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Was asked how to do this... and the original post looked like this: ============================================== ============================================== This is how to do it on a PC-browser. Someone else can explain what happens on a phone 🙂 First, Insert the picture into the new-post screen as ususal: Then double-click on the picture to bring up the amendment menu: Two things to do here: Press the 'Left' or 'Right' on the Alignment option line. Then choose a new, smaller '(width)' under Size, having checked that the 'Keep original aspect ratio' is still ticked. Note that only the '(width)' field is amendable and that after clicking in the blank-space the new '(height)' will be calculated by the system - to give this screen ... ... and press the Update button, to give continue as a normal post.

@IanM Sorry, just overwhelmed by amount of helpful info. I haven't fallen off the boat, just hogtied at the mast during the work week. 🙂

This subject has been done to death, but I will still add a bit more.....had real difficulty in Braunston tunnel last week, could see two lights approaching, one above the other (mega bright small headlight and reflection in water). I thought it was close and pulled over but the boat never came, went on a bit, sure it was close and pulled over but again I was wrong. So thinking about this, when the approaching boat is a way off one just sees the light as a point source, when it gets close its light picks out the tunnel wall, time to slow down, when really close the outline of the boat becomes visible, time to really slow down and pull right over. With a mega bright approaching headlight none of this happens, you just see the light and nothing else and get no clues about distance, and with loss of night vision struggle to see how close to the edge your own boat is. Bright headlights in tunnels are really bad news. Maybe these new fangled LED jobbies should have a dimmer switch so that full brighness can be used only when you are sure you are alone?

The steel of my new build came primed from the steel supplier. This was slurry blasted off leaving very rough, shiny, but wet steel. Fortunately, the Chemco surface tolerant primer is designed to go directly onto wet, gingered steel, so the priming can happen without delay. Some boatyards no longer allow dry grit blasting to protect nearby boats, but wet blasting avoids the clouds of dust and wet steel isn't a problem when you use the correct primer. As for base plates, I painted the bottom of my barge. Fish are able to extract oxygen from water to "breath" at much greater depths than 60-90cm, so there is definitely enough to rust steel. Most scratches and bumps on a narrowboat are along the sides, the base plate less so. If glass flaking the base plate is within budget, it can only prolong the life of the steel and possibly improve the re-sale value of the boat when you eventually sell.

it’s pretty obvious when I have tap on, water pisses out of splits in hose and pours proper from joints.

Well is was 2 in the afternoon!

30w of LED lighting will be far too bright, expect every opposite direction boat to crash into you and give you lots of abuse. But at least you will be able to clearly see their rage. Might make a good TickTock video.

Get stuffed!

Planning on blinding any on coming boats in a tunnel with your twin super bright LEDs...?

If you just want a wide-boarded floor why not buy planed timber at 200mm or 225mm x 25mm, and save yourself all the time and effort of sanding down rough scaffold boards? My local timber yard has these in medium quality redwood, but if you are willing to accept narrower boards and whitewood the cost comes down, and the boards are already t&g'd.

Created a topic under Technical & Account Support here lest it be useful to a wider audience 🙂

'The Only Internal Propeller Which has Stood the Test of Time' 'Sold to 23 different countries..' The onset of the Second World War brought Mr Hotchkiss' business to a complete and sudden halt. It was only in 1944, when he obtained the order for the 'Exonia' that he returned to his one-man business. He then pursued his aim to provide designs and systems for bigger and bigger vessels. His Cones got larger. He was successful in gaining orders, through the Crown Agency and others, for ferries for lakes and rivers in Africa. Some of these carried vehicles. Some of them may still be in existence, although all my efforts to trace them have failed. But his ultimate aim, the order for a really big commercial vessel, eluded him. He believed, and those that knew him, accepted that he believed, that the bigger the vessel, the better the performance of his Cones. No such order ever came to him. Towards the very end of his life he still went on experimenting. One such was his outboard adaptation. It was not a success. After his death in 1960, his son continued the business for a while and produced some experimental models but none were successful and the business ceased and all its documents were destroyed. The illustrations and specifications for the ferries come from reprints used by Mr Hotchkiss for publicity. That completes my contribution to the subject. If there is interest I may go back to the 1920s and his smart designs for shallow draft river launches.

It depends on whether you are happy to presume that the boat is plugged in via a functional shore RCD. That presumption seems to be at odds with the relevant ISO and the BSS, which require (recommend, in the case of BSS) an additional RCD on the boat despite stuff downstream of the bollard RCD being already protected. Still, it is reassuring to know that they are wrong and you as always are right.

Is that a rule you've made up yourself? I might start doing that for other things... The 15 minute lock rule: Get though in 15 mins otherwise I start opening paddles and gates to force you out of the lock via whichever end is quickest. The 24 hour "I like that visitor mooring too" rule: Move on from that desirable visitor mooring within 24 hours of me seeing it or I set your boat adrift in the night. The 2 minute elsan rule: Get out of my way when I want to use the elsan point or I dump my cassette all over your feet. Do you actually have any right to disconnect someone else's hose just because they've exceeded some arbitrary time frame that you have in your mind? Of course they didn't like it - you have no right to do it.

I wouldn't mind paying more but I think it would just go towards the usual non-essentials.

Sticking to provable facts and ignoring whitewash comments, some of which sound spiteful. C&RT is not a Housing Society. Buying a licence for your boat does not entitle you to live on your boat 365/24. The original boat people, although their boats were registered for domicile had to live away from their boats for a week every year. If you own a caravan, you can't just go and live in it without impunity. Living on a boat without having an additional address is very close to being a vagrant, someone without a fixed abode. If your issues are financial, health, child welfare etc. then Social Services and Welfare organisations are there to turn to (as hopeless as they may be) but not C&RT.

