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You miss the point. CRT are now stating officially that there is s close season on the canals, thus starting creeping in the complete winter shutdown they so crave.

I live in Cornwall and we all happily talk about the 'holiday season' whilst still happy to see plenty of visitors 12 months of the year. Of course, some businesses do take the decision to operate for only part of the year but there is no 'official' closure period . . .

Exactly, fishermen, for example, are told they have priority on visitor moorings if they are there first outside the boating season. Soon keeping the navigation open outside planned stoppages will no longer be a priority.

Long story, but basically yes, and didn't fancy paying Gary Lineker's wages anymore, plus I found their news a bit bias...… been licence free for a while now and its refreshing! Just watch catchup services as and when...

It is being done by stealth, year after year making but more difficult to move North/South, or get into, out of Birmingham, etc By disseminating this down through bankside staff and volunteers to spread the message without officially stating it, they reduce the possibility of Central funding withdrawal whilst getting the "closed" message out there. If you look back a couple of weeks on Damiens weekly bit, it states..." as the main boating season draws to a close", next year it will be " as the boating season.."

Perhaps you should invite them to deal with the issues as a matter of goodwill if it is outside the warranty period, and in exchange, you will show goodwill, by not attending the Crick Boat Show next year, with a selection of photos for prospective customers to look at.

Looks like the remains of a mouse to me.

Neither do we, neither do we know if you are Halina Kitchen, the other half who has had the boat cruised away by Halina Kitchen, or Ikea Kitchen chasing payment on a new kitchen.

Hi Rob Bit rude of me. not replying before. Well soon be cracking on but as said plans at home first to be done. Frame for the stretch and forgot that i need to fix a car that will be stuck where it is once the boat is here so may aswell fix it and flog it on. More money toward the boat funds PM any time kid, if i can help then more than happy to

Absoblooominlootely. God only knows why it was still working at all!! The bad news is that I had used my spare on mi motorhome and should know better, this is why I always carry spares but as I have a mooring at present I got complacent. I had to nip down to Heyford and pay 20 quid more than getting one delivered, I wasnt waiting around till tomoz or the day after for 20 quid but I am peeved with myself. I have ordered one to be delivered today though as a spare

Yes, put the new hard drive into the laptop, switch it on and initialize it by following on screen instructions. Then load your Windows Vista CD so it installs onto your new hard drive. Then stick the old H/D into the Caddy, connect up to transfer its data onto the new H/D following onscreen instructions. Use two Windows Explorer screens to copy your personal files from caddy to new hard drive, unless you have disc imaging software. No need to be connected to the internet for file copying. You will also need to reinstall any word processing, spreadsheet etc. software onto you new hard drive to be able to access your personal files.

I am so sorry you didn't like my post. but nowhere in my comment did I bash CRT but suggested it would track CC's even if they carry the phone on their bick. Maybe its just your view of CRT and what you chose to read into it.

Changed the pump and all back to normal. Zero crud anywhere in the system, as I thought there is something amiss inside the pump. Its lasted nearly five years so I am happy with that as five years for us gets the pump a lot of use. We have no flexible pipes and its all plastic back to the stainless tank. Its nice to have a look every few years, I just wish I had three hands lol.

And your point is ?????? Or are you just having yet another go at the Canal and River Trust because it happens to be the forum band wagon at present?

Oh sorry, I didn't know the meaning of the ice cream thing. I apologise I got the wrong impression. You're perhaps right that I need to think more about what the "tried and tested way" is rather than thinking from scratch. I'll keep this in mind in future.

It does complicate things with your alternator/inverter/charger/Li charging. If I was doing it, I would try to get it so the Li's were paralleled with the LA's and connected together for normal use ie discharge and charging via the genny to charger to circuit. So in normal use, the charger can back off when the Li's get full....unlikely in winter.....and the Li's always above 12.8V so the LA's never discharge. So in the circuit you need a shunt on the -ve cable from the Li's (to measure A, Ahr and voltage in the Li's) and on the +ve from the Li's you need a fuse and then your auto disconnect switch. What switch are you using? The BEP or the Tyco. I have also added a belt and braces approach and put a manual battery isolation switch on the LA side of my BEP switch. Now the issue comes if you want to use the alternator. In the above config, you could run it but you might not have enough control over the alternator output ie too much current..or being able to terminate the charge if the Li's get full.....again unlikely in winter. It would be worth having this config available to try as in winter you will only run your engine a bit and never likely to get full or overstress the alternator as the ambient is cold. You can 'learn' the system doing this. If you go on a long cruise then just isolate the Li's after an hour or two. You may find this works fine for the next 3-4 months and then you can think of improving it. Maybe an alternator option will pop up in that time. Now, you could do the above with a slight mod to allow the alternator/inverter/charger/Li charging thing. Disconnect the charger 12V+ wire from where it connects into the current LA system and reconect to the terminal on the manual disconnect switch on the Li side. The charger is therefore feeding in between the manual switch and the auto switch. If you therefore wanted to charge this way rather than direct from the alternator, you just isolate the manual switch but your boat services will be drawing from the LA's only.....but your change over switch is going to have the same issue (I think) in isolating the Li's from the domestics. If you then want to charge just the LA's to fill them back up, you reconnect the LAs via the manual switch and trigger the auto disconnect to isolat the Li. Watch how discharged the LAs get in this system...if you are significantly discharged ie <70% then you will have to recharge at a decent voltage ie>14V. If you are only discharging by 5% or maybe 10% then the <14V regime of the Li system is likely ok....it is for me. Let us know how big your LA bank is, how big is you Li bank and what modules you are using for measuring voltage, A, Ahrs, cell voltage and how are you going to disconnect on high/low voltage, high/ low temperature and high/low cell voltage.

