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It is a problem. What is needed is a bit of creative pragmatism on behalf of the regulators. There needs to a modified safety classification for historically significant vessels. Important heritage needs to have a viable modern use to be available for future generations to see and more importantly to experience. What is required is a regime that allows some dispensation from general rules, perhaps traded off against some other enhanced safety features as mitigation. Such as a trade offs on operating range, and perhaps on hours of operation, when carrying above a certain number of passengers. Also additional egress provision from below decks may be considered practicable. When one buys a ticket for a sightseeing flight on a DC3, you would not expect it to be provided with the full suite of safety provisions of a modern airliner, but you would also expect it to be restricted as to where, and when it could fly. Keeping those boats active is extremely important, but can only be acheived in a viable operating regime. Far too many historic boats, are being lost because there is insufficient income available to meet the horrendous costs of keeping them seaworthy. Good luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytV76_ZWprQ

What an excellent way of stopping the trucks from overtaking each other and blocking the inner two lanes for miles. ?

Make a personal criticism of a mod.

This is why the canals need dredging so much. It isn't mud, it is all those 4G ones and zeros falling in and silting them up. Jen?

It has been a nice day for polishing today. NC is looking nice and shiny again. Just the antifoul to apply next weekend and we should be good to go back in the water. We have decided that we are going to hang onto Naughty-Cal for a bit longer. We are going to hire a VW van next summer and see if we like it or not before committing to selling the boat.

I hear you can now have the best of both worlds.

In the back of "John Knill's Navy": A Poem by Ray White THE BOATMAN’S RETURN HAWKESBURY JUNCTION 1986 It’s back again and home again, and here at Sutton Stop I’ve come to seek familiar things that modern folk’s forgot. It must be sixteen years or more since lorries boating killed, And up and down our waterways the motor boats were stilled. In basins, arms and dockyards, their rusting skeletons lie, Reminders of a way of life that took so long to die. Now, round the bend to Tushes Bridge, the towpath stretches bare, But in my mind those ghostly pairs still wait for orders there. At weekends, or at holiday times, they made a stirring site, Their brasses bright and shining, their cratch-strings dazzling white. Their cabin-sides proclaimed from companies old and new Like ‘Waterway, and ‘Willow Wren’, to name the biggest two. And, further back, come Barlow’s, both ‘Limited’ and ‘S E.’, Then ‘John Knills’,’ Cowpars’, ‘Joshers – The famous ‘FMC’. Now, turning to the Coventry side, where ‘Friendship’, used to tie, The pleasure craft lie stem to stern, where coal trains once went by. Across the cut on wooden bridge – that too has gone to burn – One day, perhaps, the roads will be redundant in their turn. The monstrous concrete cooling towers that stood at ‘Longford Light’, Were blown up several years ago, and weeds now mark the site. Between the ‘Cov’ and Oxford cuts, an office used to stand, From which each morn’ the captains came, their orders in their hands. The building still is there, ’ tis true, but where is Mr. Shaw? Or dear Miss Doreen Edwards, the boatman’s friend of yore? I turn around and face the north, where houses used to be, Across the Coventry stop-place, a wondrous site to see. The pumping-engine chimney, and engine-house still stand. For once they’ve left them standing, restored by caring hand. A pity ‘bout the footbridge, for which many years has stood And now it is ‘unsafe to use’ – it’s only made of wood. Of Fieldings and the ‘Salvo’, there is no trace today, Salvation Army folk were praised along the waterway. And many a boatman’s child new born was christened by them too. And any time trouble struck, they knew just what to do. So now towards the pub I turn, the centre of our lives, The ‘Greyhound’ was a ‘home from home’, for boatmen and their wives. Alas it has been ‘Modernised’, it never had a bar. And boating folk feel strangers now – its patrons come by car. And gone too is the little shop, where boat wives spent their pay, Buying enough of this and that to last ‘till settling day. Our friendly Mrs Nelson, ‘Rowie’ and Nuala too No longer serve the folks beer and crisps – it’s not the pub I knew. I think of dear Joe Skinner, the last of that long crew Of owner-boatmen, Number ones, and of ‘Friendship’ too. Preserved at Ellesmere Port she lies, for modern folk to see. But I do remember meeting her, when bound for Banbury. Joe’s faithful mule called ‘Dolly’, but she took sick and died. So Joe and Rose tied-up their boat along the Coventry side. I think I have seen enough of Sutton Stop today I find it too depressing now the boats have gone away. The boating life held lots of fun – and lots of hard work too. These folk who glamorise it often have no clue Of what it’s like to drive a horse all day in pouring rain Then wake up in the morning – and do it all again. I’ll keep my private memories, and dream of what might have been If England wasn’t so lorry mad – a bright new boating scene.

