Graham Bowers

So how did you learn of this please? Graham

Some grades of stainless are magnetic. Have you tried a magnet on the one you have found? Graham

Definitely not a border collie. Ours has taken an advanced "getting in the way" course and has a telepathic interface, so he knows where you want to go before you do, and wants to get there first. They do tend to be very high maintenance (we are on our second) and demand lots of walks and attention. Wouldn't be parted from him though. Long hair means lots of hair to cope with. I guess a big dog means lots of food to carry on the boat. Graham

On the subject of anchors. I would expect the circumstances that would make deployment necessary on a river would be loss of propulsion and the hazards to avoid would be weirs, being swept under trees or in to other obstructions / moored boats. I always have one ready to deploy when on the Trent or Soar however benign it looks, and have never had to use it - but would never consider not having it ready. In fact I'm probably going to get a folding anchor as a spare in case the main one becomes snagged and then lost - but that's probably because I've done quite a bit at sea, and a spare is the norm. As one poster mentioned having chain attached to the anchor is a good idea as it keeps the anchor in the intended attitude for it to bite in. The recommended rope length is 3 times the depth of water or more. On the subject of river levels. I've been out on the upper Trent in high yellow with no probs. A couple of years ago we got marooned near Syston for a day as the Soar was in the red. Boats were going through but a BW man at the lock advised against it, and told us we would be uninsured. I checked my insurance policy and nothing about river levels, but there is an exclusion of "Claims arising from your reckless actions.........." and I wonder which way an insurer would argue. Could be best to discuss it with your insurer first if considering going on red. Having said all of that, if you understand and abide by the rules of the game then I'd not worry about the rivers. Hope this helps Graham

There has been talk of a replacement for the horse bridge for some time now but a couple of hundred yards upstream of the old one. This weekend I saw evidence of the start of construction. Fenced off areas on both sides of the river plus a container on the non-Shardlow side. Graham PS saw said boat grounded on Sat morning as I was walking the dog and wondered how it had happened. It looked well aground then and with falling levels, how was it re-floated?? Tug, crane or a levitation spell??

A look around the heritage centre at Shardlow and hopefully go to the Mikron "Pedal Power" show. Then a leisurely chug as far as maybe Willington and back, with the objective of visiting the pubs along the way that I haven't visited before. Oh, and catching up on my reading.

Another vote for Honda. Admittedly the 2 KVA is only 50% more than the 1 KVA, but weighs 21 Kg as opposed to 13 Kg. I have the 1 KVA and wouldn't fancy chucking the 2 KVA around as I have an awkward lift in to where I store it. I guess I'm saying, consider if weight is a factor for you. Cheers Graham

I came through traveling South in my cruiser a couple of weeks ago. At the North (non-gated) entrance there are chains hanging down that indicate the height of the tunnel at the lowest section. I'm sure you'll get through OK, but the chains will hopefully give you confidence. Not sure if there are any at the South end as I didn't look.

Very good :-)

I used to do these surveys on ships donkeys years ago, but some of those brain cells survive. The survey tells you whether your cathodic protection system is effective at the time of the survey by measuring the potential between the hull and a silver / silver chloride half cell that you dangle over the side. Its not snake oil, it is science. Cheers Graham

Thanks. I am the Graham you showed around your boat at Shardlow in August by the way. In the time honoured way, I lost the bit of paper with your email address on, but I saw you posted here so nothing is lost. Cheers Graham

Yes, good point. Moving the electrics up in the build plan would certainly be an option, and charging from a small genny would work as I cant imagine prolonged and sustained big amp draws. Cheers Graham

Thanks folks I'll have to have a peek at the supply in my marina next time I'm down. Good point about the working on boats - luckily the owner is quite laid back and I've seen people running routers etc but not sure of the power, and whether they were running a genny. My genny is only 1000VA and I have my eye on an 1800Watt mitre saw. Cheers Graham

How many amps will a shore supply deliver please, and if there is not a common standard, what sort of max / min may I expect to encounter? I've never used one but plan on doing so, and don't want to buy any power tools that are too big for a shore supply. Cheers Graham

Hopefully this situation will be resolved satisfactorily by mutual agreement once the parties are in contact but...... I think the legislation that may help you if it comes to it is "The Sale and Supply of Goods to Consumers Regulations of 2002" which I learned about on a University course recently so I'm satisfied what I was told was more than barrack room gossip. I am not a lawyer, by the way. I understand that if it can be proven that a defect present at the time of sale is responsible for symptoms that emerge later, it is possible to claim damages for a period of up to 6 years in England. I'm sure the citizens advice will explain it properly. Good luck Graham

