IanD
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Posts posted by IanD
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5 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
You could hardly do that when changing windows to portholes unless you put a whole new cabin side in
Of course, I wasn't in any way disparaging Martin's work, just giving Tim credit for fixing his mistake properly (and at no cost to me) instead of taking the easy way out 🙂
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5 minutes ago, David Mack said:
If there are fewer LPG filling facilities, then there will be more customers for the remaining suppliers, so to some extent the situation will balance itself out. And with online resources listing where facilities are located, most users will not be inconvenienced that much, providing they plan ahead and top up when they can. Which of course won't help those who find themselves in a facility-free area, or indeed boaters who want something close to the canal.
The problem is that I believe the supplier who is removing them provides most of the LPG refilling points in the UK, so there could be very few left -- and then suppliers will be even more reluctant to deliver LPG to the remaining ones... 😞
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2 hours ago, Jon57 said:
You do realise now you have pointed out the repair everyone on here will be looking for the evidence that it’s as good as Mike Haywoods. 🤨
They're welcome to try -- I've looked *very* closely and I can't see any sign it was done either before or after the topcoats went on...
Tim's "I can't believe we did that..." reaction was unprintable -- the plan had doors on the starboard side only, they'd fitted those correctly and then copied the same to the port side. Rather than trying to patch the hole he cut out and replaced the entire panel back to the gunwale and handrail to avoid any visible joins, so brownie points for fixing it properly... 🙂
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2 hours ago, Captain Pegg said:
That's a different issue as to why it was left reasonably close to the final destination, which I think is far more rational than how they have moored it.
Given that it would have been so easy to put it on the piled length I wouldn't be surprised if they had no nappy pins or stakes. It happens sometimes. I picked up a boat this past week that had no pins and my client expressed surprise I didn't carry my own. Well I can't carry a full set of everything I might need and if you've got ropes you'll find a way to moor somehow. Ultimately though the skipper is responsible for the boat and it's equipment and should have just put the rope through the waling on the piling. That would be OK for one night. I had to do that with my own boat last week because of the design of piling and the lack of anywhere else to moor. That was on a length with no mooring signs too. Sometimes circumstance dictates.
I spent Friday breaking ice. Another thing to add to my list of 'crimes'. I was greeted by three moored boaters. None of them was concerned by the potential damage to their blacking and all seemed interested to observe a boat breaking ice. Thankfully some people get that canals are there for boating.
If you do a *lot* of icebreaking in thick ice you can have problems. When we brought Baron back from Cosgrove to Broxbourne at Xmas 1986 we were breaking thick ice (about an inch or so?) for most of the way. By the time we got back the bilge pump was running regularly, it turned out the ice had worn off the rivet heads on the bows (rivetted iron hull). The boat was moored up at Easter waiting for repairs when the power went off and the boatyard didn't notice, it sank to the bottom -- roof underwater -- with all Kate and Snowy's possessions on board... 😞
This was an extreme case though, "normal" icebreaking is very unlikely to cause any real damage except maybe to blacking -- and mostly on the boat doing it, not moored ones it passes.
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8 minutes ago, GUMPY said:
Also very reliable and with good cable strain reliefs. Just make sure not to plug your PA speakers*** in by mistake... 😉
*** you know, those you've got for playing heavy metal outside in response to out-of-hours genny running...
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24 minutes ago, magnetman said:
I suppose they might be interested in using the space for putting in electric car charging points as well.
If you read the linked article -- or many of the others from around the same date -- you wouldn't have to suppose, because that's exactly what the article said...
This could be an example of your clairvoyance at work -- but then you'd know for sure wouldn't you?
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5 minutes ago, magnetman said:
They say 'no longer profitable' I wonder if the insurance companies have sniffed out dodgy refilling and don't like the risk.
Or the holding tanks are getting a bit old and not worth replacing.
It's just a big drop in demand. This isn't news anyway, that announcement above dates from April 2022...
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46 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:
I don’t know because I don’t know the full circumstances. Sometimes you have to moor in less than ideal places. In this case it would have been a lot more palatable if the crew had remained on board and moved early the next morning. How you do something can be as important as what you do.I’d also observe that similar things happen with narrowboats but of course they are less likely to get lampooned.
A narrowboat wouldn't have caused the obstruction so not a problem. Nothing to do with lampooning widebeams, just people in general who moor stupidly.
Which is more likely to mean widebeams, simply because they're more likely to cause an obstruction... 😉
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1 minute ago, Captain Pegg said:
As a regular paid mover for a well known brokerage or two I’d say there’s no point in arriving after hours.For one of my regular clients I routinely moor up less than an hour short of destination where I have access to facilities and can arrive at opening time the next morning when the staff have plenty of time to deal with the boat and I have plenty of time to get home.
But would you have moored *there* ?
