OldGoat

Blurry 'ell, I used to think BW were a model, nice helpful ladies in Watford. I thought EA were rubbish but now I know better - they're fantastic compared with BW. Charity ?? forget it....

I rang Gloucester office earlier in the week and got a rather unhelpful young lady. Her response was we don't know, look at the website. In the bad old days you could often talk to a local lengthsman to get a better unofficial response. Got a similar reply when querying about current water levels. Not best pleased.

It looks as though EA have got their act together. There will be two days of serious training one will be wet and the other how to fend off angry customers. Summer assistants don't cost that much and although EA is strapped for cash, I'm guessing that it's more a matter of who has got the time rather than expenditure. Summer assistants used to the a three or four month assignment and numbers have fallen off in recent years, so perhaps volunteering for one day a week might attract more people. It's a bold plan and may well succeed. How much he enjoys it is down mainly to him - I'm assuming that he has nominated a lock near to your signature address, in which case the lockies in that section are mostly friendly types and if he pulls his weight it's an opportunity to learn a lot about the Thames - most lockies have considerable local knowledge. There's a lot more to being a lockkeeper than just opening and shutting the gates. The official view is that volunteers will not be allowed to operate the lock without the duty keeper being nearby. Even if the lock is switched to Unattended Public Power there's still a liability issue which EA take very seriously. Enjoy - it could be great, especially if he's gregarious. NOW a plug. Resident Thames boaters are getting very concerned about wanting to keep the character of the River which depends on locks being manned during the published opening times. SO an independent body The Thames MotorBoaters Association - looky here has been formed to give anyone using the River a voice when dealing with Authority. Costs nothing to join and entitles you to nothing other than to see what's happening. If you think preserving the Thames' functions is worthwhile, do join. End of Plug

AFAIK the CBA has never been repealed, so if anybody is interested is should be possible to "oblige" your Local Authority to register you. I suspect you would have to be very persistent, but it should be possible. Of course, you should be conversant with the requirements of the Act as it was designed to deal with families occupying the same accommodation in the boat. One for the ultra purists I suspect. There was a short article in WW many, many years ago......

There were two varieties of "Teddesley", the first when the concern was builders of boats and AFAIK they were mostly glass topped with quite a distinct style. That ceased in the main and the yard was purchased by peter and Linda Milward who ran it as a hire business. Most of the hulls they used were full steel construction and built by people like Les Allen. Later on TBC did build their own hulls, but again these were steel. As others have said the hulls that came out of the yard were high quality whether they were built for sale or released from the hire fleet. TBC have reverted to being a general yard - it's difficult for a small outfit to compete nowadays with the big boys. I think the remains of the fleet are managed by Gailey. I hired their last glass topper in 19xx when I think the Milwards first started, and they taught me all I know about narrowboating,the business and the characters on the cut - for which we will always be exceedingly grateful.

Sounds great, but read the small print - You will be required to hang around for up to two hours Keeping station with a tide running In waters (tidal river) unfamiliar to you A relatively narrow channel 999 other boats jockying for station. rowing boats / canoes also required to row at up to 4mph for two hours. Sound sto me like a recipe for disaster and dreamed up by folk who have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA about navigation on water.. Could be fab if some organization who know what they're doing were in charge. AVOID for the time being 'cos I think it's a fishing expedition....

We tried several years ago - and asked for permission on the Shroppie. The local BW area manager said "No The canals are not suitable for horses". I think he was not familiar with the history of the canal system....... Quite apart from all the discussion above, you can't just plug a horse into towing. Even if the animal has been broken to harness - a major step for a riding horse, it has to be familiarised with the weight of what it's pulling (quite a different feel to pulling a carriage). It can be very dangerous. If the horse gets frightened and tries to bolt, it invariably ends up with a panic striken animal falling into the cut. It looks attractive and simple to do, but it ain't. Been there (nearly) and done it. Ours was a 16 2hh Irish Draft; lovely nature, but scary when he took exception to something!!

ddiolch 'ch, That was my first Welsh lesson; aided by Google, who for once (the translation that is) made it readable:- "Welcome to wales, enjoy your stay and spend your money with us"

Work a bit harder and go all the way to Oxenford. Spend half a day exploring the colleges - even take one of the guided tours, walk down the side streets away from the dreaded tourists - It's magic. Lots of ethnic restaurants - again avoid the main drag. Recommended by Alan Coren (and me)is SoJo Chinese restaurant 8-9 Hythe Bridge Street. Select your own mix of meat and veg and watch it cook on a giant hot plate. SIX quid. Can be scrummy if you're sensible with the 'erbs and spices.. It's visible from the end of the canal arm. Take the train from Heyford - if you can find somewhere to moor. Some buses cross the canal at various places 'twixt Heyford and the City.

