Leaderboard

You've omitted bakery shops, which are pivotal to a successful cruise?

Went to the boat yesterday for first time since mid-March. Everything checked out fine. Engine started straight away. Little two hour cruise- so good! Lots of new ducklings, pair of swans with eight cygnets, buzzards lazily floating on thermals above, even the fisherman was friendly. Although as ‘extremely vulnerable’ I am not supposed to leave the house until the end of June at the earliest, I could get to the boat’s offside mooring without having to go near anybody so worth the risk. Just so good to get out on the boat again.

https://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/shop/product/search?searchword=foam+rollers For all your roller needs... I like the concave foam ones for gloss.

We did a fortnight's holiday a few years back going from Great Haywood in to Birmingham and back on a figure of eight using Wolverhampton 21, Kingswood junction via the Stratford canal, back in via Knowle and Farmer's bridge then out via Stourbridge and back to Great Haywood via the Shroppie.

Don’t take the short route, you’ll miss such a lot. You have time. I recommend you explore the BCN. Get yourself a BCN waterways map. Explore the main lines, the loops, the tunnels, lock flights, and too many canals to list but include the Wyerly and Essington which takes you out in to some lovely countryside. You travel under and over canals, motorways and train lines. It’s great, the locks are a doddle. People friendly. Under normal circumstances the pubs are brilliant. There’s far too much to see and do. If you want to learn about heritage this is the place to go. I’d go up the Wolverhampton 21, have a spin around the BCN, leave by the Birmingham and Fazely, up to Great Heywood, turn off to Penkridge, down to Bratch Locks, down to Stourton Junction and back into Birmingham, all via beautiful scenery. Experience Merry Hell and Gosty Tunnel. Then have a further spin around the BCN to see the bits you missed. Leave by either Camp Hill or out passed the Bournville Factory to Kings Norton. Enjoy. (Can’t help with parking)

You only have to look at Rugby boat sales, almost every boat they have listed is either sold or under offer.

I have an electricity bamboozlement that I can't get my head round. I think it's obvious but I'm not seeing it, please help me understand what's going on with this. Here's my problem: Last night I was wiring up my two MPPT controllers via busbars to the 12v batteries. The controllers currently are NOT connected to each of the solar arrays so there's no solar input yet. Sod's law, I managed to fumble the only live cables (1 and 2 on the diagram) so that they touched and sparked. Apart from making me jump I didn't notice anything else untoward happen at the time, so I completed the wiring as in the attached diagram. (The solar panels are still not connected to the controllers). Had all been well I would have expected to measure 12-13v at (point C) which was the battery bank voltage. However my multimeter read no voltage at all. Indoor lights and tele were on so the batteries were fine. I checked the multimeter on a AA battery and it read that voltage fine. I assumed that my earlier spark must have blown the fuse shown in the diagram. The fuse isn't accessible from indoors so I disconnected cables 1 and 2, and sealed off the ends till I could try again the next day. Today is the next day. When I started tinkering today, the engine was running. Before I unwrapped the ends of cables 1 and 2, (not yet attached to busbars), out of curiosity I checked the voltage with my multimeter: it showed 13-point-something volts at point A, suggesting that the fuse had not blown after all. Hoorah. The spark had been a red herring, I think. (I've not actually checked the fuse.) I then worked my way through each cable and crimped terminal, replacing a few wires so everything is the same diameter (4 or 6sqmm, I think - yellow connectors) and making sure everything seemed secure and tidy. I turned the engine off and once again checked the voltage across point A with my multimeter. It showed nearly 13 volts so that's good. Finally I connected cables 1 and 2 to the busbars themselves (this involves cables 1 and 2 bending round in an S shaped curve but is otherwise unremarkable, as some of the other cables are S shaped too, it's all in quite a small space). Then when I checked the voltage across point C again, it was only 3v! I checked the voltage across the two busbars and again only about 3v. I detached cables 1 and 2 from the busbars and again measured the voltage between points A, and it had miraculously returned to nearly 13v. Where are my volts going!? How can busbars/cables just eat 10v and then return them once disconnected? It seems there is some major resistance somewhere but how do I find it and solve it, please? I don't know if the problem is one or both busbars, or one or more cables, the curving of the cables. Or something else. Deep in the distant recesses of my bwainz I suspect the answer is probably a simple one, but I'm gonna need it spelled out to me please, coz I can't think how to eliminate the possible causes. For now I have once again disconnected cables 1 and 2 and taped up the ends till next time. Thanks in advance.

