IanD
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Posts posted by IanD
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1 minute ago, Rob-M said:
@Victor Vectis referenced the Blue Bell on the North Stratford and as you replied to that post I presumed you were talking the Blue Bell cider house.
My bad... 😞
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29 minutes ago, Rob-M said:
You didn't over indulge in cider then 😀
Wrong Blue Bell? (Kidsgrove, not the cider house one near Brum)
I certainly didn't under-indulge in beer, but find I rarely get a hangover from the good stuff...
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25 minutes ago, Victor Vectis said:
Evidence, please?
ETA OK. Perhaps I should read through to the end of a thread before posting. I seem to recall forum member having his boat broken into at those moorings by the Blue Bell on the North Stratford a while back. Does that make it a 'no go' area?
I've moored near the Blue Bell several times with no problems. YMMV... 😉
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On 29/04/2022 at 19:30, churchward said:
We have just gone through the Sowerby locks and our friends boat at 58ft was a tight fit in the first lock and leaking top gates dropped a lot of water across their cruiser deck and into the bilge overcoming the drains with no way to manoeuvre out of the way. Still, all good now and after the first couple we have been able to fit in the locks together so far.
Having been through Salterhebble in a 57' boat and subjected to a veritable waterfall from the top gates, I certainly wouldn't want to try it in a 60' boat with a well deck at the front or a cruiser stern. Which is why I will have neither... 😉
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1 hour ago, Loddon said:
As I said it's spin and bollox, they might say wonderful words but it's deeds that count and there is precious little of that
For the kind of deeds you mean -- better maintenance -- CART simply need more money, especially to fix the maintenance backlog built up over the past decade of more.
How do you suggest they get this money?
Please don't roll out the usual "fewer blue signs" rant -- to get more money from the government (or even keep what they get now) they have to try to do *something* to attract the UK population as a whole to use and enjoy the canals more, not just 35000 boats, and the blue signs are one way to do this, including the jokey duck ones... 😉
Maybe they work or maybe not, but at least CART can tell the government "look, we're doing all this to try and attract more people", and if the government believes this and it makes them more likely to keep the grant money flowing then surely this is a good thing?
If you hate the blue signs so much, would you be happy for CART to stop trying to attract pesky walkers/cyclists/gongoozlers, take all the signs away, watch the government grant disappear, and spend all their money on maintenance and prioritise the interests of 35000 boaters over everyone else? Of course in return they might ask everyone to pay £5000pa license fee, but surely this would be worth it?
Of course in an ideal world the government would recognise that the canals are an important part of Britain's industrial heritage and worth spending large amounts of taxpayer's money on upkeep, but meanwhile in the real world... 😞
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4 minutes ago, Philip said:
Just because you've not had any hassle doesn't mean to say it doesn't happen. Last year I got stoned there by youths hanging about under a bridge and I was minding my own business, I didn't antagonize them. It's not a good area to hang around.
Just because it happened to you once doesn't mean it's common... 😉
The very few times we've ever had any kind of trouble on the canals has not been in "bandit country" areas but supposedly OK ones. Maybe we've been lucky?
Which doesn't prove anything either, because one experience doesn't tell you if this is a one-off or a common problem in the area. Every time somebody comes up with a scary story about what happened to them somewhere, other people post how they stayed there with no problems.
There are undoubtedly a few dodgy areas on the canals where mooring is not advised, but probably far fewer than is sometimes suggested -- if everyone avoided every single spot where one person had ever had a bad experience (often long in the past where things have since changed for the better) large parts of the canal network would unjustifiably become "no-go" areas.
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3 minutes ago, magnetman said:
My suggestion was not rooted in prejudice in the slightest.
Admittedly the "issues" seen in London are a separate point to the availability of cc as an option on the license.
To be fair charging for towpath moorings is probably a far better solution than having different tiers for license costs.
Much more straightforward. You moor the boat you pay. Rates would vary in different parts of the country.
This also brings in the option of having moorings with services for people who are willing to pay a bit more. It could work out really nicely specially for people with electric boats. There would be some free moorings in areas of low demand..
Oh, hang on !
In more remote areas where there is absolutely no congestion or moorings to block there's no real reason to stop boats mooring there or even to make them move on every 14 days, moored boats there are causing no problem to anybody -- except perhaps bringing in less money to CART than boats with a home mooring.
