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I'm now able to confirm that the finishing point will be Factory Junction, Tipton and boats will congregate at the Malthouse Stables upon finishing. I'm just in conversation with Sandwell council regarding details of the use of the facilities at the stables. Entry forms have been sent out to last year's participants and all those who have contacted me via the forum. The forms will also be available on the BCNS website shortly.

Oh no, if they cycle a L&L lock for each potential volunteer, they will have to close the navigation due to water shortage. And anyway, what has interfering with boaters operating locks got to do with “preserve and protect the nations’[sic] …canal network”. Why not have taster sessions of picking up litter and cutting back vegetation?

My Beta 50 often sits for months with no use. I just start it as normal and for 30 years old it seems to be doing fine. I never start it unless I am moving the boat so it sits most years from October to March without turning. Worst thing you can do is start a diesel and not get it up to full working temperature. I would be tempted to leave it until you need to use it. If you feel you must turn it over do it with the stop button engaged so it doesn't start but does circulate the oil.

I went up Hanwell flight some yars ago. Single handed no other boats around and having done it lots of times before I knew my routine. Yes I do close the gates after use. Anyway there were a couple of volunteer geysers so I asked them politely if they could set the next lock up for me after checking nobody was coming down. That's how I have always done it by myself. Locks are close together so it's not arduous to walk up and down and get it all done nice and efficiently. They looked at me like I was from another planet so I just left them to wander about and got on with the boating. They were CRT volunteers but perhaps (thankfully) not trained to do locks. I'm quite pleased that bar unusual circumstances my canal boating is now in the past. I don't like the volunteer lock keeper principle because there is too much availability of personality clashes. Thames it isn't so bad because they are only on when it is busy and locks are generally operated on power by other people during the day anyway. For me volunteers on canal locks can spoil the experience very badly unless they can be employed to do something useful.

Once again, for about the 5th time on this thread, it isn’t illegal to pour beer from the pump into the same glass. However pubs which use a swan neck tend not to as the nozzle can touch the glass. If it was illegal, beer festivals where they pour straight from the barrel into a glass that someone carries around with them all day would have been shut down years ago.

Ideally all beer would be pulled straight from the barrel up on a rack. No lines needed, no sprinklers, no swan necks, just lovely pure beer at room temperature.

We nearly all did this after Boris had us under house arrest. I didn't tell my Beta 43 how long it had been and it seemed not to notice. If you sneak up on it, I doubt the Beta 38 will be any the wiser either.

I’d guess thats the “Mooring in secure and professional Inland private Marina at the centre of Picturesque Cambridgeshire Town, 5 minutes to the high Street” you’re paying for mostly. It has an optimistic sales pitch using buzzwords for the uninitiated such as “bespoke” and “rebuild” A nice big mirror so you can see from bed exactly what your guest is upto in the bathroom. I’ve studied the pictures for a few minutes and have concluded that “Fully hand carved Bespoke wooden interior” roughly translates to “bog standard untreated matchboard with a bulkhead attacked with a jigsaw”. And a dreamcatcher! Changed my mind, worth every penny

The most \i would do is operate the stop, so the engine won't start and spin it on the starter for a couple of 30 second of spinning on the starter. That should throw sufficient oil onto the bores. Then start normally but don't rev hard for a few minutes.

I don't drink anymore. Mind you ... I don't drink any less. Rog

I appreciate its unusual but other than get the thread jammed in a lock, we could do a huge turn and cruise off to Tangent , a popular destination.

Hmmm... probably the reason the boat was sold then! Get a bigger flywheel pulley.

I've been to Twatt. I was attending the wedding of a friend who was marrying a girl called Sheila Twatt. It's a fairly common name in Orkney, but I bet she was glad to become Sheila Sinclair.

I thought it was Benny Hill, the fastest milkfloat in the west.

Not to be confused with wetthong.

I can't its not my thread

Speaking as a pub owner I would encourage you not to sit warming your pint in a death-grip for too long. Get it down your neck whilst it's cool and buy another. In anticipation .... sorry about the prices - supermarkets sell their beer cheaper than our suppliers do, and we have overheads to cover. Our suppliers put their prices up 18% recently, which equates to 60p a pint if we were to maintain a fully viable GP. We haven't done that yet, just 30p.

For up to date information, including discussions with CRT, please see Trentlink on Facebook.

The question was not about routine starting from cold, but starting from cold after several months of doing nothing. Apart from the fact a Gardner is probably built like the brick proverbial compared with modern engines so ha slower bearing loads my thinking in this case is that there are more than just the pistons and cylinders to consider, like the cam bearing, timing gears, cam followers, push rods cups & rockers, any of which may have lost residual oil, so one would want to give the engine a chance to ensure oil has got to everything it needs to before increasing the load. On a normal cold start I would start with the throttle set to full speed, but set back to idle the instant the engine starts, pause at idle for a few seconds and then, if not moving off soon, increase the revs to those that deliver maximum charge so the engine is under the highest load it can be. That will give the fastest warm up.

'Calor' is (apparently) taken from the Spanish for 'heat'. Maybe they are leaving their 'small cylinders' users "frio" (cold, chilled)

Don't try to put oil in the glowplug holes or anywhere else, if you do get oil into the cylinders it is not compressible like air and could do a lot of damage.

It can be done: This was 'TWO BROTHERS' for sale a couple of years back. Good for the waterways of the Netherlands. Our own Tjalk was much bigger with eleven feet headroom from the hold floor boards to beneath the centre of the hold covering boards. Not for English canals though. I find nothing attractive in either SHELFEN or VULCAN. Neither allow access to the larger waterway system in England & Wales.

I had a Bonakowski which was well made but not as well made as my middle-of-the range, John White shell (aka Midnight) When I finished fitting out Midnight and taking into account delivery and cranes it cost me around £42000 nineteen years ago. Last year I increased the insurance cover to £50,000 and now I wonder if that would actually get me a replacement to same standard.

I know some that are fanny.

Hey I lick my glass clean!