PeterF

In many places, the drain under the water tap goes to a 4" pipe under the towpath which empties into the canal.

I thought that the regulator on alternators had some temperature compensation in so at lower winter temperatures increased the voltage so the behaviour may be by design.

if the accumulator pressure is too high then there will be no water in it, then when the tap is opened there is no reservoir of water to come out until the pump kicks in. If the diaphragm is split then there may actually be no air space in there, so again, there will be no reservoir of water to come out as the tap is opened until the pump kicks in.

I have just looked at the video, memory is failing me, it was Jan 2008 flood. However, the river has been very high in some summer floods, I will not forget Gary's video, there were reports that the river over topped Ledgard Bridge flood lock on that occasion.

Yes it can flood in the summer, it did really badly so about 12 years ago and put a boat called Pipistrelle onto the bank from the visitor moorings just upstream of the pub. I think that was when the scaffold poles first started getting put in, but 2015 was much worse. The boat was on the bank for 6 months or so as a crane could not get there, so it was dragged back by a powerful boat. For those of you who remember Gary Peacock, he posted video of the Calder running 4 to 5m above normal past his workshop. I moored at Shepley Bridge then Brighouse for 13 years before moving to the North West last summer, thankfully before all the closures etc this year. See This for video from 2008 of Pipistrelle being refloated. btw, signed your petition, but having been on that area for a long time including 2015 in Brighouse it is only getting worse.

I have used the floating pontoon several times. I read the article, it said they would become summer only moorings. If this is due to flooding, I am sure it was a June flood that put Pipistrelle on the bank some 12 years or more ago. That was the one that was nearly sunk when it was finally dragged back into the cut. Thread on here somewhere.

The only year that I did not brim the tank in winter in 15 years was the only year I got diesel bug. On the basis of this one single event, the case for the prosecution is proven. QED.

There was earlier talk of piping in the combustion air from the engine room, the Refleks instructions someone posted explain that this is a bad idea. If you start your engine with the stove burning, the engine room will go below atmospheric pressure as the engine draws in air, potentially drawing fluegas back from the stove. I do not know all your boat details but this must be considered properly. Secondly, you have stated that drawing in the external air is to help with carbon emissions. I am not sure that this will help much, yes you save some heat inside the boat by not using your warm air for combustion, but instead you draw in colder external air, so your fire runs cooler for the same fuel burn rate, so the stove gives out less heat for the same fuel burn rate, which matches the reduced heat demand due to not using heated internal air for combustion. Nett result is no carbon saving when you consider the complete energy balance.

Currently you can not get from the eastern L&L (Leeds) onto the Huddersfield or Rochdale as the Calder & Hebble is closed at Figure of Three locks until well into 2021, only date for completing the repairs is "spring 2021", which could be anything in a 3 month window. Link to Pennine Waterways site

That takes me back to borrowing the in laws 36ft Springer in the 1980s. It stopped in about 1988 when he welded an extra 9ft into the shell.

Give Hartlepool Marine Supplies a call. Link

I grew up not far from Kiddie and lived in Stourport in the late 1980s before moving away and I can not recall this reputation of Kiddie at that time. The in laws boated through a few times and had no troubles.

I used Google Earth once to measure canal width to see where I could turn my 55ft boat to save a lengthy return trip, although you can not tell if you can use the full width. Probably uses the same images and measuring as Google Maps.

Stoppage emails received saying the wide locks will be open Monday, Wednesday and Friday 9.00am to 3.00pm with lockies / vollies present during the narrow lock stoppage.

I first saw a terrapin in the 1980s on the Trent and Mersey between Great Haywood and Stone. Apparently the weather is too cold for them to breed in the UK, thankfully. I saw a very large goldfish about 12 inches long in the Huddersfield Broad about 10 years ago.

No, further downstream, Thornhill flood gates, downstream of Dewsbury where you go into Long Cut / Broad Cut. Been through it many times and never a had problem. My usual method at that particular lock going downstream was to start further out in the river, mid channel rather than hugging the right hand bank as you are showing in your mark up. Then start going for the lock and you get an early sight line into the lock to see if it is clear and you do not need to be as tentative about checking. If it is clear then you can enter with some revs and good steerage. If someone is coming out, at worst you can do a U turn and come back again if the flow on the river is too much to hold station, normally with little fresh on the Calder you could hold station mid river. If you are too close to the bank as per your sketch then little option but to approach tentatively because you have no idea if someone is coming through the flood lock, so you go slow and loose steerage.

I was at Colecraft a few months ago and they had a couple of shells ready for new Black Prince boats with the distinctive wide rubber strip as the bow fender.

My engine cooling water to the calorifier coil has valves in, so I can close one of those valves so I do not heat an empty calorifier if it is drained dow . See if yours has valves. If you run the engine with an empty calorifier the engine may heat up more quickly but will not get any hotter.

I will third this advice for exactly the same reasons. We have a boat in build after spending many years with a second hand boat. We chose a builder and provided detailed information pack of what we want, layout, equipment spec etc. etc. The builder has stated that they have never received such a good up front pack of information, Without years of experience the new boat build would have been more hit and miss, or going with the norm for the builder.

Wolverhampton 21 locks. Start at Aldersley Junction just south of Autherly and climb up to the top of Wolverhampton passing such sights as the refuse incinerator on the way to the chocolate box image of the top lock seen in the photo above.

An article in the Waterways World that has just come out states that the bookings will be handled by CRT using the same system as for booking Anderton Lift, Standedge Tunnel etc. I have used the online booking before for Standedge, reasonably straightforward, I do not know if there is a parallel phone booking system.

Is the Don affected by the tide at the aqueduct, I think so, is that at the high range tomorrow allowing for low pressure from the storm.

From my experience you will not struggle, the boat will fit in the locks against the wall, we have been able to do the locks sharing with our 55ft and another 57ft, however, to make things easier, going up they went in first, closed one gate and pulled over then we went in. Going downhill, we were always the first out. The thing is, there is little spare room, so you need to be extra vigilant to avoid problems and perhaps go more slowly than you would normally on wide locks. Going uphill on the C&H there is the added problem that the gear for the bottom gates is mounted well inboard on the gates with large platforms, if you keep the boat well back then the tiller and/or taff rail can get trapped under the platform, seen this happen several times over the years. Then going down, you need to watch for the cill, which are quite curved in some locks, luckily I have only seen one minor cilling where the rudder got caught and lifted off the skeg but did not hang up the boat. Then there are the leaky locks, and as ever with these things, the leakiest locks are the shortest and deepest in these if I was on my own I always angled the boat to stay further away from the top gates. If you check out this page on Pennine Waterways there is a photo showing the bottom gates and platform.

My previous boat came with nothing on it and I could only fit a 3mm layer on as the gap between the underside of the hatch and the top of the upstand on the roof was small so I put 3mm cork sheet on with no more nails then sealed it with varnish. Stopped the condensation, reduced the noise from rain and hail and was still in good condition when I sold it 14 years later. Do not forget that if you use adhesive, it has to withstand the heat of the summer sun.

I moored on the Calder and Hebble for 13 years so the Huddersfield Broad was also visited a lot. Being moored there I had a 55ft and found it ideal in those locks when used routinely, no need for angling the boat, able to share locks and keep dry feet in the Salterhebble locks. However, I am now on the narrow canals and having a new boat built and I am going for 58ft so if I want to transit through the Northern waterways I can and for an occasional visit I will take the extra hassle. It comes down to how often you will pass through the C&H and Huddersfield Broad.