TheBiscuits
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Posts posted by TheBiscuits
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34 minutes ago, bizzard said:
the only bloke to ever finish a boat on time was Noah.
Yeah, but he only had it for about 6 weeks before he crashed it into a mountain ...
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19 hours ago, Mac of Cygnet said:
This from a notice about a pump-out not working:
Closest waterway: Leeds & Liverpool Canal
Starts at: Johnsons Hillock Mess & Services
Ends at: Johnsons Hillock Mess & ServicesDAK what is this mess?
There's a proper "mess room" in the building that contains the elsan and the (now closed) shower and toilet. Used by CRT staff and vollies as a canteen / break room / storage.
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4 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:
All our sockets are now a mimimum of 500mm above the floor.
We did somehow get away with sockets in the ceiling for the snooker table lights !
If the ceiling isn't more than 500mm off the floor you picked the wrong architect ...
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9 minutes ago, IanD said:
Sounds absolutely bonkers. Is it still in use?
Maybe not, I've just looked up the EA discharge licence and it has a revocation date of October 2024. Issue date of 1982 so CRT can't get the blame!
I don't know if another one has been granted to replace it or if the university just gave up on the idea. Or if CRT water supply issues and/or abstraction licence fee increases killed it off.
The abstraction licence number is/was 2/27/11/160 and was issued in 2008, again predating CRT, but I can't find online details for that one.
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52 minutes ago, IanD said:
It does sound like a bit of a silly design decision to have made -- assuming this was done that way, and still is, and is the real reason for the low pound as opposed to yet another apocryphal story to slag off CART... 😉
It was a silly decision, and it still is. And yes, the discharge is into the goyt just below the lock, not back into the pound.
Water level maintenance isn't automatic either, it involves boots on the ground waving windlasses both sides of that odd tunnel bit with no towpath access.
I can only assume that whichever idiot signed it off at BW/CRT (can't remember when it went in) had never seen a canal, or at least not that one...
It's not continuous use either, so they can't just add an appropriate size bypass to the locks above it without having even more water running off below the bottom lock.
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29 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:
They seemed to be giving the impression that solar on a narrowboat would be adequate to recharge the batteries, but I did not notice anything about the battery type.
The batteries are LFP, which is good.
The solar will definitely recharge the batteries, eventually, as long as the end user doesn't waste any of the power by moving the boat or for domestic supply ...
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2 hours ago, cheesegas said:
I don't walk on the roof to get to lock ladders at all. I only use the back 4ft of the roof to jump up on to the side of the lock on the Thames, where often there's no lock ladders next to your boat at all due to the length of the lock.
How does that work in a lock with a 12 foot rise? There's plenty of them around.
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Just now, Shandybass said:
Hmmm, so I've got two opposing bus of advice here; to prime or not to prime - that is the question.
Not really. Follow the instructions from the manufacturer of your chosen epoxy, and if you insist on a primer use the recommended one from the same manufacturer.
2 pack epoxy isn't paint, even though we treat it as if it is. It's a chemistry set in two tins, so use it correctly.
As an aside, if you haven't used a needle gun in an enclosed steel box before make sure you have the best ear protection you can. Using both earplugs and ear defenders together is not overdoing it!
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On 22/10/2025 at 08:29, Sid Charles said:
I have one of those widely used compressor ones, it's OK now I know how to deal with it by putting it onto cool setting during the night, but if you forget you can ruin food
I'm confused. The compressor ones are the "proper" fridges, it's the absorption or peltier ones that cause most trouble.
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2 minutes ago, Shandybass said:
Do you think red oxide and then 2 pack epoxy?
No. If you are going to properly prep it and use 2 pack epoxy don't put anything else under it - let the steel-epoxy bond do it's job properly.
Mine is white, it makes it trivially easy to see if anything is dripping or leaking very early. Pale green might be ok, but avoid the colour of fresh oil ...
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Or just do what the big marinisers do and spray the whole thing after it's assembled, hoses and cables included...