The first problem comes in more popular areas where "continuous moorers" or "towpath squatters" (add derogatory term of your choice) hog the limited online mooring space available and prevent others from mooring there -- especially shorter-term visitors -- by monopolising a resource (mooring space) which should be shared. This is just plain selfish, especially if they stay there long-term (against the 14-day rule) which seems increasingly common.
The second problem is where they do this on designated short-term or visitor moorings which makes it effectively impossible for visiting boats to find anywhere to moor, and also stay well beyond the designated time -- even more selfish, and also increasingly common.
All this happens not only in London but any popular spot where boats congregate e.g. Western K&A, Braunston, many other visitor moorings where the typical comment is "don't expect to roll up at 6pm and expect to find a place to moor" -- and the problem is very often not other short-term visitors following the rules, but longer-term moorers who don't.
What would certainly make sense is to have different rules/charges for less popular and more popular areas, but the real issue is that to be effective this would need enforcing and CART don't have the manpower or will to do this... 😞
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Moorings at Compton are closer than Brewood and absolutely fine, with good restaurant/pub and a fantastic off-license...
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6 minutes ago, Loddon said:
Ten years if spin and bollox.
Page 18 was a hoot what a load of rubbish
Did you actually read it? Apart from the title, what it said on Page 18 was this -- which part of it is rubbish?
Our historic canal network is fragile and vulnerable. Climate change, and the test of time, are taking their toll.
As a charity, we urgently need more donations and volunteers alongside a continuation of adequate government funding to ensure our canals can survive and prosper.
In the mid-20th century many canals were abandoned and almost lost forever.Today, under the guardianship of Canal & River Trust, canals are thriving and play a vital role in the community.
But they demand constant care. With costs rising as more intense and extreme weather impacts, and without sufficient funds, they will once again fall into decline.
The devastating picture of what could happen without adequate funding.
Individuals, communities, nature and the planet would lose a vital space, which can never be replaced.
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Still well-nigh impossible to get through Standedge though whether LGBTQ+ or not... 😞
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1 hour ago, Captain Pegg said:
Prototype has a double meaning and can just refer to the first of type built whether or not is was a test for something that was intended to follow. So if it was the first tunnel with two towpaths then it is the prototype of that design. The fact there was a quarter of a century gap between Newbold and Netherton and they were built by different engineers for different companies makes it seems doubtful there was any knowing link between them.
It does beg the question why Newbold was built that way as the north Oxford never had two towpaths, was it an aborted intention or was it simply built to a symmetrical design?
I have a friend who refers to his first daughter as "prototype"... 😉
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1 hour ago, Athy said:
Quite so. But the mode of a car's construction and the mode of its presentation to the potential customer are entirely different matters. Joe Public doesn't give a hoot about the number of microns in the engine's stroke, but he does care about whether the car will fit into his garage. It's similar to buying a telly: the average consumer isn't interested in what circuit boards, microchips or whatever go into its construction, he just wants a nice big 32" screen and a clear picture.
Microns? They're massive, nanometers (1000x smaller) are where it's all at nowadays... 😉
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45 minutes ago, robtheplod said:
Just curious reading this thread. If You had a bank of rigid panels laying flat on a surface on a very hot day, if you faked rain on them using a hose would their output go up?
Slightly, depending on how much cooler they got. The water evaporating has a much bigger effect than the water being cold due to latent heat of evaporation, it's why a damp towel over something (like a barrel of beer...) helps keep it cool 😉
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8 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:
But stick on panels will get hotter than rigid with an air space underneath = less output.
Panel in parallel or series, makes a difference if there is any shading?
Actually stick-on panels can often run cooler because they're attached to a steel roof which conducts heat away from them. Rigid panels with air underneath are only cooled by it if there's a crosswind to move the hot air out, otherwise it just sits there getting hotter -- it acts as an insulator like in double glazing, so the panels end up hotter than the roof (which is cooler).
If there is shading then parallel panels can lose less output than series ones, though this does depend on the panel (internal connections, diodes etc.). With a lot of panels the best solution is to split them into groups with separate MPPT controllers, but few boats have enough panels for this.
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4 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:
Rigid panels spaced off the roof or stick ons?
The hot power loss I quoted was for rigid mono panels, which is what the vast majority of installations use because they're by far the cheapest per watt and the most efficient.
