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A few weeks ago there was a lengthy thread on the issue of inconsiderate boaters running engines after 8pm. I said I would contact CRT to seek their advice on this issue, and to suggest that as it seems to be an increasing problem they might like to put some measures in place to monitor it. I sent the letter on 1st Sept. I received a reply this morning signed by Richard Parry, and I don't doubt that he wrote it. So, first point is, if you bother to write to the Chief Executive direct, the chances are he will read it personally. I must admit this took me by surprise as I fully expected to get a reply from some customer relations person further down the line. So credit to Mr Parry. The relevant parts of the reply are: As you might expect, CRT "take breaches of licence conditions seriously" and will make contact with any boaters who have been reported as being in breach of their conditions. The offender is reminded of their conditions and if the matter persists there are processes whereby CRT will ultimately terminate a licence. Mr Parry advises "...others should not take the matter up with the offending boater themselves and potentially put themselves at risk." Instead they should report the matter via customer services either by phone or through the "contact us" part of the CRT website, giving the location and index number of the boat concerned. Not surprisingly CRT would not want to risk any liability issues by advising boaters to tackle boat licence culprits, though Mr Parry doesn't actually say that. Finally, on the issue of monitoring, Mr Parry states that; "We now have a new customer relationship management system in place and can track all cases to identify if there are repeat complaints. It is helpful to receive any reports of boats running their engines or generators outside permitted hours, so that we can monitor the scale of the problem and respond accordingly". Make of that what you will, but the least we can all do is take Mr Parry at his word and assiduously report future incidents as he suggests. We might then find out what "respond accordingly" actually means.

Fixed that for you.

@noether it might be worth saying where you are located to see if any experienced member from the forum can come and tell you what is what on your boat.

Assuming you don't want it to be electric, the Dahon "Jack" uses the same "centre-hinge" frame as the Zero-G I mentioned upthread and appears to be still available new. It is the most excellent towpath folding bike I've ever ridden - you would not know it was a folder if you just grabbed one and test-rode it. The only drawback of the "Jack" is the rigid forks, but it is not that difficult to fit a set of RockShox bouncy forks to make it ride like a Zero-G.

You forgot the bell 🔔

Lol, you have reminded me of the right wing nut-job's "Schrödinger's immigrant".... "They come over here, they claim all our benefits and take all our jobs, rant rant! "

Look straight down on the top of the engine. There are two long semi rectangular boxes tight at the top. Both nearly as long as the engine not including the gearbox. The one on the starboard side has a filler cap on it that has two "ears" so you can twist it off more easily. This one is for the coolant. The other box with more rounded ends and slightly domed is the rocker cover. That has another filler on it. It maybe black plastic or a domed metal thing. That is where the oil goes in. You can find a BMC 1.5 manual online and it is all but the same as a 1.8. If this is no help, post a photo because it is not rare to find engines misidentified.

On this day in 1980 Soulbury GU South Compare 17Oct1984 4Jun1995/4Jun2017 13Aug2005 12Oct2008 10Jul2015 4Jun2017

Construct a waterproof floor at the floor level at the door with a slope to one rear corner where you put a recess for the pump. Glass re-enforced resin would be one possible material. Welded PVC would be another. Then you have a proper wet room and can keep the bilge beneath dry and ventilated.

It looks as though that part of the bilge is sealed all the way round..? That would make life a bit easier. From the pictures it doesn't look too bad ie no obvious danger of the baseplate being perforated. Don't know what others think but if it is sealed, I'd get it dry first off then remove all the loose rust and treat it Vactan say, or Owatrol, you could then treat it like an integral water tank actually it's easier as you don't have to worry about the coating being toxic, just standard blacking would do. Better still IIRC Jotun do a range of epoxy based products for treating old integral water tanks but I don't think you can buy them in small quantities so it could be an expensive exercise, though you could use the rest for the outside of the boat I suppose...

Please keep us updated, this has been an enjoyable thread and I am curious to find out what the issue is,

Like I say, I'm a software engineer. I already spend too much time looking at screens, and I have become very cynical about the effect of constant connectivity on people, sometimes I'm sure that my wife reaches for her phone as an involuntary reflex, she doesn't even consciously intend to do it. (hashtag delete your social media).

