system 4-50

The principle advantage of smokeless fueled stoves is that they are easy for the boat owner to manage, manage in a wider sense, in that the owner has possession. It wouldn't be that hard to provide an electric hookup every 72 ft along all of London's canals, it wouldn't cost a detectable fraction of the Crossrail project, but it would be impossible to maintain. Even if the towpath was made private I reckon the structure wouldn't last 12 months before the component parts were damaged or destroyed or nicked. One of the reasons why we sheep live in houses is that they have outer defences that enable our possessions to stay ours most of the time. Sorry, MrSmelly but you don't qualify as a member of what the general public thinks of as "Canal Trash " " Water Gypsies " and " Pikeys " unless your philosophy is everything I can remove is mine.

You are having a hard time. Your finances are poor and you are constantly looking for the cheapest way to exist, by legal means if possible, but in the grey areas when not. You feel the need for "emotional" support in this struggle. "Emotional" is not the right word, nor is "spiritual" but something along those lines. You can get some of this support by feeling that you are part of a group and therefore not alone. The obvious group is "the aggrieved", and you can readily see that it exists by looking on the internet. The feeling of support that you get from belonging to this group is proportional to the strength of this group. Any group is made stronger by having an opposition group. Your instinct as a member of this group is to find an opposition group (or create one) - and thereby make it stronger. To qualify as an opposition group this group has to be as similar as your support group but "opposite". You are boating related, CRT are boating related. Your groups are related. You are suffering hardship, therefore it must be that CRT are inflicting hardship. But you need this opposition to be stronger so that your group is stronger, so you attack CRT with every means at your disposal. So, if you are having a hard time as a boater, your instinct is: to see yourself as part of a large group, the aggrieved. to see CRT as a monolith rather than a collection of parts than can have individual good & bad points. to see CRT as deliberately vindictive. to attack CRT across the board 100% of the time. So it behoves every hard-pressed boater to examine their motivation carefully. Notwithstanding the above, it still may be that CRT is a solid monolith, driven by a vindictive hatred of the small boater, but I doubt it.

I'm not that flush.

I have been told that in Warsaw many decades ago, you could find people on street corners late at night who would offer to sell you a brick. If you declined, they gave it to you for free!

I tried that but they kept taking me around the bend. Maybe I shouldn't have used radials.

provided the baffles don't get in the way?

The Beaux of London City were a Morris dance group that my late father in law was heavily involved with.

No connection to The Beaux of London City? (your boat name)

On my sailaway (Colecraft 60ft with Beta 43, which is beauty boatyfied) I enjoyed: getting the windows finally in. It stopped the snow coming in. Involved drilling and tapping about 175 holes. Never again, I'd go for clip types. getting it sprayfoamed. At last it could be heated. getting the floor down. I no longer tripped over the ballast bricks. getting the water tanks in. I no longer used 5L bottles. getting the flush toilet in. I no longer had to use an insane portapotti and empty its stinking contents down a filth hole. getting the 1000 x 760 shower in. Sheer luxury! getting the fixed bed working. 2000 x 1400mm. Big enough to get lost in. getting the standard 60cm cooker, gas fridge, standard washing machine, and tumble dryer in. Sheer joy. getting the large dinette working. lately, fitting a cot shelf for a 18month old visiting granddaughter so that she could go to bed before the adults. I could have bought a ready-made but I'd have been bored with it within 2 years.

The lack of precision in the location is a security measure. I'm a bit obsessive about security.

So you sailed away using a pair of oars?

Based on my sailaway build: The time taken to build is heavily dependent on your facilities/setup. travel time to boat storage space on site - particularly for 8 x 4 boards shed space for storing newly varnished/painted stuff off boat material transporter ie van accessible chandlery is useful whether you have to actually live on it on the days you work on it. Yes = much harder. deliverable address ie nobody moans/charges & it's a recognised address is your sailaway already ballasted? floored? battened? sprayfoamed? windowed? painted? (my topside came with simple epoxy paint job which has been fantastic) 240V power - for tools - for heating time of year (the absolute 1st priority is getting it painted.) A competent DIYer can learn to do gas fairly easily. You've seen the BSS guide? Its taken me 7 years and I'm nowhere near finished, but all the factors involved are worst case for me and I only get to work about 35 days per year, and I like changing my mind and redoing things. ETA I do it because I really like doing it. On occasion I've got up at 05:00 and worked with breaks until 23:00, just because it is so much fun. As the years pass, more work is just maintenance eg exterior painting & blacking, and this is not so much fun.

Is this it?

I assume that Innisfree's picture of a cratch wheel is no longer accessible?