AndrewIC

Hope they get this sorted a bits sharpish, otherwise my Christmas cruise is going rather shorter than planned! Notice Alert Trent & Mersey Canal - 028 to Trent & Mersey Canal - 003 Thursday 12 December 2013 08:30 until further notice Original message: Following an incident yesterday afternoon the headgate cill at Lock 74 has been damaged making Lock 74 inoperable. The Trent and Mersey Canal is therefore currently closed in Middlewich. We are assessing the repair choices today and intend to update this notice by tomorrow morning with a clearer idea of the likely length of closure. Customers are advised to wait on the visitor moorings at Kings Lock or use the pound below Lock 74. Canal & River Trust apologise for any inconvenience caused

Not a stove vac, but yesterday I took the old wet'n'dry vac down to the boat to suck up the debris as I chipped out the old fire cement around the flue pipe, then a quick clean round the inside of the (cold!) stove for good measure. When I looked round I couldn't see the other end of the cabin for dust... The vac filter had slipped off its cage by a couple of inches, so the vac had been busily pulverising the contents of the stove and spraying down the far end of the boat! So today I had to clean the boat from end to end...

Replace the T piece with a "T-port valve", then you can have either or both?

Starrett dual pitch bi metal hole saw. I asked their technical dept and they recommended a low speed battery drill (I think I used the mains drill on lowest speed in the end), and that cooling was more important than lubrication. Very helpful people. No connection, etc...

The stoppages won't be there yet, they move over on the 9th December. Open up the menu thing and you can choose what gets shown on the maps.

Log into your account and you can turn off everything except stoppages.

Thanks. I can probably get a long steel rule on the pulleys, but sighting will be difficult - the very front of the engine is under an immovable piece of cruiser stern deck. Simple A profile cogged belt, not one of these new fangled poly-vee ones

How do I align my alternator pulley with the crankshaft and water pump pulleys? I don't mean how do I move the pulley back and forward, I can see there are a number of spacers that can be removed, I mean how do I tell when it's in line? Thanks Andrew

Not had the email yet, but just tried the map on a mobile internet connection. Seems a bit slow, and I'm currently in a good signal area.

I've always used Peter Hopley.

Looks suspiciously like an old wooden ammo box...

Are you first timers? Cheshire Ring in six and a bit days will be hard work, without much opportunity to stop for anything en route, and you have the point-of-no-return syndrome, "we have to be at X by Y o'clock, etc". An out-and-back trip gives you more flexibility to turn round at a point of your choosing. We moor opposite the ABC yard. DeanS has suggested Manchester, and that's certainly an option,but there isn't much for the crew to do on the way, apart from one very small lock. About 2 days each way from Anderton. Going the other way, Chester is a possibility, with the option of Ellesmere Port if time is going well. Up the Llangollen to Ellesmere is also a reasonable trip, again with the option to go a bit further to turn back sooner depending how you are getting on. Llangollen itself is theoretically do-able, but perhaps pushing it - there are a lot of hire boats on the Llangollen who "have" to get to Llangollen, and it doesn't look like much fun. The Macclesfield up towards Marple is another possibility, as is the Caldon (added attraction of Harecastle tunnel) with. Mix of rural and more urban canals. All these routes have plenty of work for an crew with energy to burn The Weaver, if ABC will let you, is well worth the trip, but as someone else said, at least do the trip boat through the lift. Have fun...

Very little of the Mersey & Irwell Navigation survives, most of it was obliterated when the MSC was built.

