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Just now, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

No, some of them have Hudsons I thought!

:giggles:

Not that I'm aware of, although he did build over 200 boats so it's likely someone in the IWA has one. I expect someone in the IWA has pretty much every other make of boat.

Anyway, I have a near-full list of Hudson boats and their owners. Do you know a name of someone who is allegedly something of note in the IWA and also has a Hudson? But I suspect it's just an urban myth. A bit like all brown people are terrorists etc.

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On 12/08/2017 at 21:37, nicknorman said:

Not that I'm aware of, although he did build over 200 boats so it's likely someone in the IWA has one. I expect someone in the IWA has pretty much every other make of boat.

Anyway, I have a near-full list of Hudson boats and their owners. Do you know a name of someone who is allegedly something of note in the IWA and also has a Hudson? But I suspect it's just an urban myth. A bit like all brown people are terrorists etc.

 

There is a Hudson around here (notable due to its rather fetching brown paint job and a bolt-upright pram hood - know the one?) I'm reasonbly sure has an IWA sticker in the window.

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No, I'd need a boat name. Anyway, surely you can see the crass stupidity of noticing a Hudson (one of over 200) with an IWA sticker and extrapolating from that that all Hudson owners are IWA stalwarts? If that is the mentality of KandA boaters, they are obnoxious stupid prejudiced whatsits and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with them.

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On 12/08/2017 at 23:25, nicknorman said:

No, I'd need a boat name. 

Malakati or something similar.

 

On 12/08/2017 at 23:25, nicknorman said:

Anyway, surely you can see the crass stupidity of noticing a Hudson (one of over 200) with an IWA sticker and extrapolating from that that all Hudson owners are IWA stalwarts?

I can. And I'd like to make it clear these are not my views. I was describing the attitude I repeatedly encounter out there on the big wide cut.

 

On 12/08/2017 at 23:25, nicknorman said:

 If that is the mentality of KandA boaters, they are obnoxious stupid prejudiced whatsits and I wouldn't want to have anything to do with them.

 

I last encountered on Friday, at Crick.

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5 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Malakarti. Built 2014, sold 2016. No info on new owners.

Have you got pictures of them all as well, you could produce a book "Hudson Narrow Boats Today". It would be like a modern boat equivalent of the "Historic Working Narrow Boats Today" books.

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40 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Have you got pictures of them all as well, you could produce a book "Hudson Narrow Boats Today". It would be like a modern boat equivalent of the "Historic Working Narrow Boats Today" books.

I'm not entirely sure whether I detect a note of sarcasm or not! There used to be a great collection of Hudson boat photos on one of the hosting sites (photobucket?) but the chap and his girlfriend who were doing it spilt up, and the photos were removed. Recently a Facebook group has started, that might collect some photos.

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As a regular on the K&A I find this an interesting and amusing thread.

The waterway can indeed be hard work, especially the Kennet navigation but many of us love it inspite of all it's difficulties.

It isn't a waterway for those in a hurry and many visitors turn back just before they get to the easier parts west of Newbury.

Mark Evans, the waterway manager, at a meeting in April asked me why I thought people find the canal so hard, I told him of the things that occurred to me at the time. He'd welcome constructive comments on how to improve people's enjoyment of the waterway so please send him an email with your thoughts.

Keith

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13 hours ago, Steilsteven said:

As a regular on the K&A I find this an interesting and amusing thread.

The waterway can indeed be hard work, especially the Kennet navigation but many of us love it inspite of all it's difficulties.

It isn't a waterway for those in a hurry and many visitors turn back just before they get to the easier parts west of Newbury.

Mark Evans, the waterway manager, at a meeting in April asked me why I thought people find the canal so hard, I told him of the things that occurred to me at the time. He'd welcome constructive comments on how to improve people's enjoyment of the waterway so please send him an email with your thoughts.

Keith

If you want to know what I really think, you'll have to read the thread on Thunderboat. It's not fit for publication on here!

For us the main spoiler has been the endless lines of moored boats to the west of Wooton Rivers. It is a rarity to be above tickover. And, in the main, they are all so miserable and resentful of cruising boats. I don't see that Mark Evans can do much about either. On the plus side, CRT services are frequent.

That said, we've enjoyed today, Bathampton, the locks down into Bath and, whilst I don't normally like rivers much, really enjoying the Avon. Not least because at last we can get above tickover! It's a nice river and unlike most, has good views.

 

Edited by nicknorman
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Reading this thread makes me glad I last visited the K&A in 2001.

Back then it was quiet and virtually unpopulated by any boats, let alone long term moored boats. 

Mind you the locks were relatively heavy, (a legacy from the "quick and dirty" restorstion to reopen the canal in 1990), the sides very shallow, (it was built that way) and the towpaths overgrown, (it was the trial site for the them BW's now ubiquitous policy of rarely cutting towpath vegetation to save money, whilst promoting wildlife diversity). 

The inverse snobbery of some liveaboard parts also seems to be spreading. I always say hello to all boaters, but in a recent trip along the Coventry and Oxford canals, got blanked by liveaboards on two occasions. One woman even made a point of turning her back to me as I said hello. Sad really, and says far more about their prejudiced attitudes than anything else.

I enjoyed the K&A in 2001, not so sure I would enjoy it as much now though.

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28 minutes ago, cuthound said:

Reading this thread makes me glad I last visited the K&A in 2001.

Back then it was quiet and virtually unpopulated by any boats, let alone long term moored boats. 

