Up-Side-Down
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Posts posted by Up-Side-Down
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3 hours ago, Up-Side-Down said:
If CAMRA have looked by recently, their Whatpub site is usually a good way to check opening times and other salient details.
In the case of the Anchor, their opening times listing is slightly different. Be interesting to hear first hand who is is right:
Monday Closed Tuesday Closed Wednesday Closed Thursday Closed Friday 7.00 pm - 11.00 pm Saturday 7.00 pm - 11.00 pm Sunday Noon - 3.00 pm So these are in fact their winter opening hours!
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1 minute ago, Goliath said:
Right, final word on it and I got this from a direct line to the boss:
Open every night from 7pmHappy Drinking 🍻
Excellent!
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If CAMRA have looked by recently, their Whatpub site is usually a good way to check opening times and other salient details.
In the case of the Anchor, their opening times listing is slightly different. Be interesting to hear first hand who is is right:
Monday Closed Tuesday Closed Wednesday Closed Thursday Closed Friday 7.00 pm - 11.00 pm Saturday 7.00 pm - 11.00 pm Sunday Noon - 3.00 pm -
Ed again!
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8 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:
Consultants compliant with the road lobby are the biggest problem! I often only get to see the investigations after the event, and even though we can pick holes in the research by then it's a done deal between a developer who never wanted water transport and an authority who don't understand it.
Spot on!
Would you be happy for me to use this as a quote in a future freight piece for publication?
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22 hours ago, Up-Side-Down said:
A couple of years back Scottish Canals had a scheme to turn dredgings into the equivalent of breeze blocks for the construction industry. It looks like this has ........ er ......... sunk! Might ask the COO about it now that it has come to mind.
Response from Scottish Canals:
"We have made concrete blocks from segregated dredgings recovered from Laggan Spout on the Caledonian Canal. There is an aspiration to utilise dredgings from Ratho as well but I haven’t had the feedback from the university yet on the suitability of the material. We are also moving closer to producing a topsoil – not quite there yet but I remain hopeful!
"Plan is to install the blocks at Bowling to trial their durability in tidal waters. I’ve attached some pictures of the blocks which have been produced so far."
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12 hours ago, fanshaft said:
Thanks much appreciated. Yes in to farmers fields seems to be permitted. Maybe farmer has waste receiving licence.
A couple of years back Scottish Canals had a scheme to turn dredgings into the equivalent of breeze blocks for the construction industry. It looks like this has ........ er ......... sunk! Might ask the COO about it now that it has come to mind.
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Boat Dwellers - There may be some good news regarding receiving the government £400 towards helping with energy bills. Please see below...good news is that the consultation findings say that:
Households without a domestic supply contractSome households will not receive EBSS from a supplier if they do not have a domestic electricity contract with a licensed electricity supplier. Affected groups would include those who pay their electricity as part of an inclusive charge with supply through a non-domestic contract. For example, residents of park homes paying a site owner, properties on a private electricity network and those who are not connected to the electricity grid. Evidence suggests at up to 400,000 would not receive EBSS support due to these circumstances, compared with approximately 29 million that will.
For these affected households, funding will be made available as soon as possible. We are developing approaches that will ensure they receive £400 equivalent support for energy bills this winter, working with local authorities, the devolved administrations and commercial partners. An announcement with details on how and when these households across Great Britain can access this support will be made this autumn.
See https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/technical-proposals-for-the-energy-bills-support-scheme
and
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6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
1) Its a starting handle (he picked up by mistake thonking it was gthe windlass)
2) He is pushing the boat away from the side (leaning backwards)
Isn't it a freshly caught eel?
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9 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:
I'd give it a bit longer next time...
Fair dos!
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9 minutes ago, Loddon said:
Except it's Torque at low revs swinging a big 24"+ prop that gets a boat with a JP2 through.
20Hp from a JP2 is not the same as 20Hp from a Beta 3
It's just that some people can't tell torque from mutter ............
(been waiting years to find an excuse to resurrect that one!)
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13 minutes ago, IanD said:
The fact remains that CART are effectively prevented from closing most of the canals (all those classed as Commercial or Cruising), with the possible exception of the Rochdale and HNC (TBD).
Since they have a legally binding duty as follows:
(1)With a view to securing the general availability of the commercial and cruising waterways for public use, it shall be the duty of the Waterways Board, subject to the provisions of this section—
(a)to maintain the commercial waterways in a suitable condition for use by commercial freight-carrying vessels; and
(b)to maintain the cruising waterways in a suitable condition for use by cruising craft, that is to say, vessels constructed or adapted for the carriage of passengers and driven by mechanical power.
if they don't do this they'll find themselves open to legal action, possibly from an organisation of canal users -- I'm sure nowadays that funding to bring such an action could easily be raised by crowdfunding, and legally speaking CART wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
This isn't a case of CART being able to do what they want, they have a legal duty to keep these canals open and usable. If they protest "we can't afford to do this" then this doesn't resolve them of this duty, so the only options are for changes to the law to remove this duty (needs an Act of Parliament) or find a way to provide the money to enable them to do their duty.
