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This is really a point of information that I'm passing on on behalf of the sand barge skippers. John Branford and his son Jonathan have been thrilled to see the positive reaction from leisure boaters as we passed up the canal and river sections of the Aire & Calder navigations from Goole to Leeds. The clapping, cheering and positive messages over the radio have been really heart-warming and a vindication of nearly five years hard work to get the show on the road. The last thing they want to do is undermine all this good will so have asked me to share a wee detail re mooring: Several of the bridges on both the top (Lemonroyd to Leeds) and bottom (Goole to Ferrybridge) canal sections are low for a barge returning empty in ballast, meaning that to get the wheel box through unscathed, skippers are having to open the throttle wide 50 yds or so before the bridge hole. This brings the stern down and reduces air draught (yes that word again!) by approx 6". It's therefore a bad thing for boats to be mooring close to bridge holes where there is little headroom. So please don't think this is a case of bad boatmanship .......... it's just a harsh necessity, especially as the headroom in several instances appears to be actually reducing due to mining subsidence. If a rumoured backload comes to fruition it will be both a lot more profitable than carrying 200 tons of water ballast and will also reduce the need to use the engine power to pull the stern down for bridge holes.

That it maybe, but I've learnt about stick and flick. Tried it for the first time today. Next time I'll wait for the wind to die down or flick with the wind rather than against it

This day in 2010. The first photo shows the remains of the old Chinese Grand Canal, with the new canal just visible behind the grey car. The second photo shows the modern canal with a variety of boats. This day in 2013 at Shaobu Locks, near Yangzhou, China.

So today I had to visit Johnathon Wilsons yard in Sheffield, is Son in law Richard runs Finesse boats from there, Richards other business [Racetech] had been making up a sump for me out of two alloy sumps. Whilst talking to Richard and Johnathon, Richard mentioned that 9 out of the next 10 builds were electric boats, he showed me his drive system which is an inhouse built 48 volt system, it was very impressive and very neat and tidy. Its a direct drive running at 1500 RPM its 15KW constant and 30 KW max,, its a liquid cooled motor with Winston Lithium cells, On one of the boats it was installed with 10KW of solar bifacial for higher efficiency. It seems that rather than waiting for 2025 when inland boats have to be carbon free they have decided to go for it now ie jump rather than being pushed, Richard knows that I have an electric boat so he was speaking to the converted but its nice to know that his customers are forward thinking as well. The mix of boats was NBs and WBs/very large Briganteens as well

My cells arrived, I’ve now got 12 of these giving me 600Ah at 12v. Still a lot of work to do before I can install them though.

I once found some Moggy poo in our cratch area. I never heard it so I figured the quiet cat crept into the cratch, crapped, and crept out again..

"Canal-side trees bear a strange fruit Crap on the leaves and crap at the root Black bags swingin' in the canal-side breeze Strange fruit hangin' from the towpath trees"

Edited to add this was the thread where we discussed the name and I got a PM from someone which made it all clear. Post 33 is the one you may want to read. https://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?/topic/104366-whats-in-a-name-or-the-spelling-of-one/&tab=comments#comment-2400460 Oh and perhaps the very honourable Mr @pete harrison would like to add a new date to his history on Delhi? 14th September 2020 - the date she left the paint dock with the original spelling on her side. The former owner is really happy with the change, the previous sign writer is very happy too so I think spending a bit of time trying to work out how it came to be wrong was well worth it.

Can’t. Find a measure

The Quakers are notorious pragmatists - remember the quote from one confronted with a burglar: "Friend, I mean thee no harm, but thou art standing where I am about to shoot." I'm sure Josiah squared it with his conscience OK! It's also hard to see how anyone could have avoided some form of contact with the products of the trade. You could well argue that the situation in the mills and factories wasn't a lot better than slavery in some ways, though of course there's still a fundamental difference. I always found it interesting that while slavery, in order to work, reduced people to property, recently departments once referred to as "personnel" got renamed as "human resources" - once again reducing humanity to the status of things like chairs and filing cabinets.