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How anti-frost heat use varies from day to day. Spot the cold days...
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1 minute ago, magnetman said:
Paddington arm ?
And elsewhere, including "in the middle of nowhere" where presumably they think nobody will notice... 😞
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4 minutes ago, Captain Pegg said:
Take it to the nearest CRT bins or council tip in a car.i know folk who do that.
Or just throw it under/over the hedge. I've seen boats who do that, taking the "don't give a sh*t" mentality to extremes. Sometimes with that too... 😞
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Just now, Captain Pegg said:
I could extend that logic to it being OK to stay on a remote spot on the towpath as long as you like.Which should really be the case, but of course doesn't make much money for CART as well as being against the CC rules... 😞
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20 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:
Friend of mine more or less lived within a few miles of Chester for many years, well known to the local BW and CRT blokes. But bsck then, he was one of the half dozen in that area and it caused no bother to anyone. It's that thing one's mum used to say:"if everyone behaved like that..." Now we know what happens when they do. Me, I liked the old anarchic life.
The other point is "causing no bother to anyone", so presumably not mooring for long periods on VMs, short-term moorings, water points, lock landings, on bends and near bridges. Unlike some of the CMers nowadays who basically don't give a sh*t and moor (and overstay) anywhere they find convenient for them regardless of other people or the rules... 😞
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4 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:
I like the bow mooring step, like the one chopped off at the back.
Yes, it's perfectly designed for maximum yoghurt pot slicing potential -- and if that doesn't work, there's always the lateral torpedo tube... 😉
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1 minute ago, Tonka said:
Ladder welded to the front deck
It's for getting out of deep locks.
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13 minutes ago, Martin Kedian said:
Well done him. If the window was cut in the right place first he wouldn’t have had to
Mistakes do happen though. Here's my boat before and after I pointed one out to Tim Tyler... 😉
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9 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:
I think this is CRT's first step to insisting that only those living on their boats can be classed as continuous cruisers, except in very exceptional circumstances. It is, after all, virtually impossible to genuinely cruise unless you're on board. You can't do it if you spend most of your life in a house, popping down to move a few miles every couple of weeks - except, obviously, when it's inconvenient.
They have probably got fed up with complaints* about the number of dumped boats, both licenced and unlicenced, clogging up moorings for weeks on end and this is the start of getting rid of them without the need for expensive court proceedings.
*complaints coming from the people who pay the most to CRT, who are the marina-dwelling holiday boaters and hire fleets.
Wasn't that exactly who the original "CC exemption" (no need to have/pay for a home mooring that was never used) was aimed at -- boaters who kept moving round the system over time instead of staying in one place?
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To give some numbers on how much heat/power is needed for frost protection, in the last week the diesel boiler on my boat (set to come on at 4.5C) has run for a total of 6 hours (it comes on in bursts about 20mins long each); working back from the amount of fuel used, the average electrical heater power needed would have been something like 500W (12kWh/day). But that's the average over a week, the coldest day it ran for 1 3/4 hours which was about double that (1kW average=24kWh/day). This suggests that if you want to put electric heaters in for frost protection, you need at least 1kW, probably more if you want to protect against exceptionally cold weather. The dual 750W heaters used by @cuthound look about right... 🙂
And needless to say this only works on shore power, if this is cut any batteries would be flattened pretty damn fast... 😞
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2 hours ago, wakey_wake said:
Fire is a thermal runaway. (All fire always? Maybe there are exceptions.)
The reagents are sitting there. You provide a little shove and the subsequent reaction shoves the rest, until it's all going.
Some can't be prevented, even by cooling to -180°C first. If you're interested in that kind of thing I recommend reading some of Derek Lowe's "Things I Wont Work With"
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This one I picked at random and hadn't seen before is a lovely example of his way with words. Things I Won't Work With: Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. Hexa-nitro = it has six NO2 groups stuck on it somewhere, like tri-nitro-toluene (TNT) has three = bad news already. Hexa-aza... I'll let him explain that. Isowurzitane, um yeah.
"... There's a recent report of a method to make a more stable form of it, by mixing it with TNT..." - Another graphic description of a chemical which is at once extremely toxic, borderline pyrophoric (auto-igniting in air) and tends to form explosive compounds: TIWWW: dimethylcadmium
- but if you want to start a thermal runaway reaction with almost anything, this is your kiddie: FOOF . Just please, not within a mile of anything anyone cares about. On the bright side it's not something you can make by accident.
I digress - this might be a specialised taste for those who got at least an A-level in chemistry.
My favourite piece from Derek Lowe is this one about CTF (chlorine trifluoride), and the quote from John Clark's fabulous book "Ignition!" about the development of rocket propellants:
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time
”It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminium, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminium keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes.”
