Ex Brummie

Even when you are closer to the bridge, if you are towpath side, you must give way to an oncoming boat. I was told this by a steerer through hawthorn bushes on the Langollen some years back.

Just catching up after a trip. A man with his Gardner engine Hudson told me that until the domestic battery bank had been partially charged from the night before, he couldn't consider trying to engage drive as the alternators put too much load on the engine. This wasn't the same Hudson owner who I invited alongside at Torksey, waiting for the tide, couldn't turn his engine off, which was shaking our boat more than my own engine ever has, because the breadmaker was on, and if the freezer kicked in, would 'take out ' the electrics.

Haven't bothered doing anything with it. It lights first time with a sparker through the sight hole. Not worth the bother.

My early D61 had a battery powered igniter. When the batteries went flat, I used a piezo igniter through the sight hole. 10 years on, I still haven't replaced the battery.

I had to look it up on Wikipedia. The nearest I've encountered was a cartridge starter on a Bollinder in an ex FMC motor. We were breasted up to it, and in fairness, the steerer warned me. I understood what he meant, but left my wife with no ice cream and a laundry problem.

Whilst out last year, I developed a leak on the flexi from the agglomerator to the fuel lift pump which did not show at first because it was sucking in air. This was a premade pipe with crimped ends. The boatyard I called into for assistance cut through the crimps with an angle grinder, leaving the connectors, which were steel, with a ridge on them that the rubber was crimped over. They then supplied a length of the properly marked fuel rubber pipe and two jubilee clips. This passed BSS earlier this year. I now carry a length of compliant hose and relevant jubilee clips (plus the hacksaw I already have) to allow for a recurrence. The lesson I learnt was that if the connectors in the end of a made up pipe turn in the rubber, change the pipe.

Have you ever seen the start up heater on a Perkins 4.108M? The first time I started mine up without the deckboards down, The smoke followed by licks of flame from the air filter intake it scared me s*****ss! Very effective though.

If you feel invaded, try taking a picture of the offenders and see their reaction.

The Avon can be a most volatile river with a days rainfall around Nuneaton making a strong stream around Stratford in a few hours. If you don't want to buy an anchor, do you have a substantial mud weight? Anything is better than nothing.

You can get PRV's with a pressure gauge. (www.bes.co.uk) . One of these will let you know exactly what is happening.

For the sake of £3-£4, it is not worth attempting a repair. If the built was built with a calorifier by a reputable fitter, I'm sure youl'll have vessel Check your expansion vessel pressure also. If too low or too high, this will produce weeping PRV's. Pressure needs to be approx. 1/2 way between pump pressure and the maxsystem pressure, usually 3 bar. To replace, switch off water pump, open a hot tap, have some cloths/bowl handy to catch drips, unscrew and replace. Before you do this, check the configuration of your valve ( usually 1/2" BSP Female inlet and 1/2" BSP female outlet).

If the fuel take off is from the top, as specified in BSS, then a break in the line will empty the tank through syphoning. Metal for me also. If the agglomerator is checked regularly, like with each fill up, then you don't need to look at it. If you pick up a bad batch of fuel, you are not likely to notice it even in a glass bowl, as the problem will be immediate.

How does the overflow drain back to the engine? Any overflow will during operation will occur by excess pressure lifting the cap. Once the pressure is relieved the cap will close off sealing any return. If you have a bowman heat exchanger, then the engine coolant should be minimal, being cooled by the secondary water from your skin tanks. The skin tank water would have been circulated by a Jabsco pump or similar. Unfortunately many were 'modified' by people who should know better, and the Jabsco pump was taken out with the skin tank piping adapted to circulate skin tank water round the engine. The new volume is too much for the Bowman to cater for expansion, and if only the normal BMC water pump was retained there was a real chance of it being unable to cope with the extra resistance of the circuit leading to overheating. The only CB marine conversions I have seen incorporate a Jabsco pump adapted to the BMC water pump drive. If you go the way an additional expansion vessel to cater for expansion, then you need to adapt your original cap to permanently open with a pressure cap on the new bottle. If you incorporate an open expansion vessel, then as long as there is sufficient height to maintain a 4lb static head, then that could also work.

Severn Valley Cruisers built many boats, some timeshare and some hire, so I would think that at one time your boat would have had two battery systems. How old is the boat? Does your battery have two leads from the +ve terminal or one that splits elsewhere on the boat?

I wallpapered the internal bulkheads in the bedroom, and have wallpapered on top of ply on sides and bulkhead in the galley. I tiled around the shower bath, but wallpapered behind the basin and toilet. The outside of the bathroom is also wallpapered in the passage. The bedroom has lasted 29 years, the passageway 22 years, and the galley has been changed 3 times and has been a b*****d to strip each time. Nothing wrong with it as long as you choose a good paper. A boat should not be any more hostile an environment than a house.

Don't forget to allow for the lining at each end of the boat. As said in a previous post, 6" can be a significant shortfall. My boat is 57' cruiser stern, but with a 10' back deck, and a standardish front cockpit and bow. The internal length after lining was 40'6"

It's CaRT's fault for putting the rings too close together, and the hire company's fault for providing a centre rope.

You can fit car roof bars to your handrails. You can then screw the panels to them. I've seen this done on narrowboats. The bar holders can beclamped to the rail, and many incorporate a lock to prevent theft.

My CAV fuel separator had a plastic thumbscrew to drain it. This passed BSC several times before it was picked up. It was easily replaced by a 1/4 BSP steel plug. Most threads on fuel systems are BSP. This incident takes us back to the BMC spill pipes which were genuine spares but non compliant. Flexible fuel lines have to have the correct spec marked on them. Glass filter bowls were also outlawed because of the possibility of breakage and spillage even though they were made for the job. In domestic oil heating systems many changes such as this have been applied. The next upset will no doubt be that oil flexies will have to be dated and replaced within a time scale. With lots of these little niggles, a bit of common sense stirs up much vitriolic rhetoric similar to 'my granddad smoked 50 woodbines a day and lived to 95' ignoring the excessivenumber of premature deaths and lung disease caused by smoking.

Three dry days is worse. You don't then have the excuse to stay on your boat 'cos it's raining

Make a hatch in the kitchen floor, remove the ballast, fit spacers so that the hatch can be replaced level with the floor. Fit it with a plastic tray and you have a cool compartment below the water line that will store milk, spread and the like for 2-3 days. if you have a dry bilge, and the engine is not too close, the counter may be suitable. Old boatmen of my acquaintance always used this method.

Make sure the stove pipe is not 'welded' to the collar through corrosion. This inhibits the facility for expansion when the stove heats up and cracks the top plate. You may be able to repair the top plate with welding, but special rods for cast iron are needed.

Some years ago, when there was a problem with the 1st lock after the staircase going down, I was descending, under the supervision of the permanent lockie, when as about to leave the bottom lock, a BW team arrived to rectify the fault and wanted to empty the pound. I was then taken backwards, back up the flight into the first lock with the intention of going back out. As I was just about to open the gate, the repair team gave a thumbs up, so I was then let back down again. Some people struggle to complete the flight in a day, so three times in a day must be a record!!!!

The crack is undoubtedly due to the stove pipe having 'welded' itself to the collar. The pipe needs to be able to move up and down with the expansion and contraction caused by heat. If it is solid, it puts strain on the stove top and splits it.

Mine has lasted 30 years, so I would say yes.