cuthound
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Posts posted by cuthound
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1 hour ago, Llamedos said:
Leaving the pork jokes aside (but only for a second while I think of another one), I just mentioned this thread to my wife and she's just come up with one of those annoyingly practical suggestions that wives in general tend to do...
If the trip boat is passing through the lock all day and draining the basin why not shift their operation down onto the river itself during the day and only come back through in the evening when they need to moor their boat up for the night. Would save a lot of water and make the basin useable for everyone else.
There are other trip boats there that only operate on the river, so don't use the lock.
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1 hour ago, LadyG said:
One can buy boots for dogs, but the answer is to take them for long walks either end of the day.
My cat will lie on the floor most days, but in extremis lies out in the wild woods. I'm under the trees at the moment, windows and doors open. Cat has been out all afternoon.
One can buy cooling mats for dogs, but I found they warmed up, a cool wash or a dip in the canal helps labrador types. They will want to shake, once inside of course.
I have a Fox Red Labrador that hates water...
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17 minutes ago, MtB said:
As we used to say as teenagers don't drink and drive, you might spill it.
Reminds me of a drunken night in the Hand in Hand (now The Chalk Hare) back in 1973 with my friend Robb.
He tipped his chair back and was balancing it on the two back legs when I gave in to the irresistible urge to hook my foot under the front legs and lift it.
Robb did an involuntary backwards somersault with a full pint and didn't spill a drop"
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3 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:
Hazadous? It’s probably white sprit based, and sounds like most of the sprit has flown.Opinion will vary, but I cant see a problem with a couple of old cans in the bin. Perhaps as it’s going into an incinerator and not landfill it may burn quite well. Then being in tin cans it may be magnet fished out for recycling anyway .
My recycling centre advises filling part used paint tins with sand or earth to absorb the surplus paint before disposing in the "unrecyclable" skip.
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10 hours ago, Ken X said:
Last time we were up the Ashby we used the Lime Kilns at bridge 15. and The Globe at Snarestone. T'was a few years ago though. We popped down to Lodge Farm Shop at Snarestone as well to restock.
The Globe changed hands and stopped doing food for a while but the restaurant has now reopened and back to its usual high standards.
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19 hours ago, rmo said:
Not really. In peak sun the ground gets too hot for dogs during the warmer months. This is arguably more of a concern than keeping a dog aboard during a heatwave. I don’t let mine anywhere near asphalt in the afternoons now. You’d also get the hot‑dog brigade appearing instantly. They mean well, but they can be a bit OTT.
Indeed. We have a black tarmac drive and I always put my hand on it for up to 10 seconds when it is hot before deciding whether to walk Sam or not. If it is too hot for my hand then it is too hot for Sam's paws.
No dog ever died from missing a walk.
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17 hours ago, MtB said:
Please NOOOO!!!!!
Lots of posters here appreciate (I suspect) the staid and unchanging design of the forum in general and the user interface in particular.
Remember the furore when "Streams" were introduced a few years ago, with no advanced warning or instructions on how to use them?
One of the nicest-to-use forums I know of has use has had the exact same, unchanging format for approaching 20 years now.
Periodic and entirely unnecessary fiddling with the appearance and changes in the way a forum works are just an irritation in my experience. I think others here might agree with me on this.
Fiddle, fiddle, change, change it is what web and designers do to justify their existence.
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6 minutes ago, Tentface said:
Hello again. I've two questions about dogs on narrowboats:
1. How do you keep a boat cool during extreme hot weather? A house can be cooled to some extent by opening upstairs windows, but a boat doesn't have any upflow of air. Am I missing something or do they get very hot in a heatwave? What do you do if moored up and you need to go somewhere that you can't take a dog, such as a supermarket?
2. My dog is relatively calm and friendly, though is nervous of new situations (she took a few weeks to learn how to go up or down stairs, as she had never encountered them before). Has anyone on here introduced a cautious dog to boating? Were they freaked out for ages, or did they take to being in a vibrating confined space surprisingly quickly?
My boat has good insulation (thinsulate), two Houdini hatches in the roof and removable windows, so we can usually get a breeze through the boat.
Always try to moor up under a shady tree.
My first rescue dog was terrified of the engine noise when we first took her on a boat, however turning the engine on and off for an hour or two got her used to it and she quickly took to boating.
Since then we have had 3 dogs and they all loved boating.
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20 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:When these were raised a few weeks ago I got the impression that because of the bulk and lower energy density they were being aimed at very large renewable energy storage systems and home solar storage. Personally I would want to wait a few years for the technology to become common, well proven, and with no, so far, hidden gotchas.
So, take the claims with a pinch of salt (sodium chloride) then .. 🤣
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17 hours ago, MtB said:I'd be astounded if that nice Mr Ward was actually an NBTA member. Not his style.
NBTA supporting him suited them as much as him!
But even if he was, a data point of one does not prove a hypothesis.
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35 minutes ago, Hudds Lad said:
Why is it not a shiny new "bloo" one?
Because Campbell Robb will want to stano his authority by changing CRT's corporate colour (and logo)... ☹️
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23 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:
We’ve been through this before though, the HNC can’t be closed due to conditions involved with the millennium funding. In that case closing the HBC makes no sense, and it’s a short canal anyway. Extremities of the BCN feed the network via Chasewater.
Some of the K&A is canalised river and the effort to maintain that would be significant whether boaters were on it or not. Besides the Caen Hill locks Dundas etc do get interest from the public. It’s also a popular route for hire boats.
In any case, closing canals that many volunteers laboured for years on is just the wrong way of addressing problems. Threatening it to raise the precariousness of things is understandable though.
