magnetman

I wonder if this is because it was being used inappropriately as a landing. Or maybe it was breaking free. The inner pontoon did start to break away a few years ago and was fixed. Now that the marina does not take visitors there will be far fewer vessels transiting through the lock so maybe the outer pontoon is surplus to requirements. Not sure if the pontoons are a CRT asset or were transferred to Aquavista when they got the lock office building and fhe bin stores. The lock is definitely CRT owned but some peripheral areas are either owned or leased by the marina management.

Yes but they have spent a lot of money doing it. At the end of the day if you have adequate space for good solar then that will provide most if not all of the power during summer. Connect to lithium batteries. Depending on how the Boat is used it is fairly likely that it is not moving all that much in winter. Some people even have electric connections.. So the answer is to have a generator or mains electric with a proper lithium charger for winter. Or spend the money and put more hours on the very hard to replace main propulsion engine. Of course hot water comes into this and the main engine can potentially be a useful combined heat and power unit but doing that still adds hours to the main engine which is not easy ro replace later. I've lived on various different Boats for 31 years 20 of which was without mains power and I have never run a main engine to charge batteries with the Boat stationary. The other thing is petrol is easier to find than red Diesel so a small generator sized to run a decent lithium charger is firstly easy to replace and secondly may actually be cheaper to run and service than a 1.8 litre Diesel engine. £800 for an alternator regulator is mental.

I did suggest this when you first posted about the lithium batteries. Alternator charging is agro.

I have had 3 bicycles stolen, generator, entire inside of Boat stripped of valuable objects, inflatable dinghy stolen, outboard motor off another dinghy and various other things nicked on Limehouse cut. I even know someone who lifted his bike off the Boat and while he turned around to lock the door someone had already ridden off on the bike. Mad shit round there literally bolt it down. Not many moorings around Southall and it is a terrible hellhole but a spot I could tolerate when I had the misfortune to be there was opposite the permanent moorings at the beginning of the Paddington arm between Bulls bridge and the GWR rail bridge. Actually not a bad spot there. Also above Norwood top locks there are mooring rings but it's a bit shit there.

Just out of interest the wall opposite Limehouse marina is now managed by Aquavista who run the marina as a 24hr mooring only. It is a slightly contentious issue as this is a CRT asset but the Aquavista do send staff out and get people to move. You could stay there a few days but will get hassled. Alternatively go round the corner into the refugee camp but bolt everything down as there are hardcore tea leaves don't ask me how I know but let's just say they -will- nick it. Don't ask me how I know this. It was not just once it was numerous times over a number of years on different Boats. They will nick everything.

Yes that's where I saw it. For some reason I remember the place as being dangerous as an A road comes straight along beside the canal there and cars end up going in. Maybe the Nene or the Ouse can not remember.

Great photo. Nice to see maintenance Boats and I wonder what that stem post on the far right is attached to.

I remember a narrow called Vermuyden which had a Fiat 500 (a real one not a hamburger fuelled overweight modern monsterosity) it was driven onto the foredeck on a platform then lowered into the well deck on screw jacks or maybe hydraulic rams. Pretty clever. Weakness of course being there are very few places one can unload a car. Go to France and towpaths are often also roads but not here thankfully.

I suppose it depends how tight it is. I had assumed the OP had already tried to free it off and found it badly seized. They were even suggesting going in the water. Might that fitting at the bottom be a grease point? Or. drain intended to take water to the bilge? Worth investigating the bottom of this area as it is a known rust trap. It looks a bit like concrete has been poured in there.

A decent Stillson wrench on the solid bar poking out of the bearing in that image would be my first move. Not much space to work but might be enough to budge it.

We caught them on the Thames near Rainbow bridge by Bossoms at the beginning of the lock cut there. I do not eat shellfish but my mum made a curry and enjoyed it.

I think thats a signal crayfish. Just not a very old one. We caught loads of these a number of years ago at Oxford. The whole riverbed was crawling with them and it appeared they had even caused a towpath area to collapse because of their burrowing into the side.

I love Columbian doubles ! No storage or land address in my life so I can't get jt delivered in bulk and do not particularly need it due to the firewood but I do like a bit of Columbian coal. Its to die for! The scent is like a time machine to a better place.

Take this Boat ashore and it is likely to stay there and you will need to find someone who either wants a land based project or willing to pay to get it back in the water. When I say 'ashore' I mean remote from a waterway. It is a trap to think that because the friendly farmer does not charge much for you to keep the Boat there it must be a good deal. To the farmer its an okay deal as you are paying the rate for 'storage' but you then have to fork out for transport away or find someone to buy it. The land owner will have an arrangement of some sort whereby if you stop paying the article goes into their possession and they either sell or scrap it. I would never consider this option but it is up to you. Essential hull works at a boatyard in out then do the rest on water. Otherwise you just get problems.