(hypergolic means it bursts spontaneously into flames without any heat source)
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This one I picked at random and hadn't seen before is a lovely example of his way with words. Things I Won't Work With: Hexanitrohexaazaisowurtzitane. Hexa-nitro = it has six NO2 groups stuck on it somewhere, like tri-nitro-toluene (TNT) has three = bad news already. Hexa-aza... I'll let him explain that. Isowurzitane, um yeah.
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29 minutes ago, LadyG said:
I just bought my boat without any options, the only thing I don't like is the narrow bit twixt galley and bed, it's a corridor loo. I would rather gave a super duper shower cabinet, walk through. A whb would be premium, but not sure about the cassette, it needs a tiny alcove out of sight.
So long as the boat layout is suitable (e.g. reverse layout with only the bedroom ahead of it) a walk-through bathroom gives a *lot* more space inside it than a side-corridor one.
But it doesn't work so well with a traditional layout where you have to walk past/through it all the time to get along the boat to/from stern/saloon/dinette/kitchen, someone in there (e.g. using the toilet or shower with the doors locked) blocks access to anyone else on the boat. OK for a solo boater though... 😉
11 hours ago, DandV said:Cruiser sterns come into their own in fine weather, particularly on urban moorings with high intensive tow path use.
Sitting comfortably outside but onboard, in those camping folding arm chairs, supping wine, under the alcohol prohibition notice, people watching.
Gas Street Basin, Paddington Basin, and in the middle of Chester come to mind. Great spots.
And that's when a cruiser stern is at its best. When cruising in the driving freezing rain, it's at its worst. It all depends on your usage and priorities... 😉
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56 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
How do you know they dont move unless you overstay yourself to see?
Well I suppose it's possible that all the boats I've seen twice a week (or more) apart on a 48 hour mooring have been somewhere else for six days, and it's pure coincidence they happen to be there both times I passed them, but Ockham's Razor suggests that it's far more likely that they never moved from it...
And the odds go down even further when I see them again a week later, then again a week after that...
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2 hours ago, DandV said:
Aesthetically both are awful.
But, there were times, not many, I would have really appreciated having a pram cover for shelter, over our cruiser stern, when making a time sensitive navigation on one of your big rivers.
A time when just trying up and letting the rain/sleet pass was not an option.
Now for the cratch cover.
When we were aboard, we were aboard, continuously for months, with no possible runs home, or anywhere else to escape bad weather, or do the all important laundry.
Here drying clothes and sheets under the cratch cover was infinitely preferable to accomplishing all the drying by hanging them all in the saloon.
By dropping the weather side of the cratch cover, drying could even be accomplished here in the abundant marginal weather.
Our regime is that we would move clothes from the cratch into the saloon at bed time, to hasten the drying though, and back outside when we got up.
If you are accomplishing all your laundry onboard your knicker bunting has to be flown somewhere, remarkably often.
Outside in the cratch with a cover immediately available to shield it from rain, or excessive wind, is far far better then cluttering already limited living space.
Cruiser sterns are grim in bad weather, semi-trad are better, trad are best. Need for a pram cover is greatest with a cruiser, least with a trad. Still look awful though... 😞
If you need to hang washing up to dry then a cratch cover can come in useful, even if it looks awful. If you have a tumble drier and the power to run it this need goes away... 😉
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1 hour ago, phillarrow said:
Thanks, that's really interesting to read about the likelihood of snags and headaches from new boats.
I think one of the main things that was pointing us towards one day getting a new boat was that there doesn't seem to be too many boats for sale at around the five to ten year old mark? The majority of boats for sale seem to be new, or over fifteen years old. In my mind, (and from the little I've seen and read so far) boats over 10 years old are more likely to require repair work and have issues than new boats.
Am I wrong to be thinking this?
Is it simply a case of getting a quality hull, full survey, and then making the boat your own, with the running repair costs similar between new boats and those that are over 10 years old?
There have been several new boat horror stories posted above, because of course these are the ones that get noticed -- all the ones where people take a new boat away and little or nothing goes wrong don't make the headlines. Just like any forum on the internet that seems full of complaints, because all the people who don't have any complaints don't post anything.
Yes it's more likely that there will niggles of some kind on a new boat, especially if it's "different", and teething troubles are to be expected in this case -- I had some, none in the end were serious or that difficult to fix (at least, not yet...). This is less likely to be a major problem with a good builder who understands what they're building, does things properly, and is helpful in fixing any problems, and I suspect this tends to mean a more expensive builder and boat because cutting corners often leads to problems.
Still, a good boat a few years old will have had all these sorted, and is a better option for a newcomer to the canals...
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Shoreline 12/24V fridge
in Boat Equipment
Posted
Nah, not on 12V -- or even 24V with the drivers I've used. I did kill one years ago by hitting it with a repeated 25Hz bass note, but that was using a 1000W amp... 😞