T T races

Guy Martin at the Bungalow, IOM superbike TT 4/6/11

Guy Martin unlucky in first race. Had to retire on last lap when lying second.

A good week for guy in the end - three third places and one second to go with the dnf.

The Suzuki appears to be a reliable machine but not as quick as the Honda engine use by John McPint who won both superbike races.

Hope Guy gets his first win next year - a very popular rider with a very strong marketing team behind him (one pint tea mugs £18! - by 'eck)

Guy's take on the two week IOM TT - blogged 12/7/11

The TT, eh? I suppose I can’t complain about it, eh? I won the stationary show which was the main objective for the two weeks. Talking of stationary engines, as much as I love my early 1990s stuff, you’re only playing at it until you own a Rolls Royce Merlin 26 litre V12 engine. So, I’m knuckling down with the overtime to get my hands on one. Trouble is, they use about 4 gallons a minute so it’ll only be started on special occasions!








Talking of special occasions, this coming week should hopefully be a bit special. Got the Southern 100 motorbike race followed by the Saltzammergut Cup mountain bike race on Saturday. The Southern 100 is my favourite motorbike race of the year and the mountain bike race is the toughest one day race going – so this coming week won’t be easy.







Oh, I never mentioned about the competition winner from last time. Ta very much for all the replies – loads of good ‘uns! It wasn’t an easy choice but the one about the American soldier and the SAS bloke stood at the urinal had to take it. Good work. I’ll go through ‘em again and find out who wrote it.







A fair bit has been going on really. I’ve got a big restoration job on at work – a 1996 143 500 Scania. I’ll get some pictures stuck up but she will be a concourse winner when she’s done. I was at Goodwood last weekend with the future Mrs Martin, if that’s what we’ll call her? Loads of interesting stuff there as usual – and I reckon I’ve seen my new car. I’ll let you know. Oh, and I know I said that I wouldn’t do any more TV stuff but I’ve had a job put to me that I couldn’t turn down. It’ll fit in with work, so it was a no brainer – so that’s another one I’ll keep you posted on (World sheepdog trials in September).







Right – competition time. The question is – if Johnny Vegas sold his wedding photos to VIZ for £1.00, who should I sell Mr and Mrs Martin’s to?

IOM TT

Off to the TT for the weekend

Good luck to Guy Martin (of nb Reckless fame) - second fastest in practice behind Bruce Anstey - hope he manages to navigate the Superbike better than the Narrowboat!

Evening cloud

Just about sorted boat now. Just waiting for new licence and replacement permit - are bw on a go slow at the moment? Got a slight list to starboard - as with pearl all the heavy fittings are on one side of the boat - kitchen, cooker, fridge, diesel tank. There are a lot of rocks under the front seat on the port side - perhaps not heavy enough. Another minor problem was a leaking mushroom vent - not sealed at the base - made a mess of the roof lining - but easily sorted with filler and paint. Ready for next trip - will take it easy as still not confident about the engine - 21 yrs young - will probably do alrewas or fradley in early June.

Boat sold

Evening lady sold - just waiting for cheque to clear. A bit of a drawn out process and a lot of time wasters/fender kickers. Poor bloke that bought it broke down after we signed the invoice. Felt really bad, but, the same thing happened to me when I sold pearl last year - prop came loose just before hand over and it cost me £280 to put right - oh the joys of boat ownership!

New boat

Evening cloud bought -
23' springer with inboard thorneycroft diesel. Picked up from Nottingham Marina last weekend - a few teething problems - lost water due to leaky cap and noise caused by broken exhaust weld. Most jobs pretty small - blown fuses, loose wiring and broken bulbs. Boat has been blacked, new anodes and 4 yr safety - only large expense is new licence.

Looking forward to a cheap boating year!

Didn't get on with the cruiser, I knew I had made a mistake as soon as I steered the boat. Not as relaxing as steering a narrowboat and a bit of a worry in windy conditions. Availability of petrol also limits journey distances. The outboard seemed to have a mind of its own - sometimes starting first time and others not at all.