How can you possibly survive without a smartphone! ISTR them saying on the wireless yesterday that 99% of the uk population now owns a smartphone.

just noticed on fb that blisworth tunnel boats are looking to rent out there moorings of 470ft for £600 a month as a buisness oppurtunity... looks a bargain to me.. can be double moored aswell.. just incase anyone is interested i thought i would post here

I don't know, since it was took over a few years ago its always full of Rail Ale Trailers few of which drink proper beer and lots of the locals now drink elsewhere, including myself. The two Micro bars near the canal are good, with Bridge Beers being my first stop of the evening. Remember he does close early, you have to be in by 21:00 on a Saturday and he has you out by 22:00. The good news is the Crafty is only five doors away and next to the canal bridge

as good as - they are in the cutting leading to the tunnel

thank you for the honest answers. I am now certain that the problem is worn out batteries. But before you replace them, you will have to learn how to take care of the new ones otherwise they will be useless in a matter of weeks. You cannot ignore batteries on a boat, if they are not sealed they need topping up. They need a proper charging routine. If you intend sitting on a shore line for ever and never moving you may be better off buying a mains fridge, connecting it to the 240v on the boat instead of batteries and ignore your knackered batteries till they go pop. Which they will eventually and maybe set on fire unless you do something about them.

I'm inclined to agree, but if the charger was working, surely that would deliver enough current to work the fridge. Therefore, I think we can conclude, the charger has ceased to be connected to the batts. It could have been the solar alone charging the batts all summer, and now the days are shortening and the solar charge diminishing, the batts are no longer being fully charged every day and have simply run down to much.

OK, at a guess I would plump for the batteries being knackered. How old are they? Are they sealed or have you been topping them up with water? How have you kept them FULLY charged in their life? Or have you just relied on the solar to charge them? How often and for how long do you run the engine above tick over, do you actually go out cruising regularly? When did you last look at them and clean the terminals?

I seems to me there are a lot of grumpy people on the canals. Put those who seem to do as they like and cause irritation together with those who are irritated and the entire population is well covered . I know someone who goes too fast but he is the first to complain if someone else passes too fast . Running engines falls into the same category as going too fast or too slow and other such minor offences .

We have a shoreline freezer, excellent bit of kit, just make sure you use the right size cable for the length of battery run and fuse correctly.

So the truth is, we don't actually know. They might both have been assuming. I'm wondering if it might be a 230Vac fridge being run by a little inverter tucked behind it. There are three easy ways to tell. One is by using a multimeter to measure the voltage on the input terminals, the next way is to find the data label (all electrical appliances have one) and read what it says. The third is to find the manual that probably came with the fridge and see what that tells you about the required power supply. As I said earlier, fault tracing is all about ruling out assumptions by checking, and therefore knowing.

Go see your local PVC window or PVC profile company and get some 3mm PVC strip off them. It is available in white, oak grain brown, gray, green, comes with nice curved edges and window fitters use miles of it as bodging strip to cover the gaps round new windows. It is quite flexible so will take up a roof curve easily. Fasten it to one of the panels with some nice, small, Brass or stainless screws or even glue it to one panel with some sikaflex or similar. N

Thanks for your efforts to get an answer on this topic from CRT. The response seems reasonable to me too.

Nivernais scenes. The straight bit is the portion near Cravant, cut under the Freycinet programme to bypass an uncertain reach of the Yonne.. The other photo is of the river itself at Rechimet

I spoke with Ed Shiers this morning and the 'suspect' from him seems to be the starter heater element which he suggests might be staying for the period that the drive belt is slipping. Two minutes seems like a long time for the element to be on to me, but then it does tally with the experience since the belt slippage occurs whenever the ignition is turned off and then back on again, and when you switch the ignition on the heater element always comes on as well (he tells me it is on a timer). Additional to that, the lamp that shows the heater element is working obviously comes on brightly when starting but once the engine is running it never goes out completely although you can only see the extremely faint glow in darkened conditions. Ed has also suggested changing the pulley on the alternator and I'm expecting to be changing the drive belt as well since, after this period of slippage, it is probably knackered. Since I'm heading off up the Caldon canal I've arranged to re-contact Ed either at Park Lane services or at the Leek terminus and he says he'll come and look at it.