Geez guys, you’re making this complicated. BSP - first check is the connections to the fuseholder. Then swap out the fuse for a replacement. Now see how it performs.

Because point C is where you have measured the suspect voltage, and its also the end of the new bit of your wiring. The bad connection must be somewhere between the busbars and one of the C's. So, if we get current flowing from the red busbar to C, through our "load" to the other C and back to the black busbar that current must go through the bad connection, it hopefully won't be able to so logical use of the multimeter will isolate the fault. You can sometimes get 12v test screwdrivers with a small internal lightbulb, a useful tool to have, but must be the 12volt type with a real lightbulb, not a mains neon. An old lightbulb with some wired attached is a good alternative. Any 12volt device will probably do, but most will likely have a cigar type connector on them and getting them off and back on can be a pain. Maybe using the mutimeter and doing some cable wiggling (wiggle test) will show the fault, but you might need three hands to do that. ................Dave

This sounds like a bad connection (a high resistance). Multimeters in isolation are not the best way to track this down because they have a high resistance (impedance) themselves so can sometimes measure the correct voltage despite the high circuit resistance. Getting a bit of current flowing down your suspect wires will bring out the fault which can then be localised with the multimeter. Have you got an old "proper" light bulb or similar load that you can connect between your two C's ??? ...............Dave

Dog 'Butty'

Get a butty - perfect for keeping dogs safe

Many thanks for all your suggestions, Mike.

Yes, My Illustrious Namesake and Beatrice is an interesting part of IWA folklore. And an apposite posting for a favourite part of the Beartrice narrative, as part of a PeterScott lecture tour, when its cabin was stuck on the roof of Harecastle Tunnel, and Aickman writes "The only hope lay in the piles of slimy bricks which the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive had thoughtfully placed at intervals along the even slimier towpath,.... The wedged navigator loaded these bricks on to his vessel until her hull went down far enough into the water for the superstructure to clear the arch of the tunnel roof. .... Peter organised the whole party into a human chain through the near-darkness, and we started transferring the nearest pile of bricks to Beatrice's floor, ...It was discouraging work, ... and soon a youthful member of the party lost his head, and began screaming that he could stand no more and must get out, a bad case of claustrophobia. It was fascinating to see how Peter dealt with him; an impressive demon­stration of natural leadership and moral force. He reminded the lad that he was going to a good school …; a place where one just couldn't behave like that; he even spoke of the Empire (the term still being occasionally in use), and of the conduct expected of an Englishman. The effect was astonishing. The boy quietened at once, resumed work on the bricks, and gave no more trouble, as the saying goes."

Get up very early, or paint after 6pm in this weather, Even well thinned, in the sun the paint will dry as it comes off the roller and hits the steel. If early wait till any dew has gone, in the evening ,stop in time for the paint to skin before 9pm ish when dew may form. When I did mine we were able to do about a 10-12 foot panel am, and pm on the shady side, so 6 days to do both sides, roof took 1 day + an hour to paint over the webbed foot prints, I hope the duck enjoyed having it toes painted. It can be advantageous to moor in the shade of, but not under trees, they drop nasty bud casings, seeds and heaven knows what, you also become a target for birds roosting in the branches.

^^^ Many thanks for that

http://clutch.open.ac.uk/schools/newbradwell00/aqueduct.html

Oh go on. Just one wafer thin mint, perhaps?

When considering the price ... the examiner has to pay a fee for each certificate - about £50. He also has to pay an annual fee to BSS and undertake training. This all has to be factored into the prices as does travel time and cost as already mentioned , and the time to process the certificate . I thought £180 was expensive but on reflection people do have to make a living.