You illustrate my point well. I dont condone the angler's behaviour (I've had a similar issue myself when boating), but he probably had absolutely no appreciation of what could be quite easily explained before any such conflict occurred. However, such interface issues could be avoided given proper coordination and communication by CRT and the holder of the fishing rights. In this one example of many, they could ensure that no match pegs were on a lock landing, although I'd offer there should be permanent no fishing signs on lock landings as leisure anglers regularly see this as a particularly good place to fish.

Likewise for the Lake District, they have a "holiday season" however we have been in Keswick this morning and I can assure you it was alive with holiday makers. I don't personally see any difference between somebody up here saying "as the holiday season draws to a close" (in mid September) and CRT saying it when many won't boat because of either weather or stoppages.

I think that will be fine. I doubt you will have a problem with compatibility with the boat’s water pressure, these days they all seem to work over a wide pressure range. I replaced the one on our boat a few years ago, got it from Screwfix, it’s fine. Just be aware that some products on Screwfix only have the actual mixer, not the hose/shower head.

We went there a couple of weeks ago and had some lunch. It is smartened up a bit, some new furniture and new wooden flooring, but has not lost the character. We had sandwiches for lunch and they weee very good, as was the beer, of which I probably had too much for a lunch time! Oh, and also it was very busy with boats in Braunston, lots moving and using the locks. Also lots moving between Braunston and Napton.

So fishing from a vacant mooring is fine, but as soon as a boat appears wishing to moor, the situation has changed, and first-come-first-served no longer applies.

The Vetus-branded alternators have a weakness for blowing the regulator. These can be bought on eBay for about £15-20 and are very easy to replace. I have done it even without removing the alternator, as long as you can get the back off. However it could be the diode pack that failed, also easy to replace . https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-REPLACEMENT-ISKRA-LETRIKA-JOHN-DEERE-NEW-HOLLAND-ALTERNATOR-REGULATOR-231045-/283649204372?hash=item420acf6094 If you are not sure about this, take it to an alternator repairer. If it just the regulator they will probably charge about £40 and may throw in new bearings. If it's the diode pack then maybe £70. While you are at it, get the Cargo 14.7V regulator which will give you much better charging, better than a Sterling external regulator which always seem to go into float too soon.

I’ve done it quite few times - found I have accidentally managed to turn the key switch off with the engine running. The only impact is that warning alarms are disabled for the duration the key switch is off. The only connection between the key switch and the alternator is via the warning light. When the engine is running, both the alternator terminal, and the keyswitch terminal (between which the light is wired) are at the same voltage and thus no current flows and thus the alternator is unaware of whether the key switch is on or off. Disconnecting the alternator from the battery is an entirely different thing, and a bad thing, but this doesn’t happen when you turn the key switch off.

Fixed that for you. Most fishermen are told nothing and have very little understanding of boaters need or aims. Some angling clubs may disseminate info, some matches may include something in a briefing, but most anglers just go fishing. The reverse is true of boaters re angling, with many boaters having no understanding of the angler's point of view either. There may be info somewhere for the interested few on either side to seek out, but that won't inform the many. Better collaboration/communication between CRT and the National Federation of Anglers or, even better, the individual clubs holding the fishing rights to a stretch, would help. Signage would make things clearer to both parties. Is it really any wonder 2 groups mostly ignorant of each others needs, rules and issues clash now and again?

Telling that to fishermen and not to boaters isn't going to improve relations!

I used a standard domestic Mira shower unit. Works fine with 'standard' boat water pumps.

Perhaps I'm reading different material, but I haven't seen any references to a "Boating Season" in any CRT publications. For example, the regular "Boaters' Update" has recently even featured an article pointing out how pleasurable winter boating can be.

This image from http://collections.canalrivertrust.org.uk/bw200.1.2.2 shows that the two canals at Marston were the same level in 1953 and the gates were still in place.

Ctek quote their 10 amp charger as suitable for a battery bank in the range 10 – 300 amps. While this model will give a maintenance charge for a larger bank, there will inevitably come a time when you have a flat battery bank and it will need a good deal more oomph than this can provide. The M300 is both a marine variant and can look after battery banks of up to 500 amp, whilst providing a maintenance charge to a larger bank. The Current Ctek range includes a 25 amp model (MXS 25) which has a similar spec as the M300. Ctek is not the cheap and cheerful option but the price reflects the quality and durability of their products. Remember also that ideally you will need some form of charger to independently maintain your starter battery which can easily be forgotten and neglected during prolonged periods tied up. My domestic batteries are looked after by a Ctek M300 while a wee MXS 5.0 looks after my starter battery. At one point Ctek 'threw in' a 5 amp charger when you bought a larger marine unit (which is why I have this set up!).

You beat me to it. The film unit more-or-less took over Saul Junction when we were there, and the boats were moored on the VMs at Sharpness. The dressing of the bpats was interesting: the shape was disguised with distressed aluminium panels held on with magnets. MP.

Wrap the rubber engine mountings in plastic bags and gaffer tape till you cure the leak. You do not want one to go soggy as that may well cause engine misalignment problems. Wot Sam said for the pump leak. If you really want to DIY the seal you will need to visit an injection specialist to get the seal. Then you need a really clean space to work on the pump. Even the tiniest bit of dirt in the works can spell expensive trouble. N

Apparently not, according to post 133.