Mike Adams

Try to get some ptfe based packing if you can. I have found it works much better if you have worn bearings

Measure the OD of the shaft and the OD of the slider, subtract one from the other and divide by 2 - probably 6mm or 1/4"

6mm pop rivet. Drill it out next time you take the lid off.

What I have noted from the helpful postings on this topic is that quite a lot of weedhatches do leak underway if not sealed properly even though they are well above the water level and presumably fitted with a baffle at the height of the counter. Whilst it obviously depends on the location relative to the prop as to if it leaks more in ahead or astern what impact does the actual size make? I seem to have quite a large weedhatch at about 400mm x450mm and the prop tips are a good 150mm below the counter and a long swim which could account for the fact that it doesn't leak underway. Maybe the edges around the baffle plate being well away from the prop are not so subject to increased water pressure. Just something I had not really thought about before. I might be talking rubbish at this time of night which is why you need a weedhatch anyway. Thanks Mike

I didn't know about this 10 inch thing - is that the same as outlets and openings in the hull? I can't raise the hatch because the steering quadrant (wheel steering) is only just above the hatch so there is not enough room to raise it. Thanks for all the helpful comments. I think I will bolt it down with the 8 s/s bolts with a seal yet to be decided and only use the weedhatch in the most dire of circumstances and hope that this will be OK with a surveyor when a survey is needed.

I don't intend to use it often but I did once(1978) get a log jammed between the prop and the counter on a previous boat below Tower Bridge and I was very glad of the weedhatch at the time but given the high speed traffic in that area now and the swell it creates I don't think it would be safe to remove a weedhatch down river now.

Yes there is a 8mm steel plate that drops into the base of the weedhatch and it is quite a good fit so no water reaches the top of the plate but I haven't tried it out on anything bouncy like the tidal thames

How do you work out if the seal is watertight if it doesn't leak when underway but only leaks if the boat sinks below the level of the top of the weedhatch? ie testing the seal for watertightness -not easy I think?

Good Idea. I had not thought of using a solid sheet across the whole cover which gives you only one sealing edge rather than two using just a strip around the outside. Thanks!

Following a number of boats sinking I thought I would have a look at the weedhatch on a boat I have been renovating. The weedhatch cover height from the counter is only about 6" and there is a removable baffle plate at the base in line with the counter. It does not leak during normal operation although clearly it is not watertight. It is a long time since I had a boat with this arrangement. The hatch is not easily removable being bolted down with eight bolts. Now I have it apart there is some corrosion on the faces so now they are cleaned up there will not be a perfect seal. I am thinking of using some closed cell neoprene 30mm x 10mm to form a gasket. Would this be too soft? Any other suggestions for a gasket material? Are most NB,s with a weed hatch fully sealed or do people hope that it never gets to the situation where the top of the weedhatch goes below water level.

Try Galleon Marine at Odiham on the Basingstoke Canal. They do short breaks and less than an hour by train from London

Thanks for the comments - I was looking for somewhere with some security and fairly central on the system but I am not really a 'Marina' person is the sense I like to go long distance boating not using a boat as a weekend retreat and prefer somewhere more informal than a marina.

Why does anyone want a 70x12 boat for cruising? It will be a PITA almost anywhere you go on the english system.

Shocking act! Any small childen on the cruiser could have been thrown off the boat or unbalanced. Clearly ignorant of the CollRegs and Thames regulations. I am glad I don't provide his insurance.

I think most older French tugs were converted, like this one, to pusher tugs, as towing, including towing a tender is not allowed on French waterways and I have never seen a boat being towed. They are either pushed or towed alongside. If you have to rescue another boat. as I did on the Rhine you need to brest up.

Thanks Not the cheapest option I guess but a good location and not a great deal more than local marinas if it is fixed fee for three years

I put one in my first NB in 1978. Only 10HP at 1000RPM, direct drive with clutches you need to adjust, standard CAV fuel stuff. Would suit a shallow draft boat up to about 40 feet. Can be very difficult to start in winter as I remember. They also made a four cylinder version with many interchangeable parts. Not easy to fit an alternator in place of the dynamo and there is no front pully on the engine as the handstart covers it over.

Hi Has anyone any experience of mooring at Kingswood basin on the Southern Stratford Canal? I am looking for a relatively safe CaRT non residential mooring for 62ft boat south of Birmingham.

All is well. The owners sent someone out the same day and inspected the tree. Apparently these large trees sometimes just shed a bough and the rest of the tree has been declared heathy so no immediate problem.

10k may be a fair price to pay if the bottom/sides/footings need replacing.Strip the boat out, new steelwork,refit with new interior,equipment,repaint and then you have a converted butty with a not very nice counter worth at most say £50k. Possibly a project but you would have to love the boat to do it and spend more than it is worth. You would have historic sides but not much else unless you spent mega bucks on a faithful restoration.

Thanks It's Surrey County Council who own the land. Would my boat insurance pay out on what would be a 'right off' I suspect.

Hi Has anyone any experience of Trees falling on their boat? There is large tree on the towpath side opposite my mooring where a large bough fell off last week and blocked the towpath. The tree looks healthy but I know nothing about trees. If the whole tree were to come down it would wreck my boat and I am not sure of the insurance/liability implications. I do know that when a tree fell on student's car where I used to work the buildings/site insurance refused to pay out and the student could not make a claim it being seen as an Act of God or some such thing.

I don't agree with a fuel shut off in the return/leak off line. If is shut off in error pressure could build up causing a pipe/fitting to fail with the potential to cause a fire. Much better to have the reurn on the top of the tank or connected into the fuel filler line above the tank.

I last boated up the Thames about ten years ago and this summer I set off from the Wey for a return trip to Lechlade. What an amazing transformation from ten years ago! In mid-August I went most of the way up without sharing any locks. So quickly did we go that it only took half the time it did previously. Much as it made it very easy it is somewhat concerning to see the river so under-used at this time of year. One lock keeper noted that all (local cruising) boats were licenced but a lot were not being used. Yet as expected it was quite difficult to moor in the usual places with a lot of wide beam and some Dutch barges predominating at most mooring sites. In fact there were many such craft dotted around the river tied up in trees. I was amazed at the number of similar boats tied up in Wallingford under the trees above the bridge and the number on the towpath between Iffley and Osney locks. I didn’t plan to stop in Oxford, a view supported by several lockkeepers, but there wasn’t any space on the 24 hour moorings anyway. Now here is the interesting point. Is actual pleasure cruising on the river now at an end? If in the past you were moored somewhere like Goring it would be very busy overnight, more or less empty at lunchtime filling up late afternoon with boats cruising most of the day. It now seems that many boats move much less than they used to only moving on when they really have to and a shorter distance as possible. Is this because of the cost of fuel, older boaters finding it more difficult or having more leisure time to cover a given route or cruising become ancillary to living on the boat? Are some boaters with GRP craft being put off by the presence of so many large steel vessels?