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I have not got involved in this topic as my experience of running our narrow boats is nearly 30 years old when we sold them and had a 50footer built on an old station boat hull at WFBC. When we first started in the early 70,s there were still a lot of boatmen around especially at Braunston and I had no intention of upsetting them by trying to dress up or by showing off. I admired the Brays, Whitlock,Collins etc and they gave advice and help willingly. Some were working for bwb and lock keepers like Henry Grantham at Buckby would soon put you right but also encourage. There were nowhere near as many boats on the cut and certainly not endless moorer’s on the main line so we were able to make our mistakes out of site (usually) except trying to get round Sutton stop loaded when there would invariably be an audience of experts and Joe and Rose. They of course never did it in a motor. Rose Whitlock then told me there was a pin in the bridge that they used to use to strap round! Not much use single handed though. I’m sure we upset people who thought we were speeding or forcing them out of the channel but unfortunately the physics of moving loaded boats on very shallow canals caused difficulties for all parties. We were told that we were to big, sometimes to slow, or just shouldn’t be on the canal at all but usually other boaters then were happy to see us. we were certainly not rich indeed quite the opposite and the boats had to pay for themselves which we tried to do by humping coal and carrying Scouts etc in the summer. We were still hopeful that some long distance carrying could be brought back following the demise of the Crowley traffic but apart from odd loads and short distance it never happened. Now I see the majority of old boats in pristine condition and owned by enthusiastic people who are quite a long way removed from the working boats without the pleasure of seeing the Brays working through the Braunston flight or Mrs Whitlock gently admonishing you for the lack of shine on the chimney brass. We were lucky to know them and I hope we never upset them by pretending to be them which I personally never did. there has always been a perceived pecking order amongst boat owners whether it be whose hull you have, what engine, how shiny your boat is etc. With the thousands of boats now on the waterways some people will always be in a bad fit for some reason or other so if possible it’s best to let them get on with it and get on with your own lives.

I am very uncomfortable with this thread as I did not appreciate there is such hostility towards 'historic' boat owners, my discomfort being based on my 50 year involvement with these sort of boats and my being the current owner of a 'historic' boat that is undergoing a fairly extensive restoration. Am I wealthy - I do not think so and I am currently working up to 100 hours a week to fund the work on my boat. Am I a hobby boater - yes, just like most other boat owners. Do these make me a bad person - I do not think so, but my interest is soley in 'historic' boats, to the point that I have built my own archive over the past thirty years or so. I have no real interest in waterways or their history and I have no interest in modern boats. This makes my sphere of knowledge quite specialised where the only useful conversation I can have will be with other 'historic' boat owners. Of course I will speak with anybody who is prepared to listen, but the default common interest group is going to be 'historic' boat owners. I will accept this probably makes me a boring b@5tard. I do not say hello to everybody I pass when walking along a pavement, and I do not say hello to everybody I pass on the canal. Does that mean I have an attitude and turn my back on people - I have been accused of that but I think it has limited foundation as most of these people are strangers to me. If anybody approaches me for conversation in any part of my different lives (work / boats / cars) I always endeavour to be polite and courteous, but you can not win them all, and the lads who work for me might well have a different opinion. I was taught a very traditional form of boating based upon speed and efficiency, and probably about 75% of the boating I have done has been with a motor / butty pair (some professional and some recreational). Several people have told me that things have changed during the years I have been away and I will regret coming back to the boats, and these Forums make it fairly clear that some of the boating practices I learned as a boy are no longer acceptable - but pinching locks. taking a butty through a lock without letting another boat use the water, speeding past moored boats were not amongst these

We can squeeze another couple in duck....

You're assuming that the boat with the pump out has space in the tank. This may not be a safe assumption. MP.

Erebus the ice breaker has been completely stripped welded cleaned and under coated Foam sprayed and now ready for the fit out Where is the new little 24 horse fitted in the front end

Special thanks to the Monkey man for my early birthday present of these extra panels and charger ♥️? I'll be happy to sell any spare electricity back to him at a very reasonable rate And as my birthday isn't till August, I'm taking this as permission to celebrate my birthday for two whole months starting today ?

