Captain Pegg

There is an important distinction between hot dip galvanising and hot spray which is routinely overlooked in these discussions. Hot dip galvanising is done at a temperature in excess of twice the melting point of zinc and provides a chemical bond between the parent metal and the protective layer. Obviously it's a process that is limited to smaller components. Hot spray is heated sufficiently so it can be sprayed but it gives a mechanical bond and the highly zinc rich nature of the paint means it lacks some of the binding properties of a more conventional paint. For that reason hot sprayed coatings have limitations in industrial use as the benefits aren't always worth the price. Personally if I wanted to protect a hull for 5/6 years in one go I think a two-pack epoxy is probably the safest bet from a cost versus performance point of view. JP

It was having a makeover when I passed a few weeks ago and it's now called The Waterside. It is apparently a Greene King carvery which probably still doesn't appeal much to you. Even as a meat eater I doubt I shall ever be making an effort to stop there either. JP ETA - turns out that Hungry Horse is a Greene King brand anyway so it hasn't changed ownership.

Why does there need to be logic? Different unit systems are just different ways of using numbers and symbols to describe the very same thing. In language there is almost never an instance where two people would use the exact same words to describe the same thing so why should there be so in Mathematics? It's just the language of numbers and equations rather than letters and words. That 1,000 metre long tunnel is 1,094 yards and the 70ft boat is 21.34 metres. You will find both systems used on the canal and in pretty much every walk of life. It isn't a fundamental issue. I will though concede that consistency is useful for the hard of thinking. JP

I do like the way you say "approx" and then give an answer with 0.2% tolerance. But hardly anyone will notice because 58% of the population don't understand statistics anyway. Wasn't the norm somewhere in the order of 50 tons for a pair; weighted in favour of the butty? Maybe by as much as 52% to 48% i.e. a huge imbalance. Assuming your measure is in imperial tons (which is the same as a US long ton) the metric equivalent would be 63.25 tonnes or 69.75 US (short) tons. All quoted to the nearest quarter ton(ne). I suspect someone on the forum knows what present day coal boats can carry on their particular routes and it's presumably somewhat less than in the days of regular carrying. JP

In the absence of anyone who has better information than me I can confirm that I can't find anything to answer the question but are you aware that Susannah Bates was the sister of Samuel Barlow? That may be a clue as to where to look if you haven't yet done that. JP

I see the mods are keeping a close eye on this thread; no less than four spotted just now. Perhaps one of them can do the honourable thing and move this shit out of the Boating section seeing as one of them saw fit to move a thread on homeless folk living on the banks to the Virtual Pub. JP

Not sure I would worry about that. Steel from 1887 would probably have similar corrosion properties to wrought iron. Early Bessemer steels were close in chemical composition to wrought iron as the processes for making both required almost full decarburisation (removal of carbon). As steel making methods improved the levels of carbon increased and structurally there are benefits from steel over iron. Your 1930s steel will be softer and more coarsely grained than post war products which is probably why we get anecdotal evidence that it's easier to work with. As for the original question I would absolutely not deploy a semi-destructive test to a problem that only exists in theory and for which there are no specific symptoms. JP

I think you were only person who got the point I was making. I’m too obtuse for the literal folks. A sphere is a polyhedron with an infinite number of faces. A circle is a polygon with an infinite number of sides. Similarly, a straight line is a curve of infinite radius. Pretty good basic mathematical models. JP

No. It's pushing in all directions. So you need to divide by infinity not by two. Then you'll find that logically there's no pressure on any surface at all. I love bad Physics. You can prove anything you want. JP

I went through the barge lock in Droitwich yesterday. Water levels are very low in the local rivers currently. Easy to open all four gates. Not to be advised if single handed; you will get stranded. In response to the above post the reason for the gates being kept closed rather than being left open is to separate the salt water in the river from the fresh(er) water in the canal.

