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That's always the problem with those sort of charges. As you know, boats are towed through Ricqueval tunnel on the Canal St Quentin by an electric tug. Tolls used to be collected at St Quentin lock, but about 15 years ago staff there refused to do it any longer after some argument or other, and after that they simply took owner's name and address at the mouth of the tunnel. That obviously worked OK for the commercials as they could record the ship's details and the shipping agent would be on file to send the bill. But it's on a major route south for pleasure craft, so they had to get an address, which was likely to be from just about anywhere in the world. When it first started we gave our address as the Capitainerie at Cambrai, so that was simple enough. Even with that the guy had some difficulty making the record, and his face dropped when we told him that if he had trouble with our address, just wait - the boat behind came from Albuquerque. ? Tam

Just a quick post to encourage anyone exploring the River Witham to definitely make the trip up the Sleaford Navigation to South Kyme! Currently relatively free of weed and decent enough depth until the moorings in South Kyme. Moorings are good and although it is narrower and slower progress from here to the first winding hole still well worth the trip! If you can get the stern into the winding hole the current takes the bows round fairly easily, although it is getting a bit silted up. South Kyme is a pretty village and locals welcoming. Apparently the local vicar is a waterways chaplain and does services aimed at boaters if that's your thing. Also one of the few places residents have said to me they want to see more boats visit, and been offered a fill up with water from a house here too! Just needs more boats to keep the channel clear etc

Once again you show your inexperience, he is a shell builder not a repair yard. He is hands on every day working the steel as Peter says. You bought an old second hand boat with no shell warranty, maybe he thought you would be too much of a pain to deal with(like most of the tradesmen that have worked with you have seemed to found) and does he need to do minor repairs on old boats when he has enough on building new shells like the one just launched below?? Why not take it to Thorne boat services where you got work done before as they do repairs and don’t build shells.

Update: After consultation with the Marina, they agree that the reading is a bit mad and believe there has been a misreading with the 'before we arrived reading'. They are adjusting our invoice accordingly. We have agreed to checking our consumption live with them next time we stay just to be sure. Seems fair, as last time we used the heaters in 2019 at a different marina our bill was about £45.00 for about 3 months. Apart from this scare we are very pleased with them. They seem very friendly and helpful and would recommend (but I wont name them at the moment)!

Ricqueval Tunnel again. When we took the Arthur through, those many years ago, the tow took us through the second tunnel of Le Tronquoy as well, with a blissful journey on a bright summers day, through the section in between, just drifting along, 17th vessel in the train. Two other pictures attached: Riqueval at the end of its period as part of the Hindenburg Line, the German defensive position in 1918, plus the famous photo of the 17th Infantry Brigade being addressed by their commander, three days after taking the bridge across the canal between the two tunnels.

Sir N - Tested up as per your procedure and all successful. Probably10-14 days before I can get up to actually fit it but I now have every confidence in it. Thank you both so much for your in depth help, not only has it been a pleasant experience posting and communicating on this forum, unlike some others; but through your support I have regained a great deal of confidence in carrying out my own maintenance and repairs. Once again my sincere thanks and I fully agree with Sir Nibbles very pertinent comment at the very beginning of his rebuild thread ---"In fact, it's more likely to put anyone off a DIY job" !! But 10 tooth 12 volt starters appear to be either hens teeth or made of platinum and gold studded with diamonds and so beggars cant be choosers. Keep well and stay safe. Cheers Brian.

Today in 2017 at Pont Royal on the Burgundy canal

Nasty! For the avoidance of doubt, your thoughts and comments regarding the boat design are nasty!

This Evening in 2012 we were on the disused quay at Anhee on the Belgian Meuse. At night the hills opposite are light up and there is an old fort on the top. Just down the towpath is a shop that claims to have over 300 varieties of Belgium beer. My favourite was called Mcchouffe a strong brown beer.

