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Plumbed the Thetford loo into the hot pipe (by mistake). The resultant hot flush was rather comforting on a chilly morning.

On several occasions I have started the engine .... cast off .... jumped aboard ... and reached for the tiller ........... which I forgot to fit.

Not boat related but have, on no less than three occasions over the years, caught the water from a U-bend in a bowl then emptied said bowl in to the sink I've just disconnected. Edit to add .. and whilst attempting to sort out an unshipped rudder, undid the huge nut on the swan neck, to watch the rudder fall out of the back of the boat and effectively nail us to the canal bed. To this day I'm not sure how I thought undoing the nut was going to help.

You are right to describe CaRT as " a navigation authority" but would be wrong to say that it was only a navigation authority". To sustain its financial position it has to fulfil a range of KPIs which encapsulate the government's view that the canals should be enjoyed by more than those who boat in the water. I have yet to see any significant evidence to support the description 'financial mismanagement' (be careful regarding libel!) which is not a conclusion justified simply because you disagree with their priorities and budgets. Given that they are trying to achieve the impossible (a funding package that is, by all authorities, considered inadequate, set without any effective plan for how they might magically close the gap) it would be reprehensible if some of their initiatives did not work out. "Anyone who has succeeded at all they do has never done anything much" If there really had been financial mismanagement over the timescales you imply then any responsible auditor should have qualified the accounts by now. (But they would not be first to fail to do that!)

Put the tiller extension on the tiller, started the engine, untied the mooring lines, set off, kersplash! Forgot to disconnect the shore lead from the electric bollard. It pulled the bollard from its base and sunk it in five feet of water. Fortunately for me, the bollards were then due to be replaced soon anyway, so I didn't have to pay for a new one. Jen

If it helps NABO have objected to the recent award by the EA of a contract to the management of its visitor moorings to a car parking company who are wanting a lien of your boat in the event of non payment of a penalty ticket.

Lurv it - its amazing how 'leaky' some of those old cables can be.

Removing a gearbox, pushed shaft and prop right back into the stuffing box, finished job, used scaffold pole to lever shaft back into position, tightened everything up, started engine, engaged forward. hell of a banging and clattering, forgot to remove scaffold pole, prop a different shape than it used to be.

From your pics, I would suggest this is not 'kids' or petty thieves who had the heavy steel away instead of the easier to nick and possibly more useful wood planks. They would have been more 'fun' to throw in the canal or build a boat with. More likely a stolen to order or 'we need some steel plate' kind of theft maybe?? You could build a deep pit type of trap by covering the exisiting hole with tarp and leaves so they fall in when they come back to nick the second one ? Better still wire it up live to 240v instead.

The problem is very unlikely but really does happen, you have a pipe burst of some kind (within the boats plumbing system) so the water pump runs continuously, normally it only empties the water tank (which is still very bad) but with a permanent hose connection it sinks the boat. I suspect you might get some skepticism here because you have a 70 foot widebeam ( which is too big for most waterways) and are looking to convert it to a "plumbed in house" rather than a boat. Filling the water tank is a normal part of boating. There is increasing bad feeling towards lots of people now wanting to own "houses on the canal" but not to be boaters. ..................Dave

Always remove your hose from the stand pipe tap old bean. Someone like children could come along and turn it on. Also ALWAYS switch off your boats fresh water pump when leaving your boat unattended. For fear of a big plumbing leak suddenly happening especially if you have plastic piping. If it should happen your fresh on demand water pump will start up and flood the boat out.

Is the valve core loose? I think if it is not then I would change the core for a new one. They and the tools you need are available from car spares shops. Just a case of unscrewing the old one and screwing in the new one.

There is going to be a lot of stored energy in a battery boat, and a lot more being generated when recharging. All this is getting to be well outside the ken of most marine electricians. Not being much of a high power or MV electric engineer I should want to see that a proper electrical engineer followed a good design strategy to ensure that the equipment and the controls was all safe, not going to cause corrosion problems and adequately documented so it can be diagnosed and safely mended when (not if) it goes wrong. N

Another interesting dawncraft was the 37 foot gin palace they made. There are a few of these on the Thames. Always nice to see something a bit different to the bland and incredibly boring GRP clones like Sheerline, Broom etc. A pretty wicked boat I reckon http://www.broadlandyachtbrokers.co.uk/boats/266

Damn, and I thought I had spotted it and amended it before anyone noticed. ?

A typical sodium discharge streetlight has a 150 - 200 watt bulb. The internal cabling will be sized to match this, allowing for volt drop over long runs. Assuming it has been converted to LED, it will have a 20 or 25 watt bulb, leaving 125 - 175 watts for charging of EV's. A Tesla takes 29 hours to charge up on a 3kw mains socket...

No, that's from Leesan or Thetford...

Answer to a question raised by one of your members Mr Alan Fincher and Mr David Schweizer concerning the above. John Wiggerham of Napton on the Hill was my great, great, great, grandfather. He was born in 1772 and died in 1818. In 1799 he married Theresa Vintrignier a wealthy French lady who fled to England to escape the French revolution. Previously Mr Wiggerham had worked for the bishop of Durham as secretary or personal retainer. After his marriage to Theresa the bishop interested himself to obtain for my ancestor a lucrative position with the newly formed Oxford Canal Company. He was responsible for accounting for the monies for the tonnages for the boats that passed through the lock. He had to put up £300 of his own money as surety to obtain the job, a fair sum in those days. From 1799 they lived in the junction house at Napton on the Hill, and the house was soon filled with their eight children. Apparently some time earlier John had been up to London to study medicine and set himself up as amateur doctor for the area. He procured medicines and vaccines and operated on his own family before helping many for miles around. At the time of his death in 1818 he had vaccinated approx, 1000. This is probably the reason why the area was named after him (although unfortunately spelt incorrectly.) In 1818 his son Henry was sent home from school, feeling very ill. It soon became clear he was suffering from typhus fever which spread through the house like wildfire, killing Henry, his father, and two of his other children. John Wiggerham’s son (also named John) was born in 1801. He survived the epidemic and took over the duties for a short time as toll keeper at Napton lock. Not sure how long he actually worked there for. He is the one that is mentioned in your discussion forum, I believe someone found him in the 1851 census. The Wiggerhams that died from typhus are all buried in Napton Church (St Lawrence) in 1818. They were buried at night as the disease was so contagious! The junction house where they lived is still standing and the owner a Mr Kaye was writing a short book about the house and all the lock keepers / toll clerks that lived there. He may be able to help you with further information. John Wiggerham also had a surviving son named Thomas born 1803, my great, great grandfather. Incidentally although I know quite a lot about my toll clerk ancestor, I have no idea where he was born or where he came from. Quite annoying, as I have reached a dead end in try to trace my family tree back further. Hope this clears things up a little as I could see from all the forum replies that were tagging on, you were almost there but not quite. I would really love it if it could be named Wiggerham’s and not Wigram’ s which is wrong but obviously sounds the same. Best wishes Laurence Wiggerham aged 58, living in Welling, Kent.