BEngo

You could try asking your local coal merchant where they get theirs. With the ending of domestic coal deliveries they may even have some going begging. N

It would not be beyond the wit of boaters to drop some decent lumps and a few bankers overside so that they could be dredged out when running empty or with very small coals. After the Wendover Arm was dredged in the 80's or early 90's you could very quickly pick a bucketfull of coal out of the towpath dredgings opposite Heygates and right along to the Tring feeder. Old Albert Barnet claimed he would put a few sacks of coal in the water there when tied at Bulbourne with the right cargo, knowing there would not be many passing boats. N

At the end that is out of sight in the picture will be a Schrader valve, like a car tyre, possibly under a round screw-on cover. Remove the cover and check the pressure with the pump off. Inflate to the pump cut in pressure. A 12 V car tyre compressor is easiest, a foot pump is OK or a suitable bike pump will do the job but is hard work. N

I think the idea is that the two semi circles butt up against each other to give you a flat surface above and below for the gaskets. I would want a smear of Hylomar or similar between the two halves to make sure that in driving rain or a leaky gate there was no leak path into the tank. Alternatively get a staple welded either side of the filler and put a bar through with a padlock one end and a bend the other. N

Yes, provided you are referring to the Domestic negative busbar. However bonding, and being able to isolate the starter are separate things. The BSS requires that all your batteries can be isolated. This can be done by a switch in each battery positive lead, which should be close to the relevant battery, or by joining the negatives together at a busbar then connecting one side of a switch to the busbar and the other side of the switch to all of the batteries negative terminals. Again the switch should be close to the batteries. Bonding is a safety feature. N

Undo the 4 screws in the outer ring and the whole thing should come upwards. There should be a (probably rubber) gasket seal under the outer ring. You will need to fit that below the MC lock widget and obtain another seal to go between the lock ring and the filler outer ring. You might be able to get away with Marine Flex or other sealant, but because any leak will end in your diesel tank (promoting diesel bug) you need to be sure you have a seal. You may need longer retaining screws to allow for the thickness of the lock and the extra gasket. N

For anyone thinking of a spring value enhancement , Screwfix have Leyland trade white paint on offer at £28 for 2x 10 litres. N

I think many, if not all of the Springer Water Bugs were like that. The six Harris Bros built riveted pleasure boats built in 1960 and 1961 had a very similar arrangement when delivered. Modern Black Prince craft seem to have the rudder stock in a rectangular recess with the aft face open. Makes getting the stock out to straighten it easier apparently. N

Castrol R for a really good smell. One of the mercaptans for a generally sulphurous stink. You used to be able to buy stuff for making paint smell different. I expect that would work too. Seriously, any sort of smell additive is going to cost brewsters because a). That is what the market will bear and b). The market is, in oil or fuel additive terms, microscopic. N

Insulation: Kingspan. Much easier than spray foam in a not new boat. Fill any gaps with gun grade canned foam and tape joins with ally tape. Insulate everything, including the water tank. Floor: 18mm WBP good one side plywood on treated timber battens. Draw your planned layout full size on the floor before you fix it down. Leave a lot of access hatches where you will be able to get at them. Ensure one is right at the back of the living space. Plan your cable routes before you start. You will need surprisingly large cables, to prevent excess voltage drop. Especially to a compressor fridge. Allow space to add more cables. Forget flexible solar panels. There is a reason they only have a 1 year warranty. Rigid ones usually a 25 year warranty. Try to install stuff like water pumps and accumulates where you can get at them Remember you need to get a BSS certificate for a licence, so read the requirements carefully, and understand the examiners checking list in detail. Do not do anything novel without getting advice from the examiner you intend to use. Buy the best tools you can afford. Expect the fit out to take 4 times and long, and cost twice as much as you hoped. Good Luck. Fitting out is great fun. N

It is called maintainability these days. Regardless, I agree there seem to be few boats where it was even a minor design criterion. N

There is a similar set at Circus Field in the covered slipway. Pictures on the ACS website. The lift columns work with beams that go across under the boat so as to spread the load onto the baseplate and not rely on the chine corner to spread the load. The lifts pictured above are really designed to lift a vehicle by its tyres. N