CIGS panels -- the most common flexible ones -- are very similar (-0.36%/C).
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3 hours ago, magnetman said:
You'd need a water pump for a solar hot water system anyway unless using the excess electric and an immersion heater. I don't think a thermosyphon system will send the heated water downhill. Unfortunately.
Also a solar collector would take extra space on top of the boat.
It does make sense to an extent to combine the two (PV and water heating) using a thermostat of some sort attached to the solar panel to switch the pump on at the required temperature.
Possible side effect is keeping the panels clear of debris. This can be filtered out before adding water to the beer keg hot water tank..
ETA unless you are a very high consumer with a large and efficient battery bank it's likely you will be getting surplus power so the immersion heater is probably the better option overall but it doesn't cool or clean the solar panels .
I'm not saying that a solar hot water system is pointless, quite the opposite, you can get quite a lot of heat collected as well as power. You can now get solar panels which are also solar heaters, but they're *very* expensive and you need a closed-system with piping on top of the roof which you need to stop from freezing in winter -- if you spend the same amount of money on more plain old solar panels (and have enough space for them) and use the electricity to run an immersion heater, you'll get more heat for your money.
I'm saying that the idea that cooling panels by pumping cooling water past them just to get more electrical power out *is* pretty much pointless, unless you then store the hot water -- which as it heats up, makes it less good at keeping the panels cool.
The oft-repeated "fact" that solar panels lose a lot of output when they heat up is simply not true, as the numbers clearly show 😉
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9 minutes ago, David Mack said:
Regardless of the theoretical legal position, if CRT believe you have either not satisfied the CC requirements, or you have broken the Ts and Cs in some way, they may refuse to renew your licence when it expires (but will not revoke an existing licence before its end date). That leaves you with an unlicensed boat on their waterway. You can of course go to court to force them to issue a licence, and you may even succeed (although it's very unlikely). But during the time that court process takes, your boat will be unlicensed, giving CRT the right to remove it from the water. If the first action does succeed you can then go back to court again to claim that the removing of your boat from the water was not in fact within CRT's powers, and seeking return of the boat, payment of your legal costs, recompense for any damage done to the boat, and possibly damages. And again there is a very slim possibility that you might succeed. But the whole process will involve you in significant work, expense and stress. Most people decide instead to (more or less) comply with CRT's requirements, as its a whole lot easier, cheaper and less stressful.
Not going by the number of boats I see which are absolutely not satisfying the CC requirements, and haven't done for months at a time or even longer... 😞
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2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:
Panels are rated under standardised conditions of solar radiation, temperature etc. The standardisation means that comparing panels from different manufacturers is possible, but the conditions used are unrealistic for the UK, or indeed almost any where on this planet. Radiation is closer to what you'd find on a sunny day near the equator, but the panels are also held at a temperature much lower than they would realistically get out in strong sunshine.
2 hours ago, magnetman said:I reckon circulating cold water around either under or on top of solar panels would be worth doing. Route the water to a storage tank.
If the panel was slightly angled it would be quite easy to put a soaker hose on a timer from the main domestic water tank along the top edge and a drain pipe at the bottom..
Could be quite an interesting way to do energy efficiency.
I use a soaker hose for the bucket garden. They are quite clever in that they do distribute water evenly and at low flow rates. Ideal for cooling a solar panel. Must try it.
Temperature coefficient of panel power is typically -0.35%/C (mono PERC panels), so if a cooling system could keep them 10C cooler in direct sunlight (which is quite a lot) you'd get 3.5% more power, about 13W for a typical panel at maximum output -- which it wouldn't often be, so in reality the saving would be less than this. But then you need the power to run the water pump, which would probably eat up most or all of the extra power... 😞
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1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:
The Ashton was fine and the weather steadily improved after we "hurtled" past you at Portland Basin (it only dawned on me later that it was you hurling abuse!
) so we had quite a nice descent. I'm still confused about what's going on with New Islington Marina from the Ashton end, but Picadilly basin is great for a peaceful overnight. The Rochdale 9 is a bit rum of course, but the drug and alcohol related issues make Castlefields a real disappointment. Perhaps I've led a sheltered life...