Phurnacite is good stuff. I don't burn much coal these days as it is mostly wood but do like a bit of Phurnacite. Have you looked at other suppliers? A product called Red I think it is Oxbow who make it comes up at a good price and gets a lot of positive reviews. It may be choice supportive bias at work. If you do get a tonne try to store it out of the sun ... you probably know about the bags degrading anyway.

What is the chain for? Just thinking if that is used to moor the Boat it could snap the grease nipple off.

Also worth checking that the crane can actually operate at the 'friendly farmer' end. It is relatively unlikely a farmer is going to have the right hardware to unload a 50ft narrow from a wagon so you need the mobile crane to come. This sounds like a very expensive activity and one which will need to be carried out in reverse order if you ever want the Boat to be floating again. Get prices and double the total then add a bit. I would think carefully about this and consider doing hull works out of water at a yard as quick as possible then putting it back in to do the rest of the work. Remember also that a Boat on hardstanding is quite difficult to get into because you need a ladder. If you are doing a fit out it's going to be hard work getting all materials in and out via a ladder. Constantly fighting against gravity and there is a health and safety hazard. You could built a proper set of steps but you still have to go up and down a lot.

That seems much more sensible than having taper posts. It seems pretty obvious to me that if you supply a tapered post which has a 20mm across flats hexagon on the bottom of it someone is going to come along and use a 20mm spanner to tighten it up. There will be loads of people who would do this. It is not only shaved gorillas.

Water pistols are good for swans. Blowing lots of soap bubbles also spooks them. But overall just get out of the security zone around the nest or cygnets. They do vary. There are some proper angry swans about but then others are perfectly chilled and relaxed. When I had the misfortune to live in Limehouse there was a crazy swan who would fly flapping his wings on the water for hundreds of yards to be annoying if one was in a canoe. I once saw him sink a canoe by boarding it but the bloke in the canoe was swearing and getting into a conflict so not a particularly wise individual. On the other hand here in Berks on Thames the swans are perfectly friendly even with tiny cygnets.

Battery terminals are known to be a weak point so it's almost certainly this. The stud should sheer before anything else rotates and causes.more damage when someone overnightens it. 20mm nut at 4Nm is interesting. Spanners are sized (length) to reduce the chance of shearing bolts but a 20mm spanner on an 8mm thread is asking for trouble. Given that it is a tapered post one would need to have a deep 20mm socket and adapters to get it onto the small torque wrench. Or maybe a crows foot on a torque wrench would be the way to go. Either way Fogstar are supplying a product and not making it particularly clear that the customer needs special tools. I suppose if one were to measure the length of the spanner one could pull it with a spring balance up to a certain weight to achieve the correct torque. Not sure on the math but if the spanner was a foot long and you put a pound of weight on it is the a foot-pound? Convert to Newton Metres.

I had a torque wench once but she was too loud.

Cans must be pretty dodgy as there is the depressed top part. I am getting so anxious about this that I am going to have another can of beer and no I do not keep glass objects other than windows on the launch.

The postcode for the campsite there is GL7.

How many swans were there 100 years ago and where were they located? I didn't say they had all been handled but if they are descendents of birds which had been handled they would know about it. I don't know the history of swans in this country but it is plausible they did originate on the Thames or royal estates as some sort of ornamental bird. Then they started breeding. I was told by a birder that when the red kites were reintroduced a lot of them were lost on the M40 because they did not understand that it is not appropriate to be on motorways due to fast vehicles. Splat. Over time they learned about it and this knowledge was transmitted to the offspring. These days the M40 is not covered in dead red kites. Its really interesting to see behaviour of wildfowl and birds. When I approach ducks in the electric canoe they fly away because somewhere in their brain there is a human in a small vessel with a punt gun. Grebes dive because they think I want the feathers. Moorens hide. Coots run on the water. Mandarin ducks climb aboard for a ride as they do not view humans as hazardous. Canada geese fly away or play chess if they have goslings. Swans don't care because they are confident I am not going to kill them. It is my theory that a bird is able to transmit information genetically to its offspring about basic hazards relating to survival. So a swan which had been ringed and later reproduced would give to its cygnets the knowledge that humans are liable to be violent but that they probably won't kill you. Therefore it is safe to interact with humans rather than take flight. It could also explain why swans feel they can be aggressive towards humans without risk of harm.

The mooring is on the other side of the River to Lechlade. It may be a different postcode.