Yes, my Beta does indeed have hoses that are black on one side and green on the other 😁
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My webasto flashes an error code on power up if there is something wrong, so maybe your eberspacher does something similar. Details will be in the fine manual ...
The most recent one I had was the first use since I painted the engine bay. And when it wouldn't start up I eventually remembered I'd disconnected the fuel pump cable to paint behind it ...
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4 hours ago, tree monkey said:
I actually tried that once, just proved i wasn't any good as a horse replacement
Isn't a horsepower about five manpower traditionally?
So you were only a fifth of a horse, and I'll let you choose which end you'd like to be! 🤣
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Just now, Jen-in-Wellies said:
Add leaks around roof vents to the potential culprits. Once inside, water can travel a long way on suefaces, before dripping, so where the leak is and where the drip is may, or may not be the same.
I was just about to post something very similar, from personal experience.
Although I prefer the word "surfaces" ... 😁
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9 hours ago, IanD said:
Or maple syrup and raspberries, like I had yesterday... 🙂
Yes, that works well with rum ... 😉
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1 hour ago, Momac said:
I am by no means vegetarian but some meat free meals are perfectly good. Maybe you should try it , especially so if you are a good cook.
And especially so if you like Indian food.
There's some seriously fabulous Indian recipes that really don't improve with meat added. Of course many work really well either as vegetarian or with meat, fish or poultry.
If you don't enjoy vegetarian options you might be doing it wrong ... ignore most of the overly processed vegetarian meat substitute stuff and use squashes, chickpeas or sweet potato to give texture and carry flavours well.
Cauliflower or ordinary potatoes can work too, but you may need to cook them differently to however you usually do for best results.
I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm definitely a foodie!
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Litherland is an open air elsan behind the toilet building.
All the ones I used on the Warwickshire Avon were open air ones, someone else might know if they even have any inside buildings.
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3 hours ago, b00ke23 said:
....unless of course you have a cocooned generator in which case I don't think anyone would
... notice
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On 10/10/2025 at 10:14, Francis Herne said:
Whether this is a problem or not is a good way to provoke a forum argument.
Only with @Arthur Marshall. I don't remember seeing anyone else get cross about this.
I would understand it if he was objecting to the non-movers moored next to his paid for mooring, but he seems to be cross that people who are moving on every fortnight or less are allowed to!
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In better news (for me at least!) I climbed Wigan flight today. Yes, I'm cynical enough to have waited a few weeks after it reopened to see if there were going to be any more problems as it's been shut since May.
A nice day on the flight, afternoon sunshine and a visit to the pub afterwards. I do like this whole boaty thing when the canals are open...
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1 hour ago, Momac said:
I may be wrong but I think the proposals include the possibility that an Elsan may be closed if its removal would leave remaining Elsans within the travel time criteria set by C&RT.
Of course that infers they will be adding extra ones where there's too much of a gap.
To be honest, I hope they do choose to close some of the very expensive and unreliable septic tanks ones and add a few more mains sewer ones.
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It's been discussed extensively on here, and the general take is that no standard style narrow boat or wide beam that will fit the canals qualifies.
At least one of the builders who made sales claims about VAT exemption had a clause in their actual contract that essentially said "and if HMRC disagree then the Buyer will have to pay any outstanding VAT and penalties"
So if you go down this route, keep about 25% of the final sales total to one side in case it comes back to bite you ...
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1 hour ago, David Mack said:
Indeed. Straight up through the roof.
Wet exhaust would make that even more fun ...
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46 minutes ago, Shandybass said:
Oh - I didn't realise that there were raw water intakes without a mudbox!
Oh yes. Probably most of them in common usage have single intake pipe through a hull fitting, and one big leaf or a carrier bag is enough to completely block the pipe. Or about a million duckweed plants does it too.
And if you don't spot it and fix it your engine overheats and possibly seizes up ...
CRT Survey
in Waterways News & Press
Posted
Just tick the "Don't know" option if you're not sure ... 🤣