Given the relatively modest sum involved and the terrible publicity that would result from canal closures (destroying our national heritage!), I suspect the government (and CART) will find that raising more money is a much less unpleasant option... 😉
I think that's a pretty realistic analysis Ian and I suspect that is the sort of default position CRT keep in the back of their minds in their current negotiations with DEFRA to set the next round of funding for the waterways, beginning 2027. I believe their are currently 3 scenarios based on possible funding outcomes that CRT have tentatively outlined, and a couple of them are not terribly palatable from the boaters point of view.
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1 minute ago, IanD said:
Having searched through the various Acts, it seems that cruising waterways (which CART must keep open) include (among others):
Ashton, Caldon, L&L, Peak Forest, Macclesfield, Mon&Brec, Shroppie, Stratford, Oxford...
Which means that -- unless they've also been reclassified from Remainder to Cruising like the K&A was -- the only obvious "all the other no-hoper canals" closure candidates are the Rochdale and HNC.
Does anyone know what the current status of these is?
Either way, the apocalyptic "the network's going to close" prediction seems unlikely, a number of Acts of Parliament would be needed to close Cruising waterways -- which is unlikely to happen...
I remember that there was great rejoicing when the two Scottish Lowland Canals were reclassified as Cruising canals about 10 years ago, following their restoration in 2002.
Whilst this greatly increases the likelihood that they will be maintained, it certainly doesn't guarantee it, nor for that matter does a Commercial designation guarantee that a waterway will be maintained for commercial use, dredged to its original depth. There is a wee clause in the wording of the Act that says something to the effect that the relevant minister (currently George Eustace) can over ride this requirement. I suspect the same is true when it comes to maintaining a navigation as a Cruiseway.
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5 minutes ago, IanD said:
Thank you for that helpful smartass reply. Perhaps a link to such a list (or even posting the list) would be more helpful still? 😉
Looks like good starting point:
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I shared the video with Scottish Canal's chief operating officer and we agreed that retaining his deposit might be good starting point. The clown passed my mooring boat this morning on his way back to the hire base at Falkirk.
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5 minutes ago, peterboat said:
All I can refer you to is the new scientist article Tony which says they stay cool, I have a bulge fan blowing cool air into the brushes and then through the motor it was on recommendation from James, the motor stays cool even after hours of cruising
Tickover for us, I have watched some horrendous sights when boaters get it wrong
Please could you post a link to the New Scientist arti
Just now, Up-Side-Down said:Please could you post a link to the New Scientist arti
Just now, Up-Side-Down said:Please could you post a link to the New Scientist arti
New Scientist article Peter. Sorry if you've already done so.
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3 minutes ago, IanD said:
No, I decided not to do a build blog because of exactly the kind of sarky uninformed personal comments appearing on this thread... 😉
Thank goodness for the generosity and time of all those with knowledge and experience in this field. Without it, and the willingness to share, the world (and this forum in particular) would be a be a far poorer place.
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36 minutes ago, peterboat said:
Currently it's a electric screwdriver to take the lids off.
Currently ............!!
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32 minutes ago, MtB said:
In reality, probably little or none but I suggest it needs to be in the FAQs as it was 1) the first thing I looked for when I saw the thing, and 2) not mentioning it or why it is not a problem (if it isn't) looks unprofessional and like they are in denial over it. 3) Sooner or later if they don't have a policy over it and some research they can cite, some chancer will claim they caught it from a Solariskit and they could easily end up in court on the back foot if they aren't prepared.
All good points. Their gravity feed system kit that I've just tripped over, however, is simply screaming Legionella at me!
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2 minutes ago, MtB said:
The obvious FAQ (to me at least) is missing from the FAQ page. How does it deal with Legionella?
Could you suggest they address this if you have an inside track to intelligent life at Solariskit, perhaps? It will keep on cropping up!
As I can't get a sensible response to my queries I'm going to shoot up there as soon as I get a minute and that is a question near the top of my list. However, given that it's closed circuit the doesn't come into contact with the water that we use, how much of an issue is it likely to be? There isn't a great deal of difference between it and a domestic solar thermal set up.
Whilst it's a pretty funky website, it's rather short on data and performance figures (even taking account of all the inevitable variables).
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1 hour ago, dmr said:
I think it just might be, but luckily I have access to a workshop with facilities for drilling holes in thick steel, and welding it 😀.
I reckon about 6kW-hour of Lithiums at 48 volts would be really good and mean that we could go several days without running the engine, including running the washing machine a couple of times. It will be £6000-£7000 which is a bit scary. The bit I have not worked out is how to do hot water for a shower. Currently we need to run the engine at least every third day.
Will be trialling these over the next few months under the auspices of the IWA Sustainable Boating Group and will report back.
For many of us with a diesel or solid fuel stove with a back boiler there is a summer "hungry gap" when it's too warm to light the stove but one still needs hot water. Hopefully this is when the sun is shining to these fill that gap with the aid of a couple of these. I intend to plumb a pair into the engine coil in the clarifier c/w a couple of two way valves and a simple differential controller. We shall see ..........