You BW boaters never had it so good. As a Thames boater a Gold would cost me over double my registration fee = nearly £600. It's inequitable as a Gold is only £200 extra on top of your licence. A bummer - keep orf my River...... FWIW a one day licence on the Thames covers you for two days, if you buy it at the right time. Again if you're canny you can get another and another if you say you've come off the K&A then off the Wey..

In passing it's worth noting that the Revenue have stated quite specifically that RDCOs (fuel suppliers) must / should not only offer the suggested split. It's a breach of HMRC's regulations and they could lose their license (if enough people complain). It may be that their licence is not kosher anyway... Being charitable, most outfits are sh** scared of the Revenue ad may think that they won't be inspected if all sales are at 60/40, but they're wrong. On a point of information - the 60/40 split was suggested as "reasonable" by the Revenue and covers all boats from great big seagoing sports boats (burning 50l or more per hour) down to our humble narrowboats. I suspect the actual split for slow moving inland waterways craft should be 30 - 40% propulsion - that is the amount of energy actually transmitted to the propeller. The rest is for charging your batteries and a lot of waste heat that warms the canal....

From the practical point the log periodic antenna is the most usable, as there is no reflector at the back of the assembly. The whole thing is flat, making it (relatively) easy to store inside when not in use. (The Asda one is a log periodic). The price is somewhat obscene - you can get the same from www.cpc.co.uk for about £14 plus VAT plus carriage. CPC also has a "tv mast finder" (my words) for around a tenner plus VAT etc, which is supposed to work with digital. It's not fantastic as you can't "peak" it, but will give you the general direction. Then you can peak the direction by using the signal strength meter built into ant Freeview tuner. All a bit fiddly - that's why I use satellite (where possible) - it's always in the same place....

You can't expect the heat exchanger part of the calorifier to be 100% efficient, not if you expect to be able to afford one. One's I've seen just have a little finning around a flexi copper pipe, so the heat transfer is mediocre. Anyway the flow through the coil is quite fast so the output pipe is likely to be quite hot.

The EA pumpout units on the Thames are (with one exception) all LeeSan units. Many of the units found on the canals (well, those within easy reach from the River) are LeeSan as well. The Thames units are set at 12 minutes of "suck" and the pause button holds the operation for longer than the one minute advertised. That's good enough to pumpout two tanks (as I have), and you'd probably get away with more if you want to share. So I don't understand the complaint about "not long enough". The vacuum is quite fierce - the pipes 'twixt the cabinet, boat and local tank / sewer are long, so a heavy duty pump is fitted. The head units suffer a lot of abuse, so the seal may not be perfect, but my 15 year old Midland Chandlers'(plug)skin fittings still do the job. I do carry a LeeSan adaptor bodgit just in case but never used it.

I have a very nice - well I think it is - Technomate TM600 satellite receiver / recorder which does what you want, inasmuch as receives all channels and you can watch unencryptedprogrammes. That is in essence as a FreeSat receiver but without the FreeSat EPG, so it's best to call it a free to air PVR. It has lots of outputs SCART, HDMI(?) video and THREE USB ports; you can easily pop a cheap disk inside it, or use an external, or a PC. Being designed almost for HAM enthusiasts to the operating system can be modified - not for you perhaps, but it means that folks offer modifications from time to time; keeping it alive. It also has DISEQ motor control if you want to flip from satellite to satellite. A motor is quite inexpensive.. The downside is that you can watch or record at a time - a single tuner. If you want to watch one and record another then the cheapest way to my mind is to buy a s/h PACE DS430N, 3100, TDS470N ONLY (these boxes are very reliable and other makes and models aren't) from Ebay; about £30. You don't need a subscription from Sky to watch any Free To Air channel, and there's nothing dodgy about doing this. The Technomate box is available for about £90 or less and is excellent value Th

Absolutely, and it needs to be done really well - so it's expensive. Two-part epoxy uses cyanides which are very hazardous. Just about do-able in the open air but not under cover. Very toxic fumes. OK the coat lasts for several (5+) years whereas Comastic 3-5 years and bitumastic 2 I was quoted £1800+ for epoxy, £600 for standard and that's as much for the preparation AND the materials. Epoxy is liable to chip on impact and it is not practical to touch up.. Have I put you off? Naah, you'll go ahead anyway....

