Dav and Pen

Yes we could see that the counter was in need of attention and also the cabin itself but didn’t spot that the footings forward of the engine hole had been overplayed. Inside the hold it just looked like rust and some scale. I’m not to good at dates and was just going by when it started camping with us so must have been purchased in 81 thanks.

When we brought the NB Crane from Willow Wren in 1980 we could see the obvious problems and could see nothing wrong with the hull. However when we came to do some work in the hold prior to getting set up for camping boating came across lots of scale on the inside of the footings. Not wishing to go through the side whilst afloat had her pulled up the railway at Braunston and saw that it had been overplayed all round the footings. Apparently this was done at Brentford in the 1960s and other joshers had had the same treatment. When we brought our barge in Belgium in 2001 the surveyor found that the starboard side bilge plates were thin in places and needed overplaying or cutting out. As the boat was converted cutting out would have been a major job and disturbance to the fit out. It was decided to overplate up to just below the level of the cabin internal lining to try and limit the risk of a fire. Good job done in a very experienced shipyard. This barge was built in 1917 and the steel was originally 5.5mm thick so there was bound to be wear on pitting over this time. When we sold in 2018 a few more overplayed patches had been done as well.

Good to see the wrg long reach smalley working. Drove it a few times .

It also shows what appears to be something like cement over some of the bottom .

Unless you are 70 ft and meet another 70 ft towing a butty ( which is unlikely) at the kink no problem as it’s a nice wide tunnel and you may even not realised you’ve past it.

Exactly that thanks.

I’m trying hard to remember how it worked and can’t. It somehow held back both levers until it game to the end of the spiral and then they sprung back. For the life of me I can’t visulise the mechanism that held back the levers.

Nice to hear good reports of the Ashy after all we did to keep it open and wearing our boats bottoms out dredging it. Enjoy.

When we brought Tadworth from BWB it had a PD2 as did a lot of the Town class boats. It had the spiral on the hand start which released the decompression levers after a set number of turns. This alway happened at top Centre (at least to me) and stopped me dead. Once started it ran well and was powerful enough but after about 5 years it to broke the crankshaft whilst ticking over at top of Atherstone but kept on going we got back to Braunston on reduced revs and when lifted out the crank had broken in the middle of the piston bearing. As we had a spare this was quickly put in and ran for a couple more years before failing so replaced with a petter PJ3 from a generator set which we mated with a prm gearbox. 40 years later that engine is still in the boat now in other ownership.

A close up of the damage.

The Shatt al Arab waterway is 200 Klms long joining the Tigris and it certainly was navigable by small coasters and local cargo boats for a good distance but don’t know now. The river has had dams built in Iran and Turkey leading to low water levels. When I was on tankers we went to Basra at the start of the waterway a few times.

On this day 2015 in N. Conway New Hampshire this wonderful covered bridge across the R Sorco.

Having a couple more patches on the old barge at Vankerkovens near Charleroi today 2011. We were there for survey and to get the new Triwv certificate. A few days after this the yard went bust but we had got back in the water the day before.

Today in 2014 at Pont Royal on the Burgundy canal. Looks like a warm day and Bruno who manages the moorings is taking his dogs for a boat trip