TheBiscuits
-
Posts
11,263 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
68
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Gallery
Blogs
Store
Posts posted by TheBiscuits
-
-
35 minutes ago, David Mack said:
Do CRT normally include such lowerings in the Notices and Stoppages list? I couldn''t see anything about it.
I wouldn't have thought so, they'll have let any Liverpool Link bookings in and out then dropped the water.
As there are no link bookings on Tuesdays anyway it won't affect any CRT boats - you're not supposed to go into Canning Dock apart from in transit.
-
9 minutes ago, Dan_58 said:
There are some works being undertaken on the Canning Half Tide Dock- the dock level has been lowered for 48 hours by the Canal and River Trust.
General maintenance or is it part of converting Graving Dock #1 into an art installation?
-
22 minutes ago, Nightwatch said:
Is there a difference between the two vessels. Mine look identical from the exterior.
The one on the hot takeoff pipe, usually after the calorifier is the expansion tank. The one on the cold pipe, before the non return valve on the calorifier is the accumulator.
Which doesn't mean that will be obvious to see!
-
3 hours ago, Mike Todd said:
spray)The consequence has been the diversion of money that would otherwise have funded better planned replacements of worn out structures - gates and cills eg.
And more to the point, all the other reservoirs that suddenly got reassessed and had major work done on them also needed funding.
I seem to remember there were seven in total that needed urgent expensive modifications.
-
4 minutes ago, Lodewicus said:
Good luck!
I'm just trying to find a surveyor for the boat I've put an offer in on. It's out of the area of my preferred surveyor 😞
Where's the boat? Someone on here can probably suggest a good surveyor who covers the area.
-
1 hour ago, Heartland said:
Well google is wrong, I suggest you look in Lowry country.
This is a canal under restoration
Oh I know where it is, I was simply amused at Google's suggestion.
-
2 hours ago, Mike Todd said:
If one was a hyper pedantic enthusiast for keeping things 'as they always have been' or 'it was what canals were built for' and insist on single cylinder putt-putts
Nah, osses!
-
1
-
-
7 minutes ago, nealeST said:
Poly foam insulation on the spec sheet…is that the same as spray foam?
It's more likely to be polystyrene on a 1993 boat.
-
2 hours ago, DucksAreFaster said:
The assortment of responses regarding boats with no weed hatch or no cavitation plate beneath the top seal, has me totally confused, as does the suggestion that anyone would never need to investigate the weed hatch for years. We have had days when the prop needed to be thrown into reverse every 50 yards just to continue with slow progress.
That's because you cruise your boat rather than leave it in a marina on permanent shore power 😁
As a final thought, do the rudder stops remove easier than the arm? You might gain the extra precious clearance that way.
Good luck with the hatch, it does seem a bit of a daft arrangement.
-
On 14/05/2025 at 15:40, Heartland said:
According to Google AI that's the M4 bridge over the River Ebbw in Wales! 🤣🤣
I'm not convinced ...
-
54 minutes ago, tree monkey said:
?
Forecast I can see is showing cracking the flags with not a dribble of rain anywhere
I think it was a cue for that photo of Kath Fincher!
She insists she wasn't miserable at all, just wet ...
-
1 hour ago, DucksAreFaster said:
If, as I fear, there still is insufficient room to tilt the assembly sideways and into the 'compartment' to the port side, then I'm back to head scratching.
I think it rolls forward, not to port.
Can you give us pictures of the steering touching both rudder stops please. I suspect that it might come out as is if you steer all the way right and try it.
If it hits the ram, unbolt it from the rudder arm and try again before putting it back on.
-
44 minutes ago, BoatingLifeUpNorth2 said:
Here’s an interesting Video from CruisingTheCut about the centre console Sea Otter at 6.43 into the video the Weed Hatch is shown and commentated on.
Good find! Note that the ram on that one is connected above the steering arm - presumably to allow the weed hatch to come out! The one in @DucksAreFaster's picture is connected below the arm and it won't come out.
-
9 minutes ago, 1st ade said:
I may have been interpreting the picture "upside down"...
I'm assuming that the rudder is aft of the propeller ...
My logic is that the thin bar for the position indicator is more in the way than the hydraulic ram, so it makes more sense to get that out of the way.
We also can't tell from that one photo how much clearance there is vertically between the hatch lid and the steering arm.
