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I know there’s quite a bit of negativity around volockies. But today I had a first class experience with 3 volockies on the Tardebigge flight. Id been stuck at the bottom of the flight due to aggravating a long standing back problem. Caused by very poorly maintained lockgear, with paddles almost impossible to move. I’m a burly 15st Builder but really struggled to shift some of the paddles. Any how there was no way I could tackle the flight in my present condition. As the flight is closing I had to get through before I became trapped. I mentioned it to a couple of passing volockies yesterday afternoon and they said they’d arrange help for 9.30 am this morning. True to their word 3 people turned up on time this morning to help me. All ex boaters, they worked me up the flight perfectly. No fuss no bossiness and all in three and a half hours. Id like to give a special thanks to Bill for seeing me all the way to the top lock. I’m moored up now and will have a few days of recuperation. So a big thumbs lads, I’ll be eternally grateful.

Exactly what I reckon they should do, become a volunteer service you can request rather than imposed on boaters.

I guess he got the wrong end of the stick when his doctor prescribed Lithium.

Well protected boat ?

Last month a vollie at Hillmorton explained to me at length how the locks there had been duplicated so that one set could be used for boats going up and the other for boats going down, so as to eliminate the need for boats to cross over when they met. Hence I invented the word Vollocks!)

Cue Sam...

I think he is bucking the trend. ?

We may finish up having to declare how much domestic charging we have done, at supplier rate, the rest being propulsion and costed accordingly. How about 40 60 sounds about right?

In my opinion that is exactly the wrong approach to take - apart from the old adage that ignorance of the Law/Rules is no excuse. Those boaters who are lacking in their understanding should spend a little time improving their knowledge. Among other things, it might make better boaters of them! Their almost seems like an inverted snobbery about the subject which to my mind is silly. Howard

That'll teach me for 'pinching' someone else's thread, now we're all confused

When I helped a mate black his boat this year, his anodes had a steel deposit about half an inch thick on top of them. Sadly I don't have a photo of it, but I was gobsmacked. We can only think that he wasn't the donor boat, as his hull was in good nick! I hope you like buying boats then! If you are linked into a common earth electrical circuit with other boats, you are part of the circuit. It all depends on how your boat was wired and how their boats were wired, and you have no control over theirs. If you are lucky, you gain steel. If you are not lucky, you lose steel. Long enough hooked up and you might sink! I don't worry about it, as I have spent less than a week on hookup in the last 5 years, and my hull is in great condition for a 40 year old boat. If I was on shore power, I would fit an isolating transformer before connecting the cable, as they are better than galvanic isolators, but I would settle for a GI if funds were tighter. If you think that's woo-woo, feel free, but I think it's physical chemistry ... and I have seen 4 year old boats that looked like colanders or sieves!

In your position, I also would not be going for LiFePO4s but not for that reason. I would have thought with your experience and your risk profile (buying a bote in Croatia without the right paperwork!!!) Li's would be right down your street. ? No, I wouldnt put Li's on a lumpy water boat for although I think they are very robust to fires, explosions etc, nothing has convinced me they have the mechanical strength to survive a constant bang, bang, bang when beating into a strong chop. For canal boat duty they are absolutely fine.

So perhaps the additional increase for widebeams should be considered as a mooring fee? ? ?

This is what I've done, except my switch just adds the lithium in parallel with the domestic LA, or disconnects the lithium. Don't underestimate the cost of cabling to do this, given you want the lithiums inside the boat in the warm, not out the back in the nasty cold with the LA batts.

Dont let people behind you hassle you, especially in locks. The perception is they can go faster than you, and may pressure you. In reality with marginal help from them you are only slightly slower. If we encounter a single hander in a lock flight ie napton, in front of us, one of us goes and works in front of them, to assist, rather than behind. Takes the pressure off because the following boat is not then catching them up at every lock. working solo on my own its dreadful when a following boat expects you to do everything, setting ahead and closing gates behind you, because they are always waiting. The other way you both keep going only slightly delayed. remember when boats were working many were single handed motors , particularly at the end when the money was not sufficient for a family.