Another possible new addition to the list. Charles Hoare, son of Charles Hoare and Sarah Ann Neal. Died 4 May 1918 in France at the age of 19. Born in Banbury (parents address listed as 8 Lower Cherwell Street on baptism record) to a working boat family. They were recorded in the 1901 census at Shackerstone and in the 1911 census working horseboats Victory and Dart at Cropredy engaged in the carriage of stone. Charles Hoare was a cousin of David Neal and David Garrett referenced in my list above. JP

There is a thread in the History & Heritage section on canal boatman who served in WW1. The discussion stemmed from Lorna York's research and as of April this year she had established 62 canal boatmen who gave service. While I recognise that there are a lot more watermen who will have served than canal horse-boatmen the actual population of itinerant boat families was probably only ever a very small percentage of the overall workforce. They just happen to be the most romanticised and the ones who are most remembered. The use of the term itinerant is also misleading since many of these families had houses or access to houses through close relatives. Whether or not they actually lived in a particular property it seems for the purposes of official records most long distance boaters appear to have had an address. Therefore I do wonder if the notion of thousands of uncommemorated boatmen presented in the linked article above actually has a basis in fact. If it does the appropriate commemoration would be to establish who they are as best as can be done and dedicate a memorial. There is important difference between celebrating the role of boatmen in the wars and of commemorating the sacrifice that some of them made. JP

The legend is that the Oxford was intended to be at the same level but is higher due to a surveying error. Makes you wonder what the Coventry's response would have been if the error was in the other direction. Maybe the OCC were fed false information by the Coventry! JP

Ha, you could be right about being the only person to climb out from below locks 5,6 and 7 on the Droitwich Junction. I can't do those locks without using the landings or perhaps working ahead between 5 and 6. The barge lock in Vines Park is a faff for the single hander (if you have crew you can often open up all four gates and the bridge and cruise straight through). The side ponds at Hanbury slow things down and mean you can't just drop down and open a top paddle to start filling the lock before opening the bottom paddles on the lock above. That's something I usually do when single handing in flights as I don't think single handing is an excuse for poor practice. There are also a couple of locks on the barge canal with tail bridges that I need the landings for as there isn't a towpath through the bridge hole which normally makes tail bridges a helpful feature. The landings are OK in themselves but some are a bit remote from the locks and the sides can be very shallow which makes it difficult to get to the side in some boats. There's one on the barge canal (either 3 or 4) where it's very shallow on the inside between the lock landing and the lock. It just all slows things down for the average boater and means there is more to do rather than being necessarily more difficult. As for the M5 tunnel that's never been a problem for me at all. Water levels are low at the moment too. The novel features of the Droitwich wear a bit thin when you cruise it regularly and just want to get home after a long day although Hanbury locks are a gem in other respects. JP

It's not just the barge canal, the Junction Canal is a very strange waterway. Neither is configured for the ease of the boater, it had to be done in an affordable way and there are many undesirable features as a result. JP

I agree but I don't think it's practical - or perhaps even possible - to work the Droitwich without resorting to use of lock landings at a fair few locks. Also on a lock or flight that's new to me as a single hander I will generally stop beforehand to work out my method before commencing with any lock working. Neither do I put the bows of Vulpes right up to a lock when emptying it to go uphill but that's more a result of having a boat that is low to the water and having had a couple of nervous moments in that situation in the past. JP

I am sure they are; you must have required to tie your boat to the bollards provided above or below a lock at some point. That's a lock landing. I think so far you have boated from Gayton to Worcester and down onto the Severn from what you have posted on here. GU locks depend a lot on whether you share and Lapworth and the Worcs & Birmingham locks are amongst the easiest on the system. The Droitwich is a different beast. Everything about the locks is designed by make things tricky for the single hander. JP

You will need at least three hours to get from Netherwich Basin moorings to Bevere lock and that's if you have crew to work the locks. Single handing will be substantially longer since neither the locks themselves or the lock landings are the most convenient on the network. JP

I thought the stop lock was the result of an error in the levels of the Oxford or is that a myth? The problem wouldn't be so much about extra water but that the Oxford would have been six inches lower than planned all the way to Hillmorton which presumably would have been a problem. Was the narrows on the Coventry there for toll collection purposes? No obvious other reason for it existing. JP