I worked for an accountant for several years, and I don't think anyone charged anything like £100 an hour. CGT is incredibly complex - when worked for the IR in precomputer days we reckoned there was only one guy on Merseyside who understood it... It's easier now, but you'll lose more money trying to work it out yourself than a local accountant will cost you. Thing is, they know all the wrinkles, everything that might lower your liability, and you don't.

For the cabin sides and large areas, I'd use a 7" or 9" foam roller. A 4" is too slow at covering and doesn't hold much paint. Should be able to manage a 2 foot strip of cabin side at a time. You'll need to thin the paint, so that it flows well, especially as the temperatures rise. If the temperatures are too hot, don't paint, you'll have little time to lay off. The foam rollers will not melt, if the paint is a one part enamel (those that will thin with white spirits). I've used a lot. And, they will be ok for two part enamels. The word thinners can be misleading. It is just the particular type of agent that can be used to thin a paint: White spirits (slow drying enamel paint), cellulose (fast drying paint, usually auto, and water (water-based paints). Two part paints will have a specifically supplied thinner. One thing to remember, about cheap rollers, sometime the plastic tube supporting the foam does not support the end of the foam roller. Mainly the 4", you can't see the end of the plastic tube. The end of the roller will distort and not help you paint consistently.

I’m no expert but as you’re laying off with a brush I wouldn’t have thought it matters much. All the roller is doing is applying the paint to the steel, the brush is doing the finishing.

So, the BSS examiner drives to your boat (from 20min to 2-3hours). Spends roughly an hour checking everything. Drives home. Fills in the forms and registers the BSS with CRT. If they are *very* lucky, they have another test to do nearby. Unless they are *very* lucky, they'd struggle to fit in more than 2 tests a day and often not that. Check out how much a mechanic or plumber charges per hour, then come back and tell me that the BSS examiner is overcharging. Mike from Blue Star surveys is good, I'd be ok with him doing an unaccompanied inspection.

So if they're constructed using completely different materials - different timber, modern adhesives and sealants - in what sense are they still historic? And if you're going to accept this level of 21st century intrusion, then why not a steel bottom which would have been a perfectly possible alternative way of building the boat in the first place, firmly early twentieth century technology. Just wondering.

That's the same route as I'd choose.

Thank you! At last a well informed intelligent perspective on wood in narrowboat construction. "Vegetable bottoms'.....honestly!

Right, thanks for the feedback everyone. I'm gonna walk unless I get an excellent discount. Which may happen, but unlikely. Is it ok to post boat links on here by the way? i could have just shared the link.

The thing is that if you can already see damaged, warped soft boards and lining I know for a fact there will be lots more that you cannot see. The work involved in basicaly stripping and refiting is not inconsiderable. It does depend on how much cheaper but as a very quick guestimate if its normaly valued at 25 k I wouldnt touch it unless I got at least ten k off, probably more. As others have said you are just buying other peoples problems and its obviously been totaly neglected for a long time so what is everything else like?? ££££££££££

The Bukh needed to be in excess of 1200 RPM for maximum current at first start so a bit more than a fast idle.

Go via Autherley, Great Haywood, Fradley Fazeley, Suttons, Braunston. Much the easiest route single handed because the locks are mainly in flights and there are long lock free runs. Reasonably well serviced apart from the gap from Penkridge to Grendon. Plenty of marinas for fuel etc. Ace bakers in Penkridge. Several decent pubs. Michael's Fish Bar at Armitage. Be hungry. Be very, very hungry. N

Food shops Fuel supplies Gas supplies Canal availability (Open - not under emergency maintenance) Canal availability (Sufficient water) Break down membership

Well said Pete, I had intended to make the same point myself this evening, you beat me to it.

It'll be fine. It would take a while to get them up to 100% but if they're on charge 24/7 then they'd get there.

And this reminds me of an apocryphal quote attributed to Einstein: "Does Crewe stop at this train".

We had Schrodingers train once: -