Mike Adams

Depends how long you leave it. The metal needs to be covered in a solution of Fertan. If Fertan is too expensive you can use Molasses. Pour it in and leave it as long as you can. It makes the rust soluble in water and you can wash it off. Bit smelly though!

Just chuck a gallon of fertan in there and leave it for few months, pressure wash it out, repeat every year.Eventually when all the rust is gone paint it.

Yes -I noticed on a trip up the canal last autumn. Not that easy to stop there because the banks are shallow but being the Basingstoke you can stop in the bridgehole for a while if you leave someone on board in case of the unlikely event that another boat comes along. I should also mention the very useful Pacer Marine in Aldershot that is a few minutes cycle ride from Ash lock, they have a good stock which you could do click and collect during restrictions.

That is a possibility but it may also be due to the fact that that engine has a one piece aluminum head cover which unless prepared and painted correctly will not take the paint well especially with thermal cycling and the expansion rate of aluminium. Due to its complex shape I bet It was not that well prepared when painted. The problem of head gasket failure on some of these engines is probably due to a poor skin tank cooling system.

Quite a nice plaything on Ebay. 'Severn Belle' riveted tug from the Lydney Canal. Only 2'6" draught.

I have had some success with West epoxy and glass fibre composite materials over a well constucted marine plywood cabin. The problem comes when you try to cover a cabin that has panels and timbers that naturally expand and contract at different rates. On narrow boats doing the roof alone can be successful in forming a rigid top but I wouldn't do it on the sides without using expansion joints. Not a cheap option -I spent nearly £1000 on materials for my current roof. It is the sort of thing you do after you have a problem but I don't expect to ever do it again 4mm of epoxy and two pack paint la

That would be fine. Try to avoid any any high points in the pipework where you might get an airlock, if you cant fit a bleed nipple at the highest point.

I think these heaters control the heat by reducing the flow through the cable operated valve. If the valve is shut, ie when the heater is mechanically set to off there will be no flow though the heater and the calorifier. I would connect in in parallel with the calorifier. Hope this helps. I did my heated towel rail like this and it was fine.

If you plumb it in like that you will lose your heat to the calorifier as well when you switch the heater off. Either fit a 3 way valve or plumb it in parallel. Shouldn't be an electrical issue when running unless the boat is only ticking over for a long time.

I hope you are not going to try to do this sort of job whilst the boat is afloat. I would say it is impossible but somehow people find a way. Find a friendly yard where you can get the boat out, plenty of tarpaulins and a van! You will be amazed at the amount of material you will have to get rid of for a start. When I did mine I had a commer van(It was that long ago). It took me a year 2 days a week just to put the cabin on a 40ft boat working on my own. Unless you are under cover the weather limits what you can do. If the boat it that rotten all you will have is a hull and engine by the time

Unless I am mistaken this is a Cheverton workboat. The one we have at our sailing club is the same. The bearing looks OK to me but it could have a bronze or stainless shaft. Maybe a double taper and reversable. Unless the movement between to shaft and the bearing is more than 1mm I wouldn't be too concerned. If you want to be sure take the shaft out either by removing the half coupling or lifting the engine and sliding out inside. You can check if it is a double taper if it has a nut on the inside end of the half coupling. No nut = parallel shaft. Nut = taper. Quite easy to make up a tool to

I am not aware of any books or publications on fitting wooden tops to steel hulls but there might be? There are some on the construction of traditional wooden back cabins on wooden or steel working boats. It was only for a fairly short period of time when steel pleasure boat hulls were fitted with wooden tops before they realised it was better and cheaper to make a complete steel shell. The first ones were often built by constructing wooden frames and planking up the sides and roof with t and g boards and then covering the outside with masonite(a sort of waterproof hardboard) or thin marine pl

I would not be too concerned about the paint on the engine. The Isuzu is good engine but the marinisers did a very poor paint job.

I wish you luck with your project, but speaking of my personal experience on putting a wooden top on a steel hull I couldn't recommend it unless it was a historic boat requiring a sympathetic restoration. I did one when I was very young and had no experience of narrowboats so I was working blind. There were no internet forums then! It did last for my ownership of some 5 years without any problems. I have had two other woodentops, one of which I currently have. If you do it properly getting the right materials it could be OK but if you use DIY softwood and cheap Chinese ply it will not work an

The GU never was a proper wide canal beyond Berkhampstead and although the locks were widened in the 1930's only couple of wide boats were ever built for that section and were not a success. Whilst it is possible to get through wide beams can cause problems for deep draughted narrow boats as well as they can block the channel if inconsiderately moored. So much of the press suggests that wide boats are suitable for many canals but as cruising boats they are not ideal in many places where they theoretically fit.

If CaRT asked boaters to notify them electronically they would have the data!

That very much depends on where they leave it! In a marina or permanent mooring that's fine or even off the beaten track but I have found on many occasions that popular visitors moorings seem to be taken up with empty boats and because their in no one on board they tend to be spread out often leaving gaps that waste prime mooring space.

I think this applies on the Wey and Basingstoke Canal - you cannot leave your boat unoccupied overnight without prior permission. Perhaps this is something CaRT might consider. They could easily have some on-line notification system system, which could be automated, giving automatic permission only flagging up where a boater is clearly abusing the system. I don't like this sort of approach to boating but as usual a significant number of people are abusing the system and spoiling it for the rest of us.

not the same boat?

I don't think she should attach any blame to the lockeeper. It is not emptying the lock that caused the problem. This was below Culham Lock. This part of the river is often subject to flooding. The weirs would have adjusted themselves for the flow. The river goes into flood and they tie up to steel bollards only meant for temporary mooring. Surely if they had asked advice they would have been told to go back to Clifton Lock where there are risers and it is relatively safe in the lock cut. Once the water is above the bank there is little anyone can do without taking risks. I doubt is was due t

http://thamestugs.co.uk/images/JEANMarriottbh.jpg

Could this be the boat? The flat front to the cabin is quite unusual.

-That first colour scheme was a mistake. It would be fun to go around London now. All those towpath huggers would get a bit of a shock! Maybe that is Steve Yates on the back and Eric Garland on the front?

Good luck with your project. I restored a similar vessel (Silverlit ex Tate and Lyle) some 40 years ago. I am surprised it was built in 1870 as most Tosher tugs were post 1920. The hull shape if riveted will be complex double curves which are hard to replicate in welding. Tugs normally rot out in the stern because most of rest the inside ends up covered in oil and grease. You will probably need to do a fair amount of overplating around the stern. If you have the name of the boat most Toshers are listed on the Thames Tug site but not all of them. The problem you will have, depending on where yo

I am always looking for shots of White Heather but the tug I think is Naseby and seems to have the BTC or BTW logo on the funnel. We came across a body between Bulls Bridge and Norwood Top in the late 70's and were held up for some time while they fished the body out. Apparently it was a doctor and had been murdered by one of her patients. Haven't managed to see that episode yet!