-
1 hour ago, Hudds Lad said:
Yup, and they recently stepped up their game so you can no longer skip them with the info button, now it only blocks them for next time and you have to sit through the lot
If only they offered a premium subscription so you could avoid ads ... I've never seen them mention it anywhere! 🤣🤣
-
1 hour ago, 1st ade said:
I'd be tempted to try "Helm hard to Port"
I'd go hard to starboard, moving the position indicator out of the way with the ram fully extended and try the weed hatch.
It's possible that it's already in two pieces, and if that photo is taken from directly above there may just be room to get the top of the weed hatch out.
If it's in two pieces, the cavitation plate should have one or two legs welded to it, making it impossible to drop out of the bottom of the hatch.
-
On 11/05/2025 at 13:25, Andyaero said:
Other posters have mentioned requesting a tester who carries a bubble tester, so should that request be, or manometer?
A bubble tester is a permanently fitted part of your boat gas system. If you have one of these installed (around £50 + labour) then any BSS examiner can do future BSS tests. You can also test your own system whenever you fancy doing it - I make a habit of doing a test when I change a gas bottle over.
If you are a liveaboard boater and you don't have a bubble tester, then legally only a Gas Safe registered person can do the gas test using a manometer. The only other alternative is to have your non-Gas Safe registered BSS examiner and a separate Gas Safe bod with LPG and Boats tickets turn up at the same time which would be a pain and cost quite a bit more.
If you are not a liveaboard boater with no bubble tester then any BSS examiner can do the gas test using a manometer.
-
1
-
-
31 minutes ago, Wafi said:
Sounds like the guy who does some gardening for me, who asked "How does Netflix work? Do they send you a tape or something?"
DVDs through the post. It's not him being out of touch, it's exactly how Netflix started!
-
1
-
-
On 07/05/2025 at 09:57, DucksAreFaster said:
The steering arm and opperating ram make it impossible to remove the hatch 'baffles' to gain acces to the prop and 'entanglements'. Does anyone have anythoughts on how the assembly could be modified to make removal possible...
A friend of mine has a similar arrangement, and on his boat the arm detaches from the top of the rudder shaft to allow it to move out of the way. I have learnt some new words while he's doing it though!
Mine doesn't have a steering arm in the way but it's under a solid deck so awkward to get to. It comes out quite easily if I lift it about an inch vertically and then start tilting it towards myself - it doesn't need to be lifted all the way out vertically and the further out it comes the more it can tilt until it's at 90 degrees to it's closed position.
-
Just now, Alway Swilby said:
You are probably right. But the point being that they provide propulsion for the ship thereby reducing fuel consumption.
I agree, and there have been several trials with automatic versions of them fitted to ocean going tankers to try and shave a few percent off bunkerage costs.
The race tuned ones on the superyachts are more exciting though!
-
1
-
-
2 hours ago, Ronaldo47 said:
I did read that the optimum speed on a canal is the speed of a wave in it, as this establishes a sort of resonance where your boat gets carried along on its bow wave, a technique that I understand used to be used by high speed passenger-carrying boats ("fly boats") in the days of horse power when the canals were better maintained. I am not sure how much truth in this there is
Your search term is "soliton wave" and while it was indeed demonstrated on a canal with two solid edges it's never been a generally recommended practice!
The fly boats ran lightly loaded and changed horses more often, they didn't create and ride a soliton wave deliberately.
-
1
-
-
On 08/05/2025 at 15:02, Alway Swilby said:
The big sticky up things are sails
Look more like aerofoils or vertical wings to me ...
Sails tend to be more like big tablecloths that happen to make a similar shape in use 😁
-
1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:
A homemade bike trailer. Currently not able to shift gas bottles as a modification to the trailer means the cradle for a gas bottle doesn't fit. Need to get my saw out!
I'm fairly sure that sawing the end off a gas bottle so it fits your trailer is a) a bad idea and b) against Calor's terms of service ...
-
1
-
-
In my experience, collapsible trolleys always live up (or down!) to their name.
A decent (non folding) sack truck with pneumatic tyres not solid wheels works well on most towpaths and doesn't take up a lot of space.
I think @Jen-in-Wellies uses a modified bike trailer to shift coal and gas bottles.
Of course the reason the canal exists in the first place is that moving stuff by boat is easier than by land without a motor vehicle ...
-
1
-
DC Isolator on solar
in Boat Equipment
Posted
I'm that worried about the isolator fire risk that I've spent the evening removing all my battery bank isolators.
Will this pass the BS test?
/coat