Leaderboard

“…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

Now you have added that we can see the problem is one of the following: Using more electricity than the installed solar can provide each day Battery bank not large enough for the amount of electricity being used - but I think is no so likely. Batteries now beyond their useful life. Either sulphated by long term under charging or now have shorting cells. I think this is the most likely without seeing the boaters power audit. Fitting a new battery in this case will just ensure that he will ruin that one as well.

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

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has replied. I need to sit down with Canal Plan tomorrow and have a play around with some of your mooring suggestions to see how the times work out, and no doubt that will narrow down the food options further as well. Thanks for all your answers! I don't think it's particularly unattractive from having seen the Waterway Routes DVD and also an old video of it (about 25 years old though so bound to be changes!!) but wanted to forestall the comments - almost every old thread I came across where people were asking for advice/opinons on the route tended to have someone saying it wasn't a great part. Sometimes it was relevant (when people were choosing between several route options), but often it wasn't. I'm not sure we'll find the northern portal of the tunnel...! Is that "The Boat Shop"? I actually emailed them to check their opening times recently, some places seemed to suggest they had extended opening hours in the summer and I was hoping that if we got an early start from Stockton and made good time we might make it on the first night before they close. Unfortunately they're closing at 6pm so it's highly unlikely, so we'll probably stop on the way back instead. I've got my eye on one of the cross stitch kits, having finished my last one (a ballerina design) a couple of weeks back. We did all our meals on the boat last time - partly through lack of choices, partly because it was still the tail end of the covid restrictions so it was difficult to know if we'd be able to. I do want to eat out once this time but it probably will only be the once! I'm sure we'd probably use the light in the tunnel for the novelty/photo opportunity even if it isn't necessary knowing us. We got the gangplank out when we moored for lunch once last time - my husband could actually get off the boat without it (...he's 6'2 and it's almost all in his legs!) but we wanted to say we'd used it! We used mooring pins at every mooring last time so not too concerned about that aspect (especially as it wouldn't be overnight) if we moor there for the castle visit - useful to know it is doable if the official mooring is full, thank you. Ah, that looks helpful! Husband does the locks generally, we go a bit against the grain there - I don't think he'll risk his hands as he plays piano/organ...! Yes, I'd seen various threads about the lights gradually going out and not being replaced; shame as it would have made for nice pictures! Likewise looking at the pictures in the massive photo thread I've seen that the cat painted under one of the bridges at Hawkesbury is fading away, and that's something we want to try to photograph. It wasn't the reason for going that way but it is a nice bonus as we are both a bit cat mad. We took our recycling (and possibly all our rubbish, I can't remember!) home last time. I actually couldn't care less where the recycling goes, but husband is a bit recycling-mad (his parents were very into it back in the eighties when he was a child) and is the sort of person who will pick up all the rubbish he finds anywhere too and rather than chuck it in a public bin, will bring it home to recycle. (Mostly a good quality until you're on a walk, want to hold hands, and realise he's picked up three beer cans and a water bottle that's spent at least a week in a muddy puddle....) It's not so much the early start that bothers me regarding get past the locks, so much as the irrational fear someone will break them overnight and we'd be stuck at the last hurdle! The Waterway Routes did seem to suggest there was some okay spots to moor beyond them so good to have that confirmed. That's a couple of recommendations for the fish and chips there... personally I'd be all for it but the husband is not mad on them! I might be able to do some arm twisting though. I do remember we had fish and chips for lunch while visiting St David's some years back. I don't remember what the fish was like but the chips there were extremely good.. unfortunately the weather wasn't! When we hired last year with Wyvern they did supply (very basic) fenders, but I rather gathered from my research at the time that not all hire companies do, apparently because of hirers forgetting to take them up. (I don't think we ever forgot that - we did forget to put them out once when moored for lunch but realised before fully securing the boat so we were able to push it out a little and drop them into place!) Kate Boats don't list them in their inventory of boat equipment so not sure if they will. Oh, a few free golf balls would be useful. I coach netball and often do passing games where we add in smaller and smaller balls - smallest I currently use is a tennis ball, someone was muttering "it'll be a ping pong ball next" last time I did it, golf ball would be about that size! Or on the other hand given how often those games descend into choas with balls flying everywhere (and how much I hate using first aid skills), perhaps a golf ball might not be wise. Funnily enough when I first started planning I believe it was the Wyken Arm I had as our destination. It was only when I watched the Waterway Routes DVD that I realised that getting to (or more importantly, turning at) Hawkesbury would be doable. I hope that was everything I meant to reply to! Thank you again for everyone's comments and advice so far. PS: apologies if there are some random letters inserted somewhere in this post - the cursor leapt somewhere random at some point while I was typing, but I couldn't see where! I also hope I've kept all the quotes straight.

It’s bullshit TV, conditioning us to live on Jack Shit. They won’t include foraging for cigarette butts? It’s not as common these days as it used to be. But there are some folk still picking them up. And I guess mine sweeping in pubs is also a kind of foraging but on the decline?