FWIW and not particularly helpful, the Thames EA boards are based on the number of weir gates raised, and not necessarily how much water is going over the top - or even a measure of the speed of the flow. After the horrendous floods in 2008 EA (though they tend to deny it) flush the water as quickly as possible, so there may instances just before the weirs are shut down to the next state. The weirs are operated by the lock keepers on instructions from some UnzerGruppenFuhrer sitting in a darkened room in Farnborough or some such. The lockies do his / her bidding as soon as possible, and then put the signs out on the locks. There are FOUR states of boards:- Yellow + stream decreasing Yellow + stream increasing Red + Stream decreasing Red + stream increasing As many stream panels have been lost over the years you may get just the colours. Probably good enough. In any event you should "review the situation". It is not so much a difficulty in navigation in the wider reaches, but approaches to some locks (for example, Days and Abingdon) can be very dangerous if you don't know the River. Each lock is different and local knowledge is desirable.

I wondered where it had gone! Methinks I saw her on the Thames in Kingston when she belonged to the Sea Scouts. Anyone know what happened to the other two. I've recently seen a simlar strneg boat on the Thames upstream, but I assumed it was a later construction by ano:

Are you a sometime Actor in The Archers, perchance?? For those who don't listen to that soap; last night's edition has a clue

Midland Chandlers and Fenny chandlery refer to them as Hairpins or paper clips; that is if you mean the variety that resemble either of the names. If, however you mean the sort that look a bit like a pig's tail; well they're 'orrid, and I'd rather not talk about them....

The exhaust hoses on Ebers and any other types of boilers (? is yours a water heater - or hot air) can be a bit fiddly, and really need sealing. If your Eber won't start completely, then there will be a lot of unburnt fuel gas hanging around which can and will leak into the engine hole (or where-ever. I'd check that first (has happened to me....)

I've never been fond of later Listers - seemed to be a bit smokey for me. However, 2000 hours is (should be) nothing for an industrial engine (which is what it is). The PRM gearbox is good, and unless it is failing should last "forever" - especially as it is not over stressed in canal use. Change them both if it worries you. Beta four cylinder engines are lovely and said to be good for 10-15,000 hours PROVIDED that you are kind to them, that means changing the oil and ALL filters at least once a year or 250 hours if you boat a lot. The reason is the oil gets contaminated and the additives degrade with use. The Betas have PRM boxes pretty well as standard - just tell them when ordering. BTW engine mounts may be different if you change the engine, but no problem - tell Beta what's being replaced and they'll supply the correct rails etc. They'll also move components around (oil filter etc) if you specify what you want. Sorted!

Two points to note about the Thames:- 1).There are always major closures over the winter period which makes navigation slow / impossible. This coming winter - November to March. looky here. The worst is one lock (Hurley; pretty well in the middle) is closed from 1st. November to 28th. February 2011 2). Winter is the time when it rains (!!!) and as the River acts as a drain for a considerable number of tributaries, it is subject to frequent and prolonged high flow rates. These are signed on each lock as "yellows" or "reds". Yellow means proceed with caution Red means "Don't" - especially if you are not experienced on the Thames. It's the weirs - above and below the locks which can suck you over / push you around. So some sense is required. An anchor is needed and a length of chain / rope (not mandatory - but sensible) as is some form of buoyancy aid. These would help if you get caught in flood / high river flows.

Be very careful (that is street wise) - just fitting a larger capacity alternator won't improve the charging rate. In fact it might worsen, because higher output unit have to be turned faster. The Leece Neville unit quoted doesn't get going until its spinning at 6,000 rpm. Given that your engine pulley is probably 5 inches or so, you'd need an alternator pulley of 3/4" - that's not going to happen. I have a "whopping" 10" pulley on my Beta and with a 3" alternator pulley, I'm still not getting maximum welly out of my kit. I suggest you go back and revisit your kit. Perhaps reworking your pulleys might give you an acceptable and lower cost solution?

Threads can go round and round in circles, and "what type of oil" topics are always a good one for loads of posts. I regularly visit a US car forum and these guys get really a**l about their oil. Nothing but the very best Mobil one 0W will do, and they change it every 5000 miles. Given that the cars are just ordinary road veh-icles with a service interval of 12,000 mile it seems a bit unnecessary.. My point is that for Beta/Nanni / Kubota engines 15/40 CD-CF specification and provided that it's not formulated SPECIFICALLY for heavy duty Turbo engines (ordinary turbo diesel spec is fine) Straight 30 is also on the list, but I'd be bothered about it's detergent qualities (very important), and anyway it's quite expensive, not to mention it might be a struggle to start in the cold winter - that's where multigrades are better. Much, much,much more important it is to change the oil regularly, every year or every 200 hours depending on your use. Beta tend (well they did on mine) to fit a larger sump - 10 litres which makes the frequency of oil changes less of an issue. FWIW Esso make most of the base lube feedstocks available in the UK, pass it to a small number of blenders, who mix it to standard specifications Plus "factor X" extras to make it "that special difference" (IMHO all smoke 'n mirrors). Trust me I've been in the industry. Do buy whatever makes you happy; I'll do likewise