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As opposed to sitting in a chair in the office looking out of the window. I suppose that's vat free.

You can unsubscribe from the email alerts if they are coming through but no longer of interest. If you're not receiving these, just don't look at the thread anymore!

I would suggest he knows more about broadcasting than you ever will.

I phoned CRT this morning to report a bust paddle on lock 64 on the Wheelock flight. The paired lock had already been chained off and the one remaining top paddle looked decidedly dicey. Couple of locks later I met a workboat chugging towards me and mentioned it to them, to which they replied they knew and were on their way to fix it. I thought that was pretty good...

I cycle fairly routinely along stretches of the L&L from the Stanley Dock flight to Litherland and quite often from just north of Litherland to just beyond Aintree racecourse. I occasionally take my young son on a bike ride up to Aintree too. I’ve cycled in the pitch dark in the winter months getting to a job at 7am or I’ve left the city as it’s going dark in the evenings many times and pushed through Bootle. I’ve hopped over the same canal footbridge every morning and afternoon this past 6 months. Honestly, I’ve never had an ounce of trouble with anyone or seen anything threatening. I ding my cycle bell to warn walkers ahead and usually it’s just ‘aright Lad! Or go ‘head mate! Or Nice bike fella! Only one grumpy man with his dog once and I stopped so he could air his grievance. Everytime I’ve seen him since we exchange a friendly nod. Yes there are a few scallies sat under bridges numbed out their minds on noxious weed that you can smell half way back to where you started but I seem to get a face full of that everytime I leave the house. It just seems to be people in general these days. Litherland is very secure. Judging by the overstayers and boats that look to be very vacant in the winter months I’m guessing the owners have no compunction to worry either. Young trouble makers are too absorbed with their phones these days to be bored like in days of old. Here’s a shot just before Bootle Strand Shopping centre. Nothing to fear. Enjoy your trip.

But at a boatyard you almost certainly won't be, and you've also lost a sale of coal, gas, a few boat bits that the buyer didn't realise he needed till he got in the shop. Or do you seriously think a boatyard is busy every minute of the day earning themselves a fortune? More like opportunity lost.

Why would anybody in their right mind want to handicap UK manufacturers by insisting on non metric measurements. There are currently only three countries in the world that don't use the metric system Liberia, Myanmar and USA. The USA have I suppose an excuse currently in view of the rest of the insane decisions being made.

Perhaps a cheeky question but will anyone admit to a having a proper boat and b a proper windlass and c boasting about those 'facts'? I did see the name of the said boat, while the steerer was telling my wife about the above attributes of his craft, a couple of days ago but would prefer not to mention it on the forum.

Its a sick joke from the old days, little children have just learned how to wipe their own bums when they are sent to school and encounter Izal 😀, it does not clean, its just spreads the stuff around. When my children started school they had Izal, myself and other parents comnplained (and pointed out that the teachers did not have Izal in their toilets). School agreed to change to proper paper but not till stock of Izal exhausted. Year later Izal still there. It appeared that their stock was not going down......and thats because all the little kids (mine included) took their own roll of proper paper to school 😀

Braunstone is a shytehole, Braunston tunnel is just a hole.

[Pic 11Oct2014] The entertainment is that the cruiser is moored on the riverbank, with a weir upriver and another weir downriver, separating it from the canals. It was moored here for about six years, and visible from the dual carriageway bridge. It might be possible, in times of flood, to navigate over one of the weirs. Seeking a photo I wandered up to a nearby field-entrance, and talking to a chap working there, I found the details of the boat's journey to that mooring. ... ... which had nothing to do with shooting any weirs. The boat had been brought to the field on the back of a lorry, craned in, and was being used as accommodation during an environmental project.

I once did the whole of Stockton, Hatton and Lapworth in a day, I only moored up because my now wife was worried about me....I was cruising the N Stratford towards the sunset at 9.30pm and loving it..... Sorry, did I change the subject....

Having retired (early, really quite early) from a career in radio, and moved on board, I have begun making a canal-based podcast. There are five episodes out so far. Rather than the sort of podcast where someone just pontificates, these are more like radio programmes — and they’re short so they don’t take a lot of listening to. Here is the link for Apple Podcasts. Here is the link if you prefer Spotify. This is the link for Amazon Music. It’s also on a whole load of smaller platforms including Cast Box, Overcast, and Pocket Casts. Just search for The Water Road. I’ve been a bit nervous about posting on here, but the reaction from other places has been pretty good so here goes. I’m sure you’ll let me know what you think of it.

