PhilR

Julie I assume you were probably moored in the marina? To be honest the noise isn't a problem to me, but on a warm dry evening the overnight towpath moorings, being either close to the road or close to the pub car park might be too noisy for some people. As I said this is no problem to me, but others might prefer a quieter mooring like Westport Lake or Chatterley. Regarding the China Garden, there is something about the place that I don't find welcoming - it is probably just me being a northerner (?) but it has always had the air about it of being a *chain pub* with *chain food* and *chain staff* I live about 13 miles away and know the place since it was built in 1984 (or was it 1985!). There are plenty of better real ale pubs further north! Phil (ducking under the parapet)

Roger Fuller R W Davies

Casper I agree with all the suggestions. They are all normally safe overnight moorings. Festival Park/Black Prince does suffer from traffic noise and/or noise from the China Garden pub - but there are loads of shopping/leisure facilities on the retail park. Westport Lake is a popular, but very pleasant mooring. There is a supermarket not to far away on the opposite side of the canal. If it is still very busy on the T & M and you prefer an early passage through Harecastle Tunnel you might prefer to moor at Chatterley (immediately before the tunnel). This is a quiet and safe mooring and you will probably be in the first northbound convoy (they allow up to 8 boats at a time). It should be a very easy run from Stone wherever you choose to moor. Where are you heading after Harecastle? - up the Macc or down the Cheshire locks? Cheers Phil

ROFL Seriously, Avon Skin So Soft is highly recommended by all my friends who live or holiday in Greece. I might test it out myself in October - the missus has bought a load of it.

With my SR2 I have never had to loosen any pipe unions to bleed the system after changing a filter. Most SR's are self bleeding after the filter. Don't fill the filter bowl with fuel that is too messy. It will leak everywhere. Try this: When you remove the filter bowl make a careful note of where the rubber seals, washers and spring fit. Clean the filter bowl. Reassemble everything and open the two bleed screws on top of the filter housing. Prime the fuel system using the priming lever on the lift pump until you see fuel flowing through the bleed screws. Tighten the first screw, give another couple of pumps and tighten the other screw when fuel is flowing. That's it, job done - unless your engine doesn't have self bleeding return pipes. If your battery is a bit dodgy you could first turn it over by hand a few times (engine decompressed). The only messy bit is catching fuel leakage when removing the filter bowl. Have a few rags underneath and a small container (if there is room!) to collect spillage. It is a simple operation but don't overtighten anything. You can soon nip the screws up a bit if there is any leakage. HTH Phil

There is no such thing as a valuation. But you can get an *opinion of value*. This will vary depending on what the valuation is required for and who is instructing. Please bear in mind that when you apply the term *valuation* to the figure an estate agent gives you, it might be an inflated figure to tempt you to give them instructions to sell your property. Most people tend to instruct the agent who gives the highest figure. Need I say more?

Nice breaking wave too ............

I'm guessing, but do you have a trad stern with high tiller? The tiller height with a lot of modern boats looks most uncomfortable

Has anyone heard of a boat fire/accident involving a gas fridge? - excluding boats with petrol outboards/generators of course. I reckon they are probably safer than 12v or 240v fridges. Everyone used to use the small Electrolux fridge on narrowboats even though Electrolux didn't recommend them for boats. I assume the manufacturers were thinking in terms of boats at sea heeling over at alarming angles which affected the refrigerant? The burner flame is smaller than many pilot lights and the flame failure devices are reliable too ............

Smilla I think the first and most important question is: Are you thinking of doing this to make a financial gain or for long term boat ownership/pleasure? If you are doing it for financial gain my opinion would be - forget the idea. <rant mode on> Until the recent recession anyone with a bit of sense could make a capital gain by doing up landed property. But in many cases people were only rescued from bad decisions because property prices were always on the increase. Things have changed now. The main reason for the current demise of the UK economy is that it has been based on the assumption that property prices will always go up. Most people making decisions in the financial sector are too young to know what a recession is in respect to property values/investment. I hope people have learnt something recently, but judging by the number of TV programs about doing up houses and selling off *antiques*, I suspect not. I really think it is time we moved away from the culture of buying property for financial gain. Residential property is for living in ................ <Rant mode off> You might like to reflect on the fact that 2 years ago most boat builders had full order books and long waiting lists. Now several of them have gone bust ......................... Phil

That land alongside the locks must have been worth a fortune. The sale of the land + income from car parking charges in Dale Street is probably the only reason that the Rochdale wasn't nationalised.

