Pentargon

I've now owned Pentargon for nigh on three years and believe her BW number 60906 may have been issued in 1976 but have not [yet] been able to confirm it. The boat itself was built in Sam Springers Market Harborough base during 1973. Along the way, I was told that in the five digit series, the initial digit indicated the particular BW office where a boat was registered. I understand there were offices at Brentford and Watford and other such places. Having seen scores of Springers and noted numbers against alleged age, I'm inclined to buy into that until I get something better to hang my hat on.

As a "continuous cruiser" I welcome being 'clocked' as it should show cause but have only knowingly been checked twice in 18 months, once in Hillmorton and once on the Lea near Stonebridge. I have seen considerable numbers of boats on my travels with no visible evidence of name or number and wonder how they are clocked?

Alongside Wapping River Police station there is a fuelling depot

Wow! If you win the lottery tell me AT ONCE and I'll be your skipper, navigator, cook, teacher whatever it takes. For FREE. Meanwhile back at reality, stay away from plastic boats (affectionately known as "Tupperware") and aluminium. Listen to Mr. Bizzard and look at Springers. Make sure you look ONLY at ones with no air-intakes on the outside of the hull and preferably with an air-cooled engine.

If I can add something to what Arthur Brown says, it is not a good idea to take a 'typical' narrowboat to 'sea' unless you are experienced at the ways of the sea. I'm intimately familiar with the Thames and own a suitable narrow-boat, but I will think twice before bringing it below about Erith. (I have yachtmaster and all the sea qualifications including 55yrs recreational sailing under canvas and power) Maybe you know the ways of the sea but if you did you'd be asking different questions. However, if you get a narrowboat for the inland waterways you will have an unbelievable experience. The boat you NEED will be much smaller than you think. I see couples on t'cut in 23' [steel] boats and loads of space. It is not like camping, campers, caravans. A boat seems to have so much space. Pentargon is 36' for a reason and the name is googlable. Best of luck with the quest. I'm just finishing 12mts continuous cruising and intend to spend most of 2013 in t'cut where I look forward to meeting you some day with a HUGE smile on your face. PS Mr Bizzard has beaten me to it so I can now admit Pentargon is in fact a Springer bought partly for the reasons he states

Nice one Billy and I'm totally on the same frequency. Good news for the Braunston area is that BARBY which was getting terrible criticism and bad will early this year looks like it is pulling through. And they are to be complimented. ONLEY is ready for go, just some i's to dot and t's to cross. AND there is rumour of a FURTHER marina On the North Oxford. I understand COPREDY, to the south, is either building a new marina or extending an existing one. No wonder certain vested interests in Braunston are foaming at the mouth as it were. Looks like the gravy train may be planning to by-pass their vastly over-rated and over-expensive 'facilities.' And maybe it will not be before time.

Being aware that the OP was about "keeping a Stovax Stockton 3 multifuel stove" going all night, it's not necessarily the stove or the fuel or the settings. It's about having the instinctive know-how and the savvy to have started experimenting and learning before the real cold set in. I lived on board for some weeks last February with no heat at all. I bought a Hampshire Heater and got it working on board after a fashion within days but it has taken me months of experimentation to get a system that keeps it going ALL night. For a conventional narrowboat stove, the best all-night fuel is the Irish Peat Briquette Bale. Almost impossible to get in England. But I used them in Ireland for years on nopen fires and they never failed me. I understand that a company called Liverpool Woood Pellets claim to stock them. Link: http://www.bordnamonafuels.ie/our-fuels/peat-briquettes-coal/smokeless-peat-briquettes

