George Kennedy

A question for the panel. A friend of mine who has a motor yacht which is currently moored in the Aegean somewhere tells me that he was recently let into a secret by a Greek marine engineer. The advice is to stick engine oil into the fuel tank with a ratio of 1:300 when filling up. Just basic engine oil, not synthetic and obviously in before the tank is filled so that when the fuel is added, the oil is dispersed. The benefit is supposedly that the injection system benefits from the additional lubrication and is especially good for engines which are left idle for longish periods of time. Has anyone heard of this practise? Does anyone do it? Or is it just nonsense? I have no idea and my mate hasn't tried it yet so it's over to you guys! (And gals)

Absolute nonsense! A cassette will serve you well enough.

I forgot about this one despite drinking in there in mid february and very good it was too.

I don't disagree with any of the above but IMHO you can't beat a Wetherspoons for consinstency and value. I'm not aware of any canalside ones but plenty within easy walking distance of the cut.

Seems like a lot of fuss ova nuthin'

My boat http://www.braunstonmarina.co.uk/Findaboat/tabid/66/id/534/boat-name/Phoenx%20III/Default.aspx

The original engine in our boat was a piece of sh1t

Sorry about this but I can't resist. Would it be true to say that if owners ignore the recall, they will be "dyson with death"?

Hi, we've enjoyed good reception on 3 with a huwaei mifi hanging inside one of the windows. We're moored in the marina at Braunston but the reception is good all around the area on 3.

Just before tying up outside the Boathouse at Braunston for the evening we were treated to a fishing exhibition by a certain Maffi of this parish who for our entertainmanment managed to catch the shovel that he had presumably just thrown in. (Tongue firmly stuck in cheek while posting)

You MUST go to Market Harborough!

Your best bet for acheiving a smooth finish is dipping your finger in washing up liquid. It means that your finger will glide over the surface and the silicon won't stick to your skin. As long as you get all of the old stuff off and use masking tape you'll get a good finish. I use newspaper torn into kitchen roll size pieces for cleaning up, it's cheaper but more importantly it doesn't tear or break up. With a washing up liquid barrier between the skin and the silicon, it's fairly easy to stay clean.

There was an episode of Minder called "The Cruel Canal" where Arthur rents a narrowboat to transport a load of video players along the Regents canal. Search for it, it's on youtube , a good laugh for 50 minutes or so!

Fantastic response, many thanks to all of you, i now have a much better idea of what to look at. This really has been a big help to me, thanks again!

Hi, I'm thinking about maybe buying a folding bike and wondered if the honourable members of the forum would like to share their experiences and opinions on the matter. I was surprised at the range available on the Halfords website. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/categorydisplay_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_165577_langId_-1 The price range is wide but that doesn't concern me too much as the company that I work for are taking part in a government scheme that means there is tax relief and the money is paid over a 12 month period. All views welcome. George

On a wet miserable day during an fishing competition, I find that the sure fire method of changing the looks of misery on their faces to that of utter despair is to cook up some egg and bacon and let the smell drift over to them.

Hi, please remember that it is impossible to cut toughened or t empered glass so if your glazier cuts a piece to shape, it is ordinary glass. This glass won't have the strength of toughened glass and if it gets broken it will produce large shards rather than crumbling into small safe pieces. Glass needs to be cut or shaped prior to being heat treated, after which time it cannot be re-cut. Good luck

Also, both tanks seem to be full to the brim as when I undid the inspection nuts the fuel was about 1cm from the top in both. I find that very strange as I last bought diesel at Cowroast and have travelled all the way down to Northolt and back up to Denham. Hi, assuming that these are your diesel tanks and you don't appear to be using much fuel, I would suggest that you try to find out how the water is getting into the tank otherwise following all of the excellent advice above will be in vain. Check the filler cap particularly if it sits in a mini-bund and water lies in the bund. This happened to me and after removing the filler cap I resealed it using marine flex silicone. I then realised that it had been a few months since I had last mopped water from around the filler cap.

It's some time since Sugru became available and yet despite it looking like an ideal product for boating, a search on these forums yields few results. So the question is, has anyone added it to their essential toolkit and if so, what sort of uses have you put it to? George

SWMBO and I are spending the weekend on our boat which is moored in a marina. We can see that a few winter moorers have arrived since we were last here in November. So it got us wondering as to how many nights you can spend on a boat in a marina without running the risk of being classed as an illicit resident? Are there any rules or is it just down to the discretion of the marina management and the interference of local busybodys?

Agree with the earlier post about the Wii fit, works wonders for me. However, you have to think that there would be an easy way to generate electricity from a treadmill or exercise bike.

A Nigerian generator that runs on pee. Makes a refreshing change from the emails offering to transfer $6m to my bank account.

Make sure you understand that the kindle fire is limited to installing apps from the amazon store only. you don't get access to Google's playstore so you can't use a different browser or install the likes of youtube. I unlocked (rooted) mine and got those things but it is a pain and some apps are not compatible. I think it's a good bit of kit but limited and if I had my time again i'd buy a straightford android device. Tesco sell one for just a few quid more.

http://www.bosworth-marina.co.uk/

For what it's worth.... Pallets are heat treated not treated with preservative. Colouration (including those Chep blues) is water soluble. Composite blocks will contain a binding agent and will likely produce resinous deposits in your chimney. Nails will drop into the ash pan and not explode through the stove glass. Most pallets are made from pinewood, in the case of Chep and other good quality pallets - Portuguese pine The calorific value of a block is proportional to its weight, the heavier it is the longer it will burn. Conclusion? If you can get your hands on a supply of pallet blocks, grab them, remove any composite ones and burn the rest without fear.