I was advised by a Lister expert to use red diesel to flush the Lister hydraulic gearbox. It sounds a bit risky in the engine though. Sounds like a potential situation for a runaway engine.

http://www.pelapumps.co.uk/

I presume the pipe on your hand pump screws into the sump where the drain plug would normally fir. Pulling the oil out through the dipstick tube with a vacuum extractor like the Pela is a slower operation - but it is less messy. Phil

Most marine versions of the SR's don't have an oil filter, just a strainer in the sump. If the oil pressure is 50 PSI with a cold engine you can leave it alone. The drain plug is on the starboard side of the crankcase. There might not be enough clearance under the engine to get a container underneath which is big enough to catch all the old oil. One way around this is to fit a ½ inch BSP gas tap instead of the plug. You will then be able to control the flow and use a small container. Alternatively, a Pela vacuum pump with the tube inserted down the dipstick tube works well (with hot oil). Surprisingly, they will pull out all except half an eggcup of oil. It will take well over ½ hour running to get the oil really warm. HTH Phil

I always used to reckon on an average of 20 miles and 20 locks per day. The last time I did the BCN challenge we did 50.75 miles and 104 locks in 20 hours. But that was all down to a brilliant crew. I just steered and cleared the prop! - and we never went faster than 3.8 mph. Perry Bar locks were THE best ............ 3 minutes per lock and without any gate slamming The longest single-handed journey I did in one day was from Red Bull bottom lock to Wrenbury............. I'll work that stats out later, but there were rarely any queues in those days

All forums are full of people asking daft questions that they could easily find for themselves if they spent a few minutes doing some research. I am convinced that some people must think that forum owners and moderators get paid for answering their questions. A lot of people sign up to forums just to gain information for a *one off* question. Once they have got what they need they vanish without a thank you or feedback etc. Sites like this are all about sharing information and experiences. A lot of the questions from newbies here seem to be more akin to looking for a cheap housing option rather than a genuine interest in the waterways or lifestyle.

Many years ago I was moored up below Bosley bottom lock. The local angling club were netting the canal from the R. Dane aqueduct to the bottom lock. The Dane aqueduct was the furthest extent of their fishing rights and they were seeking to transport the fish up to the top level of the Macc rather than let their fish get into the waters of the angling club through the next bridge. The number of fish they netted was amazing, but what did surprise me was that they threw all the pike over the towpath hedge into the field - not exactly an act of humane kindness?

The government introduced it? - where do you get that idea from?

In the days before canalside cottages became *desirable residences*, several of the cottages at Malkins Bank were occupied by retired boatmen. If you boated through there late at night someone would always come out for a chat and to give you a hand. Waterside location now means a premium property value. What really annoys me is the attitude of people who buy/rent new canalside properties (usually yuppie apartments) but expect boaters and canalside businesses to conform to their needs. The demise of the Fiddle & Bone in Birmingham is still something that upsets me!

Gosh. They must vibrate a lot if they can beat racing mowers off the starting blocks.

Good news. I'm pleased to hear you are sorted. As a matter of interest, is the lift pump the same SU pump that was fitted to many 1960's cars? (Fords, BMC etc) I'm interested for future reference in case I might need one. Phil

Have Morris's stopped selling *SAE 20 Ring Free*? That is what a lot of hire fleets used to use in the Listers. Probably the best oil for what the OP needs is Lister 10/40 API CC (presumably blended by Morris's?), but it isn't cheap if bought at boatyards/chandlers. Some plant hire companies sell it a lot cheaper. Phil

Unbelievable. No amount of rules and regulations can prevent idiots like that trying to win a Darwin award. I thought the crew of the cruiser being overtaken reacted very quickly and I presume they rescued the idiot. He was damned luck he didn't lose a few limbs ..................