pete.i

This is not just a problem on the canal tow paths. There was a politician on the telly the other day talking about a cyclist friend of his that had been hit by a car and had suffered serious head injuries. One of the things he said was that it was okay for cyclists to cycle on the roads 2 abreast and that this was not an illegal thing to do. Cyclists need to do it so that they can converse with each other and interaction with each other. I would have thought that anyone using the roads in this day and age would need to fully concentrate on what they were doing and not chatting to each other. Cyclists also do not just ride 2 abreast. They ride four or five abreast sometimes. This, more or less, completely blocks one lane of a road. Riding anything other than one cyclist wide is going to be extremely dangerous on todays roads IMO and for a politician to be condoning the practice of riding side by side and chatting instead of concentrating on the roads is criminal but then that is politicians for you. I do volunteer work for The Canal and River Trust Educational Volunteers at Bingley Five Rise. I have seen cyclists riding down the tow path slope there at what I estimate to be 20 or 30 miles an hour. It's all very well to say do not tar all cyclists/fishermen/boaters/walkers etc with the same brush but that is inevitable and nothing will be done until someone is seriously injured or killed on the tow paths. In my opinion that is an accident that is just waiting to happen. Pete

You did indeed. Just had chance to shout hello.

Damn I could have sworn there was a canal somewhere (gads it could even be in I better check where my boat is moored) near Selby. A lovely little canal if I remember rightly and not too many weeds unlike the Pocklington. Good grief it's not even too far from Easingwold. No marinas as such though. Just a boatyard and a lock basin onto the Ouse. Goodness it looks like we even have roads and villages even a major city or two and towns. Pete P

Hi Mine alarms if I have overloaded it. When it overloads the voltage trip that I feed the inverter output through then trips and I have to reset that. Pete

Yes I should have made the point that neither the Kennet nor the Angus Ferguson are owned or, in any way, are part of the Canal and River Explorers Volunteer group. Both boats are occasionally with us when our venues coincide but both boats are owned and operated by independant volunteers. My apologies. That should not detract from the point I was trying to make that volunteers are exactly that and what we do we do for free. Pete

Hi I am a member of the Canal and River Explorers based at Bingley Five Rise. We do not charge for what we do and as far as I know the other volunteering roles within C&RT do not charge for what they do. As a member of the Canal and River Explorers volunteering team we go into primary schools and teach (rather a grand word for what we do but it's all I could think of to describe what we do) children water safety and canal history. We also tell them about the wildlife and flora on and around our canal system. The reason we do it is to make people, and we think that catching "people" young is the way to go, aware of our canals, their beauty and, most importantly IMO, the canal heritage and the fact that if it wasn't for the canals we in this country would not be where we are now industrially speaking and yes I know that our industrial heritage is not a shade of what it had been now due to various governments either shutting it down or selling it off. When we have visited the schools the children then come to one of the various locations, in my case Bingley Five Rise Locks, around the canal system where Canal and River Explorers volunteers are based. We then show them various water safety aids, show them how to use them (without anyone actually going into the water). We also tell them about the various dangers that are in and around the canals. The children also various other educational activities during their time with us. At our volunteer base we have 2 widebeam boats that are more often than not with us that the children can go onto. One is the Kennet which is a restored Leeds and Liverpool Canal short boat on which there are various fact finding and educational activities and a mock up of a back cabin. We also, usually, have use of the Angus Ferguson which is a widebeam community boat that is owned by The Connected Barge Partnership; Hanson, Grove House and Swain House schools. This also has various educational and fact finding activities on board. (along with a kettle) I am not at all sure who the "Friends of CRT Volunteers" are and to be fair C&RT are going to need all the money and publicity they can get if we are to retain our canal systems around the country. I would just like to reiterate that for everything the Canal and River Explorers volunteers do we do it all for free with the sole aim of making people, through our young people aware of the canals in Great Britain. Pete