And yet people still insist on shoving cheap plastic covers in 13A sockets in the misguided belief that somehow that makes them safer....

That was the army issue. Only officers could use the smooth side. It was good for lining cake tins if you weren't bothered about the flavour. Unused of course.

It was great stuff if you needed a bit of tracing paper tho, or wanted to make an origami water bomb as it didn't go soggy like paper towels did.

If in doubt test a bit first. Some now claim to contain a bit of cotton or plastic or something, they still appear ok but best avoided. If you run out do not be tempted to use the kitchen roll, especially Regina Blitz, its indestructable. Izal is Not toilet paper, I dunno what it is but its not toilet paper 😀 Absolutly no wetwipes, some clain to dissolve in water, I tested one in a jamjar of water and gave up after year, still intact.

It's known as the dinosaur clause.

and this?

I was on a diffrent tack - thinking a proper boat would have a proper windlass

There are some windlasses that seem likely to wear the spindles, short two pieces of metal as opposed to a longer single piece that seems to fit more snugly. I’m not sure they are “proper” windlasses. A few weeks ago a kind vlockie and I were admiring our nice old cast iron windlasses that looked the same make. They fitted beautifully on the Stourbridge flight but to my disappointment and cracked knuckles they kept slipping off the new gear on some of the Wolverhampton flight. So they probably aren’t proper on that flight but felt proper nice on the Stourbridge. Likewise some of the longer windlasses don’t rotate without knuckle clearance on some gate paddles so aren’t proper then. My bronze GU windlass looks proper on the Ham Baker paddles and fits really well but seemed less proper when one of the stubborn Fosse lock paddles needing lubrication caused it to bend. Hopefully the owner of the proper boat had their tongue properly in their cheek.

One of the issues with a projector is that it's projecting onto a white screen. The white screen also reflects ambient light, so the projector needs to be significantly more powerful than any other source of light reaching the screen. TV screens are black (or try to be black) to avoid this exact problem. Sufficiently powerful projectors clearly exist, but I do wonder how many of the cheap ones on Amazon can only be viewed with all the curtains and hatches closed and all the lights off, on a moonless night, using night vision goggles. Many years ago I shared a flat with a guy who had a very early projector TV; having to close the curtains and turn out the lights every time you wanted to watch the BBC News was quite tiresome.

Thanks guys. And KIB, I appreciate the humour and the message. I actually love Scousers! Honestly!

A single part paint cures by evaporation of solvents and often also by a chemical reaction with air or water. The chemical bonds formed within the paint are not very strong, so it is relatively easy to wear and scratch it. A two part paint cures by chemical reaction between two different chemicals which are mixed together just before painting. Once the reaction happens, it is not reversible. This means the chemical bonding in the paint is much much stronger so the paint is hard and resists scratches. The fact that the paint is a resin means it only needs a small amount of solvent to thin it, rather than quite a lot of solvent to carry it (some oil based single pack paints also do this). This also typically means it cures to a much denser film so air and water don't get through so easily, and some can also chemically react with the metal surface, blocking the surface from further chemical reactions with air and water, ie they stop it from rusting. Epoxy and polyurethane are the two types of two part (two pack) paint you are most likely to encounter. They both work as above, but they are chemically very different and the chemical reaction that happens is not the same. Epoxies mostly cure with amines (the slightly fishy smelling part b) and polyurethanes mostly cure with isocyanates which smell like superglue. Performance-wise, a two part paint is much better. It is harder and tougher and protects the surface better so the paint does not flake off if you get a scratch through. However, mixing tiny quantities for spot repairs is difficult (not impossible). More importantly, whilst epoxies seem to last forever in the tin, polyurethanes (topcoats) are moisture sensitive and 'go off' in the tin. That makes it very difficult to deal with scratches over the years you need the paint to last. There are some choices on compromise - you have already covered the most important protection with an epoxy primer so you could now use a single part undercoat and topcoat. This would make it easiest to touch up but it will need doing more often, or you could use an epoxy undercoat and single part topcoat (alkyd or mono-urethane) which will mean the scratches tend to get less deep and the colour part is still easy to touch up, or you could use an epoxy undercoat and a polyurethane topcoat (I would also second the Epifanes recommendation - boatpaint.co.uk had the best price last time I bought some and I have used them several times, finding them very helpful in mixing to RAL colours), using a colour scheme where the exposed areas are a different colour, so for example framing out the panels and painting the hand rails. These small areas would then be painted in a single part paint so they are easy to touch in, while the main sides which are less exposed are in the two part paint for durability. Alec The most uncommon chemistry, which I am currently trying out to see how well it performs in practice, is the polysiloxane cured epoxy. In theory it doesn't matt, chalk and fade like epoxy normally does. For now, single part alkyds and mono-urethanes, and two part polyurethanes appear to be the best options for topcoats. One other thing to mention - pigment is expensive, resin is cheap. It is fairly obvious therefore how different paint brands can be sold at different prices. Paint really is one of those things where you get what you pay for, typically more pigment in the better brands. This gives better colour coverage, lower permeability to air and water and a stronger paint, particularly true in a single pack paint where the resin is not as strong. There is therefore a very good reason to use a brand based on recommendation. FWIW, International, Hempel, Jotun and Epifanes all spring to mind immediately as high quality brands. There are others too such as PPG Sigma but they are more niche, but what it does mean is if you spot something locally that appears to be a good deal, from an unknown brand, it is worth checking online whether that is an uncommon high quality brand or something cheap and cheerful. Alec

