koukouvagia

We used the Edwardian Bedding Company to make an irregularly shaped mattress for our butty. We simply gave them a sketch and they did the rest. We've had this mattress for over 25 years. Very satisfied with the result. https://www.edwardianbedding.co.uk/

I've done it that way. Don't forget to leave a rope trailing from the counter so you can climb back up again. It's a bit of a pain if you have to climb up the lock gate.

That's precisely what it says. Frequently ignored.

I periodically trim the foliage that obscures our local winding hole sign. Not that it helps much because thoughtless people still moor in the middle of the winding hole.

There is a potential bottleneck at the turn when boats waiting to enter the turn have to wait until boats exiting the turn pass in front of them. If boats went past the first entrance and reversed into the second entrance and came out of the first entrance, there would be no boats crossing each other's paths. The late David Daines advocated this move for years, but it was never adopted. Perhaps there's a flaw to this, which I have failed to grasp.

What did people think about the new parade organisation? From a boater's perspective it was an improvement. We completed the course in about one and a quarter hours, without the usual interminable hold ups. I would imagine, however, that the spectators might have wished that there were not so many long gaps in the parade. On the whole I thought it was an improvement. One year the chaos was so great that by the time it was our turn to leave the arm, those boats which had left several hours before were returning to their moorings in the arm, blocking our exit. So we never managed to parade.

I see it's dropped around £15K. As I suspect, the market in historic boats is a bit sluggish.

Incidentally, who won the Best In Show award? I missed the announcement.

That was my good friend David Daines, who died recently. Sadly missed.

A long shot but if anyone finds a windlass on the Buckby flight and is heading towards Braunston, could you drop it off on NB Hampton (one of the historic boats moored near the turn? Many thanks

This year the organisers are trying out an experimental parade rota. It might improve the congestion, but frankly, I rather enjoyed the chaos. Mind you, five hours to complete the parade one year was a bit much! 2025-J-Parade-Braunston-Schedule (1).pdf

We are hoping to make some early starts in order to get our boat to the Braunston Show in time. Does anyone know if locks between Cowroast and Braunston are affected? There's nothing on the CRT website, but I'm pretty sure that Bulbourne was being locked early.

Although we owned Owl for over thirty years, old boaters we met always referred to it as Jack Monk’s boat. When we were working on Owl in Leicester, Jack made it quite clear that we were merely looking after his Seffle.

I think the only comparable unconverted boat offered for sale in the past couple of years is the small Woolwich Comet. No idea how much it was.

The last episode in this series, when Robbie and his producer, Stuart came on board our boat at Cowroast, was filmed in early December. I thoroughly enjoy his slow and unhurried travels, especially to those remote parts of the system that I'm never likely to experience.