Hi From Uk

[johnbarratt]

Hi everyone.

Newbie here,, just love boats, fast powerboats to the old english narrowboats. Im 45, single ish i live in the heart of Staffordshire next to the Caldon Canal, i work on the canals and run a little website about the canals and boats that use them, that is my indoor hobby.

[Bergalia]

Welcome John...trying to imagine canals as an 'indoor hobby'.....:(

[johnbarratt]

Noooo,,The website is my hobby:p

http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t291/badgerbarratt/Shot018.jpg

[kach22i]

Are hovercraft allowed to use the canals or are they too noisy?

[mut]

hi john, another one from staffs hey!? i live in leek, just down the road!

[johnbarratt]

Are hovercraft allowed to use the canals or are they too noisy?


Kach,, are you for real,,, our canals are about 20 to 30 ft wide, the photo above is the river section of a canal, much wider but less predictable.

[johnbarratt]

hi john, another one from staffs hey!? i live in leek, just down the road!

Hi Mut

i live in Cheddleton, nr the Boat Inn

[lazeyjack]

trankwile scene indeed, or maybe jus tranquil.
what do you know abt the canal route Le havre to Med Sea?

[safewalrus]

It's full of nastie commercial peniche owning 'frogs' who just love running down yotties! They Peniche barges are big nasty slabsides steel beasties that will ruin your pristine paintwork in seconds (from the 'frogs' point of view you just got to have a little hobby haven't you! and yotties is considered fair game)

[lazeyjack]

It's full of nastie commercial peniche owning 'frogs' who just love running down yotties! They Peniche barges are big nasty slabsides steel beasties that will ruin your pristine paintwork in seconds (from the 'frogs' point of view you just got to have a little hobby haven't you! and yotties is considered fair game)

pourquoi?
j'avais un OWITZER sur le yot!! 104mm, tres bon, kerboom!!

[PsiPhi]

Welcome John...trying to imagine canals as an 'indoor hobby'.....:(

You remember what it's like when it rains in Scotland? Staffs' not that far way :p

[johnbarratt]

You remember what it's like when it rains in Scotland? Staffs' not that far way :p

About 200 miles away, always rains in Scotland, its always grey here in Stoke area,, as for the French Canals, never been but we have members there and members who hae sailed there, i can ask any question you like,,, within reason:P

[mut]

Hi Mut

i live in Cheddleton, nr the Boat Inn

love that pub in summer :)

[kach22i]

Kach,, are you for real,,, our canals are about 20 to 30 ft wide, the photo above is the river section of a canal, much wider but less predictable.

I'm not talking about a turbine powered channel crosser.:D

My hovercraft is 2 meters wide and 3.3 meters long.

I have taken my hovercaft through some narrow water passages before, zigging and zagging my way thought canals not much wider than my trailer.

I have seen hovercraft in the UK going through canals, and down streets during the recent flooding.

The UK hovercraft forum where I've seen some of these pictures:
http://hovercraft.org.uk/FUDforum2/index.php?t=i&cat=2&S=b392d539f3af10521ca0906a36277bf8

[johnbarratt]

Thanks Kach

will have a look, love to see you on your hovercraft approaching a lock, then just zipping out of the water in to the other side,, the look on some faces would be priceless.

[kach22i]

Thanks Kach

will have a look, love to see you on your hovercraft approaching a lock, then just zipping out of the water in to the other side,, the look on some faces would be priceless.
The pictures I've seen of the locks (in the UK) included the group of hovercraft going through them (they float too).

If I come across the pictures I'll post them.........might take a while.

EDIT.........found some pictures.

Can you read French at all?
http://perso.orange.fr/rhonealpesmotonautique/
http://f9g.yahoofs.com/groups/g_19695164/.HomePage/__sr_/2c0b.jpg?grAuQLHBJ7P3QZhl

http://perso.orange.fr/rhonealpesmotonautique/
http://perso.orange.fr/rhonealpesmotonautique/images/larry.JPG

They go through much smaller rivers of course, and over rapids too.

.............................................................................................

Speedymartin wrote back:

Every year , our beloved Chief , Jean- Claude Delorme organizes a hovercraft raid on Rhone and Saone rivers.

http://perso.orange.fr/rhonealpesmotonautique/

This is a 500 to 700 km trip on rivers and roads, a full week of hovering crazyness.
If you see a lock with floating bollards, it' s Rhone, with fixed ones, it' s Saone.

I have several videos on You Tube and Dailymotion and galleries on Webshots.

[johnbarratt]

Thanks Kach

That is really cool and would love ago, i have joined the uk forum for hovercrafts, speaking of you tube i have done a few music boating videos, hope you like them, ps,, this is a great site, nice members too.