This idea is NOT mine, I found it on CWDF many moons ago.

Me too. In my experience it is possible to achieve any two of the following using just the engine before you alight: The bow on the bank, the stern on the bank, the boat stationary. Never all three together!

Apart from a day boat a few months earlier, a week on Elan Valley was our first narrow boat experience too. It was September 2011 and we did Springwood Haven to Snarestone then down the Oxford about 5 or 6 miles and then back up to Atherstone. I don't remember it being particularly slow but I wasn't too keen on the layout. A huge covered catch area for such a short boat leaving the inside very cramped. Nevertheless it got us into narrow boating so it can't have been too bad.

"Power" incidentally, is the wrong way of thinking about it. Power takes into account time, and is the rate at which work is done, or the rate at which energy is expended. Your question would be better framed if you used the term 'energy' rather than power. Energy in this case is measured in Couloumbs, i.e. the energy expended (or charge transferred!) when a current of one Amp flows for one second. So yes, ignoring stuff like charge efficiency, the knackered battery would take half the energy, or half the number of Coulombs, to charge it as the new one.

Providing there's nothing faulty with the battery like dead cells but just old age sulfation and the capacity is falling,, yes its like having a gradually smaller and smaller capacity battery and with the same charger the charging time will get shorter and shorter as the newness continues to wear off until they're dead as a door nail.

Probably closed due to high river water

Thank you all so much for you answers & info I now have a lot of extra info to add to some of my family & I hope some of my info could be of use to some . At least I now have a better knowledge of the boats & area they where born in .

She certainly doesn’t take criticism of her company well that’s for sure...lost count of the times her & her business partner have threatened me with all sorts for pointing out their failings....hilarious really.

Now don't argue, Stephanie is God as anyone who has had dealings with her will be made well aware. She is always correct, impossible for her to be wrong, ever. And if she ever was it would be everyone else's fault.

And yet the daft thing is cars are getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider while the road lanes with all the hazard lines and obstacles get narrower and narrower. Huge 2 ton SUV's and big luxury cars with enormously great fat wheels and tyres and huge brakes polluting the atmosphere not to mention the horrid sort of rushing noise these fat tyres make, and their huge stupid engines to haul them along. never mind there size clogging up parking spaces. The current Mini is now as big as an old Fraud Siera was !!! absurd. The ridiculous thing too is that the majority of these huge brutes only usually have one little person in them, the dwiver, usually fat and obese like their cars trying to look important. In that case because of the obesity problem and only the one person in them these brutish vehicles could be narrowed up by half if an enlaged driver seat was plonked bang in the middle with steering wheel and controls in the centre also too to accomodate these drivers. These 2 ton dreadfuls must create an awaful lot of pollution to manufacture as well as when they're being aimed-driven. Also I don't like the bulbous protruding aggressive looking fronts of modern cars, they look horrible in the rear view mirror. As for getting blinded by headlamps during the daytime, thats another matter. Ah! git it. These drivers should be forced by law to own a 3 wheeled Messershmit they will need to be levered bruitily into them though. A need to start making them again.

None of this is an issue for folk who simply pay their dues and follow the rules. How nice would it be if all this time and effort could be directed towards something useful rather than fighting the cause of those who chose to push the boundaries or simply flout them?

But "Bell and Barge" is three words! ? Hope you get well soon!

I cant wait to see how happy you are when you come 4th on Friday.

Speaking of earth, I recently stumbled across a very tidy electrical installation...

Some interesting stuff here: https://www.macearchive.org/search?for=Canal&has-video[]=1&from=&to=

I'm sure all the girls here will be touched by your gallantry in having the long windlass always at the ready, to be handed over whenever your wife is struggling... MtB