Dav and Pen
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Posts posted by Dav and Pen
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I have had something like this happen when I used Vacatan on the top of the cabin side where there was rust under the joint between the roof and the sides. Didn’t notice that it had run until later in the day when I could see light black streaks on the white cabin side. Tried to wipe them out but in the end had to sand and overpaint.
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Today in 2005 we met the Kempenaar barge Ibis coming up from Antwerp on the Schoten Turnout canal with sand for a big concrete plant. These barges can carry up to 550 tones but this was a fairly new traffic to the canal after many years without any commercials so they are slowly increasing draft as the channel gets better . We were on our way to dry dock in Antwerp harbour. O
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My wife had the A40 farina. Austin missed a great opportunity by not making it a hatchback. Best Austin I ever had was an ex police Westminster in 1966 which had a modified gearbox with a 4 speed floor change instead of a column. All the local villains knew it and nobody ever tried to race me from traffic lights.
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Today in 2012 . The R. Meuse in Belgium near Anhee. Really nice mooring with the village an easy ride down the towpath for the morning bread. The old fort on top of the cliff is lit at night.
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It would seem that the French have worked out how to use radios it a tunnel. The rather low and narrow tunnel on the Burgundy canal is controlled by the lock keepers at each end. You have to show your light works and that you have life jackets on and then they give you a hand held vhf.and a time to go. On one crossing I received a call asking if we were near the end as the trip boat was waiting. All of the big tunnels have cctv cameras in the roof at intervals and are monitored and entry is controlled, (hopefully).
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Today in 2012 on a rather wet quay in Namur and a sunny day in 2015 on the Burgundy canal
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I assume this boat was converted to a motor in Holland and would have been used there before coming to the uk. My friend has just sold one very similar with a Mercedes engine in France and that swam very nicely. The prop will probably have a plate above it to help direct the thrust onto the rudder. We brought a 100 year old barge and kept it for 18 years. The hull shape was similar to this only much bigger and it was pretty well completely overplated on the bottom as is quite normal once a barge has been converted. You should check the ballast as it was common to use poured concrete which some insurers aren’t to keen on.
The only draw back to the rounded bilges is the tendency to keep going sideways in sharp turns but you would soon get used to this and learn to counter it.
Good Luck
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Today in 2010 at 8 am, this chaps drawn the short straw.
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Today top of Buckby
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Pete Hill was an excellent boat carpenter /joiner having been apprentice to Willow Wren and also working on sea going yachts with Lenny Beacham Their boats were well constructed and I can confirm that the ballast was excellent as we made the slabs. Something must have been right as there was always a waiting list but as said in 30 odd years who knows how a boat has been treated or were it’s been. .
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Today in 2005 Antwerp. We were waiting to go on the dock but May 1 is real holiday in Belgium and nobody works. The big barge is having a new propeller and rudder.
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My children brought our Scruff home announcing he was free to a good home dad. They wanted to called him sweep after sooty and sweep but one look was enough so he was scruff. Great boat dog and very well known in Braunston! The children left home but left the dog with us, he died aged 16 which was amazing considering the scrapes he got into.
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Managed to get photo posted. Scruff on cabin roof, just visible peering round the legs on the counter both 1970s and our Airedale on our pleasure boat Thor
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When we had Tadworth we had a rare old dog called Scruff. He liked to sit on the back cabin and used to walk along the top planks to the bows, turn round and come back. He also would jump off at a bridge hole and run to the next on to get back on. When he got older he often missed and finished in the cut. Problem in many places was the steel piling which meant he couldn’t get out so much backing up.
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We used to have abet on turnaround day as the new passengers came on board as to which one of them would be first to fall in. Narrow bridge holes were the scariest places as they would come straight up out of the hold or have legs dangling over the cabin sides.
What really finished us off was when the scouts decreed that the leader couldn’t sleep in the same place as the scouts and as we had steerers on the boats this couldn’t work.
Photo going down Braunston
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Today in 2015 went to the seaside. Whitby
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2 hours ago, buccaneer66 said:
First time I met Mark Williams was with Mikron
Me to and he was a very funny man then. We knew Mike and Sarah almost from the start when they travelled around in one of WRGs mini bus. In the year of the big drought when Tysley was transported by road to the Thames they slept at our house in Braunston after performing at the Nelson. It’s. Wonderful achievement.
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We jokingly called them the Coventry Arm Society but they did do a good job of getting the basin opened up.
Photo is 1973 rally which was one of the first I think. -
53 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:
It used to be a regular trip for us - our boat mooring was in Holyhead and it was a 'Friday Evening" 3 hour trip (60 miles) to Dun laoghaire, Train into Dublin, then back to Holyhead Sunday afternoon and back home for work on Monday.
On alternate weekends we'd nip up to the Isle-of-Man (60 miles - 3 hours) for the weekend.
Diesel 28p litre in Holyhead Fish-Dock.
Don’t think a narrow boat will do 20 knots.
Best diesel price we ever had was from a bunker boat in Antwerp for our barge 11 euro cents liter. He booked it to a big ship which he had just fueled up and pocketed our cash.
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It’s about 110 Klms from Holyhead to Dublin so if the boat can make 10 kms per hour against the tidal flow it’s around 10 to 12 hours so you would need a very good weather window to even attempt it. When we were there the local advice was not to try and cross the big lakes if forecast was for more than force 4 but on one occasion we got caught out in lough Ree which is 21 miles across when the wind got up after a couple of hours. Bit hairy. The other problem is visibility to the large ships that use the Irish Sea heading for Liverpool and Dublin, I know from my experience as deck officer on tankers is very hard to spot small vessels in any sort of swell. Good luck to him think he will need it.
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Whilst visiting the Nelson yesterday I picked up the March copy of towpath telegraph. An article inside was about a chap who has adapted a NB so that it is seaworthy. He has had a practice crossing the wash and intends to go to Liverpool wait for some nice weather and then go to Holyhead, after that he is going to wait for some more nice weather and cross to Dublin. It’s all for charity apparently.
I wonder if there is anything the coastguard can do to stop him. We took our NB to Ireland but on the back of a lorry and the crossings we did by normal ferry and the high speed one would put anyone off even thinking a NB could make it.
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If you can cope with the 90 day rule or get a long term visa I think it would be best to buy the boat in the EU most likely the Nederlands where there are lots of cruisers and still small barges for sale. As they would be registered in the Nederlands this can be carried over and the VAT situation would be clear . Unless you brought it back to the UK when there could be a charge.
we spent 18 years on the continent and enjoyed every moment. Moorings in France are available at very modest cost and we had a winter mooring for less than 400 euros. -
52 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:
Looked a lot different then
And the Hat factory was still turning out the Boatman’s hats. Mr Bray called his a Cowboy hat.
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March 1976 top of Atherstone on our way to Stenson for start of camping season. Not my photo found on Rchs site
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Tonic required. Send in your photos of what is nice on the waterways now.
in General Boating
Posted
Today in 2005 on the floating dock in Antwerp harbour having some doubling done on the bilge strake.