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Post by loafer on May 3, 2016 9:07:24 GMT
Getting back on thread,what really winds me up are these boats that are bought as projects and parked up on the Towpath looking like a mobile builders yard.Sheets of old varnished ply wood are piled on the roof with lengths of old skirting and every 3 or 4 weeks some bloke is spotted aboard with a roll up a tin of lager and a hammer following his dream. A year or maybe even six months later the contents of the roof having been cleared into the undergrowth next to the towpath,the boat has moved quarter of a mile in all that time and is fastened with a couple of lengths of washing line attached to a couple of heavy logs; In the filthy window is a sign which says Unfinished Project For Sale and a mobile phone number while on the handrail are four or five Patrol Notices still unopened fluttering on the breeze.This is where the dream ends. Why do they do it ? Do we have a factory somewhere producing these DIY Boatfitters ? Is it to get away from the Mrs ? Why don't they just hire ? Do they actually believe they can turn that old seventies rust bucket into an ocean going yacht ? Year after year I ask myself these questions and year after year they keep coming. I'm guessing it is often a last-ditch attempt to find somewhere to live. If it's an unfortunate who can't get a job despite trying, or is on the receiving end of his ex-wife's demands, then I sympathise. If it's a work-shy alcoholic thinking that it would be a cool lifestyle, but fails, then it's a shrug of shoulders over here. I can't help them in either case!
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 9:16:53 GMT
I 'retired' from the sea life, to an inland waterways life, about 6 years ago hoping for a nice QUIET retirement without too many more challenges. Mrs Loafer, Poops and I always moor in nowhere land unless we need more Merlot. No matter WHERE we moor for a few days, almost as soon as we get settled, one of the following begins to piss me off: 1. Tractors commencing a ploughing competition in the adjacent field which hadn't been touched for months. 2. Chainsaw or angle grinder starting off from a property behind the bushes, not noticed prior to mooring. 3. Another boat hammering in mooring pins, 3" from our bow fender, when there is a mile in both directions of similar empty mooring space. 4. Trains hooting because some engineering work has commence a little way down the track. 5. Beeping reversing trucks, half a county away. 6. Speeding boats who don't recognise remotely-moored boats as needing a reduced passing speed. Usually too aggressive-looking to complain. So to the thread title. Is it just me who can't seem to find peace and quiet on the canals? What have I missed that may be equally annoying? I would say it very much depends on where you boat but we found it relatively easy to find out of the way mooring spots where no body bothered you on long stretches of the Northern waterways. Less so in the Midlands when we were based on the T&M though not impossible.
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 11:30:34 GMT
Getting back on thread,what really winds me up are these boats that are bought as projects and parked up on the Towpath looking like a mobile builders yard.Sheets of old varnished ply wood are piled on the roof with lengths of old skirting and every 3 or 4 weeks some bloke is spotted aboard with a roll up a tin of lager and a hammer following his dream. A year or maybe even six months later the contents of the roof having been cleared into the undergrowth next to the towpath,the boat has moved quarter of a mile in all that time and is fastened with a couple of lengths of washing line attached to a couple of heavy logs; In the filthy window is a sign which says Unfinished Project For Sale and a mobile phone number while on the handrail are four or five Patrol Notices still unopened fluttering on the breeze.This is where the dream ends. Why do they do it ? Do we have a factory somewhere producing these DIY Boatfitters ? Is it to get away from the Mrs ? Why don't they just hire ? Do they actually believe they can turn that old seventies rust bucket into an ocean going yacht ? Year after year I ask myself these questions and year after year they keep coming. I'm guessing it is often a last-ditch attempt to find somewhere to live. If it's an unfortunate who can't get a job despite trying, or is on the receiving end of his ex-wife's demands, then I sympathise. If it's a work-shy alcoholic thinking that it would be a cool lifestyle, but fails, then it's a shrug of shoulders over here. I can't help them in either case! Nah if its a man in need for the reasons you suggest,I must have helped scores over the years.Its these idiots that think they have spotted a bargain and on account of assembling a table from IKEA, think they have the capability to rebuild anything.Once of course they see the price of the raw materials involved and having to move the worksite every two weeks etc they soon loose interest. I have one such piece of junk next to me now,bought as a sail away nine years ago and barely even habitable, which I guess is the reason Robinson Crusoe popped out the hatch when I gave it a knock last week.He told me how it had been a learning process and he was on his way to Brokerage at Whilton, after which he was taking his camper van down to the Solent to view a yacht which needed,you guessed it,Some Work. Alone later pouring a whisky I contemplated thats why I support the NBTA and their anti canal cleansing rhetoric,my life is genuinely enriched by people such as this and I honestly mean that.
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Post by kris on May 3, 2016 12:27:05 GMT
With out all the different characters, the cannals would be a boring place.
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Post by loafer on May 3, 2016 17:38:07 GMT
Hmmm. I'll have to think about that!
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 17:47:17 GMT
Hmmm. I'll have to think about that! Come on your spiritual home is with the renegade,the characters of the cut. We accept you why can't you accept us ?
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Post by loafer on May 3, 2016 17:59:43 GMT
Hmmm. I'll have to think about that! Come on your spiritual home is with the renegade,the characters of the cut. We accept you why can't you accept us ? I accept anyone who has a right to be where they are! Does that mean I have to LIKE everyone? I am a signed-up card-carrying disliker of the human race in general! I've know a total of about 200 people, some who have probably died, but they were friends chosen either by me, or by themselves. I have enjoyed the company of many characters of the cut, and remain great friends with Mal Edwards, George Wain and one or two other long-history boating families who's names I have forgotten. Most of my narrowboat friends are of the poorer variety, but always of an honest and dignified nature. Anyway cds, I'm sure you'll find me a decent enough person when we clink glasses!
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Post by Deleted on May 3, 2016 18:08:23 GMT
Come on your spiritual home is with the renegade,the characters of the cut. We accept you why can't you accept us ? I accept anyone who has a right to be where they are! Does that mean I have to LIKE everyone? I am a signed-up card-carrying disliker of the human race in general! I've know a total of about 200 people, some who have probably died, but they were friends chosen either by me, or by themselves. I have enjoyed the company of many characters of the cut, and remain great friends with Mal Edwards, George Wain and one or two other long-history boating families who's names I have forgotten. Most of my narrowboat friends are of the poorer variety, but always of an honest and dignified nature. Anyway cds, I'm sure you'll find me a decent enough person when we clink glasses! No you have me the wrong way,I recognise a kindred spirit,what I am saying is you don't have to like everyone,noone does,but all these boaters make up the sum total and if you liked everyone life afloat would be a lot poorer with the tapestry being devoid of colour.I throw a few fucks at everyone it makes me feel alive and I welcome reciprocation
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Post by loafer on May 3, 2016 18:13:04 GMT
Ah got you! Maffi Mushkila!
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