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It does look like another culvert failure. It appears that these things are possibly all getting to the end of their lives and I suspect there are a lot of them. Some are done in timber. I don't know what the answer is, precautionary replacement during the stoppage season is still a huge job so if its only one or two failures each year maybe waiting for failures is the only way. Setting up a really good rapid response team could help prevent some disasters but is also expensive. I have realised this year just how many tall embankments CRT are responsible for, many right above housing. With climate change and a general post pandemic shortage of money things are going to get tough, and a really switched on, dynamic and forward looking management is required. I am very concerned that CRT has distracted itself with cycling, signage and wellbeing and rather lost its way as far as the canals themselves are concerned.

A combination of Brexit, immigration restrictions and child labour laws mean they can't employ little Dutch boys any more.

Something for the archives, some people believe CRT can refuse to issue a standard licence until other fees or charges are paid, this puts an end to that. Obviously there is no such thing as a " mooring licence" but we'll overlook that. "Good Afternoon xxxxx Thank you for contacting us, and please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you. I have spoken with our Legal team to obtain some clarification in regards to your enquiry. It has been advised that the document is referring to a mooring licence, and not a boat licence, as we are unable to withhold the issue of a boat licence due to outstanding fees under the British Waterways Act 1995, as you correctly stated. I do hope this information helps, and once again please accept my apologies for the delay in getting back to you. Kind Regards Shannon Crofts Customer Service Administrator"

That means nothing to me ...

I would comment that TDI engines were usually designed to run in cars and light vans and "feel" as much like petrol engines as possible. Those are exactly the characteristics you don't want in a boat. Naturally aspirated and slow revving is what you want, which is why there are so many "BMC", Kubota and other plant engines around.

Thats unfortunate no one can see those links, That's fortunate someone remembered which one it was, Still struggling to find drawings for both boats but it looks like I might have been able to source a suitable engine for Hesperus now Hopefully these photo links will work for some photos of Ariel as she stands at the moment. MR L

I got a few cylinder heads, diesel pumps, injectors, piston kits, valves, springs and retainers, and ring kits STD with the triple. All new parts. I would consider a trade for some of it, as I could use a twin exhaust manifold or two, and a twin mounting base complete. Just send a pm if there's any interest. Somebody has to look after them, and give them some love?

There you go. Constructive as ever! And it only took you three weeks to put all those words together, some of them even with more than one syllable. Well done.

The Dutch barge style with (almost?) vertical cabin sides looks attractive to some -- especially on a proper Dutch barge! -- but has real problems if you want to travel widely on UK canals. There's very little you can do to change the actual air draft by more than a few inches either way -- of course you can make it as much taller as you want (see some recent boats) but you can't reduce it much except by having a very deep water draft, with the obvious consequences on today's poorly-dredged canals. Once you realise this, the amount of tumblehome makes a big difference to damage because of the way that bridge arches and tunnels curve in -- boatbuilders who put less emphasis on absolute maximum cabin/roof width use about 100mm tumblehome at each side nowadays, so the cabin width at the roof is 200mm/8" narrower than at the gunwale, which means the top cabin corners are also about 200mm/8" inset from the gunwale/hull edge. This is enough to greatly reduce the chances of scrapes in tunnels and most bridges. Vertical cabin sides halve the inset to 100mm/4" which makes damage much more likely -- the UK canals were designed to have clearances for traditional boats with even more tumblehome than I mentioned above. If you push the bed forwards, even assuming you don't mind the walls closing in I doubt that most people would want much low-down below the roof above their head -- OK if it's over your feet, but then your head is at the wrong end of the bed. You certainly wouldn't want to put anything heavy right up there under the roof anyway (e.g. water tank or generator) because of the effect on the boat CoG. A diesel generator under the stern is one option, but there's restricted height on top of the swim (typically 550mm) unless you fit one of the (small, noisier, complex, less reliable) high-speed generators (e.g. Fischer-Panda), and access can be a problem -- still quieter than a normal diesel though. In an electric boat you could fit one above the motor (inside the swim) where there's a bit more height, but then access to the motor is restricted -- and the "V"-shaped space inside the swim is often too small to drop the generator down into it. If you put the generator (and nice big silencer) in the bows along with the fuel tank and any diesel heater (and maybe a water tank) you've already filled up most of the space for a well deck; with a reverse layout you might as well either go for a tug deck or a raised forecabin for extra storage, like Gra did in the Waterways World review. The bows are then not used when travelling at all, everyone outside will be at the stern, take your pick for the layout here.

