Scholar Gypsy

Dear Alan One other thought - in my original Bowman installation the heat exchanger had a core - a simple tube - which gave something for an extra Jubilee clips to grip onto (your photo just has two on the aft cap, and one on the front one). Photo here. Both the end caps were blank ones: others have commented about the mysterious fourth connection...

My bowman blank end caps lasted for 20 years, no problem. I have recently replaced them with new caps, and added a new stacktube, to run some radiators - but that's another story (see here). The bathroom was very toasty at the weekend. I am not convinced that my Bowman heat exchanger (Mitsubishi engine) does much to cool the exhaust manifold. Although it is bolted on to the exhaust outlets on the engine, the pipes don't appear to be surrounded by water. Isn't the main function to provide the header tank for the keel cooling system (or the primary circuit, if raw water is used)?

Bad luck - SSA on the Nene issued 0906 this morning...

It get's worse. That photo is of my Mark I mud-weight. The Mark II is even bigger, I reckon about 13 litres of concrete which is about 30kg,..

I agree re both. Do make sure you register using the computer at the lock into the relief channel - they ask for your licence number and mobile phone. I think this is so that if they go into full drainage mode then can warn you, and give you time to escape!

Not a daft question... Most self-inflating lifejackets now are hydrostatic ie triggered by water pressure, ie going a couple of feet under the water surface, not by getting wet as such. See here

i amused myself making a mudweight for the Fens at the weekend (concrete poured into a mould, with plastic waste pipes to enable the chain to be threaded through). V cheap. I think I may have got a bit carried away, so am now designing a pulley system so I can get the thing up as well as down.

Fair point. So I won't suggest Salters Lode, where the headroom under the concrete beams was about two feet at high tide when I was last there. Mind you the lock would not have been useable at that time, as the water level was above the top of the inner gates....

Dear Ann For the Nene, make sure you have two Abloy keys (one and a spare) - without them you are stuck. In my opinion the locks on the river are easier than many canal locks - all but six of the guillotines are electric, and the remainder are fine if you take your time (nice heavy flywheel to spin). The paddles on the upper gates are very easy to operate. The landing stages are well appointed but quite small..

Never a problem for me. I think any tendency was "cured" by my experience on top of the lavender boat for the 1974 Oxford rally. People passed up their various receptacles and I emptied them into the tank. A couple of hours of that and you've seen (or rather smelt) it all ....

Brentford High Street Bridge - at high tide.

If you want to fiddle around with the maths, see here, which has a link to an Excel spreadsheet. This shows what happens with four batteries connected in parallel with the main supply cables connected to the same battery (at one end of the bank). The key ratio is (internal resistance of each battery) / (resistance of each link) . The first column at the foot of the spreadsheet reproduces the results in the smartgauge article.

Cautionary message from the PLA. Two of these incidents were last weekend, I gather.

My rope system, used when going downhill on the Northampton flight (narrow locks), is as follows: a) open the bottom paddles b ) in deeper locks, decide which ladder you want to use to get on the boat when it is empty c) put two longish ropes onto the gate on the other side of the lock - one through the handle at the end of the balance beam and one around the handrail post near the mitre. Both ends of each rope end up on the ladder side d) Go and finish setting the next lock (optional - I ended up setting two at a time) e) When the lock is empty, pull on one of the ropes to open the gate, then recover the rope f) Climb down the ladder and steer the boat out g) Climb off the boat, shut both gates and paddles, and recover the second rope. I'm not sure this would work that well on wide locks (the subject of this thread) especially if the bottom gates are heavy or stiff. I would prefer just to open one gate and lift the fenders (see the recent thread on that subject ...)

Thanks - I will try that next time. A triangular rope arrangement (boat - around one rail - the other rail - boat) might work well.

and I am just old and foolish. I've found a photo of my new system, for closing the gates after I exit the lock. I didn't fancy stepping across from a closed gate to an open gate, as the rail is in the way....

I think the weed hatch is the main issue: removing the keys give three lines of defence to prevent unplanned amputation. Hot wiring a narrowboat is not exactly hard - turn the isoloator on and apply a screwdriver to the starter solenoid (or fiddle with the wires behind the key switch).

Yes, but there could be more walking. When going down the Northampton flight recently, single handed, I amused myself implementing a new system using ropes so that one could open and close the bottom gates without walking round the lock. That would work on wide locks as well, I suppose. [This was necessary as the usual "large step across the gap" technique was not a good idea, as the walkway is along the top of these gates rather than the more usual plank on the downstream side]

And here, courtesy of Dave who was also on board VINCENT JOSEPH, is what Junior has been waiting for. The explanation for my lack of photos is set out in this schematic (NOT to scale in time or space).

This boat came up from Limehouse on Saturday. I do wonder if the plants need a bit of watering ??

I don't think there is a particular issue with tugs, though it is a good idea to close the front doors. I rather like this photo from the blog of Leo No 2. SPCC cruise all the year round - in particular a trip in January to the boat show in the Royal Docks. The key factor is the wind. Snow, rain and hail are not a problem.

And some more photos here, on the blog of VINCENT JOSEPH.

Here are a few - there may be some from the other 18 boats. Waiting for the flood tide at Margaretness The millpond at the end of the River Roding / Barking Creek Upstream through the barrier Tower Bridge opened in our honour The Barge lock at Teddington

Just to update all the ferry afficionados, we had a glorious run down to Margaretness and then up to Teddington yesterday (19 boats, most of the time). I was crewing on VINCENT JOESPH (see the orginal post!). The JOHN BURNS looked very smart, repainted in Transport for London blue. I guess the other two (not in use yesterday) will get the same treatment at some stage. I am sorry I didn't get a photo (we were concentrating on not scratching their new paint). Central London was very busy - an inbound tug and barge sounded five blasts when approaching Tower Bridge and that seemed to do the trick.

Thanks to all for the advice. I hope not to need it when I go down to the Barking barrier tomorrow morning... The diagram in the original post has been stuck the back of my clipboard for some years now ...