I thought hobby working boat owners were loaded. How else do they afford the upkeep?

That is my view too, although variation in the SoC of the cells in series means the overall capacity of the bank is reduced as one needs to keep the lowest charge cell above its minimum safe SoC and the highest charged cell below its maximum. And this is where the danger lies if you just look at the bank as a whole. Individual cell monitoring is essential in my view if managing the bank manually. Peterboat confirms what you find about cell balance - they stay where they are over long periods. WotEver argued a while back this cannot happen, but your and Peter's empirical evidence illustrates it can, and does.

It's Melaleuca's damn lithium battery bank, it is warping the fabric of the space/time continuum Richard

The BMV is useful to check voltages and monitor domestic battery charging current, the latter being the best way to know when the batteries are fully charged. The ammeter will not give any additional information if connected to the domestic batteries and has limited use if connected to the engine battery. I wouldn’t bother with it. The smartgauge is very good at knowing the actual state of charge of the domestic batteries during discharge, and hence knowing when to start recharging. Comparing the State of Charge indications during discharge from the Smartgauge, and from the BMV set to the nominal battery capacity, is a really good way of knowing the health and actual capacity of the batteries (ie how much capacity has been lost due to battery ageing). You should be aware that there was a batch of Smartgauges that left the factory badly calibrated and Mike the Boilerman had two. He refused to send them back to the manufacturer and instead runs a campaign to “rubbish” them on here. Which I feel is not helpful to people such as yourself. A correctly calibrated Smartgauge is very useful. I have one which I use a lot. An incorrectly calibrated Smartgauge is of course rubbish. Since the Smartgauge works only by measuring voltage, it is quite easy to check the calibration simply by comparing the displayed domestic battery voltage with a known accurate voltage measurement from say an accurate digital multimeter or the BMV. If they agree, there is no problem. We would all agree that it was bad that these Smartgauges were released by the factory badly calibrated, but that doesn’t change the fact that a correctly calibrated one is effective and useful.

We came through Coxheads today. The supervisor told me that all the work has been completed, they are now just waiting for the electricity company to reconnect the supply so they can start testing. He sounded pretty confident that it will be fully open within a week.

Yup. We’re paralleling controller outputs, not panels. Yup, but as this will only happen with well charged batteries it’s not particularly significant. Nope.

Yes

One of these two? Many years ago used to hold a roller. Picture from "A Canal People."

Great pics - brings back memories when we were stuck at Sawley cut for 2-weeks (floods in August) Try doing that with a pump-out tank. The official results Cassettes 2 : 0 Pump-Out

Some photos from the abortive trip to the lock and successful trip to the services. I think I shall start a series: Moominpapa's tips for successful boating in a post climate change world. The first is that full cassettes can be floated ashore for emptying.

All the best to the owners. We always went in when passing and inevitably bought things we did or might need. Sad that yet another useful chandlery will be no more.

What it looks like in drier times, stolen borrowed from Naughy-Cal's blog. I'm grateful to be floating, but sad I don't get to ride in the bucket of a digger. MP.

You are on Swift's usual round: https://www.facebook.com/TheOilBoat/ If you fancy supporting a boat based business then give him a call and find out when he will be in your area

Anyone who owns a 'Traditional Working Boat' should load the dam' thing with coal, and I mean Load, and take it up a badly silted canal and learn something about handling it. Play acting with a spotted neckerchief is not boating.

Feck me, the poor guy is setting off weighing 11 stone and will be a fat ba$¥ard like me when he gets to the Big Lock

If anyone needs an extra pair of hands or just walking company in the area, I live near lock 65 and can add a bit of extra middle aged lock work if needed. If I'm not on my own boat, I'd be glad to help passage/company for any boat coming through this way.