A good 15kW watercooled PMAC motor (e.g. Engiro 12202) is much more efficient than that, around 95% at maximum output. The controller (e.g. Sevcon Gen4) will have similar efficiency, if this shares the watercooling loop with the motor there's a total of about 1.5kW to dissipate, half your estimate and needing less than a square foot of keel cooler. This is very small compared to skin cooling requirement for a 10kVA generator (about 4 square feet) or a typical diesel (about 12 square feet). A less efficient motor will need a bigger cooler, but still pretty small.

A lot of offshore boats and other commercials (and even some leisure boats) use a product called Copper coat which gives protection for ~30 years, it is expensive but hey ho you probably only do it once in your boating life time. Effective in warm and cold conditions, at any depth, in any tidal or current conditions and in fresh or salt water Works perfectly and is stable on fast and slow moving or static parts of any size and complexity Delivers enhanced performance on coated components to enable much smoother ongoing operation between moving parts Creates a cleaner, smoother surface with lower friction and drag for better performance with lower energy requirements and greater longevity Eliminates growth in heavy duty situations such as canal walls and tide turbines as well as highly technical commercial equipment with strict operating parameters Easy to apply on a wide range of surfaces including GRP, iron, steel aluminium and concrete Protects against scour on foundations due to higher abrasion resistance than coatings designed to work in ice flows Prevents MIC (Microbial Induced Corrosion), a major problem on transition pieces and monopiles

Bit of an update for anyone invested in my saga: I've agreed to a price with the owner, reduced from original asking, so I'm happy with where we landed. Now I need to... learn how to operate a NB, figure out how to run the electrics and plumbing and not fry my batteries on day one, somehow figure how to get her up the River Severn and onto the canal system (anyone know any boat movers in that area? I won't be attempting it by myself!) Officially one of you lot now ?

It's not really such a puzzle. Most canal boats are painted with bitumen which isn't very good and many are not painted often enough so they corrode. You think HMS Belfast was painted with Bitumen? Bitumen was originally used because that was the best thing available for wooden boats at the time and it continued to be used because it was cheap and easy and traditionalists liked it. That's continued even though there are much better, harder wearing, longer lasting paint systems available these days. In short bitumen is crap. That's probably why they call it "bitcho" ?

The quoted 2,074 units over 26 days is a continuous draw of 3.3kW for the entire time, surely that should indicate to the marina that something is amiss with the reading.

OK I will put my oar in, but others may have other ideas. Typically, those bolts go right through the hull, head upwards and once the keel is fitted the heads are glassed over. I am confident that if you look inside the boat you will see the GRP "domes" covering the bolt heads. Although with a bit of luck the glass will secure the bolt head I would not do it that way. The keel itself is drilled and then the bottom is counter bored to fit the nuts inside the keel. In some cases the bottom then had steel D section screwed over it to minimise wear but I would not bother. You may have to remove the engine, then with the boat out of the water and properly secured/chocked high enough to drop the keel off. Using an old plane iron or old wide chisel cut all the GRP domes off the inside of the hull and clean and abrade all around the arae ready to take new GRP. Undo the nuts and drop the keel off. Use the keel as a pattern to cut a new one. Typically, they seemed to be soft wood. Jack the new keel into position and drill down through the bolt holes in the hull and the remove the keel and counter bore the bottom. At this stage you may wish to prime and paint the new keel. If you wish to apply sealer to the top of the keel, jack back up using a couple of bolts dropped through widely spaced holes as guides. Fit NEW keel boats and nuts and tighten. Bronze of brass might be a good idea but I am sure iron or steel would do for this application. Degrease the inside of the hull using acetone and the re-glass over the nuts taking care to pack the GRP close to bolt heads to maximise your chances of undoing the nuts in the future. Hope that helps.

