Scholar Gypsy

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 ...

Thanks - you are right (I found it buried away in rule 35 ©). Rather bizarrely that seems to suggest you should only use that signal when visibility is restricted, when in fact one can think of lots of instances when visibility is fine but you still need the other boat to get out of the way. The towed vessel (if manned) can also sound long+3 shorts in reply to the long+2 shorts.

I would agree with the general point you make. It is I think worth noting (and to add to the confusion) that there are local variations to sound signals. The document you posted is I think from the BW/C&RT Thames tideway guidance, and a few of the signals there are not in COLREGs themselves (4+1, 4+2, and long+2 shorts). See the local PLA byelaws here. From the thread on navigation lights on a pair of narrow boats, this appears to be the relevant byelaw for canals? (rule 12). Rule 12(3)© could cover the situation described, though I would have to say that the percentage of steerers who would know what such a sound signal meant would be quite low. I wonder if a single long blast might be best?

Dear Richard Many thanks - I take the point re fuses on the dials etc: any shorts on the much longer "downstream" cable runs will lead to false readings (eg the temperature alarm triggering when it shouldn't) rather than a risk of fire/melting etc. What you say on strapping applies if the isolators are on the +ve side, of course: with the isolator on the neg side there is a theoretical risk of frayed insulation on the neg cable for "always on" equipment touching the hull, which could be interesting if you tried to start the engine with the (negative) isolator turned off. For some reason I had it in my mind that the Smartgauge instructions recommended a fuse on both pos and neg cables, for this reason. But on checking I see that is not the case: one less thing to do. However the instructions for my VHF radio do reccomend double fuses - with a diagram showing the wires connected directly to the battery posts ...

Thanks very much - all very helpful. Moving to two isolators on the positive side may be my project for next winter - there would be quite a bit of cabling to replace to reach the sensible location for the new isolators. I have been pondering these issues over the last few days, since I finally got around to putting this together, 20 years after installation. In particular I do need to add a fuse to the negative side of the Smartgauge circuit - that's the only item left on when the boat is unattended. It also seems rather odd that the various gauges and dials are not fused at all, while (for example) the fuel pump is. On the radiator pump - you are right. Out of sight, there is a three way switch for the radiator pump - off, on (for testing), and auto (on when the engine is running). The engine charge current drops to nil after about five minutes of running.

And here is the wiring diagram (PDF version, produced in powerpoint). A bit more to do on: the connections to the Adverc (I have the manual); the large number of wires attached to the alternator - linked to previous point; the various gauges, sensors and alarms, not least as a lot of the wires behind the panel seem to have no useful function - but maybe the switches are supposed to light up in the dark, if so then I have a bit more work to do; working out exactly which wires go through the five connectors on the main wiring loom. Some guesswork so far. but it might be helpful to others trying to understand how boat electrics work. I think what I have is a fairly standard/typical set up, though there are some personal additions over the years!

Will this do? Sorry I can't seem to find a photo with charts in use. This started out as a project to make a bracket to hold the speaker secure, but as you can see a bit of scope creep then occured ... PS the photo towards the end of this heroic posting shows another way to solve the problem. Also some nice photos of buoys of various types

I am not sure I would personally agree with the conclusion reached here, but of course that's rather irrelevant. The first sentence is certainly true. Here's another personal opinion: for me, the test for whether C&RT should take over the managment of this navgation hinges on whether they can find a way to make more moorings available, and get the other facilities improved (a bit). That is of course much harder on a river than a canal, given the land ownership issues, but the work of GOBA (a rather larger number of boats, I think?) offers an interesting model. I say this because in my experience the locks (brickwork, gates, guillotines, paddles, landing stages) on the Nene are in a very good and easy to operate state - they have to be to survive the floods. It would be nice if some of the bridges could be raised a bit, and there is still a shoal at Awalton, but the focus should I think be on some of the ancillary services that need the most improvement.

Just to confirm, the bottom lock at Braunston (Wharf Narrowboats I think it is called) does stock it. S

Wikipedia suggests Mnemonics Now Erase Man's Oldest Nemesis, Insufficient Cerebral Storage This one may be useful in the rare threads about toilets on this forum: Dashing In A Rush, Running Harder Or Else Accident! and this visual mnemonic is essential for anyone who wants to know how an alternator works.