Money saving tip; Get rid of the TV

On this day in 2007 Leeds Lock and Armouries A+C Compare 17Oct2007 5Jul2011 20Dec2011 10Jan2012 23Jan2013 27Mar2013/27Mar2014 (#2) 26Jun2014 19Mar2015 10Nov2015 (#2) 25Nov2015 26Dec2015 19Sep2017 24May2018 (#2) 11Sep2018 8Mar2019 6Feb2020 9Jul2020 30Jan2021 30Jun2021

To the best of my knowledge no. it's the cylindrical electric filters on Mitsubishi based engine that have the filter, or any other engine with one of those pumps. If the engine has a decent water trap and pre-filter the one in the pump should be redundant.

Silly post please ignore. Bod

That is the most sensible and cost-effective answer. I found the odd bits of rust and crud tended to block the pipe on the Pela, and if the tank bottom is "vacuumed" over at last every year there should not be much of a fuel-water interface for the bug to grow. Once the initial clean is done then I found it only needed 3 or so 2 litre milk cartons to accept the fuel and allow it to separate and drop the dirt out. I found I needed a bent length of scrap 3/8 copper pipe to get all around the tank edges. I also found the Lidle electric pump jammed on rust particles and burned out. I just used clear plastic hose with the copper stuck in the end. Started by a good suck. Probably cheaper that the syphon pump but with the risk of a mouthful of diesel.

Do you have a little adventure over on the other side once every 4 years?

I would also suggest reconsidering this, especially if you are in any kind of hurry to find crew. You might find it more helpful to choose based on personality, rather than gender. It will certainly open up a lot more potential crewmates. If its a matter of personal taste then fair enough- and in fact many women would specifically seek out other women for a liveaboard cruise, for all sorts of personal reasons and preferences. But you could be missing out on some great company, and you might find someone a lot more easily. My own reasons for excluding females as crew is because they use far too much water, and bring too many clothes. But to be fair, I also exclude males, on the basis that they consume my beer supplies at a rate that puts a strain on the vessel's fragile logistics chain. Its all about balance. PS- I even exclude Labradors for the very good reason that they are too cute to make good crew, and Jack Rusells because they all seem to have a hint of Charles Manson about them.

Is this in support of the NHS or gay people? This is why we can't be using iconography willy-nilly, it gets confusing. As an aside, whilst I support LGBTQ+ rights, I find this kind of branding cynical. When a business, e.g., H&M, uses it, what are they saying? That they make a meaningful contribution to the movement? If yes, then fine use it. But they don't, and CRT doesn't do anything special either as far as I know. Or is it to say "we welcome LGBTQ+ people"? Because that should, in a modern society, be the default position. If anything, the use of human rights movements for commercial purposes is, in my view, harming them.

Its 17 years old. That is plenty old enough for it to be a colander. Can you be specific about where the bad area is and how big? I would be very concerned if it was the base plate, a patch on the side at water level would be less worrying. There are lots of old wives tales about bad bits of steel, most turn out to be excuses for lack of maintenance IMHO.

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

Just had to post this

What that data sheet is saying is that 700w of panels have no theoretical chance of producing more than 50a of current. But in the real world, in the UK, you'll never get near that. The Victron data sheet for the 250/85 shows a maximum of 1200w which is what you're having. I'm saying that your 1200w of panels will very very rarely produce more than 50a in the uk and on the very very rare occassions that they do, you won't care that you could have squeezed a bit more battery changing out of them if you had a bigger controller, because you're batteries will be full to bursting anyway. If you buy the 60a controller, you'd save some money and could use that to get more or bigger panels, which would give you a longer season going further into the winter. Or spend it on beer/chocolate etc. Because sometime people living on the equator buy MPPT controllers.

I can see no reason to complicate the installation by having 3 of everything. How about a spare breaker and a spare MPPT controller in the cupboard just in case? A panel total failure is highly unlikely. The more you put in the more there is to go wrong.

I know, but I don't think he has taken on board the fact that MPPT controllers can run happily with an excess current input but limit the output current. I am also not sure if he has grasped that solar is unlikely to produce much more than 50% of the rated output in the UK, especially if mounted horizontally. There is also the claimed advantages of series connection into a single controller. My main aim was to caution that Dora's post was potentially misleading.

And I'm not sure why we have to contact you 'at the marina' to tell you this. I've obviously made contact with you here already. And like Jim, I'm not sure why you think it is a tradition to have amplified music so loud that all the historic boaters bringing their boats to the rally complain about it. Unless you mean us all complaining about it is becoming a tradition, in which case I'd agree with you! I for one find the over-loud evening music a significant dis-incentive when considering each year whether to bring my boat to the rally. Daytime amplified live music in the bar is fine and I don't think anyone has a problem with that, but later in the evening it is unpleasantly intrusive. Could we have a compromise perhaps and turn the amplifiers OFF at say 9pm?

I'd question that. I don't remember this happened in the early days of the show. What you have to realise that most boaters come to the Braunston show to talk, to gossip, to catch up on the news, to meet new friends, to natter to old ones. After a hard day's talking to passers-by and sitting for hours going nowhere on the parade, there's nothing better than to have a relaxing pint or two and chat without being deafened by the entertainment.