Strictly speaking, where a water course is carried below an obstacle, and the top of the underpass is below water level that is an 'inverted syphon', although often referred to as just a 'syphon'. Syphons (the conventional sort, not inverted) were fitted to some weirs on the Lee as part of flood prevention works in the 1970s. They consist of a concrete roof over part of the weir crest, with solid walls either side, and the roof extending to just above normal water level on the upstream side and well down the slope on the downstream side. When the river is in flood the upstream entrance becomes submerged, and the flowing water gradually draws the air out to start the syphon operating (in much the same way as sucking air out of a tube to start a syphon). The advantage of the syphon is that it will shift much more water than a simple weir crest of the same length, so can be used where space is limited. When the flow decreases and the upstream level drops, air is admitted through the inlet and the syphon action stops. In low flow conditions it just operates as a normal weir. And its twin at Woolwich. It's also not well known that there is a subway through the cills of the Thames Barrier, providing a route for pipes and cables and pedestrian access to all the piers. I went on a site visit shortly before it was completed and we walked through from the south bank to one of the main piers, but we were told it goes all the way through to the north bank.

Further on from my discussions at the CRT East Midland Public User Meeting I have been asked by CRT regional management if I know of places in the region where moorings have been removed due to towpath resurfacing etc (eg rings taken out...hard surfaces installed meaning pins can't be used etc) or indeed where moorings could be installed/extended. Ive heard a rumour that mooring has been made difficult in Shardlow due to towpath work...can anyone confirm this? I've suggested that some more secure moorings such as those at Friars Mill in Leicester would be great in places like Nottingham/Newark/Loughborough and that developers of waterside sites could be encouraged to provide pontoons etc as well as more rings installed at popular locations. As I seem to have the chance to talk to CRT from a boaters point of view then I'd be really grateful for the thoughts of other boaters in the region. I know we might not get anywhere but if we say nothing then its certain things won't improve! Look forward to hearing others suggestions....feel free to post here and I can collate them and pass them on.

You didn't need a dipstick with a Lister. If it had enough oil, it smoked; if it stopped smoking, that meant it had run out of oil.

Of course he might now realise he was duped and be too proud to admit it so make a story up about a broker

Please confirm who and where your talking about, I have never seen boats moored at the builders yard waiting for minor work, as he has not got the canal side mooring space to do this, as they are filled with new builds.

Weld missing on bottom of bearer at end, water will run into side bilge. No seperate bilge for sterntube? No oil I suppose.

Yesterday afternoon 2021 at Streethay Coventry C As You Do ...

I would say they measured up where the motor mounts would be and then marked up on the swim where it ended to fit the skin tank, completely overlooking the fact that the thickness of the tank would foul that length of angle and of course by now the tank was in. I suppose they could always weld the top of the angle to the skin tank.

I'm not sure what sort of response you're looking for, you didn't initially explain that it was an electric propulsion which would have clarified the keel cooler and the depth of the engine bearers. So I'm assuming those aren't relevant to any issues you may have. On that basis, I might be wondering why the bearer was cut a bit raggedly to go around the cooler, instead of allowing for it when positioning everything. The keel cooler couldn't have been positioned back a few inches, allowing the bearer to retain its integrity? And now they've done it that way, are they planning to leave it like that? The bigger question to me is how much draught has this boat? The swim seems to have a depth of about a foot. So if the prop shaft is exiting half way down, and there's a couple of inches allowance between the tips of the blades and the uxter plate then what diameter prop are you planning putting on, 8-10"??? That's small as well as being just under the water level, you'll be picking up every crisp packet and piece of string floating past.

As Tony says, doesn't help much with solar in winter, we get virtually nothing from our panels in winter. They do make a big difference spring to autumn though. Advantage is no need to charge to 100% and batteries don't limit charging rate (for all practical purposes). As to how long they last, expecting 10 years+ probably more. There's some very long threads on here about them where several of us explain our systems in detail if you're interested. I still think you're doing well to get 2 years out of your existing batteries though, and don't think expensive lead acids will last any longer.

Do you know what rate the marina is charging? Your estimate of £26 for 186 units corresponds to a unit cost 14p per unit with no standing charge or service charge, which sounds low to me. Do you have your own dedicated socket? How do you know someone else hasn't plugged into your supply? I would be asking the marina to explain the start and end meter readings, and what their procedures are to ensure that the readings are properly recorded. How, for example, do you know that you are not being charged for use by the previous occupier of your mooring?

This just popped up on the net https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/outstanding-engineering-checks-holding-up-hammersmith-bridge-progress-06-05-2021/

This may help.