I realise this thread has run it's course but Blackrose's original question was "Can I power a laptop with a car's USB socket?" The nearest anyone came to giving clear guidence was Alan Fincher who said "No!". That is the correct answer to the question asked. In the bigger scheme of things, other comments skirted (and in some cases amost touched a central tenet of) modern electronics. All computers are DC devices, using internal components which only deal with a DC environment. The plug, lead and transformer are merely [extremely in-efficient] ways of getting DCV in to the machine while making loads of Wonga for Toshiba? That's why there is a warning on yours saying "Caution. This gets hot". Just put your hand on YOURS and tell me it is not at least warm? Transformers supply 15vdc to 19vdc to the computer depending on make and model, but from an AC input which can range from 100VAC to 240VAC 50-60hz. Inside computer is a DC+ rail running nominal VDC which is writ on the machine, typically 15 to 20 but can run +/- 25% in total safety. Many if not most if not ALL electronic components inside work in the range 3vdc to maybe 9vdc and are quite sensitive to their OWN supply voltage. So each component links across the supply rail to 'earth' (0VDC) through various "istors" and shunts and gizmos you don't want to know about. It's kinda like a symphony orchestra in there. You don't need to know what the conductor knows. Just trust him. Pentargon currently has USB ports wired directly into the onboard 12VDC lines so I can charge my Samsung Galaxies and GPSs etc. I bought some Maplin car plug-ins, smashed the casings with a hammer and extracted the bits I needed to give me USB capability. Combination of rocket science and knowing how to get the meat out of a crab. In the Spring I will be converting Pentargon to 24VDC so that I can tap into the boats system to run, inter alia, a computer. Pentargon does not have ANY VAC on board (smart-arses will say there's VAC inside your alternator. There is but that's it.) The fridge already has 12/24vdc switchover capability. Some new LED lights are going in because 24VDC gives better light. I'm keeping some of the flourescents but putting them in series pairs rather than parallel to avail of Ohms Laws and save wads of wonga. I know how to handle any and all electric situations using circuitry or step-downs using GCSE type physics. Basically Pentargon will have a 24VDC rail and anything that needs stepping down will be stepped as needed. The complete wiring of the boat at a stroke will have its in use amperage halved. That Ohm guy was the Maaaaan. Any 'challenges' will be sorted in a lorry or bus breakers for small wonga. Sorry I won't be able to do your boats. I retired fifteen years ago. PS: some day ALL dwellings and vehicles will be wired like this.

Pentargon 36'LOA 25' cabin has a door midships to insulate the aft living area from the forard sleeping quarters. The hampshire charcoal burner has been trialled sice Feb14th last and can now hold the 'bedroom' to a comfortable 16ºC overnight which I've found it very nice with a tog13 duvet. I dress fully on rising and before venturing aft. For me it would be very wasteful to heat the whole boat 'cause that's who I am. Today I was by co-incidence in a 55' boat with a solid fire on coal and the whole boat was very warm with OAT at +8. Owner told me he likes to sleep 'coolish' like me and banks and damps the fire at night to that end. Heat costs you money. How hot you want to be? LOL

Not the same device Alan. No temp sensor. Crap device from China. The one Bazza got (from Screwfix?) is the business. Reflected in the price which is perfectly reasonable. They are calibrateable if you are a REAL electronics buff. My one replaced a moving coil analogue one which served me from 1997. The old one still works in all functions except the temp function which was buggered by my son trying to measure the temperature of the cooker gas flame on Pentargon. I use temp. function to analyse exhaust temperature when I'm tuning engines and sometimes also to check OAT and even my my body temperature. Tell Bazza to test his meter by taking his OWN body temperature in ºC AND F.should be about 37 and 99 give or take. I do NOT intend to tell anyone how to calibrate this device so don't even ask.

I was denied a vote because on the day my boat was not registered in MY name and although i was in contact with the previous owner he told me he know NOTHING about even the structure of the then to be be ratified C&RT and no idea even HOW to vote. So don't assume boaters could not be bothered. As an aside (but a pertinent aside) in the recent national poll to elect police representatives or whatever they are called, I spoiled my vote unintentionally by opening it with a very sharp letter opener which sliced the top flap off the return envelope. I explained what had happened to the appropriate council officer who said it would be ok to cellotape the flap on? Upon hearing that bit of equine faeces I stuffed the lot through my trusty shredder. Boaters like any other 'group' will bother if there is reason to be bothered. et vice versa. Jenyln and Cotswold and Alan F and a number of other honest men represented MY interests at a recent very constructive MK meeting with C&RT about 2C or not 2C where 'technically they represented no-one but theirselves. They did a great job of representing ME. Council be damned. The council member who was at the same meeting and who was suppose to be representing boaters represented ONLY his self. How soon can we vote him into oblivioon or are we stuck with this stuffed shirt for a number of years?

