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“…looking for boaters to share money saving tips” “Don’t buy a boat”

It’s because despite changing attitudes, there is still a not-small contingent of british people who are homophobic, and a smaller contingent who are quite happy to voice that and demonstrate it by physical attack. Why not have a heterosexual pride thingy?, part of the answer is that people don’t get verbally abused, beaten up, killed, thrown out of the family home etc because they are heterosexual, but all those things still happen because people are homosexual even in 2022. And that is just in the UK. In other parts of the world, these people can be unemployable, imprisoned or executed by the State. The gay pride thing is about normalising being gay, that it is nothing to be ashamed about, and is a normal subset of humanity, always was and always will be. The aim being to make it less socially acceptable to be ostentatiously homophobic.

Next was to move to the panel in front- it curves up slightly along the chine, so I took measurements from the baseplate every 30cm and plotted them onto the replacement steel, then joined them up by bending a waggly ruler between them. Quick zip along the line with a grinder and I had a bendy sheet. Tacked it in to the sheet that had been fitted behind, and gently bent it into shape by pulling it into shape from within the boat with a ratchet strap. Next was the piece above- I'd deliberately cut the "hole" in the boat not tall enough for the replacement panel, so that I could draw around it. This was a good idea in theory, so my Dad and I picked up the piece, attempted to hold it in place and draw around it. This proved to be an utter impossibility trying to balance it on edge and not drop it through the hole. Tea was consumed, heads were scratched and the idea of fitting tabs to the panel below was generated. Tried it, and it worked really well. The panel could be held in place with G clamps firmly enough to se the edge of the new sheet as a "fence" for the grinder Hole enlarged, tacked the panel in to the rear and pulled it in at the front as before. The boat has led such a hard life the side was badly dinged in places, so it didn't meet very well in the "inny outy" axis, so the existing hull had to be pulled out to meet the nice flat new sheet

Just done the Portland Basin to Manchester and I have to say was pleasantly surprised. Really interesting journey, 18 locks so took all day. Loads to see and all locks working well with plenty of water. Great mooring at the end ( on rings) in Piccadilly Village, not sure how long we can stay here but very nice.

Surface rust is a function of surface finish, since the imperfections are nodes where rust formation starts. Have fewer nodes, ie a more polished, smoother surface, and there's less rust anyway. Surface finish is a function of material hardness, if the same process is used to finish it, ie a rolling pass of the same pressure with the same weight and spec of roller, of the same thickness of material. Also, of course, different batches of different steel (ie with different alloying compositions) are likely made in different places so the equipment and details on the process (ie rolling pressure, passes, etc) won't be the same. Even if they're made in the same place there will be variations. It could simply be that a "bad batch" is actually, just a "different" batch which would have been perfectly fine for another application which uses thick sheet steel, but for the rather haphazard and non-ideal processes which go into constructing a narrowboat shell to a cost, its physical differences meant corrosion was able to take hold sooner. Personally I think it might be an old bow thruster tube which was welded over, but there was something else too which meant instead of a small circular patch, a big sheet was put onto the boat. Maybe the repairer had a big sheet and simply CBA cutting it to size. After all it only very approximately fits the boat.

I think the welding thing may be to do with how thin those replacement panels are, possibly thinner than the originals on the vehicle. Also if the plates on the vehicle have been pressed to shape they will be work hardened to some or other degree which will add stiffness to them that you may not have in the new plate. The specification may also be a bit different. As you say protection is critical in road vehicles and improvements in that field are why the panels can be thinner in modern vehicles. I did post my background earlier but removed it. I worked full time for 32 years as a railway infrastructure engineer and was latterly the lead engineer for Network Rail's track (permanent way) engineering policy and strategy. As NR is one of the country's leading steel buyers and it's demand underpins the existence of an entire steel mill I had to know some stuff but also worked with real experts on a daily basis, folks who had worked in the steel industry as material scientists on the mill floor, in research labs and in global assurance. I still do a bit of consultancy work including advising on prevention of rail failures and that does focus on the particular risks associated with older steels. Probably the most comparable thing to narrowboat baseplates I experienced is that there are about 3 million steel sleepers on the rail network which are cold pressed from an 11mm rolled mild steel plate section. They are untreated and just sit in the stone ballast and are subject to the normal environmental conditions but obviously are subject to heavy loads. They have been standard since 1998 and there are trial products from a decade previous and some much older legacy designs. The projected life is 75 years and not long ago before I left I did some inspections on the earlier installations. 20+ years and they look pretty much like they did when installed i.e. covered in rust but sound with no significant loss of section. A very different story from what we hear in the narrowboat world, and frankly one where getting it right matters so much more. As far as rail steel - a special alloy - is concerned there is no doubt that the best rails available are the ones leaving the mill right now. I was never once engaged in a discussion about the propensity of carbon or alloy steels - old or new - to rusting. It's just not a factor compared to the many other things that the material scientist and engineer is concerned with when working steel to - and occasionally beyond - it's limits.