One for Xmas

http://canalsandboats.informe.com/forum/a-winters-tale-the-leek-arm-caldon-canal-dt2021.html

A canal and boat one.

http://canalsandboats.informe.com/forum/boats-and-canals-your-my-no1-dt2017.html

Have a great weekend everyone.

[safewalrus]

pourquoi?
j'avais un OWITZER sur le yot!! 104mm, tres bon, kerboom!!


I hate to be a bore but I think your average howitzer of that caliber is actually 105mm (all the ones I've seen and used were) - the shells wouldn't fit you gun matey:D

[Bergalia]

I think you'll find that my mate Lazey is using the Australian 'mm' measurements - in which case a 104mm would fit a 105mm howitzer to perfection. You forget that bathwater in the southern hemisphere exits the plughole in the opposite direction; the effect of 'El Nino'; and obviously haven't taken into account the devaluation of the rupee.... :)

[safewalrus]

Except of course the Chinese make theirs 106mm so that their shells will fit their guns but not ours, whilst our shells will also fit their guns - maybe not as effective but they work!

Todays useless piece of information, unless of course your Chinese military - or fighting them!!! and if all else fails they chuck bags of rice at you (possibly the most dangerous shipborne cargo in the world, next to 'umans, but that's another story)

[Bergalia]

How ya doing Walrus - what are you doing up at this time of day (it's 10am Saturday morning here in NSW...well past your bedtime in the UK surely).
But on useless information - How about the 'Puckle Gun' - fired square shells against the 'infidel' and 'round' shells against 'civilised enemy'...

Rice by the way was a useful weapon in the 'Malayan Campaign' - before your time my boy. But 'we' Brits used to scatter slivers of bamboo (indigestible) in sacks of rice which we then allowed the 'bandits' to capture...assuming they would die with stomach cramping agony at a later date. 'Perfidious Albion' indeed.:(

[Frosty]

What are you doing on the 30Nov Berg?

[charmc]

the Chinese make theirs 106mm

Dans l'ans dix neuf soixante-dix je commandais un compagnie de mortars de 107mm.

Mine's bigger than any of yours! :D

[Bergalia]

What are you doing on the 30Nov Berg?


If all goes to plan Frosty...I shall be dressed in my 'plaid' frock with furry frontispiece...making a thorough nuisance of myself, along with the remnants of the local pipe band - at roughly midnight - outside the Parliament Building in Canberra. This will be followed by a synchronised vomiting session in Lake Burley Griffin, urinating against the American Embassy walls, inquiring loudly of the German Embassy "Ooo won the bloody war then..." and attempting to order 'five Number 27's and easy on the souy sauce,' at the Chinese Embassy...probably rounded off by a ride in a white car with flashing lights and uniformed chauffer...

The usual St Andrew's celebration in fact my wee chum. A annual event which so endears us Scots to the rest of the world...

And yourself ? How will you celebrate the birth of civilisation ?

[lazeyjack]

I hate to be a bore but I think your average howitzer of that caliber is actually 105mm (all the ones I've seen and used were) - the shells wouldn't fit you gun matey:D
ferkin bejazuzz, where did that 040 inch go.

[lazeyjack]

hey Chas, would YOU like a trip , par les canals, Seine, vers Marseilles? vite, mon ami,

[Trevlyns]

Quote (Bergalia)

If all goes to plan Frosty...I shall be dressed in my 'plaid' frock with furry frontispiece...making a thorough nuisance of myself, along with the remnants of the local pipe band - at roughly midnight - outside the Parliament Building in Canberra.

This cannot go unchallenged Max - I DARE you to post a picture of yourself so attired, on or after 1 December...:D :D :D

[Bergalia]

As they say on TV cookery programmes, Trev - here's one I prepared earlier....:D

[safewalrus]

Hell! Bergalia keep that posting until the furst of April if you please Sir! When ye can tickle the ladies (English version not Scots) properly!

[safewalrus]

Max I prseume you mean the Malaysian campaing against the 'Chicoms' rather than the mad syphaletic gentleman Sukharno?

[Bergalia]

Thems the ones Walrus...(but probably only you and I will remember that far back - unless your dad told you....):(

[PsiPhi]

As they say on TV cookery programmes, Trev - here's one I prepared earlier....:D


Gee's Berg, I didn't think they had cameras when you were that young :p

[Bergalia]

Gee's Berg, I didn't think they had cameras when you were that young :p


Oh yes, this chap, Louis Daguerre, I think his name was. He made the likeness. Foreign I think...hard to tell because he spent most of his time walking about with a blanket over his head...It was a fashion which caught on in Scotland - but we usually had a couple of policemen to accompany us at the time....:)

[safewalrus]

Yeah wouldn't want to bump into things with that blanket over yer head would ye?