IanD

You're sure it's *depleted* uranium? 😉

Good -- they're not paying for them, why should they get to use them? I hope you're not approving this behaviour, using facilities that cost CART money but he doesn't pay for? 😉

Just be warned, it might look harmless but you can severely cut yourself if you slip while applying force to such a scraper. DAMHIK... 😞

Where on earth did they get it from? I remember a science exhibition many years ago with a bar of depleted uranium sitting on a display, caged at the ends so you could lift it (with both hands) but not nick it. Very strange sensation, you'd have sworn it was being held down by strong hidden magnets or cables with hidden weights... 😉

Indeed, guitarists often have long strong sharp fingernails, these could cut the sealant... 😉

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/feb/05/waterway-winter-leeds-liverpool-canal-boat-hire-holiday

How? 😉 Regardless of how careful you are, they happen sometimes. Unless you're that mythical "perfect boater" so frequently found on CWDF... 🙂

If I cared about looking "the traditional way" would I have an electric boat with solar panels on the roof and no mushrooms/dog boxes? You think those ropes look good, I think they look a mess -- that's opinion. There are weak links inside the plastic where you can't see them. If you don't have a bow fender you're going to have some pretty nasty crunchy impacts with lock cills if the boat gets pulled forward in a filling lock. Like I said, this is why people don't post pictures... 😉

I don't honestly care, even if you do -- if I'm going to spend time on the boat I've got far better things to do... 😉

What a great idea -- I'll just get the boat lifted out onto a lowloader and ship it back to Tim Tyler and tell him to do that, shall I? 😉 Then if you've got a few hours to spare you can come and make up some nice rope loops for me. And do it again after they've work in a few years. Meanwhile, what's there works just fine, and I'm not going to worry about it... 🙂

Sorry, it's just that every single time I post a picture to try and be helpful, somebody nit-picks fault with it... 😞 ("smarter" reads as nit-picking, "would save the paint work" is a helpful point) Maybe short rope slings would save the paintwork, but being pragmatic how do you fit them through a relatively small eye-hole? If you had some time to spare you could put a rope through and then splice it, but I expect most boatbuilders don't want to spend hours doing this 8 times. I suppose an owner with enough time on their hands could do it if they were bothered... 😉

And this is why people are put off from posting pictures on CWDF... 😉

The fact that the NBTA refuse to support Fund Britain's Waterways "because it's against the interests of our members" tells you everything you need to know about them... 😉

Of course, but it still needs all the same diesel fittings on the boat (tank, filler, inlet, piping, hoses, filters...) as a diesel propulsion engine.

Given that the air draft for a boat properly designed and ballasted is probably only going to increase by 4" or so -- and there are plenty of narrowboats (most of them?) badly ballasted with high bows which have bigger air draft than this -- I think this is making a mountain out of a molehill... 😉 All that's needed is a heavier baseplate/steel ballast to gain a couple of inches under the floor and have the boat sit a couple of inches lower in the water, and a slightly taller hull/cabin (about 6" total), that gives 8" extra internal headroom. Ballast the boat so it's only a few inches bow-up in normal trim (e.g. level with full bow water tank and empty stern diesel tank) and there will be no problems with either air or water draft. It'll also swim through the water better than a "normal" narrowboat -- meaning one which draws a couple of inches less but is ballasted much more bows-up, like most of them are... 🙂