Mind you the locks were relatively heavy, (a legacy from the "quick and dirty" restorstion to reopen the canal in 1990), the sides very shallow, (it was built that way) and the towpaths overgrown, (it was the trial site for the them BW's now ubiquitous policy of rarely cutting towpath vegetation to save money, whilst promoting wildlife diversity). 

The inverse snobbery of some liveaboard parts also seems to be spreading. I always say hello to all boaters, but in a recent trip along the Coventry and Oxford canals, got blanked by liveaboards on two occasions. One woman even made a point of turning her back to me as I said hello. Sad really, and says far more about their prejudiced attitudes than anything else.

I enjoyed the K&A in 2001, not so sure I would enjoy it as much now though.

Have been out since April cruising up and down the K&A then into London. Been through Oxford down the Thames. Now on the Ashby. I agree with your comments about some live aboard being rather standoffish. We still really enjoyed the K&A though and London. I take the view that if people want to be unfriendly then that's not my problem. I will go on waving and just grin when I get blanked. Ian.

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Back in the nineties I found that it tended to be the ''real boat'' enthusiasts/owners who tended to be unfriendly almost everywhere. Also some boat owners at rallies tended to blank members of the public and heaven forbid joining the IWA and expecting anyone to talk to you.

Keith 

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What's all this anti IWA? I thought they where the good guys in getting the canals preserved, or have I missed something? 

 

Disclaimer i I am not a member of the IWA however I am setting off for a fortnight on the K&A from Hilperton in 2 days time!! 

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21 minutes ago, Dharl said:

What's all this anti IWA? I thought they where the good guys in getting the canals preserved, or have I missed something? 

 

Disclaimer i I am not a member of the IWA however I am setting off for a fortnight on the K&A from Hilperton in 2 days time!! 

Some senior IWA members have taken it upon themselves to be pretty rude about liveaboard boaters, one has even gone as far as to suggest they are a barrier to restoring the Wilts and Berks canal because "they" will go more there once it's open. My view is that, whilst some liveaboards have a bad attitude (as do some hirers and some private boat owners) overall they are a segment of the market that those seeking to secure the future of the canals should be courting rather than alienating

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14 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Some senior IWA members have taken it upon themselves to be pretty rude about liveaboard boaters, one has even gone as far as to suggest they are a barrier to restoring the Wilts and Berks canal because "they" will go more there once it's open. My view is that, whilst some liveaboards have a bad attitude (as do some hirers and some private boat owners) overall they are a segment of the market that those seeking to secure the future of the canals should be courting rather than alienating

There is a conflict of interest between people who want to cruise the canals, and people who want to live statically on them. Our trip on the KandA has really shone a spotlight on this, as for some reason the KandA seems to be a magnet for people who want to live on a boat but don't want to move it. The liveaboards blatently resent those who want to cruise (because they make their boats bob around a bit and means they need to tie them up properly if they don't want them to come adrift) and the people who want to use their boats for cruising resent the fact that they spend nearly an entire trip of several days at tickover due to the endless line of (often badly) moored boats. I don't see a way to resolve this conflict although of course I would say that the canals were put here, and in the case of the KandA restored, for the purposes of moving boats. Not for statically living on. We don't allow people to live in city parks or other leisure areas. Nor by the side of the road. I'm not quite sure why we allow the (a few) canals to become dysfunctional due to too many moored boats. I can sympathise with a view that the W&B would become clogged with moored boats, I think it is a certainty whilst the current regime persists.

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If one had a plot of land abbutting a derelict canal, say the Wey Arun, walked down the Western K and A I could see why some landowners would refuse to cooperate with restoration progress. There is no avoiding the bald fact that the cmers are affecting it for the rest. 

Edited by mark99
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8 minutes ago, mark99 said:

If one had a plot of land abbutting a derelict canal, say the Wey Arun, walked down the Western K and A I could see why some landowners would refuse to cooperate with restoration progress. There is no avoiding the bald fact that the cmers are affecting it for the rest. 

If they subscribed to this forum they would be shocked by the amount of continuous moaners.

Keith 

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3 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

No, you have dismissed views that you don't agree with as moaning, and now you have insulted me again for pointing it out. 

Don't be so precious about yourself, if you chose to be insulted by my previous comment ( which wasn't particularly aimed at you anyway )there must be some truth in it.

My last comment pointed out your lack of being able to see that it was indeed an alternative viewpoint. You automatically assume that because I point out that a great deal of moaning goes on here that I have an alternative view to you and that I should provide it. Let me tell you that a lot of what you and others have said in this thread I happen to actually agree with but I can tell the difference between discussion and moaning.

Keith 

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21 minutes ago, Steilsteven said:

Don't be so precious about yourself, if you chose to be insulted by my previous comment ( which wasn't particularly aimed at you anyway )there must be some truth in it.

My last comment pointed out your lack of being able to see that it was indeed an alternative viewpoint. You automatically assume that because I point out that a great deal of moaning goes on here that I have an alternative view to you and that I should provide it. Let me tell you that a lot of what you and others have said in this thread I happen to actually agree with but I can tell the difference between discussion and moaning.

Keith 

It is not an alternative viewpoint to dismiss someone's reasonably balanced opinion as "moaning". It is a difficult area, as I've said there is clear conflict between cruisers and residents on the KandA, but dismissing one side of the argument as "moaning" is attacking (or if you like, insulting) those who hold a view without offering any alternative argument that could consequently be challenged. Discussion can only take place when differing viewpoints are put forward. So far you haven't contributed to a discussion on this topic. So the problem with this aspect of the thread is a lack of counter argument, not that it's moaning.

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