"Please be advised there is a windblown tree at Bridge 12 on the Middlewich Branch of the Shropshire Union Canal, which is blocking navigation. Contractors have been informed and we anticipate they will be on site to remove the obstruction tomorrow. Navigation will remain open, however, wide beams will not be able to pass until the tree has been removed." I'm a bit intrigued as to how a widebeam could get on to the Middlewich Branch, seeing as how all the locks are narrow, and there's one at each end. Still, it's nice that CRT lets them know.

I don't like long tunnels at all, but they are sort of magical. Our headlight casts just a gentle arc of light around the tunnel so I can keep the boat in the middle. I put the nav lights on and these are mounted at the back of the boat so put a gentle glow onto the walls so I can see that the back is central. A big bright light would wreck the magic for me as well as everybody else. It's also nice to have a quick word with the steerer of any passing boats and you can't enjoy that without a bit of night vision.

No, you do need a suitable pan base, but most reasonably modern pans are fine, they're designed to be induction-hob compatible -- which are not exactly a new invention. Most hybrids (including mine) use a 230Vac generator connected to one input of a Victron Quattro with the shoreline connected to the other, then normal thickness mains cables can be used for the connection even if the generator is in the bows. This allows the Quattro (controlled by the BMS) to deal with all switchover/control/charging functions, and gives a backup 230Vac source in the rare case that the Quattro inverter fails. A nominally 6kVA generator really isn't big enough by the time you consider system losses, actual continuous generator capacity, temperature heatsoak, required charging rates, and wanting to keep running times down. I'd say you need 9-10kVA depending on the generator spec, and a Quattro 48/10000 (8kW continuous output, 7kW battery charging if you can keep it cool enough). Whether this goes in the bow or stern is a matter of choice, both have advantages. You need to think how you're going to heat the boat and hot water, if you have a diesel boiler this (and a dual-coil calorifier, and the fuel tank) all need to be next to the generator (and silencers, and skin tank...) at one end or the other. My boat has everything including batteries (except BT) at the stern, others split them between bow and stern -- both work, like everything to do with boats there are pros and cons both ways. I'm not saying that hybrids are perfect or suitable for everyone, and they are more expensive -- but do offer some significant advantages in return if they meet your requirements. They'd be much more attractive in future if there were network-wide charging bollards, but unlike EVs there's no thought-through plan to make this happen any time soon... 😞

If you build your boat with a 12mm, 15mm or even 18mm base plate you can virtually do away with having any ballast, lower the floor and have more head room

I wonder how many marinas have their RCD properly tested on a regular basis. In marinas I have visited there was a case of reverse polarity in the bollard and two RCD that worked on the test button but were way out of spec plus a final one where the test button didn't work but it tripped within spec. Yes I was sad enough to carry on RCD tester with me and I used it if I was going to be in the marina for a while.

Indeed it is. It did have a rebuild at some point. N

I assumed any baseplate painting would be done after the new shell is moved to a dry dock. After watching many shell fabrication videos I have the impression that few welding workshops can lift the whole completed shell up for baseplate painting. I have found the "not enough oxygen to rust baseplates" a peculiar claim and I am pleased to read another does not subscribe. Could it be a regional belief based on different local canal water chemistry? What is a narrowboat owner to do with so many different experiences and claims in circulation! We have microbes whose excretions erode mm's of steel per year like the saliver of the Alien in a sci-fi horror film and the opposite experience in Alan's report of zero measurable material loss in an unpainted baseplate. Could it be that traditional bitumen had an anti microbial function and now with epoxy blacking steel penetrating bugs are thriving? As to the horrible baseplate erosion in that video link I provided above, the rise in the complexity of electrical circuitry on narrowboats must be a prime suspect. Edit: Another thought. With the demise of onshore British steelmaking are shell fabricators sourcing B grade milled steel sheet from dubious sources?

Thgat applies to a significant number of people on this forum as well IMO.

Life is too short to waste watching them

We use an A4 document holder with clipped lid. its showerproof, but wouldn’t survive a dunking. Fits a Nicholsons guide perfectly Amazon do them - search CIOUYAOS A4 File Box

I once dropped a mobile phone in the canal if that counts. Having it on the boat would have been much safer! Ah, wrong TLA 🤣

Empty gas cylinders may be purchased on eBay . Last week someone had kindly removed a calor cylinder out of the Trent and left it on the pontoon at Torksey. So that will be free to whoever can make use of it. £20 in Homebase.

BCN Challenge plaques are always correctly dated, including I’d wager the one that @MtB has. I’m sure he was merely referring to how quickly time seems to pass as you get older. It does help for folk to enter before the deadline for ordering them though to be certain. Not many spares are ordered because the cost of the plaques is significant. There were four left over for 2024 but requests for those have been received on behalf of crew members and they will be sold. There are still some 2023 plaques available if any participants and their crews are short of one. They are now optional for the Explorer cruises but still seem to be popular with Challenge entrants. The problem with making them optional is that the unit cost potentially becomes very high. That’s why for now they remain an integral part of Challenge entry.

I found a No Parking cone which I put on the roof at a waterpoint, I resisted the temptation to spill c9ntrnts of casette, it was doubly awkward as his cruiser stern was slippery with diesel, i tied up both ends so if he turned up he was trapped. I considered going to the pub for an hour.

The longest we have had to wait was an hour. This was because the hire boat had got stuck in the middle of the flash at Winsford and all RCR & their boatyard could suggest was pump out all your water and see if that lightens enough (so they said). Personally I top up at almost every unoccupied water point I come to so never take long.