Alan de Enfield

Why wouldn't you just use the 'stuff' specified in the British Standards ? British Standard BS 8511:2010 Code of practice for the installation of solid fuel heating and cooking appliances in small craft ie - Calcium Silicate Board. Heat PROTECTION PANELS Stoves and uninsulated flue pipes can easily get hot enough to set fire to paint, wood or other combustibles a distance away. A single fireproof panel fastened straight to a wall is no use – heat can pass straight through it. One way of making a good protection panel is to have: a 10mm air gap (supported on offcuts), then 25mm thick calcium silicate board (which can be tiled) then at least a 45mm gap to the stove body, all extending at least 200mm above the stove. (7) (This construction can be used as the hearth underneath a stove with legs, if topped by a 15mm cement-board panel.) Boat Stoves Fitting Guidance.pdf

If it is a major-strip out and rebuild I bet the OP hasn't taken into account the RCR requirements.

It is interesting to see that C&RT has not learned their lesson re the cost of raisng donations. Despite the donations income falling from £7.7m (2021) to £6.5 (2022) they spent an additional £3.6m more than in 2021 to raise less funds Number of (employess) accidents increasing. Number of visitor accidents increasing Friends actively donating falling Visitor satisfaction falling Employee engagement falling

Maybe the big difference is trhe OP's Dad is dead and you are not ?

I do not have a "View New Content" button, I have (and use) "New Posts" (Right hand side below "search") and do not have the same huge list - it goes straight into the list of new posts since my last visit.

Still £1.89 at home

The price was a couple or three weeks ago. I paid £1.73 for 'Garage White' Diesel yesterday (Bangor, North Wales)

You may be surprised how little flow it takes to hold and roll a 'sideways on' NB against a restriction. They always were by BW, and when C&RT closed the Trent because the 'barrier' has snapped the closure notice aid they had to source new Dolphins from the EU as there were non held in stock by C&RT. The River was closed to leisure traffic for weeks.

The Trent is just a tad wider, allowing more room for NBs to lift the dolphins and roll under them .................................

After giving me a price indication my supplier came back to me and said that 'Red' HVO was not available in my area (it will be 'soon') with their refinery at Stanlow / Ellesmere Port supplying the Red - so - only trucks with delivery rounds based from Stanlow were currently supplying Red. Apparently they are also servicing the 'South' with Red but she didn't know how far North the 'South' delivered to, Price for HVO White is around 197ppl

Are you aware that those booms (actually called Dolphins) are not designed to stop NB's going over the weir ? I know of two instances where NBs have been turned sideways against the dolphins and the current has rolled them undeneath the dolphins. It was when a squad of Soldiers were swept over the weir at Cromwell with 10 of them drowning and only 1 surviving that the Dolphins were introduced.

Having been on the Trent for many years and never having heard of 'Trentlink' I would guess that there are many other boaters who are 'in the same boat' - I have assisted in more breakdowns and anchoring NBs than Trent lInk has recorded. I bet they don't get a fraction of the actual incidents reported to them, and most folks just get themselves sorted and on their way. Probably a bit like saying that the 25 active members on CWDF are representative of the 30,000 boaters. Each NB 'attempted anchoring' I have assisted in has involved a Danforth which has slowed the boat but does no more than a bucket of concrete would do. The anchor is dragging and has failed to set. I'd rather trust actual personal experiene in a subject than your 'book-learning'.

I had a quote based on 1000 litres and HVO was 1p per litre more than 'dino-diesel'.

I presume with that statement that you'll never be venturing on the River Trent downstream of Nottingham. There is always a current and the locks are within yards of the weir so you don't have many options. Sttements like that do you no favours at all. A suitable anchor for the size and weight of boat and suitable chain / warp is necessary, there is little point in carrying something that will not do what it is needed to do in an emergency. I spent about 10 years with a NB based on the River Trent, and, my knowedge, experience and a good maintenance regime managed to avoid having to deploy an anchor, but I have assisted several who have not been so 'lucky'. It is not easy to approach and get a line aboard a boat drifting - we had a boat dragging its anchor, it was spinning in the (normal River Trent ) current from side to side thru' about 120 degrees and it took 2 of us (2 boats) about 15 minutes and half-a-dozen attempts each before we could get a line secured.

I'm not sure you actually understand the awarding of the 'gold star'. Did you actually think you had done something to be awarded one ? This is not awarded for 'good behaviour', or 'a good post' etc etc, it is awarded when you 'buy' the gold star (ie pay the forum money)