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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/06/21 in all areas

  1. Hi Debbie. I am from the region, currently live aboard and am on the Ouse. However I only bought the boat last year with no family history of living on boats, and will be travelling to other parts of the country soon, so I'm not sure I'm exactly the sort of person you're looking to interview. Some relevant background detail to hopefully help your article Most of the UK's canal network was built specifically for carrying goods directly between industrial regions, which was undertaken by liveaboard boaters/bargees. In East Anglia, however it' mostly natural rivers (slightly altered for navigation as well as flood control) and drainage channels, so boat and barge traffic was never as important to it as other canals and it probably never had as many working boaters. Northampton is close to some of the most historically important canal routes, but getting there by boat from Bedford or St Neots is a journey of over 150 miles along winding rivers via Ely, Downham Market and Peterborough taking several days, instead of 30 miles up the road! The Norfolk Broads are connected only by sea. Related local issues for boaters are: - Unlike most of the UK's canal network, there is no automatic right to moor nearly anywhere along a towpath. The rivers and Middle Level are lined mostly by private land, and there are only a few designated mooring spots where itinerant travellers (and the many people taking their boat out of the marina for the weekend) have the right to moor. Also, the banks simply aren't as easy to moor up against, and there are fewer facilities like water points outside privately-run marinas. - The Cambridgeshire rivers are maintained by three different organizations (the Environment Agency, the Middle Level Commission and the Cam Conservancy) instead of the Canal and River Trust that maintains most of the UK's canal network. Each has their own rules and licenses, and the licensing situations have changed recently in ways which are complicated but basically increase costs for many boaters inside and visiting boaters outside the region (other people understand and are passionate about these details more than me!) - The rivers and Middle Levels are also much more involved in flood defence than most canals, and often aren't actually safe to navigate after heavy rainfall. - the traditional style of narrowboat common across most of the UK is not actually native to this region except parts of Northamptonshire (although people actually living aboard are likely to prefer modern variants of this design to the ubiquitous white plastic leisure cruiser) I suspect this will mean that finding multigenerational liveaboards who move around mostly or exclusively in this region more difficult, although obviously the river is very popular with leisure boaters and many people have in more recent decades chosen to live in Cambridgeshire marinas. The Great Ouse Boaters Association - goba.org.uk - might be able to help you too, Some more general points about boaters - although cost is often cited as a reason for living in boats, it's a bit of a myth that it's a cheap lifestyle. If you want to live somewhere expensive like Cambridge your only real option on a boat is join a years-long waiting list for very expensive rented moorings. Marina berths elsewhere might be more available and affordable, but once you've added maintenance/licence costs not necessarily cheaper overall than renting a [bigger] flat in say Peterborough. Moving around saves marina costs but has rules that you actually have to keep moving and not keep going back to the same place which are easier to follow in much of the rest of the country - Most people choose the nomadic lifestyle as an interesting way to spend their life rather than because of family history. Most boaters make a choice to live this way in their adult lives, without any background of itinerant travelling like gypsies or circus folk. Remote working and retirement obviously makes this easier, and more and more people are doing it everywhere - we're vastly outnumbered by the leisure boaters enjoying the sun on their boats or paddleboards at the moment, especially in Cambs Also, parts of the Cambridgeshire waterways are very nice indeed. Happy to answer further questions and chat if you want to message me (you can even visit me if you like- I'll probably be in St Neots for the next few days)
    6 points
  2. According to my firefighter friend who was in attendance, the boat had a number of helium tanks on board, the small ones you get in shops for blowing up balloons. He also said that the port hole didn’t need to be smashed as the sealant had melted and they just pushed the glass inside.