Why can’t crt install eleccy bollards at visitor moorings throughout the country, no need for generators or long idle engine running to charge batts, Payed for on line, or by contactless, just as so , pump out machines and cards should be contactless payment. CRT need an innovator of the future for boaters, not just joggers and cyclists etc, it is environmentally friendly, and eventually, will all be electric, grrrr

So, reading between the lines, they had a boat (a boat) moored on a leisure mooring and lived on it, the sort of thing that lots of people do and get away with by maintaining a low profile, though maybe a bit risky in a highly controlled place like Bristol. At some stage they got rid of the boat and decided to replace it with a large house like structure without getting planning permission or formal approval from the harbourmaster. Now they feel that by emphasising that they have a young child it will all be ok???? If this is ok then the ultimate conclusion would be to fill in the harbour and build a housing estate. Many years ago that's what Bristol council wanted to do (though to build a road rather than houses) but luckily that did not happen. ...............Dave

If you travel along that bit of the Aire and Calder, it is on an embankment above the general ground level for long distances. The canal edges are crinkle cut piling driven in. Good evidence that the general ground level has dropped and the canal banks have been built up to stop it breaching. You would drop the canal in a lock to near the local ground level to minimise earth moving when building it in the first place. These are the same boats that have been used to trade along there for many years before the hiatus. If they used to get under the bridges and now struggle, then what do you think has happened? Mining subsidence is a real thing. That area of Yorkshire was hollowed out underneath in recent decades/

pedalo attachment.

A boat wider than 7 ft won't be able to navigate the waterways in green below. There are no through connections between the Northern, Southern and Eastern wide waterway networks. (Ignore the planned wide links as none of these is going to happen soon, if ever).

Hi everyone, we would like to say hello and introduce ourselves, we are rachel and Sally. We aren't exactly new to boating we live on our sailboat but are selling her and wish to live out our days on a narrow boat. Regards to you all, Rachel and Sally.

Agreed. No different to any other side slip launch I've seen.

Not sure I would want my boat launching in that fashion!

well they didn't bother to close the hatch properly!

Ah, Trevor Whitling then....

Thanks all, got me some goat chains, extra spikes and a bit more knowledge, will let you know how the next moor up goes. Restlessnomad I think i've settled on it being cool after all. Looking forward to getting back out on the water.

I don't know what's happening with all these tunnel volunteers - it's like they disappear into a black hole...

I don't like this thread. It's full of crap.

That is a beautiful boat :)

There are some narrowboats moored on the Brayford Trust moorings but the Lincoln Marina and Lincoln Boat Club moorings are almost all cruisers. Same at Burton Waters, Saxilby Farm and the Torksey CRT Moorings and Elm's Moorings. The Fossdyke and Witham are very much cruiser orientated and have been for many years. Now that more narrowboats are visiting the visitor moorings, more so on the Witham, are becoming inadequate, a couple of narrowboats fill some of them whereas you can get five or six cruisers on them. The "bus" is the Brayford Belle trip boat. It's a bloody nuisance that thing. It is scrap for a start (certainly isn't as tidy as in that picture anymore) and travels so slowly through the Glory Hole that is causes other boats a problem. The skipper has been reported to CRT several times for causing an obstruction to navigation. On this day 2016. On the ferry from Southampton to Hythe.

Saw you come past us twice on your way to/from the Sammy Barlow and she looks lovely. Oh, and having seen both sides of Delhi I can confirm that the spelling is consistent. ?

No, just needle gunned to hell, painted, refloored, added new t studs. She's come up well for an old hire girl.

Thread drift. In exactly the same manner as how you ended up talking to Cuthound about spray foam, which confused the above poster.

Definitely needs reporting if that has been done. Only real alternative to get to Hartshill is to use the unpaved steep and unsafe road. It might be worth pointing out to the council just how unsafe the route is now. It is actually a criminal offence for a farmer to illegally block a footpath.

Canalplan.org.uk says: This is a trip of 174 miles, 4½ furlongs and 102 locks from Saltisford (Warwick) to Hartford Marina. This will take 70 hours and 42 minutes which is 10 days, 42 minutes at 7 hours per day. That's quite a long trip to do single handed if you are not experienced, especially at this time of year.

I know the feeling

Worked on a boat last week that phoned up and said they needed new batteries as they were very flat after every journey. (Purchased 3 years ago from Whilton, new batteries and starter motor installed, boat on a landline 50 weeks a year and used for occasional weekends out only). Tested batteries, 9v(after an hours cruise) Tested alternator, zilch, absolutely knackered. Removed it and took it to a test centre, replaced. Stuck landline on whilst away, batteries recovered to 12.5 by the time I got back. Installed it, with a fresh belt and straight away was reading 19v +.....somethings not right here....batteries still reading 12.5v Head down the battery back under the back steps, all connected well, no loose terminals, checked bus bar....something missing.... Found the live feed cable under the battery bank, unconnected to anything, and hasnt been for 3 years.

