DandV

If you are a non smoker and can smell even the slightest smell of gas anywhere in the boat, then there will be a leak somewhere . When I was employed, part of my job was being leader of a team that had to survey about 50 lpg installations annually. The vast majority of these installations were for dispensing lpg on service stations into cars and bottle filling. The procedure was to get lowdown at the base of a dispenser and get someone else to remove the cover on that side. If there was any smell of gas at all, it could often take a couple of hours with leak detecting fluid and mirrors, flameproof torches checking every joint and spindle to find, just the trace of a bubble every few seconds. Every joint needed watching for up to a minute. Yes we used bubble testers, manometers, and flammable gas testers and we routinely soap tested (using the right stuff) every joint and spindle. Included on the team was a fitter from the maintenance contractor, We would not leave the site until the leak was either fixed and the installation rechecked, or locked off until repaired and I would have to make a return visit to certify rectification. Every 5 years the pipework was pressure tested for 24 hours, and every ten years the tank was degassed, internally inspected and cleaned. A major job taking up couple of days and a large team of certified staff and specialised equipment. It was a nice way of seeing a nice part of the country except in poor weather. My annual checks were in addition to the daily operator checks, and independent scheduled checks, (I think 3 monthly by the maintenance contractor) that I had to monitor. My checks would always pick up some failures, if gas could escape it would. Any smell of gas, or imagined smell of gas must be followed up, firstly isolate the supply, and then progessively check from the supply to furthest burner. A danger is that the stenching agent is less persistent then propane and butane and boat bilges are just as effective as collecting any escaped lpg as they are at collecting water. They don't cancel each other out but the water will absorb the stenching agent.

If you inadvertently run sides with a normal fat boat there would be no additional damage to any other hull to hull contact, or hull to lock wall contact. But hull to off side extended deck would probably be a whole different matter.

We were just in front of a boat up the tidal Yorkshire Ouse that got swept through the willows on the outside of a bend. The roof took a solid scrape with everything on top being swept overboard, chimney, plant boxes, buckby can. The stearer told us at Naburn lock afterwards, that the two inch willow branches had no intention giving way to him either, at 5plus knots, as they sprang down over the back of the cabin. He thought the dog had gone overboard in the commotion but it had fled to safety under a bed.

The modern narrow boat, has evolved to have a very simple but extraordinarily robust hull and superstructure. Unlike most boating where leak causing collisions are invariably on the hull, narrowboats are subject to collisions everywhere from the extreme top of the cabin to the deepest point on the hull. Low bridges attack the roof top. Bridge arches and tunnel sides the eves, Overhanging trees anywhere on the boat and may well be unavoidable when passing another boat, given the vagrancies of wind and water displacement. Patching the paint to a steel deckhouse, or even refitting a snagged chimney is easy compared to dealing with an impact damaged lifting roof structure.

It is a problem. What is needed is a bit of creative pragmatism on behalf of the regulators. There needs to a modified safety classification for historically significant vessels. Important heritage needs to have a viable modern use to be available for future generations to see and more importantly to experience. What is required is a regime that allows some dispensation from general rules, perhaps traded off against some other enhanced safety features as mitigation. Such as a trade offs on operating range, and perhaps on hours of operation, when carrying above a certain number of passengers. Also additional egress provision from below decks may be considered practicable. When one buys a ticket for a sightseeing flight on a DC3, you would not expect it to be provided with the full suite of safety provisions of a modern airliner, but you would also expect it to be restricted as to where, and when it could fly. Keeping those boats active is extremely important, but can only be acheived in a viable operating regime. Far too many historic boats, are being lost because there is insufficient income available to meet the horrendous costs of keeping them seaworthy. Good luck.

Our boat, commisioned May 2006, spent 6 1/2 months a year each winter afloat on a canal society mooring without any power supply from late 2006 and minimal supervision, until early 2017 whilst it's owners, it's first owners, and then us, the second owners, escaped to New Zealand. The downsides were that the leisure battery life was reduced to 2 to 3 years only per set, and I suspect that the freeze of 2011? killed a Domestic toilet bowl, a calorifier, and a ceramic water filter cartridge! No winterising problems under our ownership 2013-2016. We would be ready to cruise only 4 days after leaving NZ, and more then 28hrs of that was spent on the 12000 mile plane journey!

You would need a line from the tee stud to hang on to, the bow line, and probably to put a loop in, as an additional foothold, and most probably, and most importantly, a strong assistant on the bow. I did think about how and what to do if it was not possible to board from aft, but not practiced either fore or aft boarding from the water. The only time we boarded anybody from the water was when aground midships, and they paddled out and boarded from standing up using the centreline with a couple of loops as footholds. Winding above Lechlade we encountered the sandbar and dropped the pole overboard that floated off,

Taking an auxiliary line from the hull eye as an extra precaution to help prevent the boat slipping back on the cradle. But I think more just a vestage from the manufacturing process.

I thought this underwater tab had two functions, The first to facilitate moving the hull during manufacture and later for slipping bow first. The second, of which I am not so certain, was that it provided a foothold for boarding the front of the boat from the water, never tested that one, fortunately.

And I have had moments transitioning from the boat to the new car, on the boat lever forward was ahead, neutral in the middle and towards the back reverse but on our car as common with other automatics, lever forward equals backwards and lever back equals forwards. Bit embarrassing sometimes at traffic lights. Added to that motorists insist on passing starboard to starboard! at least in the UK and most of it's former colonies. And cars have port running lights on both sides shining aft! Motorists also have a totally different understanding of sound signals.

Just trying to reconcile the line of both the deckhouse eaves and the starboard gunwhale it appears to me that the tree has broken the boats back. Certainly did not float up aft after the removal of the tree. How sad for the owner, even if the boat was fully insured the disruption to their life would be immense.

Ah but for single lane hump back bridges it doesn't half cause some confusion on the road above!

We have got one bought new and operated intermittantly about 15 years ago and then left unused for about 6 years. I needed a temporary remote power source for a electric drill so refuelled " Wee Goh" (His 4stroke larger counterpart is "Willy Goh"). Pulled and pulled, nothing. Disasembled the carburetor and checked jets, all clear. Checked and cleaned the spark plug, nothing. Hung onto the spark plug lead and pulled the cord, thwack, but still Noh Goh. Defeated I switched it to off and pulled the cord to flush any fuel through, S econd pull, brrrrŕrrrrrrrrrrrrrrpopbrrrrrrrrrrrrr .Then I remembered that I had sussed this six years earlier that the switch was installed upside down.

Whilst here in NZ we might hope that all our competitors in the America's Cup come up with wallowing buckets, we believe, and are designing for, and are training for, that the Ben Ainsley boat will be formidably competitive, along with some other challengers. Along with the Americas Cup regatta, there will be racing for the massive J class, and veteran classic yacht sailing. A promotional video and photography session was held a couple of days ago showing our A Class Gaff rigged yachts racing to encourage more overseas entries for racing during the cup campaign. These boats are all over 110 years old restored to original gaff rig configuration. The 1897 60ft? Fife designed, Australian built Sayanara is an almost certain visitor. I also agree with examining boatman cabins as a superb bit of space efficiency.

Music on phone via headphone jack to USB powered speakers and phone via bluetooth to USB charged bluetooth speakers. All 12v charging via cigarette outlet to USB charger.