Government response to petition

More big society bollox

Petition to:
protect our canals by not selling off property owned by British waterways
This petition is now closed, as its deadline has passed.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to protect our canals by not selling off property owned by British waterways. More details
Submitted by Ian Rees – Deadline to sign up by: 06 June 2010 – Signatures: 22,310

More details from petition creator
Further to recent announcements concerning the potential sell-off of properties owned by British Waterways by the Treasury, we petition the Prime Minister to give assuarnces that our canals will be protected and recent levels of investement, a credit to Labour, is maintained.
Our canals are great source of pleasure for many people in the country, providing a source of employment through tourism and associated businesses. They're also home to many forms of wildlife. Without proper management this will ebb away and the network return to a state of decay and ruin.
We urge the Government to allow British Waterways to retain its property portfolio, protecting its essential source of revenue and ensure the sustainability of its work.
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/protectourcanals/
Government response
On 14 October 2010 the Government announced that British Waterways would be abolished as a public corporation and that we would create a new charity, similar to a national trust for the waterways. Details of the public consultation on the proposed model, including scope and governance, will be announced within the coming few weeks. The new waterways charity is expected to be set up in 2012, subject to Parliamentary consent and time.
A civil society model for British Waterways reflects the Government’s commitment to Big Society, as well as its confidence in British Waterways to work with others to build a sustainable future for the waterways under a charitable model. A charitable company will give users and communities more responsibility for governance of the waterways. It also has the potential to enable the new body to access new income streams and greater public support at a time when there is considerable pressure on other sources of income. Charitable status would also facilitate a step change in volunteering, enhanced local partnership working and a range of cost efficiencies.
The Government will give the new charity the best start it can afford, with the transfer of the property portfolio and a long term contract. As a first step, the Government has provided a new long term commitment to a grant allocation at the 2014/15 level (£39m) to 2022/23 inclusive (covering the next two Spending Review periods) that will enable the development of a funding plan which gives confidence to the incoming Trustees of the new charity. The amount and length of the contract will be subject to negotiation with the Trustees, who will be appointed this April.

Greedy BW directors ex NBW

BW directors are a disgrace
From NBW.....Its a sad time indeed for users and the majority of employees of the canal network. There is no way 20% of the workforce can be made redundant without significant if not catastrophic impact on the system.It appears the maintenance is being contracted out which will mean more costs going out and less work being done - the shareholders will need paying!!And....and the money being taken out of the company is unbelievable. See the salaries being taken
Robin Evans Chief Executive £566,354
Mark Bensted Regeneration Director £672,850
Steve Dunlop Director Scotland £170,764
Nigel Johnson Corporate Services Director £331,987
Stuart Mills Director of Property £308,154
Vince Moran Operations Director £327,824
Philip Ridal Finance Director £330,561
Simon Salem Marketing Director £413,584
Jim Stirling Technical Director £382,104
Total £3,504,182
It costs me £2,000 to have my boat in the cut I have no problem with this if it goes to workers to maintain it and money to fund the improvements. I cannot accept this group of 9 people are taking such a ridiculous amount of money. NO ONE needs that sort of money to live and they are not worth it by such a large margin.
In my home city the Vice Chancellor of my University which employs significantly more staff gets paid under a third of what Evans does and its the same story at the very large hospital in Derby
There is simply not justification for this and the fact is these greedy humans are expecting to be Tupe'd over on the same T&C's
I URGE YOU TO PUBLISH THE SAME INFORMATION ON YOUR BLOGS AND TELL PEOPLE YOU KNOW ABOUT IT. I WILL BE WRITING TO MY MP TO RAISE THIS ISSUE DIRECTLY WITH HIM.
At some point we have to act to protect what we hold dear.
Nev
Posted by Nev Wells at 8:41:00 PM