Finally got my 3 Valences in. I bought them from James at the end of Jan and they sat unmonitored for over 7 months on the boat whilst I was at home. I bought theRS485 cable as recommended by Richard. I messed up the Tyco connector (the A and B data pins on a Valence diag are the wrong way round) so bodged the pins together and was able to read their voltages etc via Valence software. Voltages read 13.340(battery12) , 13.352(bat9) and 13.231(bat23) which was in line with my voltmeter readings. The spread was between 6-8, 2-4 and 1-4 mV. The SOC readings seemed way out @ 95.69 , 21.18 and 36.00. I charged them individually with Iskra 175 alternator via refurb Sterling 60a B to B on custom setting of bulk 13.8 and float 13.5 and monitored by BMV712. I let them settle and plugged them in to software again. Voltages read 13.382(12), 13.627(9) and 13.480(23) with spreads of 6, 38 and 18. The balance was active on battery 9 and then voltage came down to 13.480 with a spread of 18mV. The internal balancing on the Valences works when not on charge but connected to software. Paralleled em up and charged again via Sterling . They settled to 13.4 ish and have been down to 13.2 in use (parallel with 440aH LAs) and I haven't charged them via Sterling since. Solar (set at 13.8bulk 13.4 float) has had them back up to 13.4 by midday for last few days but we've had some sun and I'm not a heavy power user. I have a BEP motorised switch but not connected to BMV yet as I can't find a wiring diag. Any chance Bob or Tom could point me in direction of an idiot-proof source All ok so far I think. Any comments (polite ones) and tips welcome. Thanks to all for your knowledge and experience to get me this far

With Stanton and Belmont of the Blue Line fleet on the run from Atherstone to Southall many moons ago. In Buckby locks Jim Collins is seen putting into position the thumb lines, as I believe they are known, whereby the gates can be opened by pulling the boats back. Then, when the pair goes out the ropes unwind and drop down into the holds. We tried this on the Swan and all went well until one day the rope stuck and we came close to tearing the boat apart.

Rust in bow locker and non working bowthruster could well be connected if they are in the same space...especially if theres a hole in the bowthruster tube......quite possible even after 7years as several boat builders do NOT protect the tube before launch. If it DOES need 10 anodes, these should be put on at the same time as the blacking, as otherwise, your boat is not fully protected, AND you will have an additional cost of lift out and welding them on in the near future. The broker probably just wants to get it back in the water and take your money as fast as possible. The surveyor(if you have paid them), should have recommended a guide price without the work done, or a price IF his recommendations were carried out. Fall out of love with the boat for 24 hours, get your sensible hat on and dont take crap from the broker.

Alternatively, first pump some grease in, then undo the nuts and retract the pusher some way along the prop shaft towards the engine, then try poking the blunt end of different sized drill bits into the gap between the shaft and the stern gland body to find the size of drill which will just go in. That is the size of gland packing you need. Reassemble the gland to keep the water out until you are ready to repack.

Gosh, that would take me 2 weeks to navigate.

For years I have known I was the wrong shape but I was gutted to find out the boat is also the wrong shape!!

Be sure to treat that perfect system with the same respect and care that you are so concerned about with a more automated approach... ? For someday, it too, may fail. I installed seven cameras in my home a few years back... not only to keep an eye on the house, but to be able to check in with my wife (of 30+ years), who was in the middle of an 8 year battle with cancer. She lost that battle a little over a year ago, and I lost her. But before she passed, I automated the house heater and air conditioner so she could adjust it from her bed. I automated her sprinklers so she could set in the front window of the house and water her yard and garden from her phone. I automated the garage doors so they could be opened and closed from anywhere in the world at any time, and close themselves securely each night. I got our dog a collar that reported to us by text message and email anytime he left our secured area (I admit I still love this when it tells me that my daughter Stephanie and my dog Doogan have gone on a walk). Of all the home automation that I installed, the one camera that kept a private eye on our bedroom was the best. I could log in from anywhere and see how my wife was fairing. And it worked both ways... there were times toward the end when my wife was called to stay in the hospital for various treatments, that she would ask me to pull up the home cameras so she could see how her house and dog were getting along in her absence. Then at times from work, logging in to the cameras was like being able to go home for lunch... which I couldn't actually do because of distance. My cameras are on a secure network and even if someone hacked it... I'm not sure I would care much. We were pretty simple people. If there was any downside to the constant personal surveillance that became such a part of the last few years... it's that I have years of stored video clips of the woman I loved, getting weaker and weaker as the time passed... including April 10th, 2017, at 4:15am... when she took her final breath. I may be completely out of line for posting this. Especially as my second post on the forum. But I was following this thread because of my interest in home automation and just wanted to share a different perspective on its value. If I am someday able to fulfill my fantasy of retirement on the water... there will be cameras. Jim