Dav and Pen

I am slowly transferring slides onto computer and so far have these shots of campers. Andy F and Harvey are on Tadworth leaving Braunston at start of the season. Alton has the low cratch because we ran on the T and M and at that time there was a girder under Barton turn bridge reticting height.

Don’t know his proper name but the man who lived in the old butty back end was called “Ginty” said to be an ex miner. The boat was hard aground on all the ash and other stuff that he threw over board! Great character who spent lot of time in the Nelson. When the glue factory had a big spill of chemical one night the canal turned white and the overflow was near his boat, they had big job getting him awake and out of the boat and he spent couple of days in the local hospital, probably had good bath as well. The sad death of Ruth and Yanish was 1982, I came home from work (a job I hated) and as I got out of the car was told about their death. Wrote out my resignation and went back to Leicester dumped the car. Yanish hated his job at fords and we had talked about it the Sunday before. ted ward was an ace with pd2 and kept our campers going for years, didn’t ask where he got the parts. sorry to get sidetracked

Also Willow Wren with self steer and us with Tadworth, the NB trusts Alton and later Crane ex W.W.

It seems to me who admittedly does not boat here any more that it Was never accepted to moor in a flight let alone have a permanent mooring. How times change. I was amused to see CARTs men pumping the same water around the second lock, it ran backwards into the sump so pumped out and back again. Nothing really changes.

Hope it’s comes up.

Those of you who took part in the filming will know what to look for when it’s shown on country file but that programme seems to be about the presenters so don’t expect to much. i remember mr bray telling me a little story about a tv crew who were filming at stoke top lock when they shot in going down to the jam hole. The presenter said could you go back and do that again we didn’t quite get it all. Arthur’s response was something like. “We ain’t a come all the way from Coventry to have our photos took” Ernie lifted the paddles and off they went. Graham Palmer and I were filmed on a R Avon work weekend, the interview with Graham took so long he smoked 20 fags but on the film only 1.

I had never had a survey until buying on the continent. We brought a NB of bwb which already had an hole in the chine angle which was stopped by a block of wood being wedged by a broom handle under the gunwale. So we knew it was pretty thin. One we brought from willow wren had a hole in the counter from which we could see light when we inspected it, it had also been doubled on the sides which accounted for the rust on the inside. our insurance companies never seemed to be pushing for surveys only the safety certificates. when buying our barge in Antwerp a proper surveyor was engaged who did over 180 ultra sounding of the hull and these showed up some thin places being under the 4mm which insurance companies look for. Part of the contract of sale gives the option of walking away or for the seller to put things right which happened in this case. The insurers need a survey every 7years and we have used the same surveyor for these and I am always impressed how thorough he is using a trolly to lay under the boat. His normal work is big barges and ships for which real qualifications are required.

Should have said Ernie Kendal brain seized again

Ernie Bray went magnatising (his word) most nights up Braunston flight. Never found a bomb but enough windlass and mooring pins to keep him in beer money.

I believe that only the UK allows zero vat on pleasure boats that comply with the rules. If your proposed boat complies then the builder will supply an invoice showing zero vat. In effect vat has been paid as per the rules. As both countries are still part of the EU you should be ok but no doubt the Irish customs can confirm. when I took my 50ft NB to Ireland and stayed for 2 years nobody ever question us and I never heard of anybody else being stopped. David

This truck went into the Burgundy canal where we moor. It was loaded with wine and as soon as the police left it was like whisky galore.

Interesting comments, I haven't been an IWA memeber for many years finishing with it when BWB sponsored a rally way back. I compared it to Watneys ( remember them) sponsoring Camra. Before that I had been very involved becoming chair of the eastern region and a council member. The national rallies were then held in places that were either needing publicity or even bringing the state of the waterway to local and national attention. Most of the then council members were boat owners or part of the restoration movement .it started to go wrong when a secretary was appointed who came from the RSPB who was nicknamed bird brain, the then chairman just let him run the organization and he was cossying up to BW and the ministry to further his own ambition. At meetings we would find out that things had been agreed without discussion by the council and at one it was reported that I was awkward at a BW consultative meeting because I brought up some inconvenient facts. Running coal boats and Camping boats never made me a fan of BW and no doubt we were a thorn in their side. We were once told by a senior engineer that he could run a perfect canal without any boats, at least that attitude has changed. i think rallies did some good looking back Lymn certainly, the first Northampton one which turned out to be really big and nearly overwhelmed us, Peterborough brought focus to the Fenland waterways and Dudley to the state of the Black ountry canals. mustnt live in the past though and I would expect at some time in the future a campaigning rally will be badly needed. david .

