SUIGENERIS

Have a look at Protective Textiles, They have a website. Made a brilliant job of our cover at excellent price, half what others quoted, and made out of Top Gun which is supposed to be the best material. And done within weeks!

Maldon, Burnham, both nice towns, and good pubs alongside , but you have to keep an eye on the tides as it mostly dries out at low water. Probably practical especially if using havengore creek, then the roach and crouch for an overnight before cutting inside the sands to bradwell and the blackwater. Much depends on the weather as all are shallow waters and get a bit of short sea chop, but a great trip. Have kept a boat on the crouch and the blackwater at various times.

There are some great circular magnets on ebay which are already drilled for a bolt. Using long screws through those holes and into broomsticks is the easy option. Cheers. Mick

Hi Darren. Just up at Harthill at mo. Off up the Ashby for a few weeks then heading back to Braunston. Will give you a look when we come past, Will text you when nearer. Cheers. Mick

Talk to Protective Textiles, Kingston On Thames. Our experience was brilliant products made at great prices. Just sent them a scale drawing and it was made using a material called Top Gun in two or three weeks. Fitted exactly! And it is still good as new. They have been at it for years apparently. There is a website. Cheers. Mick

Hi Darren. I bought mine from trinity marine, (they have a website) of course they open inwards and are fixed from inside so then I bought the plain brass surrounds (chromed in my case) from midland chandlers, which were the exact correct size when mounted on the outside. Still of course get the problem that because of the cant of the cabin sides the porthole retains some rainwater that comes in when they are opened. They are cast aluminium with toughened glass and seal excellently. If you're any where up Braunston/ Coventry way give me a call and come and have a look. Cheers. Mick

Best to buy a copy of "Through Europe at 4 Knots". Very entertaining but does show just what is achieveable on a small budget and with determination and an adventurous spirit. Recommended reading. Cheers. Mick

Try protective textiles, Kingston on Thames. They did a brilliant job for me on a cover for our forward end. They were really quick and beat everyone for price. They have a website. protectivetextile.co.uk Cheers. Mick

Probably best way will be to establish the cylinder bore . the AVA has 80mm bore, the PH has 87.3mm. The stroke of both AV and PH is the same at 110mm. But of course that means having one head off. Or maybe an injector out and somehow devising a way to poke a bit of wire about and measure it, but that's going to be a real feat of ingenuity. They are so similar in external looks that there may be no significant differences which you can identify. Hope that helps, cheers Mick

Suggest you try Nick Thorpe at Hixon. Very approachable about anything out of the ordinary, excellent standard of work and very competitive. Built our hull exactly to our specification, on time and price. He has a website. Nick Thorpe Boat Building. Cheers. Mick

Best way to keep pipes unblocked is to feed a length of small diameter chain through them, and fix a large enough keyring to each end so that they do not fall out, but allow sufficient extra length so that you can just pull it back and forth to clear detritus that gathers, in older wooden boats we use that alongside the keel below the ribs to keep the water passing through between them. Cheers. Mick

There is one in the bottom of lock 66 at Apsley ! How do I know ! Because my wife happened to drop it in there a couple of weeks ago. Wish I had thought of drilling it and inserting a steel pin! Tried fishing about with my keb but couldn't find it and just a bit TOO COLD for me to drop in and search it out. Will be pleased to think that someone will find it eventually. But they are certainly nice, and having had it for the last ten years or so, I guess I already had my value out of it. Still got my shorter one though, and will only let the wife use the steel cast one now! Cheers. Mick

Hi Athy, JUDD found a new owner last autumn, I think it is now moored at March. We met the couple whilst they were on their previous boat last year up at Leighton Buzzard, and have kept in touch since. Nice people ! They are well pleased with Judd and I suspect you will see it out and about a lot. Cheers. Mick

Is the Troy arm CRT water and is there a winding hole at the terminus ? Looked quite overgrown as we passed it a month or two ago. Cheers. Mick

Hi. Hope these photos help, Sorry for delay. Cheers. Mick

I can sympathise with CRT as to recording movements correctly. Having just cruised down towards London on the GU I noticed there are boats not showing any identification,No registration number or name, so how on earth do CRT loggers deal with them, especially as they seem to be deserted all day! We decided we had seen enough of the "smoke" by the time we got to Harefield, and are back off towards the lovely open fields of Northamptonshire again. Fortunately I am retired now and don't need to work !