I'll still transit Manchester obvs, but I'll probably not stop except for Picadilly basin. It's certainly not on my "must go back" list though and I think CRT and Manchester Council ought to be ashamed. Andy Burnham obviously doesn't have a narrowboat...
The contrast between Manchester and Birmingham in how they treat/use/value their canals is massive...
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9 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:
You could have cycled the Brompton there and back. There are always alternatives. 😀
Jen, a former Brompton owner, who wouldn't have done it either!
I did try finding a Facebook friend who could drop one in for an hour or so, but the ones nearby don't have Bromptons and the ones who have Bromptons aren't nearby... 😞
I even looked into buying a new one and getting it delivered to TT but the earliest anyone could do it was this Friday, and Tim needed to start the locker build on Tuesday morning -- which is why cycling there wouldn't have worked, even if my legs had been up to it... 😉
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12 minutes ago, Leemc said:
Thanks for all responses. We are the only boat in Piccadilly Village( been here since Monday) it’s a great mooring, feels very safe, lots of mooring rings and places to eat drink and go nearby.
Had a walk down to castlefield and there are restrictions due to Sounds of the City concerts so there’s not much room.Islington Marina is £25 and boats are doubled up.
Undoubtedly need some boaters facilities, there’s loads of room for some in Piccadilly Basin. Might attract more boaters as haven’t seen one go passed since we arrived.
The journey down to Castlefield is a bit grim and those underground characters are a sad bunch. They do return a wave if not out of it, face down on sleeping bags.
I didn't mean there, I meant on the Ashton from Piccadilly up where several bridges had resident trolls when I went past... 😉
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7 hours ago, blackrose said:
Thanks. I read that there was actually no such thing as a fully balanced rudder. It will only ever be balanced at particular angles. Anyway, it will be interesting to see how the theory works in practice. My feeling is that at a maximum speed of 5 knots the effects that you're talking about won't be significant or perhaps even noticable on my boat. I'll report back once it's done.
That's what I meant when I said "the CoP moves with rudder angle" -- and also with prop rpm.
The difference is nothing to do with speed, it will happen when manoeuvring or cruising slowly at a few mph -- but given that your rudder has a relatively fine profile (5%?) the difference won't be as big as with mine (20%).
If you want to actually measure the before-and-after difference you need three spring balances, one attached to a rope holding the stern back to something solid (thrust), one attached to a rope running sideways (steering), and one to pull the tiller sideways (steering effort) -- this is how rudders are measured. With the engine rpm constant, measure the three forces (thrust, steering, tiller) vs. rudder angle. You should find the new one gives more sideways force (steering thrust) at a given angle than the flat plate, and carries on working to bigger angles, but might also be heavier to steer -- or maybe the tiller force needed for a given steering effect is the same but you don't have to push it over so far.
This would give you some actual measurements about how much better it works, as opposed to subjective "it feels better" which is always prone to expectation bias (result being what you expected).
I'm hoping to try this with Ricky when my boat is built, if there's another similar hybrid boat with a flat plate rudder in the water at the same time...
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10 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:
It wasn't that bad that day. The biblical rain deluge kept the local branch of Mensa away and cleaned the air and the towpath for us.
Try it on a sunny Saturday ...
In their defence, the trolls filling the bridges with clouds of fragrant smoke are usually friendly... 😉
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1 hour ago, LadyG said:
Sorry not sure what happened there, I meant to say, I assume excess energy converts to heat and the vanes on the controller are there to disperse this heat.
That's not how MPPT controllers work. The cooling fins are just there to dissipate the heat from the internal switching circuits which convert the incoming panel high voltage/low current to outgoing battery low voltage/high current, this heat loss is typically about 5% of the total power in a good controller (95% efficiency). The controller adjusts the incoming voltage/current to maximise the power from the panels, hence MPPT.
If the controller wants to reduce the power into the batteries it will just raise the incoming voltage higher which reduces panel power; if it goes all the way to the panel open-circuit voltage then the power drops to zero. Lower power throughput means less dissipation in the controller so the cooling fins get less hot.
Alternatively if the batteries are full the controller can just shut down completely.
CRT's view of the last 10 years.
in Waterways News & Press
Posted · Edited by IanD
True, but given that the quotes I gave from page 18 were certainly not good news, this doesn't seem to apply here...
So you're just moaning about something you don't even use any more, while ignoring difficult questions about where you think the money should come from and be spent on?