Hello and welcome to the February edition of the CtC newsletter. It's quite a long one, so best grab a cuppa.

First of all, the event has now been and gone but congratulations to the winners of my BoatLife tickets from last month's newsletter. They were Stu White, and originally James Bridle but he was unfortunately unable to attend so I re-drew the names and Martin & Lucy Grant made it to the show and even bumped into me as they were looking around. Lovely to meet you!

Aside from that, there's plenty of boaty news this month, a cracking YouTube recommendation if you're a bit of a geek like me, plus my reply to one of the most frequently asked questions I receive.

Read on!
David

News from the canal world.

SMOKE ON THE WATER
An appeal for donations has been launched after the last surviving lightship of its type was damaged by fire, thought to be arson.

LV81, which is owned and operated by the Pharos Trust and has a 'pirate' radio station on board, was one of the last manned lightships built for Trinity House. Launched in 1958, it was decommissioned in 1993 and was under restoration.

The broadcast studio as well as below-decks accommodation has been badly burned out.

There's a rather lovely article about the lightship's history at https://shippingtandy.com/features/the-story-of-light-vessel-81/ and you can read about the fire at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-68184871

A man has been charged with arson.

NO SMOKE ON THE WATER
The first smoke control zones that affect wood and coal stoves on canal boats have into effect. Environmental laws enacted in 2021 gave local authorities the power to enforce these zones by the removal of a prior exemption for boats.

An area of the Trent & Mersey canal at Cannock Chase is now under such a prohibition, meaning boaters must only use authorised 'smokeless' fuels and must not emit a 'substantial' amount of smoke or risk being fined.

Full details are on the CRT wbsite at https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/boating/go-boating/a-guide-to-boating/smoke-control-areas

CAVALCADE HELP!
The Inland Waterways Association is seeking volunteers to help operate its annual Cavalcade in London.

The event is held in central London on the May Day bank holiday (for 2024 that's 4th-6th) and they need people for various tasks such as running the information stands, distributing programmes and suchlike.

More info at https://waterways.org.uk/support/ways-to-get-involved/events/iwa-canalway-cavalcade-2024

What am I up to?

Firstly, I've spent a load of time redoing my website. It now has a new, much cleaner and smarter look plus loads of information and articles and the navigation's been tidied up too. Have a look at https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/

Thanks to everyone who came to hear my talk at BoatLife, there was a huge audience which was very heartwarming indeed and I really can't express properly how good that made me feel. Thank you. If you missed it, the talk was recorded and will apparently be on the BoatLife YouTube channel at some point but I don't know when.

The other thing I've been doing is a bit of work on Twiggy, my cabin cruiser, although it's been so chilly of late that I haven't really felt much impetus to go and do much. Yes, I am a spineless wimp.

There will be two videos of that coming soon (originally one but it was so long that I've cut it down the middle and will leave you with a cliffhanger!)

Meanwhile, the filming of the engineering checks at the magnificent Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales has been set for early March so hopefully my video will be out by the end of that month.

In case you missed them, here are the latest three videos on my YouTube channel.

They are: tours of the inland waterways boats that were displayed at the BoatLife show; a replay of the live walk around the show that I did; and the beginnings of refurbishment on Twiggy (on which, much more to come very soon)

If you enjoy the videos, I have a tip jar at https://www.ko-fi.com/davidjohns. Or if you're very keen, join the crew at https://www.patreon.com/CruisingTheCut for early access to the videos (when I remember to do it) as well as very few other dubious 'perks'.

Into the dusty archive...

Each month, I pick out a video from my own archive, and suggest why it might be worth a (re)watch. This month, with the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct on my mind, why not see the time I joined Anna & Kath as they took their narrowboat over the incredible structure?

Click here https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/2019/04/21/vlog-170-vertigo/ to watch.

My YouTube top pick of the month

I grant you this won't be for everyone but if you are interested in science, specifically space, physics and relativity, but are baffled by it all, then Float Head Physics has a very understandable - to a degree - way of presenting things.

Pitching topics as a conversation between himself and Einstein, our host Mahesh explains concepts such as time travel and light paradoxes by asking Einstein lots of 'but what if...' questions and then explaining the answer.

It's still all a bit mind-boggling to me but it's very well done and he's extremely enthusiastic.

See https://www.youtube.com/@Mahesh_Shenoy

Correspondence

The letters flooded in this month, I'm delighted to say. First was a question from Lesley Nyborg in the USA who asked "Which is the best canal for newbies?"

I replied of course but thought it such a worthwhile topic that I've expanded and then uploaded my response as an article on the website. Click here to read: https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/2024/02/23/which-is-the-best-canal-for-a-novice-narrowboater/

Let us also say 'hello' to Wally Venable and his wife in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA who wrote to offer suggestions for Twiggy and to relate tales of their extensive canal hiring experience including a 22-foot fibreglass cruiser in 1974 with a 2-stroke outboard as well as their own 25-ft Dawncraft.

From one side of the planet to the other, greetings to Desirée in New Zealand who tells me the first ever Auckland Wooden Boat Festival is about to start, running from this Friday, 1st March to Sunday, down at Jellicoe Harbour in the Wynyard Quarter. It sounds wonderful! Details at https://www.aucklandwoodenboatfestival.co.nz/

And finally a smile for Laura Henshaw who wrote to describe how she likes to knit while binge-watching the videos and had kind words to say about this newsletter.

Thanks everyone!

A social recommendation

No doubt you have an interest in many things boat-related so if you're on Twitter / 'X', have a look at the National Historic Ships feed, "the official voice for historic vessels in the UK'. They recently alerted me to a wonderful lightship that's for sale for restoration. Too tempting if it were not for the £240k pricetag.

Follow at https://www.twitter.com/NatHistShips

(Oh, and the lightship link if you want to buy it is https://www.apolloduck.co.uk/boat/house-boats-conversion-for-sale/716088)

You can connect with me on social media by clicking on the buttons below:-

Final Thoughts
That's all for this month other than a quick reminder that the previous editions of the newsletter can be seen at https://cruisingthecut.co.uk/newsletter-archive/

Thanks for subscribing and watching.

Cheerio!
David