furnessvale

Remember it well. You had the pilot and we followed on Badger with another 5-6 boats behind. Got to the crossover point and the pilot said "Off you go we'll wait for the stragglers". Punched a 6-8 knot incoming tide and glad I had a healthy 2LW in the engine room with a big blade and working hard. Tench accidentally lost power for a few seconds and was 200 yards upstream wrapped around a huge wreck buoy in the blink of an eye! Then we had to hold station for a lifetime before they would let us in Brunswick lock. Enjoyed every minute!😂

A few years ago I was winding SANDBACH after a tug of war in the top basin in front of the main entrance when I thought "she is coming round rather well". I looked down the side to find two model tugs pushing my bows round!

Not sure that using an overhead electric line and trolley pole, with its potential for arcing, is the best solution to a gas explosion risk! It would appear that the overhead line is merely a signal cable and as such would be very low voltage and not prone to arcing.

6' 10" wide? Has she been pulled in at some time?

What they can do on site is to ensure the locks are kept in water rather than drained, thus reducing pressure on the walls.

It can be both. The work that has been done is to a high standard but other areas will require attention.

The new facilities should have been completed BEFORE the old ones were taken out of use, but as usual, boaters are at the back of the queue. I'll wager the new houses on the site are completed LONG before boater facilities, if they are completed at all.

Within the last 3 years OTTER was subjected to a considerable amount of work. A couple of years ago OTLEY won the prize for the best boat at Braunston. I remember confusion at the time as to whether the winner was actually OTTER, which in its own small way, is a measure of OTTER's turnout at that time.

When the pain outweighs the pleasure, it is time to give up. As the pleasure is a different concept to each individual this cannot be assessed as a "one size fits all" thing. For example, my pleasure was visiting historic boat shows which meant long days and many locks. A different concept to living abourd and moving every 14 days. With me and the wife in the mid to late 70s, I have just sold up.

I have always wondered what was there to stop a boatman blowing his horn or cracking his whip early to gain an unfair advantage?

Yes, such surveyors exist, and and highly recommended if you don't want trouble in having a survey of an old boat done.

I believe CRT and BW before them, are reluctant to sell rough boats cheaply in case they go back in the water with a new owner and the whole cycle repeats itself, costing them even more money.

One of my pet hates is a washer josher going past at "tickover" so slow that I can feel for the poor engine about to put a leg out of bed.

Don't know about the CE, but the Petter PD2 had that reputation. I never had that problem but I put it down to only bolting 3 engine mounts down before carefully shimming the last one. Probably all in my head, but I was trying to remove any possibility of crankcase distortion.

Starling, with Ethel, in happier days en route to Ellesmere Port 2004.