I cannot help thinking that the best days of boating are over. British Waterways as a charity will be even more cash hungry.
The value of second hand boats is being driven down by cheap (crappy) imports, the towpath is now a high speed cycleway upon which boaters have no place, nobody slows down past moored boats any more, etc., etc., etc.
The only new boaters seem to be newly retired people blowing their lump sum on a hundred grand toy, keeping it in a marina and selling it at a huge loss two years later!
What is the point of restoring any more waterways in the current climate, except to provide new cycle tracks maybe?
Martin Brooks