TheBiscuits

It's all about the profile. The more tumblehome you have the better your chances of getting through. Gauge at the last lock: 4" drag across the junk on the roof. Gauge at the tunnel entrance: Dragged on the solar panel, but I went in very slowly and still bashed the panel! The tunnel itself : round 2 after removing the solar panel ... Note that we have a small cabin with lots of tumblehome. You can just make out my head in the tunnel pic, but usually the cabin roof is about waist high on me! It is very low, but easier than Standedge as it is only very short. I recommend trying it carefully if you are anywhere near fitting, as so few boats go through it. There is a lovely mooring and a service block in the basin at the top of the Uttoxeter canal, but if you can't fit it is only a short walk round the hill on a good path to the cafe and basin.

The metre of cable between the float and weight wouldn't be of much use there then!

I don't know where it is either, but Brian reckoned it was New Mills :

Those were the photos we had posted earlier today labelled as New Mills ...

"Anything you confuse, I confuse better." ?

That sounds a lot ...

Waxoyl is about the worst coating you can put inside your boat hull. It will hold water between itself and the steel and allow oxygen through, causing worse rust. It is great stuff underneath a vehicle where the water drops out and the air helps dry the chassis, but you might be better off leaving it than Waxoyling it. Dry it out, grind off the loose stuff, leaving some rust behind and cover it in Vactan. Fertan is good, but you need to rinse off the residue so you will end up with a wet bilge again! If you want to overpaint the Vactan, feel free, but do NOT paint it in primer, as that will hold water too. Aldi sell a straight-to-rust metal paint for a fiver a tin if you are on a tight budget. It works well, but takes about 16 hours to dry ... ETA: As Matty says, make sure you have some steel before worrying about paint!

Have you never seen Godzilla? Radioactive sludge and an irritated newt could cause the destruction of Todmorden! More seriously, where are you looking? I may know contractors in the area. PM is fine if you want to keep it offline. If you speak to Alan Oliver, ask him if he has any archive photos of Achilles, because I would like some as a present for the current owner.

Worse than that, we find that people who have never been to a place report third hand experiences as a reason to avoid a whole canal. We have been around Wigan for a month, but the kids on their school holidays have been a minor irritation, not a reason to avoid the Leeds & Liverpool canal!

Try cutting through the curve of the link, not the straight bit. The link only then needs to bend a bit, not shear the other side of the link. If that would give too easily, try partially cutting through the other side of the link to weaken it further.

I though horses generally pulled, so no pushing power required! More seriously, has anyone ever recorded an attempt to have a horse drawn boat pull against a propeller driven boat like the famous test of propeller vs paddle steamer (HMS Rattler vs HMS Alecto)? There is a massive mechanical advantage gained by firm purchase on land compared to spinning a prop in water, but I don't know how massive, and I don't have a horse ...

Breast up to them, then go and help the boat in the lock. Smile and wave while you do this ...

Feel free!

Nobody would do that though, shirley!

Bringing a friends party trip boat up Wigan a few years ago, there was a boat following us. We had a crew of 16, he had his wife, so we thought we would assist them by drawing paddles to reset the locks for them. That evening he was ranting on Farcebook that the trip boat lot were very irresponsible as they(we) had not locked up all the handcuff locks and had left a paddle open on every lock.

https://evobsession.com/electric-car-battery-trailer-unveiled-nomadic-power/

They already do.

We had you down as a cornflakes and lager type

Which way are you coming? We are in Wigan at the moment,and are in the dry dock next week.

Canalplan is confused. There may be an issue with that notice cancellation. @StephenA may be able to help. The Rufford Branch is currently open.

Excellent! I look forward to seeing the electric bathtub under way

I did wonder at some of the previous comments. If a hire boat fleet is not busy at Easter, they won't be using the VMs for very long! There are a lot of grumpies on here, so I would suggest ignoring most of them. I also have a CRT business licence, so I know what questions they ask and how many hoops you have to jump through. I have no doubt that you were asked not to irritate the long term moorings, and that you you were encouraged to use the VM's for loading. If your usual hire periods are a week or two, then you had a grumpy come past when you were prepping your fleet for the start of the season - ignore them! The VM will be empty for the next week or two, so you are getting whiny whiny from a grumpy for no good reason. You can't say that, as your business depends on you being nice, but it is not my business - I just happen to know a few hire-boat operators, and have been on this forum for years!