on the Coventry. We used to "rush" through Leicester without stopping, (except to clear the prop) not feeling comfortable until we reached Kilby Bridge. In honesty many places are painted blacker then they are. As a member of the Coventry Canal Society, we were always told that it was full of dead dogs and cars, but the truth was a deal different to that. OK it was shallow and you really didn't want to moor overnight between Hawkesbury and the Bishop Street Basin (now no longer in Bishop Street as the street name changed). We spent an uncomfortable evening, but the night was OK at Windmill End. So don't ignore the naysayers, be a bit careful, but explore our waterways, they are great. My workmates used to look aghast when for three years on the trot we went to Birmingham for our annual holiday in our boat.

It all used to be so simple. I got Arcrite Fabrications to build me a bare shell in 1989. I did the fit out, including marinising an engine out of a Ford transit. But if anyone asked me what boat i had, it was always "an Arcrite." However they didn't do fit outs anyway.

When I bought my first boat in 1975, a grp cruiser, I was moored opposite Trevor in Willow Wren Arm at Rugby. He was always courteous and free with his advice to a newbie. he never looked down on my poor boat, but rather welcomed me to the boating community. I seem to remember that even then he said he had owned Corona for longer than anyone else, although it might have been a few years later. He was always a gentleman and an expert boater, used to drive a nice Jaguar too. Strangely even decades later he knew me by name, even though we hadn't met except at boat rallies over the years. Nice bloke.

"Why a Narrowboat or GRP" Is the title of the thread now whether it was that at the start I don't know.

The question was in the title of the thread "Narrowboat or...."

Two things about that, one we were looking at a commercially built small GRP boat not originally intended for canals, but small rivers and estuaries, quite a different thing to a sea-going yacht. Your boat will have been substantially stronger than anything we would have seen. The second thing is, as I understand it your prow hit the side of the other boat. The prow would have inherent strength merely from the shape of it as against the flank of your, or any other boat on the water that day. I would feel safer in a steel boat that a GRP one on the canals, on other waterways I might make a different choice. - Horses for courses.

A single incident made us change our minds. We were actively looking for a GRP boat, having had one before, but in the meantime we took a holiday in a steel narrowboat. We were about 50 yds from emerging out the Blisworth Tunnel, when a new hirer came into the tunnel from the opposite direction. We all know the eyes take a little time to adjust when entering a tunnel and to give the other boater benefit of the doubt, we assume that and the fact that he was inexperienced, combined to cause him to hit us a massive blow to the port bow. We were almost not moving at all as I saw him coming. Immediately after, my wife voiced my own thoughts, "if we had been in Topsy, (Our previous boat), he would have sunk us!" The result was that we had to wait a couple more years before we could afford a steel shell and fitted out our own narrow boat.

Just for the record, the boating fraternity in France (for example) don't use red diesel. They use the normal road fuel.

An extra event has just been added to the Folk on the Water Festival. This is at the Boat Inn above Stockton Top Lock on the GU. It will take the form of a Singaround, where budding amateur musicians can come along and demonstrate their skills. So if you play, sing, can recite a poem, tell a joke, or otherwise entertain, or if you just want to listen, come along. As per the normal FOW practice, the event is free entry, but there will be a collection for the charity, Zoe's Place, the only baby specific hospice in the Midlands. Venue: Boat Inn, Birdingbury Wharf, Rugby Rd, Birdingbury, Rugby CV23 8HQ (by bridge 21 GU) Phone:01926 812657 Date: Thursday 7th July start 7.30pm Plenty of good ales to be had and the pub are putting on a BBQ for the event, Fancy it?

Kwacker, I've checked and since then the performers have moved out into the marquee at the Folly and moved pubs in Long Itchington, both of which seem to have solved the problem. No bother last year at all.

Yes. It is an excuse for the promoters to have a holiday on the boat and listen to some good music. I should add that at the first location it will co-icide with a cider festival with lots of craft ciders available for testing(!).

