colinwilks

OK, cunning plan. Turn off up the Ashby, try the Lime Kilns with a view to Sunday (Monday?) lunch on the way home and then wind at Sutton Cheney. The Dog & Hedgehog is over the fields in Dadlington and Stoke Golding has three pubs, the Three Horse Shoes doesn't have the greatest beer but does have the excellent Mango Tree Indian restaurant tagged on the back, and thirty yards away the George & Dragon is the brewery tap for Church End, whose Goat's Milk should keep you happy. Sorted. Happy Easter!

Leaving Atherstone for a weekend jaunt. Peeing it down. Don't fancy doing locks in the wet. Greyhound at Hawkesbury suddenly ticks all the boxes surely?

Why not have a pleasant run up the Ashby to the marina at Stoke Golding? The owner there Nigel is an examiner and very straight forward. I'd recommend him. Tel. 01455 212636.

I used to do a lot of rock climbing in my youth and never suffered vertigo, or even acrophobia, but on a man made structure I find looking down, off a balcony for example, can make me quite queasy. I totally agree with what others have said about three points of contact and stowing your windlass, but would suggest you spend some time just sitting on the balance beam or standing on the gate's walkway and getting used to the environment, and the fact you will manage to walk way unscathed! When you're working a lock there's a certain pressure to "get on with it", which isn't there if you are just mooching around enjoying the evening air at your own pace.

I usually chat to fishermen and go into neutral when passing their exact fishing point. Some ask me to churn it up a bit but not many. I can remember taking what seemed like half a lifetime going round Loughborough when a match was on. I can't see how anybody can complain about you going past a match as long as you're going the same speed and the same distance out from the bank for all of them. I do tend to wind them up a bit by telling them how well the blokes three hundred yards back were doing.

We clearly aren't going to agree on this, but I would argue that the person in control of the boat is the person moving it, and the person controlling the paddle gear is moving the boat a lot more than the person on the back of the boat, and if it starts to hang up on a gate or the cill has a great deal more to do with averting a disaster. The working boaters in days of yore were working together day in, day out and I'm sure would appear almost telepathic to a casual observer. It's all about mutual confidence and trust and how you engender that rather quickly between total strangers. Unlike when approaching boats size each other up in order to "do the dance", there's no way of knowing if the person holding a windlass is an expert such as your goodself or a total eejit!

I'm not sure that waiting for the steerer to indicate he's ready for the paddles to be raised is about "I'm the boss and don't you forget it" but more about basic courtesy when the two don't know each other and about basic safety when they do. I had thought that when handing over control of the aircraft the pilots went through an exchange such as "You have control - I have control" for similar reasons? If somebody opens the paddles without asking it doesn't give the steerer much confidence that the same person will drop them as quickly if the steerer needs to ask him to do so, and surely that's at the heart of this debate - mutual confidence between strangers.

The Narrow Boat Trust uses a long line on the Wolverhampton 21 to save water and have a change from bow hauling the butty. If a boat is coming down it can go into the lock that the motor is leaving, which needs draining down anyway to receive the butty. It just needs for people to understand what's going on and for the towing line to be managed so that it stays between the down going boat and the tow path.

We have done the Trent in both directions, locking up at both West Stockwith and Torksey. I purchased John Lower's book "Narrow Boat on the Trent" which may still be available via Amazon (Richlow the publishers have stopped selling books direct I think). It is a good confidence boosting read and a good introduction to planning your departure time to fit the tides. My experience of the lockies on the Trent is that they are unfailingly friendly and helpful, but I would suggest you speak to the lock at both your departure and destination points to establish the best time to leave. You may not get the same advice from both! It is easy to get too near to the shallows on the inside of bends if you're tempted to cut the corners, the sudden lack of depth announcing itself very obviously by your wash. The Chesterfield is beautiful and it's well worth going all the way up the flight at Shire Oaks, there's an ice cream shop half way up. It's difficult to get into the side on most of the Chesterfield, so you'll need to plan stops for the dogs in advance. A day or two tied up in the basin at West Stockwith is a pleasant place to watch the world go by. When we were there the pub had belly dancing on the Friday night. The moorings above the lock at Keadby are fine, although there's not much in the way of pubs or shops.

