Neil TNC

Here is Mini Me, our other boat. It is a 1988 Wilderness Beaver trailboat with a tiller steered 9.9 electric start Yamaha outboard. It has all mod cons, 12A charge from the outboard, 220Ah of gell batteries, 1500W inverter/charger, gas fridge, 2 burner hob/grille (no oven though), Propex blower heater, Thetfordery, pumped water system, shower, IKEA click-clack sofa bed. All the narrowboaters think it is steel and keep whacking it, when we share with them in locks. Here it is on it's trailer (now knackered).

Not really http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/OP_Scot/OPSCOT1.html ...anyroad... the WWWW has turned me into a reformed character

I expect the way things are going even those in the water will not be safe

A well known blogger who does not like people hiding behind pseudonyms, blew the whistle on Matt Black...in this case it had rather dire consequencies.

I suppose it I was ever mad enough to bring Earnest "home" then I could soon design a self pump-out to Thetford cassette filling system, using the WWWW's old Thetford. Because of the diesel situation in Ireland I have just bought a 12v diesel pump, to make filling the tank from Jerry cans a whole lot easier and non-polluting.

Another one?...perhaps Matt Black is ready for some more disclosures from AV(2010)PLC. http://www.notthenbnews.blogspot.com/ It is a shame a well known blogger decided to blow the whistle on this...as I think in the future it will be proved a surprisingly accurate account of what went on at BW a few years ago (and for all I know, or now care, still happening at the moment.)

Excellent! (film, not the stolen L&W plant)

Well and acurately put Brian. From someone who with another middle aged bloke could NOT get a full clothed elderly gentleman into a rubber tender and who could only just get him up a rope/wood tread boarding ladder hung over the metre high transom of a motorsailer. Every time I have fallen in, I have always got out via the bank. On the other hand I have many times climbed out of free water ino Earnest using the skeg/rudder fins/fender stool/rear button, which was R&D's RCD approved method of boarding...but that was in warm weather, with someone holding the tiller over hard to one side and with just a swimming costume on. When we did our ICC/CEVNI in a barge we had to do MOB with large black buoy, with two plastic buckets attached to it. After running past, turning and coming alongside we had to recover the buoy/buckets (filled with water). Linda could not do it and I could only just manage it. She still passed as a little water was tipped out for her and she got the buoy up to a round of applause from all us blokes. Mind you at the end she was awarded a "commendation", because she was the only person who noticed the barge getting hooked up in a lock, when all us blokes were having a good chat about some boaty thing or other....and soon let us know about it!

Ah!...a good toilet thread The trouble is that BW have a flawed argument in saying that people with holding tanks make more err...well "stuff" than those with casstte toilets. There is also the flawed "mess" argument. Macerated "stuff" is virtually a liquid. The two blocked sanitary stations we came across when last out on the L&S last Oct (Wildenii, cassette) were due to cassette toliet contents being emptied all over the place and not diluted with enough water. If a cassette is emptied with enough dilution and flush water, then there is very little difference in the volume per..well "functional operation". In Earnest's case the "stuff" is predigested with canal water and does not have evil folmadehyde blue it it, which stops the natural processes at sewage farms. I have a hooked fixed pipe on the end of the flexihose, that fits right down the sanitary station "hole", so there is less splashing than with a cassette. I have been getting into Thetfordery recently. Linda wondered why hers leaked...until I showed her that cassette hooks on first, before cliping it down I must admit with Mini Ne and its short journies, we normally take the casette home, due to the fact we have a nice big , easy toopen manhole right out side the back door, and by the fixed garden hose. I suppose this is what it will soon come down to for all.

Loads on the L&L...esp Blackburn and Burnley. You can see them in Martin's Pennine Waterways tours. There may well be some on the TNC site...but Martin's will be easier to find

I bought 40 over a year ago, before the rush and the prices went sky high. It was widely predicted that this would happen and what would be the outcome. Actually I needed them for Ireland as there is virtualy no Green (or Red, but I never buy it in the North) diesel for sale on the Irish "Canals". They have also come in handy during the last road fuel shortage. Welcome to third world Britain?

As others have said, ventilation will get rid of it...but to save heat, not everybody does. We use a large industrial squegy thingy, which is just the height of our bus windows. One scrape and the water is all in the drain channel. This method aslo saves getting the windows messy using rags and such.

