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This exactly Arthur! We are both in our 50s and pretty peaceful folks.. For myself, I will always refuse to be cowed into shivering in fear behind my curtains by a psycho bully. Others however might prefer to totally avoid, and that also is a perfectly acceptable response. My reason for "naming and shaming" is to give folks the heads-up on this nutter, forewarned is forearmed and all that.. If it were a case of "this bad thing happened and I THINK it MAY have been this boater", then I also would disagree with naming them - but it wasn't. This guy is a scary nutter.

Surely your Bro in law just needs to find an internet dentist?. I suppose that wouldn't work as well though because it would be hard to speak on the phone with yer mouth wide open ................Dave

This type of person is not welcome on the Canals nor in society in general. Police should not ignore this incident. I think you'll be okay tomorrow. Once the drink or the other 'd' wear off. Wot a plonker.

*blush* cheers Jen.. One more freeeeeky thing Jon found when he went out to work this morning was quite a few fag butts outside the boat. Nobody here smokes, and they would suggest to me that he hung around outside for quite a while before banging on the roof and offering violence.. seriously creepy.. I'd like to thank all the folks here for all the support and kind words. It's only our 2nd winter as liveaboards, and while 95% of the time I really love it, just now and again one can feel a little vulnerable. Whether that's because I'm scared rigid of falling into wintery waters in the ice or because of the occasional mad bloke - it's nice to have somewhere to ask silly questions and get advice! I agree also that whiskey should NEVER be adulterated - except by more whiskey...

Having moored next to Mary Anne and her owners for a couple of months last winter, I can confirm they are not "pretty peaceful folk", they are exceptionally peaceful and pleasant! Totally chilled, and not ones for making a fuss. I'm glad for the heads up, it's lonely on the cut and people can feel vulnerable. Shame really as people are generally chatty and friendly, but there''s always the odd ones.

Some of us find a good technical discussion fun. You could always go and look at Facebook or Twitter if you want to.

Hopefully the water point was frozen when he got there.

There's thermal switches on Ebay for a couple of quid. Maybe have one to start the pump running slowly at 60°C, then another to run the pump fast at 90°C. Usually they switch back at 10 to 15°C lower. Or use the dig thermostat to start the pump running slowly at a lower temp then have a 80°C to 90°C thermal switch as a backup.

(Pedant mode on) In electrical terms low voltage is 50-1000 volts AC, so all inverters used on canal boats are low voltage. (Pedant mode off)

Yes, but the hose washes the contents away from the pickup pipe. If the flushing is done from a vent, any semi solid stuff tends to move towards the pickup, depending on the placement of vents.

Most would agree that it is rather rude to make your bad day everyone else's though, eh?

Some of us really are over thinking this!

I can have a go at the sums, but there is no real answer. I reckon most people would get away with using no additive at all for most of the time. Its a bit like life really, all you can do is try to tip the odds a little bit in your favour. We use about 1200litre of fuel each year. I use the Stanadyne additive because that consistently gets good reports from people who actually know about these things. This costs about £72. The Stanadyne does the lubricity/detergent/stabilisation/water removal things and is also a cetane raiser, but is not a biocide. With luck the cetane raising improves our fuel consumption a bit but I have not a clue whether this makes it pay for itself or not. I also add a bit of marine 16 biocide but I am more random about this, doing it sometimes in winter and less in summer. If I see even a hint of any slime when I change a fuel filter then I do a bigger dose of marine 16. Maybe spend £30 per year on this so a total of £100. If I had a injection pump contamination issue then its about £600 to get the pump fully stripped. cleaned and rebuilt, plus lots of time and effort from me to remove it, get it to a suitable agent (few and far between) and refit it, plus cleaning fuel lines, organising a generator and petrol whilst the engine is out of action etc etc. For me the additive looks to make sense, but then again two winters ago we still had a pump contamination issue despite the additive. but I think that was a bit of a "unusual" event. ...........Dave

And folk wonder why this bot is taking so long to finish, i spend more bloody time faffing on what to buy I debating if to up the funds for one now.

Its very difficult choosing additives, only a very few companies have the expertise and resources to actually understand and make the stuff, so most are just buying it in, repackaging, and selling on. I think its often supplied very concentrated so some also dilute it with a suitable carrier before rebadging and selling on. Some of these rebadgers are big marketing companies, other quite small. I reckon the one that you have found is a little one man company possibly working from home with his stock in a little industrial unit. There is no technical info on the website. What is the cost per 100litre of fuel ? .....................Dave

For me its easy on the Thames. Loddon has a Beta 2203 so about 1500rpm upstream, 5mph, 1350/1400 rpm downstream, 5mph. I did forget which way I was going and ran 1500rpm downstream and got warned by the EA. Twice

Pedant alert! 1000W = 100A (approximately) 1000Wh = 100Ah (approximately)

i was suggesting they look at the electricity meter, you know, in units. i just use a tiny oven rather than the big cooker oven, it cooks breakfast including bread rolls, in one hour, 1000watts, so i guess that = 1 unit? 15 pence.

Dodgy leads to/from the starter battery to the starter/engine and isolation switch can all look like a dodgy battery so make sure these are okay before replacing the battery.

That will be fine from the point of view of the batteries. Just bear in mind that attaching jump leads to batteries is potentially a bit dangerous. If the positive lead were to come off the starter battery and touch the hull, you could generate a massive short circuit. You might then for example try to grasp the lead to pull it away from the hull or battery, to find that not only is it welded in situ but also it is red hot and burning through your hand.

I have emailed the editor and made my position clear. A while ago the lot who advertise "add to the oil engine reconditioner" and who have a "face" to promote it in motoring magazines must have wanted to do something similar (I assume) so the editor asked my opinion. I gave him my honest opinion and that was the last I heard about it.

Main difference is the length of the antenna. CB requires a long whip aerial that would need to be removed every time you go through a bridge. Legal PMR446 radios have a rubber aerial that is permanently fixed to the radio and cannot be removed.

Oy

Permit me to offer a piece of advice... Never be tempted to ask her this question.

Do some science... find a lock and a timer and off you go ...please report your findings,thank you.

If there's leakage at the other end it will take a lot more than twice as long.

Preferably via a thermostatic mixing valve so you do not try to wash your woollens & silks at close to 100C

There are two basic types of the diesel engines we use. Direct injection and indirect injection. Direct injection engines inject straight into the cylinder where indirect injection inject into a spherical pre-combustion chambers formed in the cylinder heads. This produces a much cleaner burn on idle and low speed but increases fuel consumption at high speed and makes scold starting more difficult so the vast majority, but not all, indirect injection engines use glow plugs to aid cold starting. So as far as this canal forum is concerned the old rule glow plugs = indirect injection, no glow plugs- direct injection holds good. Direct injection or very similar engines are likely to be all the so called traditional engines, all the air cooled Listser, some Barrus Shire, older Penta, and Bukh. Just to muddy the waters for some years direct injected automotive engines have been fitted with glow plugs AND the glow plugs stay on at reduced power for a while while running. This is more to do with reducing emissions when cold and noise than helping cold starting. My VW 3 pot starts without heat and quickly in very cold weather but does not half run rough for a short while.

No they don't, my Barrus Shire 45 doesn't and will start instantly in even the lowest temperatures. Of course it's a proper direct injection engine.

He must have needed the water for his whiskey, no wonder he was in a bad mood.

500mW is half a watt, so 5W radios are ten times the power of PMR radios, not a thousand times the power. MoominPapa the pedant is now returning you to your normal scheduled program. MP.

Turn your Ecofan to face the vent and it will blow the cold air back out of the boat.

Is it steam coal then?