Some of you might already know that the annual Folk on the Water Music festival will be touring the canals of South Warwickshire between 25th June and 10th July 2016. all the gigs are free entry (you have to buy your own beer)and all are at canalside pubs. Just turn up, moor and pile into the pub. A full list of gigs and locations are given below. The whole festival is to support "Zoe's Place" The only baby-specific hospice facility of its kind in the Midlands, a very worthwhile cause. the gigs are as follows: 25th - 26th June, The Cuttle Inn, Long Itchington, (GU) 30th June - 1st July, The Fusilier, Leamington Spa (GU) 2nd - 3rd July, The Cape of Good Hope, Warwick (GU) 9th - 10th July, The Folly Inn, Napton, (South Oxford) Artists are coming from all over the country to take part and provide high quality entertainment for discerning music enthusiasts. Details of which artists will be at which venue will follow in a couple of days. Regards to all Tony Collins.

A few observations from an ex boater... The selfish, arrogant, anti-social, continuous morons moorers, who seem to think that they can moor for as long as they like, wherever they like, ignoring the clearly marked restrictions for the benefit of all, are a bane on the inland waterways. They contribute little or nothing and expect everything in return as a right. There will be many others who like me, remember the days when it was madness to buy a boat if you did not first secure a mooring for it. BW tolerated unauthorised liveaboards because they knew that there were insufficient alocations for living on boats. But that was in the days when for the most part, boaters observed the limit for staying on a particular mooring. Then came the expansion in marina building. This provided a lot of capacity for moorings, but because there appeared to be such a demand prices went through the roof. This in turn prompted some to look for alternatives. One of these was a continuous cruising licence, which was and is fine. Most of the annual maintenance was carried out during the winter, so this restricted the CCer's movements somewhat as for some (and it could be quite a while) became trapped between stoppages. BW took the pragmatic view that no action was to be taken against these people because they were bound in by circumstances outwith their control. A smart cookie or two spotted an opportunity to circumvent the need to comply with the terms of the licence to which they had agreed when they took out a CC licence and started to moor in spots well away from honeypot sites. In honesty they did not affect the vast majority of other boaters, so were not a (big) problem. However it led to situations where they settled on 14 day moorings then later 7 day moorings because, (partly because of the Defra cuts) no action was taken to enforce the rules. This has led to a situation which is untenable and finally CaRT are beginning to enforce the rules. Now what could have happened is that the flouters might have admitted that they had been lucky to get away with it for so long and moved on. But no, they decided to fight for something that was not theirs in the first place, so now CaRT are imposing even more draconian powers including that of entering your boat without needing permission whether you are present or not. All because more and more people seeing some get away with thinking that they are more important than others, jump on the bandwagon. Hence the out of control situation we have now. The last few miles of the South Oxford became a linear social housing site. Likewise the western end of the K&A became almost bandit country. We were cruising along going towards Bath one day, when in amongst the continuous line of boats there was a gap. It was an unrestricted site, we needed to stop for a couple of hours, (one of our crew required to undergo their routine medication) We were met with hostility and remarks such as "You can't moor there it is "xxxxx's mooring and she has gone to fill her water tank". I replied the we would only be a couple of hours, and claimed that anyone could moor there technically, it was not a reserved mooring. The next thing that happened was that we were virtually trapped on our boat as a couple of large (and seemingly aggressive dogs) were tied to the mooring pins of the boats either side of us. We didn't need to get off the boat, but when we came to leave I had to call to the dog owners/handlers to control their dogs in order to allow me to untie the lines. It is this aggressive element and those who I mentioned above, who have destroyed the friendly atmosphere and ambience of the canals, and finally pushed CaRT into action. These CM's (as it now seem fashionable to call them) should be made to comply with the requirements of their licences or be removed from the canals. Incidentally I reported the incident and I got the impression that the staff were frightened to address the issue and to some extent, I don't blame them. So ladies and gentlemen, you know where to set the blame when CaRT appear to be getting more vigilant. I liken it to the days when a gypsy family would set up on a grass verge somewhere, with maybe a couple of caravans, and be gone in a few days. They were not a problem, as the groups got bigger, they became more of a problem that sooner or later had to be addressed. We have now reached that situation around the more popular sites on the waterways. I miss my boat, but frankly I wouldn't go back now.

I remember when one of the US space capsules parachuted back into the ocean, it actually settled upside down. It was described by one of the astronauts as being a in a "stable two" position. Edit: Not so surprising really just watch a truck being driven slightly too fast around a curve, it adopts a similar attitiude.