David Mack

I was thinking of that occasion too, but I don't remember paying anything at all. Did we?

OK if you are planning to moor at Mercia Marina and never go anywhere else. Completely impractical otherwise. Do yourself a favour and look for something more appropriate for cruising the canals.

More info on Dudley Tunnel passages at https://dudleycanaltrust.org.uk/tunnel-escorts/ Less than that on the diagram above!

The canalplan data is taken from CRT licencing records.

There's folk on her would say sub-4mm plate thicknesses render the boat uninsurable.

What do you mean by 'listed'? Is this on the CRT licence data or canalplan listing? If so that information was supplied by the boat owner when licencing, is not verified, and may or may not be correct.

Nothing in law to stop you using your phone while steering the boat, and you do see people doing it. But just as with driving, using the phone can distract you from what is going on around you. Not usually a problem at canal speeds, but do keep your wits about you.

I've been known to moor the car.

In a typical diesel engine about 1/3 of the energy in the fuel is converted to mechanical power, 1/3 ends up in the coolant and 1/3 in the exhaust (as hot gases and vaporised water). With a water cooled engine you can capture much of the 1/3 that goes into the coolant, but a heat exchanger on the exhaust is only going to capture a much smaller proportion of the exhaust heat, and to achieve anything reasonably significant is going to involve the latent heat in the water vapour I.e. condensing it to liquid water.

Pretty sure Stephen Goldsborough only fitted out other people's shells.

If you are going to use a manually switched pump (or indeed a hand operated pump) to fill the day tank from the main fuel tank, why not tap into the existing engine fuel line downstream of the filter. That way you don't need another connection to the main fuel tank and you get a supply of filtered fuel. If you only fill the day tank while the engine is not running it won't affect the fuel supply to the engine. (And maybe put a non return valve in the day tank line, to ensure the engine fuel pump suction from the tank isn't affected.)

In summer, 800W of solar may give you a useful contribution towards water heating, in addition to your normal domestic electricity requirements. But if you are looking at two people taking a shower every day and having hot water for washing the dishes, clothes etc, there are going to be plenty of days when you won't be able to do this - lithium batteries only store energy, they don't make it, and everything you take from the batteries has to be put back by solar and the engine. And in winter, it will take hours of running the SR2/A127 just to generate enough power for domestic use (although not as many hours with lithiums as with lead acid batteries), let alone heating any water. There's a good reason why most boats without a permanent shoreline connection have diesel/gas/solid fuel water heating systems.

But in water efficiency terms no better than those conventional staircases which have side pounds at the intermediate level and fewer gates e.g Foxton and Watford.