If it is not RCD compliant and intend not to sell in first 5 years then I am sure you will need a Boat Safety Certificate from day one to get it registered with CrT. Mick

I seem to remember a thread on here some 2 years ago or so that suggested that you could be RCD compliant with a vintage engine as long as fitted by January 2017. But I also have a feeling that the 36hp bukh is still being made to identical specifications new, so ought to comply with emissions anyway. Not sure about the Sabbs, they are a fair bit older I think. Mick

Re; The Rugely School Library. That was a new hull built by Nick Thorpe ( who built Sui Generis for us) . I think his own child goes to that school and was how he got involved. I gather it is well used and adds a bit of local character! They make great guest accomodation, far better than a caravan in the garden! And if you look out the cost of a good shepherds hut or a showmans wagon, they are great comparative value. Mick

Hi Swinder. I have had a look to see whether there was a spare linkage with my spare crankcase, but unfortunately not. I will remove one of the pumps and try to take photos of the linkage part but need to get my son or someone with IT skills to forward them to you. I can mend engines but all this mobile phone and computer lark is way beyond me! I may need you to PM me your mobile phone number to do it. Will see what can be managed. As Kieron says, they are a little right angled aluminium casting with a fulcrum rod cast into them to engage with the slots in the operating arms, and they are drilled to take a bolt fixing to the fuel pump rack. They are also paired, i.e. handed, but I could see them being reasonably easy to fabricate out of a bit of steel , once you have the dimensions. Cheers. Mick

Hi Daniel. From my experience most cover makers quote long manufacture times. I was fortunate to get in contact with Protective Textiles of Kingston on Thames. They made me an excellent ( complicated) cover, in very quick time, but they made it from a scale drawing that I provided. They have been in business for a very long time on the Thames and gave excellent advice about fixing methods and materials. It was made in a couple of weeks, fitted exactly, and was at less than half the price of others. No harm in ringing them, Chris Peach is the man to speak to. You can find them on the web. Cheers. Mick

Nice to see the pictures, When we used to moor our old boat Willow at Welford, we used to cruise out along the leicester summit and if moored near one of the steel signs, which by then were pretty rusty, it was my practice to paint them black and repaint the welded written legend in white. Good to see some have managed to keep their paint on up until now!. Been cruising down towards London this summer, and noticed how many of the GU replacement mileposts indicating distance to Braunston are now badly in need of repainting, and the plates at their feet saying the names of the donors of these replacements are often now hidden by overgrowth and mud. So I have been trying to make them a bit more respectable as I go along. I would like to think others feel just as strongly as I do about respecting those persons who made such valuable contributions back in the 1980s and 90s. Cheers. Mick

Hi Swinder. Yes, the manual i have is the same as that in your photo, So you will be looking at plate 4A page 55 for the control mechanism. I will also have a look to see whether |I have a complete set of the controls on a spare crankcase in the back of the shed. It might be a week or so before I am back off the boat . I also have an advertising brochure and price list, but unfortunately undated. But it lists the HDW Mk 2 with the hydraulic gearbox at £ 490.00 ex works. Nice to know someone else likes these engines too. They are well balanced and of course being horizontally opposed they fire evenly, not like a vertical which fires twice consecutively then a gap before repeating. I was going to install one into our narrowboat but it was going into an engine room, and as they are about 3'6" wide would have needed to be offset to one side to walk conveniently past, so I ended up putting in a Ruston Hornsby 2VTH vertical engine, which is nice and narrow. As a mater of interest I think there was one vertical twin diesel made that fired evenly, which was a Coventry Climax ( different maker altogether than Coventry Victor) who I seem to remember made a diesel called a CDQ ?, which incorporated balanced crankshaft arrangements to enable both pistons to reach TDC together. I am rather hoping someone will come on and confirm my recollection ( or tell me it was my imagination! ) Will come back to you asap about the linkage. Cheers. Mick

Hi Swindler, and Kieron of course ! I have original the engine manual and parts list, so any information from those can be provided, I also have a couple of incomplete engines that I keep for spares, so let me know what you need to know or obtain. Cheers. Mick

I have always used welding cable with great success but very important to use the correct terminals and crimping equipment, and so much easier to bend into place and make a tidy job too. Cheers. Mick