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1 minute ago, peterboat said:
I think you are biased Ian, lynch is 93% efficient, the motor controller is cheap under 500 squids and up to 90% efficient, yes it has to be geared by belts but that provides protection in case of a jam. As a conversion its easy to get the pulley sizes right so the propeller doesn't require changing, as everything is DC no losses there especially if charging by solar. It's a easy job to do as I have proved, the brushes are very long lived easy to change and cooling by bilge blower simple and cheap.
Now the off the shelf package is the way forward for new builds, but for people with engineering skills Cedric lynch's motor is a cheap way of doing the job on conversions. Mine has been reliable and whilst not totally silent shocks fishermen when they cant hear me coming.
The one big difference between them is I can diagnose and repair the DC system easily as its simple, I am not so sure about the AC systems.
An interesting perspective Peter and, again, very informative.
I spent a fair time chatting with the Lynch people at last year's Crick show and came away feeling that they were very straightforward, helpful and would be an excellent firm to deal with even with the 'remoteness' that being based in Central Scotland tends to generate.
I can see it's very much horses for courses and I understand that the early Lynch motors were of very low efficiency but things have clearly changed.
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1 hour ago, IanD said:
I did a lot of looking into this. If you want an "off-the-shelf" ready-to-go narrowboat solution that's known to work, the Waterworld 15kW one is probably the best, and reasonably priced -- the entire system including motor controller, display and everything else is several grand cheaper than just the Bell Marine motor, which needs several thousand pounds worth of "extras" to make a complete drive system:
https://www.energy-solutions.co.uk/products/waterworld
If you want a more "roll your own" solution then the best motor I found was the Engiro 205W-12013 which is rated at 15kW continuous on 48V, power is at 1080rpm which means a sensible sized prop not an egg whisk.
https://www.voltsport.co.uk/Engiro-205W_12013
They also supply kits for narrowboats and wideboats, but their off-the shelf narrowboat one uses a lower power higher speed motor which is less suitable. They also do one targeted at widebeams which uses a motor (12202) with two controllers for more power, which is overkill for a narrowboat. I'm sure they'd do you a kit based on the 12013 motor if you asked.
Motors in pods sound attractive but these are targeted at the yacht market and are *extremely* expensive, they make even the BellMarine solution above (which came to about £12k IIRC) look cheap.
Series hybrids are taking over because they make more sense for narrowboats than parallel ones, especially if you're looking ahead to the sunlit uplands of having a canalside charging network. The parallel hybrids have too big a diesel engine, too small an electric motor which can't be disengaged from the prop shaft, too slow charging (and low efficiency) when moored up -- and are actually not that much cheaper when you add everything up.
Especially for battery charging when moored it's much better to run a small generator diesel at close to full power (about 25% efficiency at 7kW) then do what the HybridMarine system does and run a big propulsion diesel via alternators at a tiny fraction of full power (about 11% efficiency at 3kW) -- both charging time and fuel consumption are more than double for the parallel hybrid.
HybridMarine also recommend LA batteries which are cheap to buy, but which further increase generator/engine running time and fuel consumption due to the need for equalisation -- by the time you account for this (engine wear and servicing as well as fuel) and battery life, LFP batteries work out cheaper and give much shorter charging times than LA.
But whichever route you take, swapping a diesel setup for a hybrid is very expensive, and even installation from new costs considerably more -- mainly because a decent cocooned diesel generator on its own already costs more than a propulsion diesel+gearbox. You're paying a premium to get silent cruising and a much better onboard 230V system, and -- if this matters to you -- doing your bit to save the planet by reducing fuel consumption, not saving money.
This will of course change if/when charging networks happen and the generator can be ditched, just like happened with EVs compared to hybrid cars... 😉
A very useful round up Ian – thank you.
On a point of detail, could you share your observations on DC v. AC drive motors? I believe the Energy Solutions option is DC as are the Leech offerings (that you haven't referenced). The received wisdom that I have so far gleaned seems to suggest that, on balance, AC is the way to go. I'd be really interested to know more .........
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1 minute ago, Dave Taylor said:
Briefly, touching on the '60/40 rule' (so-called) I seem to remember that when the need to declare your percentage was introduced, the option was open for boaters to declare WHATEVER percentage they calculated to be correct. I went to some considerable pains to calculate my %ages and – to start with at least – most boatyards agreed. Then there seemed to be a conspiracy to only allow 60/40 or 100% domestic and no-one would accept other %ages. As we no longer live aboard, it is not such an issue for us as it was, but did the rules actually change, or were we railroaded by boatyards being awkward?
The 60:40 split is familiar from the point of view of duty and HMRC. Much 'further back up the line' DfT have adopted it as a way of pricing the fuel based on whether it is used for propulsion or domestic purposes. Propulsion use attracts two RTFCs (worth around £0.40 each) whilst domestic use attracts nothing. A purely arbitrary arrangement but one that if applied kills the use of a 90% carbon neutral fuel on the inland waterways.
Anchor High Offley - current opening hours?
in General Boating
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Always is!