The solution is obviously more resources and what’s available used wisely. One thing CRT do need to do is to chase boaters/ vehicles who damage locks and bridges to claim back on insurance for repairs. This seems not to happen even with video footage. More use of CCTV could help.
Some things CRT have to do is nonsensical. Planning permission to repair the Tardebigge top lock, likewise for many lock gate replacements, Braunston for example, each time. What a waste of time resource and effort for councils and CRT.
We’ve also been over H&S many times. The consensus seems that the cost of H&S is worth it. I’m far from convinced but remain in the minority. Audlem locks off their hinges for example could and used to be fixed with an Tirfor winch and experience. That repair cost far more and took much longer as various lifting equipment and contractors came in as it’s all safer, apparently. It may possibly be but the danger in making this lifting equipment, mining resources, use of fossil fuels to get there plus contract negs all have hidden costs too.
None of which address the huge gap between CRT's income and be amount needed to address the backlog plus the cost of ongoing maintenance.
As Arthur Marshall says, CRT could choose to run down the maintenance on the HNC and let it slowly return to the state it was in before restoration. The same goes for the K&A.
H&S is part of modern life. Any company or willfully choosing to ignore it will get the full force of the HSE coming down on them is someone got killed or seriously injured as a result and would find that their public liability insurance premiums increase prohibitively, which is why most companies undertake risk assessments and try to undertake the work in the safest practicable way.
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6 hours ago, Atb said:
Hi what do you use on the roof please? Thank you
I use Aldi's Caravan Cleaner, as recommended by an ex-CWDF member who at the time owned a boat and a caravan.
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15 hours ago, phantom_iv said:
Maybe they could restore the side ponds to working order as well!
They closed the last working one on the Coventry Canal.at Atherstone a few years ago because it confused todays boaters. A pity, I always made a point of using it correctly.
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53 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:
The train operating companies are obliged by the government to give refunds in the event of delays. The boat hire companies aren't.
Holiday insurance covers late cancellations but how many booking boating holidays take it out?
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11 hours ago, Stroudwater1 said:
This used to be a point frequently mentioned by IanD but once he realised that there really is precious little length that you can close without affecting the rest of the network / water supply/ ecosystem he toned down to a few strips of the BCN which would make little difference anyway.
Closing a canal does not mean nice little watercourses but rapidly silted up land eventually ready for building over- See most derelict canals for examples.
Both the HNC and Rochdale are not possible to close anyway so what part would you close? (Clue- there isn’t any)
Several stand alone canals can be closed without impacting too much on the network, the K&,A, HNC, HBC, extremities of the BCN etc.
What is your solution to not enough money to maintain all of the network?
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5 hours ago, stagedamager said:
i agree, a very well written letter / email.
i worry for the future of some of the network, given the funding issues but hope my fears are unfounded.
Me too. However unless more finding can be secured I don't see any other option but to cut the size of the network to the size of the funding for the medium term future of the network.
2 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:It was sounding so reasonable, until you got to that last one. 😀
Until fishermen stop taking their misery pills it will be impossible to achieve.
39 minutes ago, IanM said:I once took a picture of a fisherman smiling.
Are you sure he wasn't just suffering from wind?
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I'm fairly sure most hirers would prefer to be told not to go on a particular ring route because of a closure, than be released to find out themselves and realise they can't get back to base on time.
I expect the hire companies would also prefer to be told, rather than to find out when one of their boats fails to arrive back at base on time.
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5 hours ago, Mike Tee said:
I'd also imagine back in the early days when the canals were busy with carriers the system was a lot more efficient with far less loss due to the various leaks we have today. (Also probably better looked after by resident lock keepers and lengthsmen who knew what they were doing.)
I re-watched the film The Bargee last night. It was made in 1964 towards the end of the carrying days and the dawn of the leisure age.
What was noticable was the low leakage through lock gates compared to today, even though the normal practice then was to leave lock gates open when leaving a lock.
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I get the impression that he really is listening and he has a plan for the future which includes spending reserves to do more maintenance.
This is a breath of fresh air. Let's hope it works because if it doesn't the canals really will be drinking in the last chance saloon.
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8 hours ago, Hudds Lad said:
We have a small air horn as a backup in case the wired one fails.
It lives still in it's packaging under the bed.
This thread has made me think perhaps it should live closer to hand from now on
I bought a small hand held air horn to supplement my feeble electric horn. The first time I used to announce my presence at a blind bridge I found a boat waiting patiently on the other side. "Oh it's a narrowboat" said the steerer, "I was expecting an express train from the sound of the horn!"
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23 hours ago, Chris John said:
Have you never polished it then?
Mines polished in Spring and Autumn and still looks good as new after 6 yearsLikewise.
Before I had the boat repainted, I refreshed the faded paint with Farecla G3 followed by Craftmaster's Carnuba wax polish, and then polished it twice a year. It worked for 5 years (the boat was then 12 years old) but by then the red paint on the coachlining and handrails had begun to craze and flake of, making a repaint necessary.
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4 hours ago, TheShipsCat said:
records of all significant works as well as builders notes be destroyed
What a great excuse for not having the RCR documentation...
RAL 5002 Ultramarine
Given that anything with the word "marine" in it costs at least twice as much as a non marine product I hate to think how much this paint cost...
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11 hours ago, PeterF said:
The inverter will not limit the power, it will heat up till it shuts down. If it limited the power with a fixed resistance like an oven it would have to let the voltage drop below 230V, which would not go down well with any voltage sensitive equipment.
Many inverters will go into current limitation when they exceed their maximum output for more than a few seconds and then reduce the voltage to zero until the overload is removed.
Biodiesel in a 3 cylinder lister?
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Indeed, and another problem with retirement is that you no longer get any days off... 🤣😂