This is our 100 year old barge. Built in the Nederland as a sailing boat. Now in Burgundy

This post brought back some good memories well remember Binkie. With regard to tug of war these were a usual feature of early rallies. Had a good one at the Lym rally between the Jaguar and Dart. The jag was loaded and had an HA2 and the engine had full revs before being put into gear, nick went into the engine hole and put his foot against the governer and we held them until they got full revs on then we went backwards. Dart had a gardener bus engine and big prop. Prize barrel of beer and they were non drinkers!! happy days even if soaking wet.

I assume from your post that you have had a bad experience of a prm box. I have had only good experience having had a 250 on a PJ3 and now a 500 on a130hp Perkins. In its 10 years it must have done thousands of gear changes without a blink and just an annual oil change. The pj3 was a replacement for PD2 which should be avoided at all costs. My last NB had a lister HB2 a really lovely engine. david

I have had much of my barges bilges (rounded) and bottom overplayed in the last10 years and it has always been done by the shipyard welders using rods. The steel is 5.5mm. They cut a number of holes in the new plate to weld to the bottom as well as the edges the plates being 3.8 m wide. The last time a Romanian welder who had been shipyard trained made such a good job that the other welders came to admire his work, I was very pleased. By the way my barge is 100 years old and was originally made of 5.5mm steel. Parts of the bottom had gone below 4 mm and the starboard bilge towards the stern down to 3 mm in places. Rubbed through over the years. Docking in sept for insurance survey so hope no mor work needed. david

Ah happy? Days flogging down the Ashby from copsal wharf with 22 tones house coal. Trying not to finish up in a field, at least we kept it open and dredged a channel for you escapees from the Oxford. Oh dear. David

Had this problem with HB. It was the leak off pipe and there had been a mod at some stage that hadn't been fitted. Everybody knew of the potential problem. Get the covers off and have a look.

Pleased that Alton still has its PD2 and frankly amazed. When we ran it camping for the NBT somehow we managed to keep it and the Tadworths PD going mainly thanks to Ted Ward and then Ian Kemp. tadworths broke its crank whilst ticking over in Atherstone top lock but limped back to Braunston where there were spare parts to get it running for the rest of that season. After that got a PH3 water cooled out of a trinity house generating set and stuck a prm box it up to 27 hp and no ducting. david

My barge is 22 x 4.05 x 1.1. 2.9 air draft. We can go anywhere on the connected system without taking the wheelhouse down and have crossed the Nivernais 3 times. However it is getting shallower not helped by the stupid habit of emptying locks after uphill boats. im afraid it is getting like the. BWB days with no dredging of the so called liesure canals and none likely. The new build so called replica barges are drawing less than 1 m with many at 85 cms. BW build their work flats with a draft of 10" in the 70's so we knew the game was up.

I used Jotun quick step deck paint and it certainly went off quickly. However it is to hard and has literally cracked. It now has to be taken off and back to bare steel. It's red oxide primer and sikkens af this time and see how that works. At present it's 35 c in central France so not much point putting any paint on as can't even touch the decks. When we had narrow boats always used red oxide primer and red oxide paint on gunwales and foredeck. Easy to touch up and always looked good. the jotun product has since been withdrawn, just my luck to use it. david

Keep to outsides of bends and if the ducks are paddling it's shallow

The Zero rated vat rate for. Boats is quite clear and the roof could never be accepted as the measurement point for the formula required to achieve the 15 tone measurement. My barge is 22 x 4.05 x 1.5 under the gunwhale and by filling in a 744c form I can get certain things article at zero rate. When we ran big Northwich and Woolwich boats they just made the old 15 ton rule but only just due to their high sides and we got repair work done vat zero. David

Ran a PD2 with engine hole doors open for years. Crane had an Sr3 when brought from Willow Wren and never any trouble, our 50 footer had an HB with no trunking and always kept doors open. H series are probably the best air cooled listers for narrow boats. A good silencer helps with the noise but maybe the reason I now have hearing aids or it could be using windy hammers on ships decks with no ear defenders. david

There is also the. Brittany canals to consider not so well known and not so busy the midi is busy but sunny. The Burgundy canals in June are pretty peaceful but unfortunately no airports serviced from U.K. but easy by road. Locoboat is in all these locations as is Le Boat but these are cruisers.