I'd agree, during 2020 we noticed a large increase in the number of people walking the towpath opposite our house. The numbers don't appear to have fallen since. There has also been an increase in the number of boats going past too

We always found that is the mooring rings were not well spaced for NC then we were better off tying the stern line off to the cleat furthest away from the bank. The angle on the rope works better for holding the boat steady.

The latest minority group to be planning a publicity campaign or so I've heard, is 1970s sports car enthusiasts. They intend to be known as MGBGTs

In response to GOLIATH Any ideas as to this view. The clue being near single locks that replaced a James Brindley Triple Riser As to the painted water cans, it is interesting to see no boat name on them and also ponder on how often a mop handle was painted The source of the image is RCHS Collection

That's Kelpie out for another cruise and this time we will ( hopefully) be on s bit of water we haven't travelled on before - the Huddersfield Narrow and Standedge tunnel - as part of the Explorer cruise . We are enjoying the good weather and having a slow trip to join the others later this week and in fact we only came from Anderton to bridge 108 ( Acton Bridge ) today . We are moored under the only tree in this stretch sitting watching the world go by. Haggis -

The third chapter of the Bank Holiday- We'd really saved the easiest bit until last- the panels to the rear of the panel put in originally. Nice and easy, nice and flat, plenty of things to line them up off. Chop chop... (Because this panel was as far from the stands holding the hull up as possible, not the portapower ram underneath the baseplate to stop it going all floppy) And steel tacked in. Much much faffing around then occurred as I pulled and pushed and levered the fresh steel into place. This involved a lot of nipping in and out the boat to put a tack here and weld an eyelet on there, which the little RTech was mega useful for. While I did that "the apprentice" was given an angle grinder and set to cleaning off areas of the swim so that they could be ultrasonically measured. There's about 4 garden pea sized pits on either side, but the rest measures 5.6mm and above, consequently i'm not going to replace the steel there, just weld up the pits. Result! Which hopefully fills in the blanks leading up to the image posted originally

20 years ago, the better half, had a car that over heated for no apparent reason, no amount of normal looking at, found anything amiss. Desperation removed the water pump, the light shone brightly! All the vanes in the pump had corroded away, the poor spindle was doing it's best, but without the vanes, the water didn't move. Any over heating in a modern engine, would have me removing the water pump to see the condition of the vanes. Bod

You could, but it would not be the norm. Normally the 'dip-pipe' for the engine will go almost to the bottom of the fuel tank (just sit above the muck and water level) and any other appliance using fuel would have a shorter 'dip-pipe' so that the appliance will stop running before you don't have enough fuel left to run the engine. If you connect it as proposed, you could use all the diesel sat running the heater and have none to start / run the engine.

It can also be ground up and the resulting powder mixed with distilled water to create a solution, a few drops in each eye is perfect for when you need to give something a long, hard looking at...

Something similar happened to me once but unfortunately we chose to stay and then waited two hours to get served. I think the kids were about 7 and 12 then so not good. You made the right choice. Harvester vs Toby Carvery is a nil-nil draw after extra time and the Toby wins 1-0 in the penalty shoot-out. Thinking about it I have a Harvester at the opposite end of town from the Hungry Horse, I've been once and I bet that was 20 years ago.

What an amazing experience. The size of those structures are awesome.

Our fridge just consumes expensive gas... No, but he travels with enough hardware that you might be excused for thinking so.

Probably sold to them by the syndicate maintenance people who also sell them the filters.

We’ve just got home from doing the Llangollen over the past two weeks and was surprised at how quiet the New Martin locks were. I think it might be something to do with the timing, when many of the hire boats were back at their bases for turnaround? Likewise, we got through Grindley Brook both ways with virtually no wait either.

Pandering to the latest fad - LGBTCRT ?

But equally, I suspect most folks on a gay site are not looking to crew on a boat either. Seems perfectly reasonable to me to ask on here, which doesn't exclude asking in other places as well.

It still wont get him through the day. You only get out what you put in, well a bit less actually.

6,000,000,000,000 - you forgot to include the dog

Bank Holiday weekend seems like a lifetime ago now, but here's the first of the updates on what happened To fast forward to the end result (Like you did when asked to read a book in school but couldn't be bothered), here's what we ended the weekend with; I say "we", as I had my dad on the job, which was enormously helpful to have a 2nd pair of hands, even if neither of us had any experience of replating a narrowboat! This was achieved in sections, as described previously. I was very conscious of learning from the mistakes of the previous owner, and not cutting out more than the new sheets would replace. Consequently the new sheets were rested up against the side of the hull and drawn around, to ensure good fit up. In order to do this the D iron needed to be removed. As it wasn't fully welded, this was relatively straightforward- just zip through the tacks with a 1mm disc in a grinder and get the bolster chisel behind it When replacing it i'll definitely be fully welding it on- water has become trapped behind it and caused some spectacular corrosion in points. Another point to note for prospective boat builders More soon, but i've reached the post image size limit

Tank the grey water from the basin with the excess going over board and pump that into the loo.