Neil TNC

Thanks for the offer Rich, But I do have the COM to Nokia lead. The problem is since I scrapped Mrs TNC's troublesome win xp pc some 3 months ago, we do not have a pc / laptop in the hose with a COM port! I am still trying to sort out the Bluetooth drivers on an elderly Dell. If that does not work, then I will get a COM to USB adapter for my Nokia lead. As for our 6310i's we will not be getting rid of them, it is just that we are getting of a certain age, that if we do not master a smart phone, we will be doomed!

Linda and me still have our 6310i's, they are indestructible. Mine dates from 2002, with it's original battery. It looks like one may well be retired as my daughter has just "cast off" her Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini. I have just spent a fruitless morning trying to extract the numbers of my 6310i using an abandoned Dell xp laptop with bluetooth / Nokia data suite, seeing has I have not got any pc / laptop with a COM port, to use my ancient Nokia lead, a leftover from the good old days when I could be bothered to do "mobile internet"

I had a similar thing when I was fitting out barge Maurice A. I got to the stage when I was wiring up / testing the low level led lighting, with the Victron plugged into the mains. About this time we noticed a lot of interference on the workshop radio. This was cured by replacing the cheap led modules, as the regulators were chucking out and immense amount of radio frequency interference!

I am not one for replicas, if I wanted a plonky plonky I would buy an original, or a bit of an original (the nearest I came to this was when Ed Mortimer was selling Ariel, but he did not want it to be turned into a "little tug") I agree this XR&D has too much lift on the cabin, probably accentuated by not enough lift on the stern. Even my own modest Rusty Dustbin (fabricated by Lee) has more pleasing lines at the rear end...well above the waterline.

When at Castlefield, we often get the tram and go to Bury, to do the East Lancs. Last year Mrs TNC came up by car to do Ripon to Selby one way....we hijacked the car and did the NYMR - rather a good day out with A4 - Sir Nigel, B1 and Black 5 on.

Fettling imminent on both boats. NB Earnest needs its brass capping removed from the hand rails. After 16 years there is quite a bit of rust creeping out from under. Just got the umpteen countersunk brass machine screws, wide foam tape, drill bits and new tin of bondaprimer. I am not expecting many of the old bolts to come out! Barge Maurice A needs a bit of lifting paint sorted, round bit boxes and inner join deck/toe rails, other than that this is the mostly sorted craft...Earnest really needs a repaint!. Earnest Just had first blacking done by 3rd party, rather good job done by Ashby Boat Centre, along with new set of anodes and first non Jim McDonald BSS. Just before it was put back I did a quick half hour prop fettle on the 15 year old Crowther, restoring the anti sing bevel. Now nice and smooth again not bad considering 12 year old stern tube and alignment.

You should have said Ireland.....no BSS, no license (just a simple one off free registration)...only place I have been burned off ...by a float plane

Bromptons (or any other small wheel fold up bike) are great...until you hit one of those sticky up wood boards that are a feature of CaRT eroded towpaths and the front wheel does a broadside. Don't ask How I known this.

Apart from swimming on the Thames in summer, my other swims have been of necessity (or boredom in this case!) "Exploring" Normanton Sunken Island (Tidal Trent, I forgot mate steering had not done tidal Trent before)

We got just under the bridge, just before the bifrucation...but had to reverse the whole way back. Frightening to think this was nearly 14 years ago... http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_01/fen36.html

That bloke is John Chapman, My good friend that was responsible for most of the TNC and OP salty adventures. Sadly John now has the start of Parkinson's, so the end of an era. The laptop is displaying the chartplotter, only way of steering during the night in the middle of the Irish Sea!

Never a dull moment on the Irish Sea and Scottish Highland Canals http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/OP_Scot/OPSCOT1.html OP inner helm

If you want to spend that much and have in made in (rather good quality) Sapele, you might as well phone Andy Hooke / Woodworks. Personally, for the woodwork side I would be up to making one myself, like I did for Beatty. ps I was just thinking about repainting Earnest's diamonds

Let's go the complete Adrian Stott way and have transponders fitted.

This method of filling a double lock is also the official way on the Grand Canal in Ireland. This is Belmont, with Alan the roving locky in control. As you can see the top gate racks (paddles) are rather fierce on Grand Canal locks (no NPBC baffles here!) and the centre gates on many of the double locks do not have ground racks (paddles), so without a rather waterproof front end it would be rather slow work filling the second chamber the conventional way. As for missing gate paddles, in Ireland there are only a handful of locks that do not have the standard array of 4 unbaffled gate paddles. For a laid back county, the Irish canals must have some of the fastest filling locks we have ever experienced.

OK, so I did cheat, rather a dream team of Martin Clark and Dave Kitching. It would appear that perhaps this local craft can fly? Spotted near Failsworth Tesco's

The secret to having an easy time on a Rochdale (or HNC passage) is to plan your route to go down the crap / shallow side, that way you are taking water with you. Last year we flew over the Rochdale (E to W). Early start from Rose of Lancaster, Castlefield mid afternoon, without a trip down the weedhatch, tickover all the way. The "settling pond" (moorings ha ha!!) below L65 is a classic for sunk "floaty" (bags / clothing / bedding!) crap, I did this mostly out of gear. The only problems we had were some idiots coming up the R9, who wanted all the pounds level, before they would exit a lock!

As the Idle was in 2002. http://www.tuesdaynightclub.co.uk/Tour_02/Tour02_2.html We found out that the price EA charge for raising the sluices was somewhat negotiable. To start with they did it for nothing, but some local boater insisting on a right of navigation at any time put a stop to that, a bit like Humber Lock on the Market Weighton Canal. We were told by the RWBC that is is best to go up there in the spring (or when there is water about,) and to time being above Misson while they are not sluicing, as this tends to drain the river. ISTR that is was about the time that we went up there that the RWBC stopped doing their annual bash.

Coventry Basin is now Mostly Hamless. Mrs TNC even ventures there single handed. That would be the excellent Turmeric Gold?

Another vote for the Chesterfield, The lock flights above Worksop are stunning, my fav on the Cart system. Some dinky little three and two rises that you can operate with one hand. AFAIK The Chesterfield Boat Co are still running (based in Stockwith Basin), well they were last year. Mrs TNC finally made it last year and was impressed with the bit above Morse Lock that she had not done.

Before Xmas bought some rolls of 5730 led tape from China and refurbished the Labcraft Trilight florescents in Earnest. We use the casing switch, so I Isolated the electronics by cutting the track in a couple of places and wired them in direct. With the tubes removed, there is a nice flat recessed section, just the width of the tape. After testing them at home on a battery being charged at 14.6v they still ran cool and did not blow up. To hit on the desired light colour I ran one cool white strip in the middle, surrounded by 2 warm white strips, this met with Mrs TNC's approval. The Labcraft diffusers cut down the glare to the degree you can stare at them. Finally all lights on both boats are now led (apart from some dial lamps and fridge lamps). I have now had a request by Graham at Riversdale, to do the hire fleet!