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MikeV

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    West Yorkshire
  • Occupation
    Retired
  • Boat Name
    Whych Way
  • Boat Location
    Skipton

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  1. We once followed a 60' boat down the Huddersfield wide. It was a slow process getting the boat diagonally across the lock and then emptying the lock slowly until you were sure the rudder had cleared the cill. With a crew of four they had someone on standby to fill the lock again should anything snag, but they did make it down. Going up should be less fraught!
  2. I've got 5.6m of Myson finrads (350W/metre) + 3 radiators on a 55ft boat. While you feel the heat from the radiators you never seem to feel any warmth from the Finrads although they are probably contributing to the heating in the salon. As others have said, Finrads alone would not cut it. I've also used Thermaskirt at home on a project two years ago. In this particular case I had some large windows with low sills and I did not want to clutter the walls up with radiators. I ran Thermaskirt around about half the room including under the windows and across the threshold of the patio doors. With 16 metres of Thermaskirt rated at 142W/metre my calculations showed that it could only contribute about half the heat required for the coldest conditions (-10degC) and therefore there are also two radiators on other walls where it was possible to accommodate them without affecting positioning of furniture. I think you could use Thermaskirt as a supplement to radiators on a boat. If you had areas where you haven't got the under gunwale space for a radiator you could run them along under cupboards kickboard style.
  3. I wouldn't have thought you'd buy a split cross-bed mattress off the shelf. We have two identical half mattresses approx 3' x 4'6" which stack on top of each other during the day. They came with the boat so I don't know their source. There are no labels on them but they are good quality. I regularly see Whalin Upholstery advertising made to measure spring or foam mattresses at the back of the waterway mags. If you're tall then make sure bed base height + mattress still leaves enough room for feet/head to be under the gunwale otherwise you'll have a very short bed!
  4. It's also just possible you new battery is duff. I bought 4 cheap batteries once and they rapidly showed all the symptoms of sulfation with very low charge current even when they were 50-75℅ SoC according to my Smartgauge. I've now got 4 Trojan T105's and they will take all the amps my 90amp alternator can throw at them until the SoC comes up. After 2 years they're still performing like they were when they were new.
  5. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  6. I'm in the pound below! But I know owners of Albion & had chat with them this afternoon.
  7. I noticed the water levels were low but I did not experience any problems coming up except at lock 66 (Wheelock) where I came to a halt exiting the lock and we had to let down some water from the pound above. The pound I'm in (nr Red Bull) looks to be about a foot down from normal but we're still floating. I checked C&RT's reservoir watch and the T&M does not have any specific reservoirs but obviously gets its water from the Macclesfield and the Caldon reservoirs which are at 88% and 89% levels, so there does not seem to be a shortage, it just needs to get let down to the T&M
  8. At the beginning of July it was broken when we travelled to and from Saltaire. On the way to Saltaire we arrived at the back of the queue just as it was fixed, but there were about 5 boats waiting. On the way back it was again broken, but we had just come up the Five Rise late in the late afternoon and so were happy to moor for the night, however they did fix it early in the evening and let the waiting boats through. Or at least we thought they'd fixed it, but the next morning it wouldn't work again and we didn't get through it until nearly lunchtime, again accumulating a queue of boats in both directions As I understand it, as part of the development of 400+ houses north of the canal they will build a fixed bridge so C&RT are trying not to spend any money on it even though it's really EOL.
  9. I'd try and just use Vactan on the rust. It shouldn't be hard to keep the majority of it off the bitumen. The first time I did my tank I had to de-rust the whole tank (horrible job!) and I then coated it with 3 coats of Vactan and 3 coats of bitumen with a small roller. When it next needed doing after 2 years there were only a few patches that needed taking back to the steel and were treated with Vactan. I then rollered the whole tank with two more coats of bitumen. To make the application of bitumen easier keep the tin hot. I stand it in a bucket of boiling water for at least an hour and regularly top up with more boiling water during the application. It's important that the tank is completely dry as well. I put a small electric fan heater in the tank for a while which probably also softened the existing bitumen a little which should improve the adhesion of the next coat.
  10. It sounds as though you can handle 20 litre containers so why not get yourself a big funnel and pour it in? When I was on the Lanky and had to buy diesel in a borrowed 20 litre jerrycan, as canal side diesel pumps were non-existent, that's what I did. I only had a small funnel but placed some rags round the filler to catch any splashes.
  11. This post cannot be displayed because it is in a forum which requires at least 10 posts to view.
  12. MikeV

    Yagi antenna

    I did use one for a while but TBH it was a bit fiddly to align with the nearest phone mast. I used to use it with a data card inside the laptop and about 5 metres of cable out of the window. I only bothered to get it out of the cupboard if the mag-mount aerial I usually used failed to get a reliable signal. Since I've switched to a MiFi I've had so few places where signal strength on '3' has been an issue that I sold it on eBay. I guess if you're in a fixed location and your signal strength is very marginal it would make a difference. You don't say if this is for voice or data. If data, don't assume a better signal will get you a greater data speed. I find they are rarely related. I've had places where the signal strength was quite weak but had excellent data connection and visa versa.
  13. Canvasman is top quality but if you're looking for good value try Ken's Covers. I think he's still trading although he is semi-retired. He's Liverpool based and doesn't like to travel too far.
  14. I would have thought it would be better to try and get the boat back in the water while the river is still quite high. There's some nice big trees opposite that would make a good a Tirfor anchor providing you can get access to the land.
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