As licence holders we have a RIGHT to navigate and moor as we wish without let or hindrance from canal side residents who have no rights whatever at law. No more than people who live on the side of a road have a right to warn or advise people to pass quietly.

Great bit of sense leaking down right from the original post of this thread. One thing I can't understand though is how to define CC. I bought my boat last Jan and, with it, a marina "mooring" near Buckby Top (£1500pa) which I thought would be necessary or make sense to my needs. I only spent a few weeks IN the marina about mid-year, so I could not justify £1500pa for a rarely used 'home mooring' on my little pinshin. (Got half of it back by a ruse and will be buying an 11m GOLD licence for 2013 with the windfall). I've meandered through the system and now find myself to my great surprise in the Lea, a long way from the 'home mooring', but still so designated and hey that's ok. Pentargon is my "country cottage" and I'm also a "Lone Ranger". SWMBO has a job in the city and can take boats or leave them, (but she is a good and understanding wife!) I'm shortly going into another marina, with my boat being swung up in the air and deposited on terra firma so I can avoid rather than evade licencing while Pentargon gets her bottom scraped. I'm blessed with chronic ME/Fibromyalgia LOL so I hafta take the rest, but as soon as I'm better I'll be out and off to the River Wey or somewhere else to potter about for 2013. During the last ten months I've rubbed noses, drank pints, talked amiable bollox with ALL sorts of boaters, canal staff, volunteers, gongoozlers, CMers, drug dealers, bottom welders, marina owners, hire-operators, walking stick makers, staff of Pollards Fenny and Blakes Berko, musicians at The Grand Junction Arms and "Tony Islander". All of whom I consider part of the "Community of The Longest Friendliest Village in England". I've never ever been asked if I'm CC by anyone. It's only on forums like this that 2C or not 2C comes up over and over again. I'm ever so pleased that certain people went to the meeting mentioned in the OP and made 2C statements on my behalf, if I am indeed a CCer (or not!). And I'm not asking who they represent because for me they represent me. Thanks Jenyln, Alan, Mike, Alison you were all far more useful to me than the Council member supposed to represent ALL boaters and who let himself and the side down by not actually representing anyone except himself on the night. You might wonder how or why I can make such an assertion? Well I'm active on five different forums/fora on farceburk and believe I am 'known' on this The Biggest Canal Forum Of All. I know quite a few boaters by name, having met and spent time with them during my travels. I consider each and every one to be scholars and gentleman and that includes the ladies too. (thanks Lady Muck, Starcoaster, Heidi, Kit et al). Long live co-operative activity on t'cut. We are all one on t'cut and I have never ever been blanked by anyone. Yiz are all the salt of the earth.

I stopped burbling some time ago but have yet to get to an actual meeting. Ta Jenlyn for doing the honours tonight/last night.

Best of luck James. Keep us all posted. Me? I'd like to know when you either a) fall in drop something more expensive than coffee grounds in t'cut LOL If you are hanging around farceburk give us a nod at JustCanalsForum. My score to dat a) 3 times in 9mts b)A brand new galaxy tab and a set of gnashers. Google PenTARgon (if you can be arsed).

The marina is empty closed and barred. CaRT was looking for £80 a week and would not let narrowboats in only Tupperware. Or words to that effect. Good news? Excellent restaurant opened (last week) in the ole caff. Moorings? You can have £1 per foot per week in Roydon, I believe. Which would be a quarter of the Hazelmere price. BW never lost it's ability to fuck up on the Lea