I missed your CC status. That said, you will need to be off the boat whilst it is blasted. It is a filthy job and, unless you seal everything,- vents, windows, doors, drains, really really well there will be muck everywhere. According to Clegg, Mk1 Mod 0, it is 68 hours from Hertford to Kibworth, so if you really go for it, you should be able to do it in a week, provided you time Watford and Foxton to avoid long delays. There are several long pounds where you could get/keep going early or late, without having to worry about locking in the dark, or get a chance to take turns for a sit down. N

Get away from London and the prices become more reasonable. Applies to many things-beer as well as boats. Might even be worth getting a boat mover to take it to Debdale or Norton Canes to save your cruising time. N

Going up the GU: Iver? Uxbridge? Pitstone? Willowbridge? Baxter's? Trouble is, not a lot of places do blasting, because of the mess and because you need a lot of space as well as pricey kit. N

Braunston tunnel was closed from Sep 1978 until 1981. The numbers on Mouse were issued in early in the BW 1980-81 series. N

If Dick is too busy, send or bring it to Somerset and I will happily turn the end off for you. N

The top of the pump body has been chamfered, presumably because the top threads were damaged. That means you have lost the equivalent number of threads engagement before you start. I think your idea of taking 6 mm or so off the gland follower is the way to go. The other possibility is to fit a sleeve as suggested by john.k. That seems like a lot more work. A new gland follower is fairly easy to make if you ever wanted to go back to original set up. You need a fairly big chunk of brass though!⁸ I find that water pump packing either lasts about a year, or for about 5 years. I can find neither rhyme nor reason to this. I have never managed to get more than two turns of packing in. That said, a litre a day is not a terrible consumption rate for an open ram gland packed pump. I tend to think I need to do something when it gets to about 2 l a day. For john.k. The later, double acting water pump was a better design. Unfortunately it has leather washers which are hard to come by. N

Rather than the Blisworth re-line (which was done with the tunnel dried out and road vehicle access from the Blisworth end) Mouse and Frog were built for the major repairs to Braunston tunnel, a bit earlier. UCC had the contract for moving the brick and mortar boats in the tunnel, so had Mouse and Frog built short enough to turn in the tunnel I dont know who built them- possibly Chris Barney or Baliol Fowden. For some time Frog was on the bank between Willoughby and the motorway crossing at Barby. There were six riveted Harris pleasure boats, built in 1960 and 1961. I have seen four: Primus, Secundus, Victoria and Kalamaki. All are recognisable by the bow, the flat rectangular bar used for rubbing strips and the curved transom stern. N

If the engine runs fine apply Rule 1 of maintenance engineering: If it ain't broken, don't fix it. N

The plugs would have to carry a lot more current than their rating in order to blow a wire fuse sized for the plug rating. However the rating, while applied to the plug and or the sockets individually should really be applied to a specific combination of plug and socket. The limit will actually be set by the area of contact between pins and sockets and the contact pressure between them. Why does this matter? If you buy some cheap crap where the pins are slack in the socket contacts and there is the bare minimum of brass in the socket then the contacts will get hot when run at their rating, or even at less than their rating. The plastic then deteriorates and the whole thing falls apart. 12V amps produce just as much heat as at 240V . The extra money for good plug tops and sockets is worth it. N

Look up Pirtec for your area. Try to get the hose a little longer than the existing as the bend at the banjo end looks a lot too tight a radius to me. N

I believe that, rather against his wishes, his photo collection and other artefacts went to CRT. I am sure the was an earlier post on here about it. N

I have a good friend who has made a similar device with a female thread at the brushless end , to which he attaches his angle grinder. It seems to work OK but he is a braver man than me. Other things I have seen used include a large hawthorn branch and a clamshell type manual post hole digger. N

If the original name was Vanadium, as claimed, it seems more likely to have been a BCN day boat. Harris Bros, at least, were still building day boats until the 60's. It needs a push tug to move it, so was it one of the GKN Hardy Spicer boats built to work on the Tame Valley and Brum and Fazeley? N