    6 points
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  13. Alan, I think all and any tools are useful, that is why control systems have so many different ways of putting a location into their systems, including talking to you, working out where you are and plotting it on the cad map. Whatever location is found is sent to the vehicle responding in the internal format of the organisation. Often it’s about getting a rough location to start with then firming it up as we are on route
    3 points
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  21. You are dependent on the fault finding skills of the boat yard person, but here are some things I'd suggest. Don't know about a Beta 60, but on a 43 the stop solonoid is energise to stop. It sounds like the fault developed while the engine was running. A short circuit that blew the fuse and prevented them from energising the stop solonoid and having to stop it manually. If the solonoid was energise to run, then the engine would have stopped as soon as the fuse blew and would not have needed a manual stop. For once, the engine harness plug and socket are useful and can be used to narrow down the problem. Split the plug/socket. This will narrow down if the fault is in the engine side, or the control panel side. Wiring diagram from Beta shows which pins in the plug/socket go to which place for engine side fault finding. With a multi meter check the resistance between the the ground pin (10) and the pin of the start solonoid (pin 2) and the glow plugs (pin 11). If they are zero, near zero, then that is where the fault is. Good glow plug resistances are low anyway. Four in parallel giving a resistance of 0.3 ohm will use 40A when energised, so a resistance between pins 10 and 11 of less than 0.3 ohm would lead to a blown 40A fuse and shows a shorted glow plug, or a wiring fault. Similarly, a less than 0.3 ohm resistance between the starter pin 2 and ground will lead to the fuse blowing. Going through possible sources for the low resistance path that has lead to the fuse blowing should find it pretty quickly. If the fault isn't on the engine, then do a similar thing on the panel side of the plug/socket and the ground, or power pins. You'll have a panel diagram from Beta in your documentation too, or it can be downloaded from them. This will be possibly quicker and certainly more reliable and cheaper than randomly replacing components. If the fault is in the starter, then getting them to take it to a starter motor specialist locally for repair will be a lot cheaper than a new one. Jen
    3 points
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  25. Just to let everyone know that I finally got the electric start sorted. I bought a JS3 industrial engine and used the flywheel from that but it had a different reverse side so the hand start gear would not fit. To remedy this I designed an adapter plate on cad and got that laser cut/machined. This allowed me to refit the had start gear, reinstall the flywheel and fabricate a bracket for the starter. I'm happy to say that it starts well and runs fine. If anyone is doing the same and wants a copy of the cad file I'd be happy to send it.
    2 points
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  28. Try telling them that you are about 3 miles from bridge 44 on the Ashby canal and see how long it takes to find you.
    2 points
  29. One of the boats I skipper has a Beta 60. The fuel solenoid on that is energise to run. When the main 40A fuse went faulty on that, the engine stopped. Must confess I was a bit surprised; I expected energise to stop, in common with other Betas I have known. If the fuse blows when the key is turned to “start”, I’d be looking for a short from the wire between the keyswitch and the starter solenoid; most likely at the engine end.
    2 points
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  33. When and address is located (by whatever method) it confirms this in all formats (lat, long/postcode//w3w/os grid) don’t know why
    2 points
  34. Hi all, while my control experience is a couple of years out of date I am still working for the service (part time on the road) and can see that the Control computer assigns w3w to all calls as part of location finding.
    2 points
  35. Two years ago my experience of the Llangollen left a lot to be desired and led to this musical effort. Apologies in advance : https://www.waterwaysongs.info/Songs/L/llangollen_grand_prix.htm
    2 points
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  40. You mention the pair of you find the locks very difficult without assistance. We have ‘done’ the K&A a few times, even berthed at Newbury for a number of years. We found that the majority of locks on the canal are difficult to operate. Have you thought of relocation onto another waterway. The Oxford has single locks and a great deal easier to work. Just saying. Hope you get a sale, if that’s the way you end up going.
    2 points
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  43. I did that once. Ended up floating on the ceiling, very unamused. MP.
    2 points
  44. We sold ours on Ebay. Got £11 for a dead car battery and they came and picked it up. Got £63 for a pair of well used (but not dead) leisure batteries which are now on a yacht on the east coast somewhere. They came and picked those up as well.
    2 points
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