Nice one Neil. This has been my observation also voyaging down the GU, across London and now going up the Lea. My observations would include a representative cross section of t'cut in the SE region. Empirical evidence of evasion is all over the place. One of the better indicators of potential evasion is the numbers of boats which do not clearly show their name or number as required by the 1971 Act. 9. (1) Every powered pleasure boat registered under this part of this Act shall have its name OR number conspicuously painted or otherwise displayed on the outside thereof in letters of such colour, character and size as will be clearly legible at all times, and shall also have similarly displayed the mark and number which the Board shall have assigned in respect of such pleasure boat I've spoken with people whose boats do not clearly display the name eg because they are painting the boat or getting a new screen made so spare me the Red Herrings on such situations and look at the bigger picture. When I see boats with ID numbers inside windows with some of the numerals covered by the out of date licence and/or no identifiable identity clearly visible, I'm entitled to apply the 'duck' test. (If it waddles like a duck and it quacks like a ... ) When I see boats with no clearly identifiable markings according to the 1971 Act, I am entitled to suspect evasion. I am also entitled to advise CaRT of my observations if I so desire. That desire will become very focussed when I see CaRT ask me for even more for my annual licence, because it cannot get on top of 'evasion' by ne'er-do-wells and leeches. When I see a boat with a name unclearly displayed in amateurish and messy 'sign-writing' scrawled on with an indelible pen, or as in one case CHALK, I see a guy who is TRYING to stay legal and he will not be subjected to my 'duck' test. It is time to get real. There is widespread evasion rather than avoidance. Let's face up to it and stop playing around with 1%er exceptions. CaRT is trying to get on top of the problem but there are less wardens than users and not enough rogues being set upon the rogues. I'm on the side of CaRT. If CaRT knows there are SAY 32000 boats registered but records show SAY 28000 current licences, CaRT is entitled to apply the 'duck' test and go on the offensive, because 12.5% of registered boats may be unlicenced. So maybe all 4000 boats thus exampled are in places where a licence is not needed (this is avoidance and avoidance is not evasion). But I suspect not as there is in statistics a device called the bell jar test which never failed me. I am shortly to be craned out (for a month) and will be [legally] avoiding licence paying during that month. I have already visited the place where I will be avoiding having a licence and looked at the boats already out of the water there. Numbers of them are legally licenced. Once again spare me the red herrings. I hope to be dropped back into the wet sometime in January with a gold licence to continue cruising for all of 2013 Deo Vero. Those of us who actually buy and display licences and pay our lawful dues need to become totally intransigent and intolerant of wasters and avoiders. Let us stop pointing to the very small number of canal users who are in genuine and uncalled for financial distress, bad health, or inability to cope. Indeed let us strive to protect such people as our needy neighbours and blitz the wasters and ne'er do well leeches who are sucking us dry. Because unless we all work together to eradicate this carry-on CaRT may have to look to us payers to pay even more. I am totally pissed off with the 'naval gazing' and harping about "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin". We've got a new organisation. BW and all the crass stupidity of that failed entity is either going or gone. There is a new broom and canal user have the right to hold its handle AND sweep with it. Let's start sweeping now and stop talking bollox. Have I made myself reasonably clear?

It is not widely known that Pickett's Lock on the Lea has toll. You have to leave one Bounty Bar in the basket on the lock-keepers fence so make sure you have at least one on board uneaten. I'm at "Waltham" at the mo and consider it totally safe. The Narrowboat Cafe by Hazelmere HaHaMarina is an oblgatory stop now it has opened under new management. Chef is tops, food is excellent, welcome is warm and so is the restaurant. Try Eggs Benedict for breakfast. It's home made. I love PJ's planned itinerary. It has taken me well over a week to get from the exit of Ducketts to Waltham lock. But I did take two months to get from Napton to Ducketts. Stay away from the Stort for the next week. I knows that river well and it has an angry side well shown by the copious photos above. The Lea navigation rarely gives any trouble because the anger is diverted down the river and the culverts.

Absolutely astounded I had to read down to the 30th post to see a sensible comment. WTF are the previous 28 talking about? I was in MVS London Unit and worked with PLA, River Police, RNLI and other professionals on 'joint ventures'. All of us used life jackets, but were allowed to decide if they should be self-inflating or pullcord. At sea it is true that a high number of overboards are knocked out by booms or other gear as they go in. If you are making way and someone goes in you have a better chance of seeing them in a brightly coloured lifejacket. You can also grab them with a boat hook and if they are also wearing a safety harness you can even winch them back on board. Some of you smart-arses above should see what happens to someone who falls into the Thames in February on an ebbing tide in the lower pool. They will be unconscious from the cold in less than five minutes and it may take you ten to retrieve them. Cop onto yourselves weigh the bottles every year. inflate Test inflate with an airhose once a year in very dry weather to cut down moisture ingress. And inflate it while you are wearing it

Glad I am to be at Hazelmere on the Lea. But the white-rafting here can be done on a purpose-built post-Olympic course just over the road. I can't believe those then'n'now shots Darren but i gotta