That's rather my point about not doing the dance, by which I mean the two boats head virtually straight for each other and then pivvy round, like a matador avoiding the bull, or two erotically charged tango dancers. Sterns stay in the channel until the last moment and when they do step onto the shallow bit at the side their bows are already back in the channel beyond the boat being passed. Same manoeuvre with the tiller as when you start to stem up but catch it.

I think I may know who that was. Now he definitely runs with fenders down!

15mm up apparently, although no prices, which is ominous. http://m.flomechvalves.com/products_swipe.html?product_id=1296436&next=1

I like the presumably rude message "***** Hitler" at 10 minutes 13. Getting back to the topic, maybe it's just my inferiority complex showing (well it's not really a complex, I AM inferior) but on our boat when the lookout cries "Boat coming, shiny Hudson, fenders down!" I just know that the idea of passing by "doing the dance" will be met by angry glares from the lady standing in the oncoming boat's well deck (who is usually armed with a mop with which to fend off the riff raff) and that the steerer will either studiously avoid eye contact altogether, or give me a withering look as he passes, with perhaps a resigned shake of the head. I then back the fore end out of the bushes, get back in the channel and tootle off. I know my place!

Two thoughts: For the two engines in a hydraulic set up the secondary engine could be used to charge an accumulator, which could provide a boost at the required moments. Hydraulic oil is nasty aggressive stuff and, as others have said, the systems it runs in have very fine tolerances. Hydraulic hoses can look fine from the outside, but a pin hole at 2000 psi or so will go straight through your skin and make a mess of your insides. To me a load of second hand cheapo bits and pieces has "oily mess that doesn't work" written all over it. Have you considered compressed air? I have no idea of the power calculations, but the hammer gun in my local garage seems to have a great deal of oomph. Air is generally easier to deal with and if you do get a leak there's no pollution of you, your boat or more importantly the waterway. Of course you'd then need a butty of some sort (see my previous post) on which to carry the compressor's tank!

Hello Glenn and Catherine, We have a 57' narrow boat based near Coventry in the Midlands which accommodates four people in reasonable comfort, although you do get to know each other fairly well! I am also involved with the Narrow Boat Trust, see http://www.narrowboattrust.org.uk/index.shtmlWere you to join I'm sure we'd come up with a rate for international members! My wife Norma and I are in our early sixties and retired so time is more flexible now. Your cabin sounds intriguing and I'd like to pursue your idea. May I suggest when you're able to pm people we arrange to Skype each other to see whether we think we'd get on? I'm not sure about the ins and outs of insurances, but I doubt these are insurmountable. Colin

I contacted the CaRT guy I was in touch with last year to ask how they decide where to dredge and this is his reply to me today: " ...... So how do we decide where to dredge? Non-compliance with the published dimensions is one element that is considered. To establish this, we have a programme to survey the whole network at least every eight years. The surveys are carried out either by echo sound, or by physical soundings with a staff which has a 100mm X 100mm foot so as not to penetrate the soft bed. (In advance of dredging projects we also take hard bed levels with a pointed staff which is pushed in as far as a clay, gravel or rock bed). The output of the surveys is either a contour plan or cross sections at 50m intervals. These are used to determine whether the channel profile meets the published dimensions or not and the estimated volume to be removed to achieve a required profile. Another factor in determining where to dredge is the effect on commercial and leisure boating. If boaters are repeatedly grounding, and this will a major factor. There are of course others, including water level management, number of boats, environmental factors, etc.. "

I think it just means they dredge the shallow bits and leave the rest. The puddle clay will be a foot or two below the 1.1 metre (3'7") level, although I don't know what the original depth of the S&W was. I think you'll see 'Dredge to 5'6"' engraved in the stonework on the Grand Union. All in all I don't think you need worry about a sudden influx of Australians coming up through the bottom of the canal.

