davey b

It used to have 'why do I do this every day?' painted on that fence - the act of reading it out supposed to be self enlightening. The old girder railway bridge over the M1 just south of junction 11 (Dunstable & Luton North), which has now been replaced, used have 'Welcome to a town called Malice' daubed above the northbound slow lane

'.... But Keegan scores the rebound' was a reply tag on the Underground bridge over the North Circular near Bounds Green when I was in short trousers - no-one can claim originality for that one! New road, new bridge, new graffiti...

I had an idea it might be ;-)

Surely a bit dark? Coat... Got......

When I left the field was easily drivable and it was drying out too

Merak was also the surname of the designer of the Aston Martin V8 engine in the 60s... Changing the name officially was three letters, one to C&RT for yhe licence, one to RSL for the money and one to Towergate for the insurance. There is a load of supersticion surrounding the renaming so we took advantage of at least trying to leep with the traditions and did it whilst the boar was out being blacked. We wanted unique and personal, as it was for the previous owners but that was not personal to us. Pretty much anything goes but remember you have to live with it, write it, use it on VHF, etc

This lot are good for specialist bits inc A4 marine SS or 10.9 or even 12.2 strength... http://www.orbitalfasteners.co.uk/ Not far off the canal near Croxley Green/Watford

But try to avoid this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhHqd5ki70M Getting close to water on a bike always worries me. If it starts falling whilst you are loading, you ain't stopping it!

The other area the pictured type of Rip Rap is used would be at the footing of piers and pillars to reduce the scour in the lea of the current. It seems to be a collective type of term as I saw a documentary on the building of the sea defence reef outside Venice and the designer used it to describe the giant pre-cast blocks that make up the barrier. They look like a sort of jacks (if you remember that game), two cast concrete 'T's fixed tail to tail at 90 degrees but about 30 foot tall. We shouldn't need any of those at Napton!

I think this is what I know as Rip Rap, though that term gets used a lot for various riverine construction. Sandbags are filled with 6:1, ballast:cement dry mix and stacked in a bonded pattern with stretchers and often have a reinforcing bar driven down through to increase the solidity of the initial structure. The moisture is absorbed from wherever it is sourced (rain, canal, hose, air, etc) and the whole thing sets solid. It's more semi-permanent than a temporary solution, certainly if built correctly. When the hessian rots, there should be no effect on the structure. It is still taught as a construction method to the Royal Engineers, though there are less manpower intensive methods available for their use these days.

I took advice from Spencer Coatings who said that whilst grit blasting was the ideal, Epimastic was designed to be used in less than ideal conditions and that on a narrowboat it would last well but not get a 25 year guarantee that they offer a grit blasted surface in off shore installations. MT stands for Moisture Tolerant - for tidal work. The original polyester resin mix black came off in sheets during the pressure washing but the original two pack primer was not too bad. I ground any rust areas and got on with covering with Epimastic.

Goes on quite easily with a pot life of about 3 hours. It is supplied as a 5 litre tin of bitumastic type paint with space left to add the hardener part directly to the tin, which iis supplied in a 0.75 litre tin - not much space to stir it in though. 15 litres did 2 roller coats over the top of all the strakes and rivets that were brushed on a 70 foot hull (2'6" draft) sides only. Spencers delivered it to the boatyard direct (free p&p). Not sure how its lasting but the waterline looks OK after 2 years of sitting about.

Height and tumblehome angle will depend on required headroom, likely draft, height of the side to gunwales, arc of the roof and some personal preferences in styling. Nothing hard and fast; just look at any mooring for the variations. Someone will be able to offer a sensible maximum air draft figure, but even that will depend on where and how you want to use the boat. Sorry that doesn't appear particularly useful upon reading back!

Not sure the canal is accessible but it is clear on Google Earth and accessible by road to the businesses in the former depot. The Ordnance depot closed in 1962 and dates back hundreds of years.

We were chatting about their letters at Apsley last week. Proof reading, or lack of, appears to be an issue. I always get someone in the office to read through things before they sent - I know my typing skills and I know what I want to say... My typing and my reading will inevitably lead to something else actually being present on the paper! Someone else might see my glaring errors.

I think part of the reason BWML get bad press is their business orientated manner - by which I mean they chase money! Recently BWML (a wholly owned business subsidiary of CRT) fell foul of the feelings that CRT is a charity and should be charitable to all and therefore never seek to enforce its rules. On this occasion they served notice to terminate the contract with a boat owner who had failed to pay their required fees and had been (in BWML's view) objectionable in their manner. As the boater lived aboard and suffered a 'vulnerability' BMWL were immediately branded unreasonable and trying to drive people away from their home, etc, etc, BWML suffer from being 'troubled' by communication, they aren't good at putting their side (I have received letters that bordered on aggressive rudeness, but I am assured that was not the intent rather it is the manner of the author) and seem to charge into things without feeling their way. That is OK, but can make them appear brusque rather just business-like. They also seem saddled with standing, inherited terms and have failed to write a full and sensible set that they can apply effectively (a bit like various CRT elements). One issue might be trying to apply one set of rules to all 20+ sites which will never work. Some other points people have mentioned, I think, would be they're expensive, they're growing, their upper management is 'interesting' and they skew the market for various reasons (including not having to pay the NAA - an accounting exercise, but with customer money). I'm generally happy (if poor) at Apsley.

Smallest cruise ship I've seen...

Sorry, didn't realise they had been done before; I thought they were new. As I suspected, rarely is a miracle product as good as it seems. Cheers

http://www.officialxhose.co.uk/ Not a retirement programme for former 'ladies of the night'! I saw an TV 'info-mercial' aboutthe X Hose and immediately wondered if any (rich) boaters had tried one. I have a reel with a 30m Gardena hose and a different reel with a 30m Hozelock but they take up a lot of room. I have got through two of the lay flat reels and for all their advantages they suffer more problems than they solve. My X Hose questions surround the lifespan and continued effectiveness. At nearly £1 per metre, I can almost but SS woven automotive hose that will last almost forever but also take some packing up!

What you are saying, Richard, contradicts what the OP has quoted as the new T&Cs. I'm not at home, so haven't had a detailed read of the T&Cs yet, but I always protested about the winter stay clause (who gave BWML the right to specify MY leisure time?) and with one individual exception found the staff to be reasonable about the individual circumstances. Two grades is clearer, but the enforcement policy needs to be fair also. If it is a simple as suggested, then I'm all for it, but I'm sure it won't be and I'm sure it will cost me a a lot more! I always was a cynic!

It looks just like the same fuelling system as the No.5 (or No.7) cookset for field kitchens. They're mostly gone now I think, but they were designed to be multi-fuel but using diesel, kero A or B, or avtur (but definitely not avgas, civgas or MTgas - petrol) or propane. There are much smaller ones made by Coleman and MSR and similar for camping use (small like one pot, fit in rucksack side pocket, rather than feed a company and require a 4 tonner or towing it in is trailer). The tank is mounted there to warm and thin the relatively heavy oil fuel and pressurise it enough to burn cleanly. The pump is for initial tank pressure and there should be a pressure relief valve on it. On the cooksets it used to lodge in the end of the case and was clearly difficult to fill cleanly as most food tasted of diesel when using the pressure jet burners (that was the excuse of the military chefs anyway). Probably won't last long with 1.5mm thick sides...