15,000 liveabords? (I actually thought it was more than that) Lets hope that C&RT do a good job then of keeping the navigations open because finding land based housing for all those people will be a nightmare for whatever government is in power at the time. Pete

I think also with a trap and it is a trap ie it will trap stuff that goes down it and eventually block up especially those daft little low profile traps used for baths and showers, it needs to be reasonably accessable so that it can be unblocked. My shower just has a pipe to a whale that sucks that water out to a skin fitting. everything is reasonably accessable and more importantly easily unblockable. Pete

Hi all Can somebody PLEASE explain to me what the hell a scabbler is. I know what a Perago tipped wheel is but I have scoured the suppliers up this neck of the woods and no-one seems to know what a scabbler is. My boat roof is covered in what I think is car filler. Apparently the guy who built it didn't like the fact that he could see the roof support struts outline in the right light so he covered it with filler to smooth it out. It did work well and has lasted thirty odd years to be fair but it is now detoriorated to the point where it has to come off. I have taken most of it to be honest using a twisted wire brush in an angle grinder but I was advised to use a scabbler but no-one up here in t' north seems to know what one is and neither did Google the last time I look Cheers Pete

Looks like a pillard to me. Thats a cross between a mallard and a pidgeon. I'm told that mallards will bonk anything that flies.

Well said Mrs Tawny Owl. I think we do need to Give CaRT some leeway for the time being. Whether we like what's happened or not, re the enforced charitable statusof CaRT, they are doing their best with the resources they have for the present. Nightwatch is also right in as much that a lot of required repairs are the result of decades of neglect by British Waterways. Also, as was pointed out, the infrastucture is 250 years or more old. Pete

Yep Mike Boulton he did my initial survey and my BSC His email is info@bluestarsurveys.co.uk Telephone 01405 769129 Mobile: 07930 384143 Pete

Hello It was The Bingley Five Rise Family day today. The people running it were CRT educational Volunteers. The Community boat and the Kennet were there as part of the Family day. Part of the idea of the Family Day is to promote the canal system because whether we like it or not the people running the show are now a charity and if we are going to keep the canals out of the hands of developers and their ilk then we need as much publicity and money as we can get. The locky there is generally run off his feet and should have more help than he has. He does have a volunteer lock keeper but he is not allowed to lock boats in or out. The Community boat should not have moored on the water point and I will have a word with the Bingley co-ordinator when I see him although he is a non-boater and probably wasn't aware of that. Having said that the Community boat hand should have known better IMO and if he reads this he will probably chew my head off, when I see him, for saying that. I do agree that whilst we should be educating people about the canals, both boaters and non-boaters, we should also not be p*****g off boaters going about their legitimate business. I wasn't there today but I will be there for other events during next week and I am a boater. Whilst I am agreeing with you that some things should, apparently, have been done differently today at Bingley Five Rise. All the green shirted, fobbed people are volunteers giving up their spare time to educate young people and families about our canals and the history and heritage of said. They are doing it because they are passionate about our canal system and they believe (as do I ) that, possibly the best way to do that is to get em young to tell them about the canals and how this country would not be a leading industrial nation without the canals which kick started that revolution. We do not know whether this approach will work or not but we are trying. Most of the green shirts are not boaters but still share a passion for the canals. Also now that CRT is a charity, whether we like that or not, they have to have an educational policy to qualify for some grants. ATB Pete Pete

Nope I had no idea they were there but then I suppose that is because I don't often go to the CRT website. Having said that I do volunteer work for the CRT and I didn't know about them. Maybe CRT needs to advertise itself a bit better than they are (not a criticism as such more of an observation) especially now they are a charity and need all the publicity that they can get. Pete

Pete, I think my brother may go up river to Ripon and back but not sure. He is an experienced boater and is used to (non-tidal) rivers having been on the Thames in flood last spring. At the moment we're both trying to rearrange things so that we can meet up to handover. If this is not possible I may take up your kind offer of a lift. Thanks for the PM, I should have plans firmed up by early July. Martin Hi Okay, you have my home number my mobile and my email so if you should need transport just let me know. Pete