The following were definitely published by David & Charles in the "Canals of the British Isles" series: The Canals of [the]... East Midlands Eastern England North of Ireland North-West England Vol 1 North-West England Vol 2 Scotland South & South-East England South of Ireland South Wales & The Border Southern England (pub Phoenix House 1955) South-West England West Midlands Yorkshire & North-East England Vol 1 Yorkshire & North-East England Vol 2 British C The following were definitely published by D&C in the "Inland Waterways Histories" series: The... Ballinamore & Ballyconnell C Birmingham C Navigations Vol 1 Bude C Dorset & Somerset C Grand C of Ireland Grand Junction C Grand Western C Great Ouse Kennet & Avon Canal Leicester Line London’s Lost Route to Basingstoke London’s Lost Route to the Sea Lost C of England & Wales Nutbrook C Derbyshire Oxford C Royal Military C Somersetshire Coal C and Railways Thames & Severn C Trent & Mersey C Waterways to Stratford Yorkshire Ouse The following titles were listed as "in preparation" in one or more of the published volumes above, but appear never to have made it into print at all: The... Aire & Calder C (2 Volumes) (W. N. Slatcher) Derby C (Peter Stevenson) Forth & Clyde Canal (Graham Matheson & D. Light) Manchester Ship Canal (Edward Paget-Tomlinson) Nene (Ronald Russell) Shropshire Union Cs (H. Robinson) Stroudwater Navigation (M. A. Handford) Yorkshire Derwent & Pocklington C (B. F. Duckham) The following titles were also listed as "in preparation" in one or more of the published volumes, and may have made it into print via other routes: The Severn Bore (F. W. Rowbotham) - Published D&C 1964, but not listed in any of the other books after publication. The Tamar Valley (F. L. Booker) – Published in the “The Industrial Archaeology of…” series, D&C 1967 The Exeter C (Kenneth Clew) – Appears to have been published by Phillimore 1984. The Leicester Navigation (Philip Stevens) – This volume was listed as “in preparation” in several of the titles above which also listed "The Leicester Line" as already having been published. A book by Stevens titled “The Leicester & Melton Mowbray Navigations” was published Sutton 1992. The Warwick Canals (Alan H. Faulkner) - Published Railway & Canal Historical Society 1985

The Bude Canal certainly did. I'll have a trawl later...

Not been over to have a look at that yet, but the gateless lock chamber alongside Howley weir is still extant, and the outline of the lock into the Black Bear Canal at Latchford can still be seen. There have been recent new flood defence works below Howley on the south side of the river. I believe further works are panned for the north side, but I don't know what impact that may have on the lock chamber.

That's the kind of thing I used, only countersunk rather than panhead, but other patterns are available. Buy several driver bits, they don't float I also put a locknut on the inside (which may not be possible in all cases), but then I am paranoid. To tighten the locknut on the main dome stud I ended up using a plumber's box spanner, with a socket on the outside of the bottom end (if you see what I mean). I don't know how the stud is secured into the dome casting though.

Yes, that's a fair point, which is why I caveated my comment. There was a relaxation in some requirements a while back (when some of the first-party risks became advisory), and in the areas the OP mentions the requirements to restrain batteries and to have gas locker drains have been there for a very long time, possibly forever. However I can't think of anything I have had to do specifically to get the boat to pass a BSS exam which has resulted from a change in the requirements, with the exception of getting rid of a very dodgy gas changeover arrangement which scared the willies out of me anyway. (My old Paloma water heater passes and fails the flue test (now advisory) with equal regularity depending on the weather.)

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To echo what others have said, the bilge pump doesn't have to go through the isolator as long as it is fused - mine is like that. The batteries don't have to be in a box, as long as they are secured - there are other ways of doing that, I have an assortment of bracketry that does the job. Battery terminals do not need to be under a lid, but they do have to be protected against accidental shorts - mine have plastic boots secured by a cable tie. All should be acceptable to an examiner. If it's passed a BSS exam before, and nothing drastic has changed, it should pass again. I have always used the same examiner that he first owner of my boat used, I think he's on a record fifth exam of the same boat now

Finally gave up on mine earlier this year. They leak, the metal dome traps water against the roof and promotes rust,the plastic part eventually degrades in UV light, they are almost impossible to seal properly. Went over to standard metal mushrooms, drilled and tapped the roof, stainless security head machine screws and locknuts to deter thieves. A lot of work, but so far (touch wood) so good.

Sadly not, but I did once go looking for the site of Leeming Lock.

That's a real shame, considering the variety, complexity and amount of change over time of the BCN

Live with it "Straightening the mat" quickly becomes a reflex action when passing through the galley

You should be able to use ordinary HP LPG (orange) hose secured with a jubilee clip onto a proper nozzle. On my boat the oven inlet has a nozzle-to-BSP male adapter screwed directly into the inlet (presumably it's taper - I've never taken it to bits), with hose running to a nozzle-to-compression adapter on a stub of pipe downstream of the isolator. All properly supported. BSC man has never complained that this is an excessive number of components or joints.