It is a very conservative market. The number of narrowboats built in a year can't be more than the low hundreds during peak years. Most builders are small businesses making only a few a year. There is a lot of conservatism, both in the builders and the majority of their customers, most of whom don't like taking risks on something costing many tens of thousands. The restrictions on narrowboats in their size and what will survive on the outside with the rough life they lead means that innovations only spread over decades long time scales and if the advantages are obvious. LED lighting over the last decade is an obvious one, with reduced power consumption. Solar photovoltaics to reduce engine running and allow more electrical gadgets. 4G mobile broadband is another. I am posting over it right now. A lot of people, me included, take a pick and mix approach to the bits of the modern world they want to take in to their boat life. There is a lot to be said for simplicity. An innovative boat can be hard to sell. Going back to the Whitefield, you can see how long it took and the price hit the original owners took. My boat has solar hot water, which I set up myself and works very well, but could be a sticking point for a buyer as most would be unfamiliar with it as few boats have it. Jen

It is important that the welding does not meet the eye. Please use the correct PPE.

I'm glad David Attenborough doesn't share your altruistic nature.

Is a common trap. Announce you leaving, give it a few days then come back and read all about yerself!!!

'pologies Mike. The trend of the posts seemed to suggest that, but re-reading the words, you are correct. .................................... he is though, innit?

No, because the earth from the Multi casing is the same thing.

I watched a YouTube video the other day about how to build a time machine. That's half an hour of my life I'll get back.

I'll bring some newspapers

The Swedish have aready started to electrifie their roads with the E16 in Gävle.

Do you know an Openreach Engineer? See if you can borrow a gas detector. From my experiences with the old IG 5, the ones used by OR (or at it was in my day BT.) are very sensitive.

Sadly that one is pretty useless. I bought one and threw it away. The ones with an air pump inside that draw in a continuous flow of air and pass it over the sensor inside are far superior. That one relies on whiffs of gas wafting into the passive sensor. But firstly, try your Mark One nose. Get it right up close to every joint and have a good sniff. If you get even the slightest hint of gas, that will be a leak. Then give it close attention with the leak detection fluid. It's easy to miss tiny leaks like you have with the LDF.

Fender designers are coming up with new initiatives though....

Hi Linda and welcome to the forum. Everybody here (except me) is nocking on a bit so 1) I wouldn't worry about it and 2) you should fit right in. Most of the boat owners on the forum own narrowboats, I assume, but there are still loads of folks with other types, or who have owned the types of boat at one time or other. Good luck with the search.

We were just in front of a boat up the tidal Yorkshire Ouse that got swept through the willows on the outside of a bend. The roof took a solid scrape with everything on top being swept overboard, chimney, plant boxes, buckby can. The stearer told us at Naburn lock afterwards, that the two inch willow branches had no intention giving way to him either, at 5plus knots, as they sprang down over the back of the cabin. He thought the dog had gone overboard in the commotion but it had fled to safety under a bed.

You are all assuming that this boat is on CRT waters.

Absolutely not. It is accurately indicating that all three circuits have a small leak. A manometer would do no more or less. A bubble in the bubble tester demonstrates that gas is passing through it. If gas is passing then there is a flow. If everything is turned off then that flow has to be caused by a leak. As you’ve checked all the joints I’d be suspicious of the valves on the individual units.

Take notice of NB Esk, he's one of the best welders in the weld. There are special rods that help with that.

To be absolutely sure, do a manometer drop test on the test nipple, that cannot tell lies . The old ways are best. What are you using as test fluid? Never liked these new fangled bubble blowers, I refuse to have one, not full time on the boat. I had a persistent minute leak for 2 years, finally traced it to the shut off valve for the cooker, it must of had a leak from new. Regreasing it cured it. We had troubles with cooker cleaning firms washing the grease out of the taps with solvent when they stripped cleaned.

I bought a second hand inverter welder some years ago, just to get a feel for the arc welding process, inspired by the experts at Norton Canes Boatbuilders. Graham Edgson started me off and gave me a box of rods and lots of scrap offcuts to play with. Sometimes I could produce a decent fillet, sometimes one l likened to pigeon crap....without knowing what I’d done differently. The welder was fine, said Graham....must have been me!

This photograph was published in Waterways World magazine November 1986 page 43. It is captioned "John Knill talks to Ronald Wilson, captain of his motor boat KENELM, at Braunston Dock in March 1953 just before the boat was taken on engine trials following the fitting of the new engine" - accredited to C.P. Weaver. This article on the activities of John Knill features four more photographs accredited to C.P. Weaver. The 'new engine' fitted into KENELM (exEPSOM) was a Petter 3BM 27hp @ 1500rpm, removed in about 1958 and fitted into the ex'Ovaltine' motor WILLIAM - KENELM then being fitted with a Lister JP2 along with an entirely new cabin as it was recommissioned into the Samuel Barlow Coal Company Ltd. fleet

I'm seeing Mike tomorrow, I'll take the book and as usual I'll read passages to him which he enjoys.

Hopefully the person who was steering (moments before you looked)hadn’t fallen in.....