An email from CaRT I received in May 2015 in answer to my enquiry about this included this paragraph: "Staffs and Worcester - min published depth is 1.1m, though I am warned of a shallow cill at Wolverley Court Lock of 1.00m. Dredging is scheduled on some sections of the Staffs and Worcs in the winter 15/16 so you may find some sections where the actual depth is less than 1.1m." Whilst it's not stated specifically, from this I take it that they are spot dredging based on a depth survey. I have come across such a survey going on elsewhere on the system, but don't recall the distance between samples.

V hull has been done before. Have a look at http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=82685&page=1

I may be repeating some of what others have written, but here goes: It sounds like you may have just snapped the filter off the pump. You can get spares for Flojet - https://www.jabscoshop.com/flojet-marine-products/flojet-water-system-pumps/so if it still runs when it's got power then it's probably OK. The pressure switch is integral to this pump. They come new with various different push in hose tails so you may still have the unused ones on the boat somewhere. The top of the pump, which you may have cracked, is available as a spare. If you can remove the filter (round black thing on right) and post a close up that would help. The normal installation order is water tank, stop cock, filter, pump, T piece to hot water / cold water feeds. Yours appears to have the filter on the outlet side of the pump. There is an arrow on the Flojet pump body indicating the direction of flow. Worth checking since it's all coming to bits anyway. ETA On second thoughts the red gate valve on the left may lead to a through hull fitting so that the system can be drained down for winterising. From memory the pump does look the right way round, with the flow exiting the pump on the left. The flexible hose and jubilee clips beside the filter would probably not have stayed put if the filter was, incorrectly, on the outlet side.

I don't think it's the oil that has saved you. It's the fact the old one knows you have a spare.

How about building a miniature push tug? Engine and rudder controlled from present steering position by Morse cables. Save money by licensing your boat as an unpowered butty, plus you could use the tug separately for pootering across to the pub when you simply can't face walking all the way round by the bridge.

"The moving finger writes and, having writ, Moves on. Not all thy piety nor wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." Rubayat of Omar Khayyam, Persia, about a thousand years ago. I'm afraid that in the present circumstances the moving finger could be said to belong to Tony Dunkley and not your Prof.

Is squat always a BAD THING? I may be being unfair to you, but this seems to be your premise. A real world example of where (I think) squat helped rather than hindered: Until CaRT dredged it last year and cleared the related silt trap there was an infamous scour at Wightwick Mill, just south of Compton on the Staffs & Worcester. Most leisure boats would pass over it with no bother, but we were on a loaded pair, down by the head and drawing well over 3' at the stern. The scour stopped us but we were able to back off. After a bit of thought we decided to untie the butty and allow the motor to take a run at it, winding right off and taking it out of gear just before we reached the scour. Result, the following wave, which I guess contains the water displaced by the squat, caught the boat up and carried it majestically right over the obstruction. Of course if our ploy had not worked we'd have been like Noah perched on the top of Mount Ararat, but it did and we weren't. The same technique is handy when approaching suspect bridge holes (ie all of them) as it helps avoid the piles of bricks that seem to congregate there as well as reducing the risk of picking up the a selection of tee shirts, saris and fishermen's keep nets on the prop. Regarding our wager, I know the Great Western at the top of the 21 stocks a variety of ciders, some of which don't make you go blind immediately, so I'm sure we'll find a suitable venue for settlement!

Good morning, I think you might find the annual BCN Challenge fits the bill. It's over the w/e of 28th/29th May this year. See http://www.bcnsociety.co.uk/ Whom would I back? Well when your boat is afloat come back to me for a wager on the BCN Challenge, say all the Batham's you can drink in one session, losing crew pays? Mmmm, trolling valve. I've often thought this forum could use one of those to differentiate the sardonic from the sarcastic to the down right rude!