The (only?) advantage of a single paxk topcoat is that it will be easier to make small repairs in the future.

If you're sanding the orange peel down then I wouldn't worry too much about the "valleys" between the peaks. I'd probably just go over the sanded surface with some green Scotchbrite. I've used single part Hemple Primer Undercoat on top of Jotamastic before and it goes on well. But I'm wondering if you're going to all the trouble of epoxying the topsides of your boat and then going to the expense of having it professionally painted, why wouldn't you use two-part top coats for extra durability? I don't know much about two part-top coat paints, but a boat painter I know uses Epifanes two part undercoat and top coats. It might be worth looking into if your painter has experience using them. The other thing I'd say is that you're obviously doing your due diligence by thinking things through and reading the technical data sheets for the paints. Just make sure the painter is doing the same and understands minimum/maximum overcoating times, etc. You'd be surprised how many don't. If you suspect they're not technically-minded then perhaps stick to single-part undercoat/topcoats.

The first few times we did Watford happened to be in winters ... a trip to Mkt Harborough was a regular winter cruise. Never saw any lock keepers. Rog

Posting just to keep thread open sorry just the way it is

But I think the locks were available for boater operation outside the lockie's working hours back then.

Sometimes you don't want to "fine tune" what you do in order to appeal to the largest number. Occasionally, intelligence is better than going for the lowest common denominator, and is certainly more satisfying to the artist concerned, who may be more interested in their integrity than just plugging the latest popular codswallop to get hits - as is done in most of the YouTube vids I suspect you watch. I'm constantly amazed by the responses mine get; some I consider the best get double figures at most while others churned out to be topical for a week are still getting thousands of hits years later. You're better off satisfying yourself than pandering to the public, who, if you ask me, are pretty weird.

Rude.

Hempel Primer undercoat is a good one. I'm not sure you're correct here. Presumably by "time delay" you mean the maximum overcoating time? Jotun do publish figures in their TDS for maximum overcoating times when painting other types of paint on top of Jotamastic including acrylic and polyurethane paint. The maximum overcoating times given by Jotun relate to the "Maximum time before thorough surface preparation is required" (as quoted from the previous page to the image below). So while I'm not sure about alkyd paints, single part paints will chemically bond to epoxy if applied within these times In any case the OP is going to key the surface for smoothness rather than bond strength so it's a moot point.

We use normal high build Symphony single pack undercoat over 2 pack. We've been priming in 2 pack for years now and never had an issue.

The system is faulty. It is like the police expecting a person to plead guilty to a crime before being told what the crime is.

The sites of locks two and one can be discerned in the fields. Best viewed at this time of year from the railway bridge near to the former junction, the line across the field is obvious and the rise in the road indicates the bridge. We searched the are extensively when filming for our documentary on "Waterways to Derby".