Trust me...the Irish Canals (Grand / Barrow) are even less utilised. They make the Somme (my only recent experience of French waterways) with 12* boats on it (including the Locaboats) seem busy. Once you enter at Shannon Harbour the roving lockies in their little blue vans know exactly where the ONLY moving boat is. I can't imagine after the initial excitment that the Royal Canal, when it reopens throughout in "spring 2010" will be any busier. The latest rumour is that Emerald Star is sending up to 30 of their boats to France and that Locaboat will be selling off some of their SEW based Penichettes. As a Brit boating in the Eurozone, now mostly living off "investments" I will probably have to economise this year. 12* we went to visit the waterways manager at Amiens..he had a magnetic chart with all the current boats plotted on it.

I don't know of any narrowboaters that have gone up the Dutch River (Don outfall). I did look at it and thought that you could wind here: 53°39'39.87"N 0°59'26.38"W I know somebody that has been up to this wharf on the Tidal Aire 53°42'20.34"N 0°57'29.44"W People claim to have been up the Tidal Wharf to Tadcaster. I have never investigated this by land. I never fancied it in a narrowboat, looking at the entrance from the Ouse. 53°50'38.92"N 1° 7'46.51"W There is another waterway you would get a full length narrowboat up, that is the River Foss in York. Castle Mill Lock is 97ft x 18.5ft If you contact the local IWA with 24 hours notice, they will lock you through FOC (donation welcome) You could wind at the junction with the old paper mill arm, after investigating how far you can get!

I have used canal water to flush Earnest's macerator toilet from day one. Earnest has a raw water intake, just above the bottom plate, to a stand pipe, so no seacock below water level. Needless to say this is the most likely place for the hull to leak, so the side anode is positioned just above the intake. Earnest has a changeover valve for freshwater flush, if you are high and dry, or in very weedy conditions. It has a two stage filter, which does not need cleaning out that oftern. The worst and sadest blockage was a small fish. Earnest also has a rather overpowerfull 240v AC self pump out system, using the rather outrageously price LeeSan / Jabsco kit.

I have not yet bothered to examine the adapted blower heater, but Graham Thomas at Riversdale Barge (SEW Co Leitrim, ROI) heats his (large) fabrication workshop using waste engine oil from his hire fleet, moorers and farm machinery. He has just installed the mark 2 home brew wood fired boiler for his house / leisure centre / guest house, which takes full size pallets and logs.

Ah...similar to the Waterworld effect! TNC are now more akin to the "Last of the Summer Waterland" effect

As others have said, it is possible to get an acceptable payout from the insurance company. Personally I would get the payout first, then negociate with the insurance company for the salvage. It is quite likely they will just say keep it, to save them the problem / liability of disposal, or let you have it for a more reasonable sum than if you insisted you wanted the boat back at the start. Document the evidence well (it would appear you have from the very sad pictures of your boat)......and good luck.

if it is anything like their inability to issue an Explorer licence for the WWWW, then they will probably get you to alter it in crayon. Perhaps Leeds have francised out some of the licencing to BW Scotland to get round the stupid blip in licence renewals, re Gold licences only running from 1st Jan, as BW capitulated to EA? Perhaps BW have francised out some of the licencing to BW Scotland as they are better funded and have some spare capacity? Perhaps BW Scotland has mounted a takeover bid?

John Wheatcroft soon had me doing it the proper way! ummmm....well the classic M barges had a pair at the bow, but a bit wideley spaced and only a single at the stern. GCCC M 45 is the most original M barge, still unconverted and with a Bollinder. AFAIK the bytrader barges were similarly equiped.

Yeah...we will back you up!

Welll...I once had one that exploded in my large cupboard, knocked a C&H handspike, which then neatly turned off the Victron inverter. The first we knew about it was lack of toast situation in the morning Another boater friend had one explode and blow a cupboard door clean off its hinges. This is what made me get the Hammar type.

I hope other Seago lifejacket owners saw this: http://www.seagoyachting.co.uk/images/pdf/...ning-notice.pdf Two of TNC's were so affected. Ours were sent back early on in the recall...and due to Seago's confusion, got sent back four I have always had the crotch strap type, as I KNOW how hard it is to get someone out of the water. With a crotch strap, the harness assists recovery, whereas an inflated non-crotch strap type hinders you. Many people do not realise that even the "Hammar" hydrostatic (water compression) type of self inflating lifejackets need their firing mechanisim periodically changed. The dissolving pellet type should have the pellet capsule changed every couple of years. It is also recommended that this type are kept in a dry and damp free environment (like not abandoned on the boat over winter!) The new "Olympic" 175N Seago self inflating lifejackets do have the better Hammar mechanisims.

Keep up the good work, Mrs TNC still thinks the Thunderbox one was real!