davehull

Posting this on behalf a friend, The Tight Yorkshire man, (Not myself) who is 'winging it' Deisel engine didnt work and is now refitting A poor man's electric boat with a Forklift motor. I have helped with some of the mechanical parts of the project (episode 4 of the YouTube vlogs)Thought the vlogs may be of some interest https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRNAx_RnZkanCcI8IiAp-UQ2 .https://www.facebook.com/wingingitthepoormanselectricboat/ https://twitter.com/PeteBel10174813?s=09 https://instagram.com/wingingit

Got mine from Wesley Marine, there are some photo's in my gallery if that helps.

Update Removed all boxing in from around tank on Saturday morning and cleaned immediate area. No visible signs of leaks around outlet pipe or seams visible. Filled tank slowly watching for any sign of leaks from any area, bottled out at half full tank. Shut off feed to water system and marked inside of tank at water level and left overnight. Sunday morning no leaks ???? We are back at the boat Friday to prepare for the bcn challenge, hopefully with no leaks. If this is the case we know we can operate with half a tank until I can get the boat to somewhere I can investigate further and spend some time sorting the problem. If for some reason the tank has emptied itself again, god knows. Thanks for all the replies and suggestions I will post further news next week. Dave

Thanks for the replies Getting someone to the middle of nowhere with welding gear and asking them to squeeze into a tank may prove difficult. Finding the leak without filling the tank is my big problem at present. Liner for the tank is an expensive option I was hoping to leave as a last option. The tank was fully dye pen tested and then filled and left for 2 days before it was fitted in the shell, after 10 years I think vibration and the constant filling and empting has stressed a weak spot on a weld. May have to silicon in short term and ask a friendly short thin welder to quote for rewelding from the inside. Dave

I had the shell made for me about 10 years ago by the company I work for. The tank is quite large and shaped to fit the front of the boat. We often weld stainless and mild steel at work so it was not usual for us to do the tank this way. The large hatch was for cleaning purposes. Dave

I have a big access hatch on the top of the tank which I can just get in. The top of the tank is welded into this hatch so removing the tank would mean cutting the top of the bow off, so not really an option.

Our water tank has developed a leak, the tank is stainless steel and fully integrated into the bow of the boat. The only part accessible is the back of the tank with the take off pipe. I am asuming one of the welds has split because the tank had emptied itself into the boat in the space of 5 days. Without filling the tank to try to trace the leak and it then empting into the boat again I was thinking about silicon sealing all the joints from inside the tank while it was empty. I would appreciate option/ideas on this course of action and other ideas to sort this. Dave

Richard Changing Pace crew this year is Dave and Louise, no dogs this year.

We were the end boat that night (blue boat loads of wood on the roof) the other 2 were still there 2 weeks later when we came back on our return journey. Got talking to one of the boat owners who seems to have permission to stay as he has terminal throat cancer and is not fit enough to move his boat. He has been befriended by a group of locals (taxi drivers, shop owners) who help him out and spend time with him playing monopoly and such forth. He told me he was leaving his boat to them as a thankyou for the time they had looked after him. Human nature never ceases to amaze me.

Moved from Stoke lock to Holme lock yesterday afternoon with about 4 foot of fresh, and ended up towing another narrowboat with engine trouble that couldn't get through the railway bridge. (he was coming backwards in the flow) Corners were rough, steady but slow progress on the straights.

Team Changing Pace are in again this year (Dave and Louise+3 dogs) Louise was so giddy when we picked up Monkey I thought she would explode !! Please do it again. Will try and dig out the photo and post it.

Reply from CRT Mr Hull Thanks for reporting this to the Trust, we were not aware of this incident. I have passed this to the management team for the Leeds & Liverpool Canal for them to deal with directly. Regards Tony Stammers Head of Health & Safety Canal & River Trust

Quick update, after reporting to both CRT and Blackburn council this morning, I have received a reply from the highway dept of Blackburn works who are going to look at making the area safe. No reply from CRT as yet. Dave and Louise

That's more or less as it was when we were moored there, I thought it had gone in recently, quite shocked that it has been left nearly a year without any work or safety precautions put in place. Will report the incident to CRT and maybe the local council as suggested. We never thought to involve the emergency services as the tot seemed to be ok, looking back I don't think the Grandmother would have hung around to wait for them. We thought it best to get the child home asap to get him into clean and dry clothes. We don't know if the parents took him elsewhere later. Dave and Louise

I would like to share something with you. A few weeks ago, the 10th sept to be exact, we stopped at the visitors mooring at Cherry tree just before Blackburn on the LL. Most of the concrete bank had fell away into the cut taking the rings and quite a lot of the towpath with it, we managed to get in on what was left of the mooring late Friday afternoon. After walking our dogs the following morning we were chatting to a local lady walking her dog when my wife screamed and ran off shouting for help. Looking round startled, I noticed a lady stood by the collapsed towpath and a push bike by her side, the owner of said bike was stood in the cut. Moments later I realised why Louise was screaming, a pram was in the cut, with the child face down in the water, the bike rider was desperately trying to lift the pram out. I got there seconds later and we managed to drag the pram and child out. After what seemed like an age we got the 3 wheeled modern buggy on to safer ground and much our relief the tot was alive and well, I helped the cyclist back onto dry land and quickly wrapped the freezing tot in a warm blanket from our boat. At first I thought the cyclist and pram had collided, but it wasn't the case, the lady with the pram had lost control on the collapsed towpath and the buggy had tipped over into the canal, she said it was too heavy to stop once it had started going wrong. The cyclist had seen this happening and jumped into help and in my opinion is a bloody hero. The local dog walker took the lady and child back to their home close by and later came to let us know the child was none the worse for his ordeal. As we talking a lady came down her garden opposite the incident and said that she had seen the whole thing and had phoned CRT to report it. A couple of things hit me later, My first impression that the cyclist had maybe been the cause of the accident was completely wrong and I felt a little ashamed of myself. I was also completely astounded by the weight of the buggy when we were hauling it out of the cut, the cyclist was by no means a small guy and was struggling to get the baby's face out of the water until I got there, he admitted as we were talking later, that he didn't think he would have got it out on his own. The buggy had a bag of the usual baby stuff underneath and completely waterlogged with the tot securely strapped in, weighed a lot. God knows what the outcome would have been if neither the cyclist or ourselves hadn't have been there, the fact that we were outside talking to a local is another long shot. The lady with the tot, his Grandmother I assume, was clearly in shock and wouldn't have had a cat in hells chance of recovering the buggy from the water, I guess someone was looking out for the little one that day. Is there a way of finding out if CRT have/or are doing something about this other than phoning the main number ? I kick myself now on not taking pictures of the area and reporting it myself, the Grandmother of the tot asked us not to report it and we honoured her wishes, but this happened in broad daylight and anyone walking at night would be hard pressed to see the damage before it was too late. I have been in 2 minds on sharing this story, hence the time delay in posting, but it felt ok actually writing it down so to speak, were we wrong in not reporting it, even though it had been reported by the lady opposite? Dave and Louise (Changing Pace)