Ex Brummie

Any grade 1 cylinder will suffice, but if you can find a manufacturer locally, then you can specify where you want the connections and the immersion boss. I have seen many installed horizontally that were designed to be vertical, where the outlet is connected to the top, which means you will only ever get 1/2 of the volume of useable hot water. You also need to be aware that any outlets need to be able to allow the cylinder to fill. Some I have seen will always have a couple of inches at the top that can never fill, and bleeding the primary circuit is almost impossible, with the resultant airlock impeding satisfactory operation.

Potable expansion vessels are also white. Your silver ones are also potable, but I would imagine are quite small and usually used to eliminate 'water hammer' on combi boilers.

In Windsor, this year, we encountered a very efficient/aggressive warden who was asking for the fee before we even had a rope tied. The ticket was relatively anonymous, although it did bear reference to the Town Council, bore the name Windsor Castle Moorings. I assumed that the Council has 'leased' the moorings to an outside Company who are intent on realising their asset.

Cropredy was not the only facility where a deadlock Yale has been fitted, immobilising the interior handle if the lock had inadvertently been turned when removing the key. The waterfront at Brierley Hill also had one, and a friend of mine spent 1 1/2 hours in the shower! I think they have now all been replaced, but I still check the operation before closing any doors.

a normal heating merchants that sells boilers and/or solid fuel stoves would carry metre lengths of stainless steel flue pipe. Your collar will be 5" or 6", and with the use of a connector which fits inside the collar, or even the stove pipe, the stainless pipe will sit on the adaptor and inside a standard chimney. You just need to cut to length. I use this method with a bubble stove, so that the inner chimney retains the flue draught because the outer chimney, apart from looking 'right', stops the flue temperature from cooling too much.

With the crows now around Autherley Junction, the 'bread and cheese' would no longer be an option for Joe Hollinshead. We still see a lot of his brother, 'Young Henry', who moors at Brewood.

The reason many Squirrels bow and crack plates is because the stovepipe 'welds' itself to the collar because the installer has not isolated the two metal parts from each other. The stove pipe needs to be able to slip up and down the collar with expansion and contraction. With no float, the plates are stressed and crack.

It is not too long ago that there were police signs warning about mooring at Autherley, generally, I would not consider anywhere between Compton and Cross Green. Kidderminster is best avoided overnight.

How about the Droitwich?

In the early days with a wooden Burnham Cruiser, I learned to lift fenders. I found out locks are not necessarily as wide at the bottom as at the top, and traversing Edstone Aqueduct with fenders down, the wind blew me against the side, the fenders rolled up and the fenders travelled the length on the outside of the aqueduct.(RED FACED or what?) Front and rear fenders are a different matter. They are also a requirement for BSS.- Someone should really tell Canalbreaks.com as on the Oxford over the last 2 -3 weeks, I only saw one of their boats with a full complement.

This reminds me of an instance a few years ago when a Club Cruise bought some down to Walsall Basin from the curly-wurley. A week later, one of the locals visiting the pub at the Basin decided to park his BMW on the 'grass' as the car park was full!!!!

Try a Liff CIL or a Culligan equivalent off Ebay. About £7.50 each. connection is madewith a couple of 1/4"bsp - 15mm connectors. I only run one tap through a filter, leaving shower and hand basin direct from tank. If you fit one, always have a spare to hand, as they can reduce flow quickly to a dribble with little notice.

If you only have space for a 150watt panel, then you don't have much choice. If you still need more power, then start looking at generators.

I believe the 1****** series were reserved for cruisers. Some got issued to steel narrowboats because someone at BW confused cruisers with cruiser stern. My observations seem to bear this out.

I purchased a Mercury outdoor amplified aerial from ebay. They range from £22 - £25. In the first full week mobile use last week, I achieved a minimum of 105 channels Freeview, and usually 200 on the Shroppie. At Stafford, where a signal was impossible 2 years ago, I had 168 channels.

I don't live aboard, but like to use like you. earlier this year, I fitted a 100watt panel, and whilst moored with nothing on, the panel keeps 330 ah bank up to full charge. Last week, we stocked up the fridge and left on for three days, still with full charge. Whilst out, watching TV, showering, lights, found 2 -2 1/2 hours cruising bought everything up to scratch. Chose the 100watt as its physical size was most convenient. Hopefully during summer cruise, we'll be able to hole up for a day or two without engine running.

I have one tap, on the kitchen sink into which I plumbed in a Liff cil filter. All you need is a pair of 1/4"bsp male x 15mm compression connectors. My last filters were Culligan equivalents which do the same job for 1/2 the price on Ebay. This assumes that all is clean in the tank to start with.

A friend of mine had a similar problem, had the bow top taken off, tank removed ad welded, replaced and it leaked somewhere else. Solution was for a new tank. The rectification work both to the hull and woodwork inside was eye watering, but covered by insurance. Have you checked yours?

If you get a new top plate, when you fit it, make sure the flue pipe is free to expand in the collar. If you have metal to metal contact, it will 'weld' itself and if the flue cannot expand, it will crack the top.

www.Parts4engines.com is a comprehensive supplier of all things Perkins. They also know their business.

Before taking one pump out, make sure your calorifier is up to the required standard. It would not be the first time I've seen a domestic cylinder with a lower set separate pressure switch to maintain a lower system pressure. Domestic calorifiers are larger than marine, and also lots cheaper as they are not normally used on a sealed system so do not stand higher pressures.

The 'Misty Blue' I saw on the Staffs & Worcs at Easter would have been better named Rusty Blue, but it did not look as if it would get anywhere near Milton Keynes since then.

As a regular on the BCN, there are some places where 'safety in numbers' is advisable especially when mooring for the night, but there is advice available on both CaRT and BCNS websites. The useful advice about closed doors and curtains should be heeded, and if single handing, you would not want to be too far away from your boat in a flight of locks. If you are in an unfamiliar place, then you are likely to feel less confident. Certainly I felt so through Blackburn and Burnley on the L & L, where I was obviously a stranger.

In an attempt to tidy up the wheelie bin collection we now have, I bought a garden box to house them. I was sited on three paving slabs by the front of the house, and I drilled the slabs and fixed it down with Rawlbolts. I covered the bolt heads with isopon to make it impossible to spanner them out, and yet it was still stolen one night.

connect the2 cables into a junction box and then one cable to the controller. Just ensure the cable from the junction box is sufficiently sized to carry the full load.