Sooty I'm planning a NB build and I found the following whilst doing my own research so hopefully it will be of some use to you. I need to flog my way through it all. I did also find a 153 page guide to the directive but I can't find the link, although I can mail you the pdf if you give me your email address by PM. A PM, incidentally, is a Personal Message, and you do that by left clicking on the persons name at the LHS of a posted message, and then selecting the Send Message option. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/mar...al-requirements http://www.icomia.org/technical-info/document.asp?TI_ID=4 I was going to try libraries for the harmonised standards. ChrisPy and Gary I'd appreciate it if you could wave some of the benefits of your experience of RCD matters in my general direction too. If posting it is not appropriate if I PM too please? Just to level set so you know my start point, I'm quite familiar with the Machinery Directive and the harmonised standards that earthmoving equipment has to comply with. Cheers Graham

T&M is lovely. We went from Shardlow to Alrewas and back during Whit week. We moor in Shardlow btw so are a bit local. The Navigation is my favourite pub in Shardlow. Very good food and excellent real ale. Landlord is the Chef. Nothing bad about the others, but we all have our preferences. Children and dogs allowed. Or should that be dogs and children...... Once you get to Burton on Trent the locks become narrow (only one boat wide) and altogether a more pleasant experience. Morrisons in Burton on Trent is the closest supermarket to the canal. Plenty of opportunity to moor in the middle of nowhere but be aware that the railway is very close to the canal at times. Good pubs in Willington and Branston. Very rural and keep your eye open for kingfishers. Alrewas is lovely and has some good pubs and a very very god butcher - Coates. Takes me two days to get there by canal or 30 minutes in the car. Guess where I buy my meat. Google coates alrewas. What time do you want to spring in to action each day - how many hours do you want to spend chugging? Setting off at 10am will probably mean you'll spend some time meeting other boaters in lock queues to some degree. Shardlow is an old canal port and allegedly the heritage centre is worth a look but it's been closed when I've been there. Bass museum in Burton on Trent. BOT has usual town facilites and it's outstandingly appalling traffic management will be totally unnoticed by you provided you manage to keep the boat in the canal. If you manage to get it on to the street you can expect to keep up with the average rate of traffic progress............ Enjoy Gaham

Very good. Not dissimilar to a border collie, mind :-)) Graham

Wife went in just out of the bottom of Sawley locks last autumn. She closed the lower gate behind me and I went to pick her up from the sort of island between the locks. As I was manouvering the back end in to position for her to step back on board the stern, the bows passed her at an almost jumping distance so she went for it. She was in the classic hands on boat, feet on ground position and nearly horizontal until the inevitable happened a few seconds later. Cheers Graham

Good site, Thanks, Graham

I can't check my course material right now as her indoors slumbers peacefully in the room my stuff is in, but from memory it's not allowed to use marine VHF sets like "walkie talkies" in non marine situations. I know some sea marinas use certain channels to talk to vessels moving in to and out of the marinas, but I expect they have a shore license - how that extrapolates to wandering up the towpath and talking to your boat, I'm not exactly sure, I'm just saying beware. It is probably worth getting an official interpretetion of the rules, but have a look here http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/ra/..._info/ra364.htm Also, I just read the back of my license. It says "The holder of this certificate is hereby authorised to operate a VHF ONLY radiotelephone station established in a ship under a licence issued by the Secretary of State. Subject to the provisions of section 7 (3) of the wireless telegrapht act 1949 blah blah......." Cheers Graham

I did the "Restricted certificate of competence in radio telephony - VHF only" in 1998 for my scuba diving activities. Since then things have moved on in terms of the equipment but from googling today I see that the phonetic alphabet is still necessary as are the protocols for making and responding to voice distress calls. Most providers advise pre-study on these and I would emphasise that you actually do that pre-study and the actual course is then straightforward. I see a lot of places examine on the day - mine was the day after. The exam I did was multiple guess plus assessed radio operation in distress scenarios, making a Mayday or Panpan call for example. To operate a VHF set you will need an oerators license AND a licence for your boat. I am a bit out of touch as to what set to recommend, have a look on some of the yotty forums and ask on your course. The hand held ones have a lot less range and are only really used as a backup for diving activities where we do go a few miles offshore, but I'm not sure what you would need on the Thames. I am diving next week (all week in the Hebrides), leaving this afternoon, and will see what we have on our boats, but I'm pretty sure they are old technology. Cheers Graham

After a mere quart of the stuff I found myself metioning to the missus that it's possible to get a NB trucked over the channel for some continental cruising. Now I have to find out the practicalities because she is, err, quite interested. OK, we don't actually have a NB, but have been window shopping this very week:-)) Outline plan is to holiday NB in the UK for a while until retirement opens up continental possibilities. So, I am keen to hoover up information and google mainly returns adverts for holidays, so I thought I'd ask for pointers in here. Cheers Graham

Interesting. In the absence of weighing Wud, I would expect making the hull section measurements I originally talked about and doing the calculation with actual hull data would get us within 10 per cent. I would have expected to get closer with the block coeficcient method, but then I did guess at the l, b, d measurements. Maybe you could check the actuals sometime? Cheers Graham