Hi The moorings in York center are visitor moorings and on a river. I do not know how long you can stop there either. They are usually pretty full, as well, at this time of year and, as Cotswoldsman says, you do have to be careful that the river is not going to flood. At the moment there isn't much danger of that but it does flood pretty damn quick and quite spectacularly when it rains. The marina you are referring to is Naburn Marina. As you say it isn't central but it's not far out. The other thought I had is how competent is he at the art of narrowboating. I don't know which way he is planning to go but if he is going up the Ouse then it's all river until you get to the Ripon Canal which isn't very long and is about as far as you can go without a truck. If he is planning on coming down the Ouse then after Naburn lock the Ouse is tidal and is not a very nice river for a novice. If he is an experienced boater, though, it shouldn't present any problems. I live in Selby which is about 10 or 11 miles south of York. If you want I could help out with transport to your boat for him as long as there are not more than six people. I have a 7 seater Sedona ( I need one of the seats LOL). I am moored at the Selby Boatyard and I would think that you could moor there for a couple of nights. I don't know what he charges for short term but you can ring him on 01757 212211 As I said I don't mind taking him to your boat from the station to either Naburn or Selby whichever you choose to moor at. If he is going south from York he will end up on the Selby Canal anyway. If you want to PM me we can work something out if that helps. I am retired so I don't have any ties and York is close. Pete

Okay thats Rust Bullet off the list then. Blackrose if the Hammerite is the old stuff that used to gunk up the paint brush in about ten minutes it should be okay in a wet enviroment. We painted our garden gates about five years ago in the old Hammerite and they are still going strong. The new Hammerite I'm afraid is just paint. I think the EU got at them or someone else owns them now and new Hammerite just comes off with ordinary thinners. It's rubbish these days.

You should see the speed they come down the slope at the Bingly Five Rise. That also being a so called "honey pot" location means that it does have lots of walkers and children there as well as the bikers. Shall we have a winge about anglers as well while we are at it LOL. Mind you that might be too controversial

Hi There is a You Tube vid comparing Rust Bullet with 9 of the other leading brands. That is quite one an eye opener but of course the comparison was done by Rust Bullet people so it could be biased. The other one that I looked at on You Tube was Rust Doctor. Again that looked like an excellent product but I cannot find a UK supplier. I haven't used either product. I have only used something called Starbright rust converter and that was carp IMO but then so might these products be rubbish. The only way to know is to use them. There is a link on that web page that you linked to giving UK suppliers of Rust Bullet. Pete

Thanks for that both. I did find a workshop manual for the box but that one is much better quality than the one I found eightpot. As for repairing the old box. The only limitation on that is if the parts price outweighs the viability of repairing it. I did price the parts up and they came to nigh on £300 and the recon unit I bought cost £398 so it wasn't worth my while. But if I can find the bits cheaper then it may be worthwhile and anyway I like doing that sort of stuff if I can and for fifty quid its not a huge loss if I don't succeed. We shall see I suppose. Pete

Hi all. I have just replaced my Hurth gearbox with a recon Hurth unit. Looking on the tinterweb the recomended ATF is either Redline Synthetic ATF or Foley Hytork Fluid. I can find neither of these on Ebay or Amazon so does anyone have any recomendations for an excellent ATF for these gearboxes please. Next question. I have the old gearbox and whilst I have been offered fifty quid for it I would rather see if I can recondition it myself. I am of the opinion that if another human being can do it then so can I. We shall see on that one. Anyway I cannot find anything on stripping the gearbox down or torques required etc etc. I could just go ahead and do it myself but would much prefer some sort of guidance. Does anyone know where I can find such documentation, videos, hints and tips. Thanks Pete I have just found the Redline stuff on EBay but recomendations would still be appreciated.

Yep another recomendation for Mike of Blue Star Surveys. He did my initial purchase survey a couple of years ago and my BSC recently. Pete