magnetman

Beta marine did have some crankshaft pulley problems at one time. The note by the OP about the 'very worn alternator belt' could be an indicator of problems in this regard. Be careful not to let the RCR condemn the engine. I seem to recall some of the crankshafts were severely damaged and unable to take a pulley but that does not make the engine useless. Hopefully its not that and is just loose mounts.

Maidenhead is another place full of council owned land. They basically can't enforce mooring controls unless they have a byelaw, a PSPO or any other legal framework. Private land owners can do this but councils, by dint of their legal position, are not allowed to act as natural persons. Its just how the law works. Steve no longer does Henley above Hambleden. Its been Hobbs doing it for several yars now and they are not quite as hot! They are onto it but not the same as when SRB was on site.

I wonder what byelaw SODC will be using to enforce this. Councils are creatures of statute and can not act as natural persons. If they do not have a legal framework whereby they can control moorings there may be some doubt as to the feasibility of enforcing this. They may be acting ultra vires. Its been known to happen before. Most people will just pay up but the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames discovered that the only way to eject persistent overstayers from their land was to acquire a new byelaw. DE is an interesting but unwelcome addition to the pleasure of Boating on the River.

The Boat and contents look like the kind of thing you pay someone to dispose of rather than expecting to lose the headache and get money. It seems likely the front will fall off. The front is not supposed to fall off. It needs to be towed beyond the environment then set on fire.

Quite a long time ago passenger Boats were stopped from carrying rigid buoyant apparatus in favour of automatically inflating buoyant apparatus. Not looked into it but an auto inflate lifering in the form of a ball with a retrieval cord could be useful. Is this what throwlines do ?

It seems the home orifice has stopped the sale of the 32% version and now its more like 10%. The old stuff was amazing for metals. Not so good for faces. I remember the hardware in Rickmansworth used to do a high concentrate Sulphuric acid drain cleaner but that was before throwing these acids over other people became a popular passtime.

There used to be signs by Thames locks 'The anchor is your lifeline'. I always kept my fingers crossed if I ended up in the water nobody took it too literally.

spirits of salt (hydrochloric acid 33%) is good for cleaning metals. Nasty stuff be careful !

My mother used to like the big brown mushrooms with yellow undersides and lots of holes. I could never acCep that they would be edible but apparently they are. Some of the little mushrooms are magic.

Indeed. The old disclaimer certainly applies "If you take one of these then eat it and it causes full body paralysis don't come running to me to complain".

Speaking of fungus I spotted this beauty earlier. Chicken of the woods. I didn't take it due to a previous bad experience but they are edible. Following the thread title my advice is eat these straight away don't keep them out of the fridge. It may be another one. Its not dogs vomit slime mould. Dogs vomit slime mould fungus is incredibly beautiful.

Chrome plating is quite nice on this kind of hardware.

Whatever you do there isn't mushroom for error.

I'm not sure what is wrong with tarnished brass. I did do mine in fly agaric imitation paint but the spots must be non round. On the toads tools they are more like flakes of white rather than spots of white.

I saw a good comment about this "When manoeuvring around locks there are three positions for the engine control - full ahead, neutral and full astern". It seems that this is how some people operate. Of course badly designed Boats don't help. Short swims bad rudders etc. When my mum bought our first narrow Boat in 1991, which I then bought off her in 1994, the bloke selling it said 'go slowly'. Good advice. I prefer to bowhaul in and out of locks if possible its much nicer than using the engine.

It was a very useful tip for anyone who is not sure how to identify cast iron from mild steel. Not specifically to your stove just a generally useful thing to know. I must say I would assume the lugs are mild steel but is not implausible they could be cast. Unlikely but possible. If they had been cast it seems to me they would not have bent.

The body of the fire is welded mild steel. The doors are cast. I would be tempted to heat the lugs but rather than using a hammer acquire a podger type prybar and try to use gentle leverage.

Interesting fire. I have had the Villager Heron and the Puffin but neither of them had the spin wheel vent on the ash door like that. This looks like the Heron as the fire door drops down but with the addition of the spin wheel vent.

If it happens to be over 9ft wide at any point then it is very expensive to transport by road.

"When the couple moved to the Worcestershire countryside in the 1980s, they had to lift the boat over the house." This seems a bit of a problem. Who is going to pay? Breaking up on site probably the cheapest option but it would be messy. I'd be tempted to leave it to nature.

Not wrong!

I was discussing this with a learnèd friend recently and we were at odds as to whether a Boat could be an erection. I maintain the position that it may be but he was of the view that a Boat would not be an erection. It interests me a little as one of my Boats currently occupies the water adjacent to a small plot of land which has a restrictive covenant prohibiting erections. It goes back a hundred yars and things have changed since then but it still piques my interest. Can a Boat be an erection under the legal definition?

I know of several plots of land adjacent to the Thames which have restrictive covenants prohibiting erections.

Yes aesthetic requirements are common and I have heard of mooring operators who allow static houseboats asking for an advanced bond payment which they can then use if the item is abandoned and achieves a negative value. It makes sense. It would be useful if navigation authorities could take some sort of returnable deposit from licence holders to help cover disposal costs. It seems a silly situation where someone can place a worthless Boat on a waterway, live on it for the summer then abandon it and let the navigation authority pay to get rid of it when it sinks.

One of those retired people who owns their house and only has £70k to spend on a holiday home. Its a terrible situation.