Tends to be my feeling as well for the next few years.

I think the complexity and expense of a LiFePO4 battery installation makes LA a better choice for a bow thruster.

What about this twerp.....

Ooooh I do love a round of "Pet Hates".......... -Tractor seats on a trad stern boat -Dropped gunnel windows - ugh -Boats that have the name of the couple written on the cabin side -Boats with stupid names like Narrow Escape, Meander, Dunworkin etc -Folding tiller arms I'd better stop now before I alienate myself from the entire membership.

I was approaching Holme lock on one occasion driving the Notts Princess ( 86 feet long over 20 foot beam and 16 foot six air draught over 100 tons etc etc painted bright white, when a knob in a narrowboat seeing the gates swing open ( to let me in ) with 160 plus passengers aboard he just let go his ropes and reversed from the side straight in front of me, he hadnt even looked behind once. Luckily I had anticipated and slowed and then stopped a few feet from him and gave an appropriate horn signal, he turned round and shat himself. b4 pulling back to the bank. Plenty of em out there.

There have been at least two previous Halfpenny Bridges in photographs at the foot of the Tinsley flight. From the city archive: https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;t02723&pos=10&action=zoom&id=33081 https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s07610&pos=4&action=zoom&id=10799 https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;s42659&pos=7&action=zoom&id=124218 https://picturesheffield.com/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;t02719&pos=9&action=zoom&id=33077 The area has changed out of all recognition. Not just the bridge.

In my experience of converting vehicle engines for boats is that most modern engines are direct injection so tend to be loud and they have a habit of having nasty resonances just about the speed you would normally want for a canal boat ie just past tickover. Unless you have access to machining facilities any one off conversion is going to be difficult and could make the boat difficult to sell on. Most car engines don't have an SAE flange on the gearbox so you would also need to make a bellhousing or adapt a vehicle gearbox. The best quiet engines are kubota, the parts are widely available and can be found secondhand. Otherwise for a larger slow running engine look at John Deere or isuzu - they are often fitted in plant and generators and can be easily adapted for marine use. A good place to start is emergency fire pumps as they often come with heat exchangers and other stuff which can be used in a marinisation.

Thanks Richard- and hopefully Mr Victron wont sue me for defamation- I had another look at the instructional video and on the drop-down list of presets there is one for user defined values. Just on that issue of what is the best emergency cut off, I do think I was being a bit conservative. According to the rough guide I've been using, 10v is effectively zero SoC, so it wont be easy to recover from that sort of event. But 12v is about 10%, which is the point I'd want to disconnect, so maybe somewhere between 12 and 12.4v. I do recall that the voltage will read lower if the battery is under load than if it was resting, and in these situations it will be under some sort of load, so it will reach the cutoff voltage at a higher SoC than you would think, if you were using the resting voltage vs SoC graphs. All of which I think means you have a margin of error sort of built in.

Hardly hyperbole, and the bargepole on the roof of many boats makes an excellent tool for putting in a window if the glass is too strong for a scote's boot. It rarely happens though out and about on the canal system. It's just that you started it with your mild paranoia about being broken into! London may well be a different kettle of fish though. Living on a boat in London seems to bear little resemblance to the nomadic lifestyle of proper CCing.

maybe boaters should start invoicing CRT for scratches on their boats caused by overgrown vegetation!