Semitrad

Surely 3 or perhaps 4 years is reasonable for a set of domestics? Especially if one has had a catastrophic failure. I think the engineer was right to advise they all be changed, even if he was wrong about other things. Imagine the repercussions if another battery failed a few locks later.

They had already agreed to return our deposit, it was actually parting with the money that seemed to be the problem!

We were set to buy a boat through them but for various reasons had to withdraw, having left a deposit. It was not easy to get the money back, "the card for the machine is locked away and the man with the key is somewhere else" being one of the excuses. After some unpleasantness the money was eventually returned but we came away with the feeling that it was more like a back street car lot than a quality brokership.

Do many marinas welcome major DIY engine work? It is my understanding that most restrict repairs to their own or "approved" engineers.

Our boat has an aquadrive, I would be interested to know what caused the failures you dealt with and what the symptoms were please?

Are these the masthead amplifiers you are referring to? Perhaps I should consider opening a component shop in Coventry to supply the thousands and thousands of boosters that are killed every three years. Doesn't that cathedral have a lightning conductor that works?

The condenser manufacturers have made fortunes from that theory.

So as far as I can deduce, the collapse has been caused by pressure behind the lock wall forcing it into the lock. Very likely to be water pressure. There must have been a void behind the wall, otherwise the water could not have got there. In normal operation, the water remaining in the void when the lock was emptied had only a slight effect on the lock wall, causing a small crack which had been previously filled. With the flood, (tidal wave?) however, the void filled to a higher than normal level and when the lock was emptied the extra water and leverage at the top of the wall was the straw that broke the camel's back. The wall of the pound above Napton bottom lock had a slight bulge for some considerable time with no effect until the pound was drained for maintenance.

The dish isn't looking directly at the satellite, the signal comes from an angle much nearer vertical than you might realise. Keep well away from trees!

Our similar beta setup started blowing on engine startup and ran continuously. It is nice if you angle the blower output so that it can funnel warm air directly up your trouser leg on cold days.

Front garden walls on the estate where I used to live were regularly blown over by strong winds, and occasionally by children. They were only about two feet high, a lock wall 10 or 12 feet high is likely to be much more easily moved by top leverage. But I accept your point about the hole.

It does look as though a long bar has been inserted into the crack and the wall levered away from the side, crumbling the bricks in the process.

We have an L shaped dinette which converts to a bed in our boat. The seat, back and side cushions jigsaw together to form a quite comfortable bed. From memory, the cushions are 5" thick. A major drawback of this design is the inside corner of the "L" shape, Ours is LARGE and is really difficult to store when the bed is made up. Don't underestimate this problem!

Just past the Tingdene Marina at Reading there are free moorings for Tesco on the opposite bank. You always forget something!

Another vote for the South Stratford- see Shakespeare's birthplace at reasonable cost, probably cheaper than a hotel, and some really nice scenery.

How would that ratchet mechanism work then? To me it looks like it has been fitted wrong way round.

One of the highlights of our holiday is having my wife climb over to get out!

I think that I would at least try to hinge the cutout section so that it could be used as a ramp and be closed up when under way.

Any chance of a schematic? Do any of the circuits use the hull as an negative return?

Whilst the o/p may have been hasty with his judgement, he is still "in the dark" and £60 out of pocket. The Bedazzled advert is economical regarding the amount of work required to convert the lamp fitting, almost to the point of being misleading. This is not a simple bulb swop. Richard is to be commended for offering to sort the problem, indeed if he were to offer to modify customer's units for no charge he might sell more bulbs. As for saying nobody else has complained, I thought that only happened to me!

Are you sure about this? Have Bedazzled confirmed that the instructions are wrong? I can't see that a lamp advertised as for use with 12 or 24 volt systems should require a high voltage inverter. I'm all for saving electricity, but £30 a time?

I estimate that a one day licence would be £35 for your size boat,can be paid at the lock. A much nicer trip up the river than down the canal.

Isn't this what an alternator does?

We have had shares in two very similar boats, made by the same builder and with similar engines. The first has always had a tiller "wobble" and a tendency to steer to one side which was very tiring to correct. If the tiller was released the boat would make an immediate dive for the bank which was difficult to recover from. Increasing the revs too much resulted in a point being reached when the tiller was impossible to hold in a straight ahead position. The second boat was completely different to handle, the tiller light and responsive, the boat would continue straight ahead "hands off" under power. No difference could be seen in the steering gear when in dry dock. Sorry, this doesn't help, does it!