Grassman

It's always concerned me the way boats are put back in the water so soon after being blacked. Obviously time of year and weather conditions have a bearing but I'm looking for somewhere where I have to choice to delay this by a few days once the blacking is done, but without the extra cost of this being too prohibitive. Probably a max of about £30 a day? And at a location within a 50 mile radius of Fradley Junction and preferably where I can remain living aboard, although I'm prepared to travel further afield if I have to. Is there any such place?

On Friday it was touch and go as to whether they'd let us through Harecastle Tunnel in Stoke due to the exceptionally high water level. As we approached (from the south) water was cascading into the canal faster than it was going out. Some of the overflows weren't coping very well and were 'backing up'. They did let us through but in the low section in the middle of the tunnel we were only an inch or so from the tunnel roof. As a matter of interest does anybody know if the tunnel has ever been closed due to high water levels? We're now on the Macclesfield Canal, notorious of course for it's low water issues. It probably currently has the highest water level it's had for years!

Not a pramhood but this is one way to make use of your old car

That's good. I'd wrongly thought they were going to become electric operated.

This is surely going to create more potential stoppages. CRT are always issuing stoppage notices about failed lift bridges. At least with a manual bridge there is less likelihood of it developing a fault. And this malarkey of having to close one even if another boat is approaching is not just an inconvenience to everybody but it will also cause delays at busy times.

We came through Woodend lock both ways yesterday and despite only the gate paddle working it probably took only a few minutes longer. There's now a scheduled stoppage for October 10th from 8am to 4pm in order to try and effect either a proper fix or a more suitable temporary fix. We're having to carry out emergency repairs at Woodend Lock 7, to repair the offside ground paddle which has been damaged and is currently inoperable. We believe the issue is caused by the paddle coming off the rod, or possibly a problem with the paddle grooves. This is causing the lock to be very slow to drain, meaning boats are having to queue for a considerable amount of time. An urgent repair is therefore required. The stoppage will take place Tuesday 10th October from 8am to 4pm. Thank you for your patience while we carry out this vital repair.

I know somebody who with the aid of treats, trained their dog to sit. All well and good except that the dog now randomly sits for no particular reason and the owner gives him a treat every time. The dog has in effect trained the owner!

No it's an access road that runs alongside some offside moorings on the T&M between Armitage Tunnel and the Ash Tree pub bridge. So it's to warn neighbouring moorers. Whenever I've passed there on my boat and the dogs are running around they don't seem particularly slow 🙂.

Yes, and I've seen them do it. It's reckoned that rats can get through a hole the size of a 50p coin. Perhaps young ones can but I think generally a golf ball size hole would be about the limit. I once had a rat get through my scupper drain hole when I'd forgotten to put the lid on some duck feed in the cratch.

No, I only received the closure notification.

And you too mate. Yes I do a lot of my boating around that area in between going for a few months a year further afield.

On the Staffs & Worcs near Penkridge. Strangely there's no photos showing the M6 Motorway 20 metres from their garden 🙂 https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/137159375#/?channel=RES_BUY

Yes I heard that as well. Fair play to them 👍

Good news. A boat has just gone past us and said that CRT had done a temporary fix so the lock is now open.

It's a 2006 so hasn't even reached the 25 year supposed lifetime. If there's a winter stoppage it might well mess up our winter offside vegetation cutting programme 😟

It happened about 2.30pm. A boat had just gone down in front of us and as they closed the top gate before descending they said there was a loud cracking noise. A boat then came up and a few of us managed to open the gate by lifting the sagging end of the beam off the ground. We went down it using the same method. It was only the handrail that had prevented it breaking off completely and one end of that had begun to come adrift from its fixings. Then a CRT person who had been doing some vegetation clearance in nearby Rugeley, turned up and closed it. Apparently more CRT staff arrived shortly afterwards and said they planned on returning tomorrow to effect a temporary repair.

14.30 Top gate balance beam has snapped. At the moment the hand rail is just about holding it together so the lock is workable but slow. CRT staff in attendance to assess. Not sure how long it will hold before completely unusable.

I'm not sure if this is relevant, but a few years ago a reputable boat yard installed a Webasto boiler and 5 radiators. They used 15mm pipes throughout, and in the following two years, 3 of the heaters packed up. I discovered that the cause of the failures was that because of the small 15mm bore pipework the boiler was having to work too hard pumping the water/coolant around the system. Amazingly Webasto replaced all of the boilers under guarantee and it was only a chance meeting with a heating engineer that alerted me to the fact that the pipes were too small. After some wonderful advice from this forum I tackled the boatyard, armed with all the facts I needed, and they changed all the main pipework from 15m to 22m (except the feed to each radiator which are supposed to be 15m) with no quibbling. Re your other question, all but one of my radiators are on the starboard side, and they fed the pipe to other one under the floor, but cut an easily removable hatch in the floor in case of a leak or an inspection was needed.

I've just read through this torrid tale and although you've made some mistakes you've been so unlucky, and it's heartbreaking to see what you've been through. I was ripped off by the same yard (the place I'm pretty certain you've been dealing with) a few years ago, but thankfully only to the tune of about £600.

A simple solution, just put one of these on the roof of your boat. It's bound to work surely 😀

If you do decide to go into Birmingham city centre (recommended) moor at the Sea Life end because it's much quieter at night than at the Gas St Basin and Mailbox end. Like with most large cities the approach from the outskirts through the suburbs sometimes aren't so nice, and often aren't recommended for an overnight stop, but once you get into the main city centres they are great. Whichever direction you are approaching Birmingham from, there are plenty of threads on here advising where to overnight on the outskirts before making the final day's journey into the city centre.

I have the same problem with the bottom step draining into the bilge. I put a bowl underneath with an additional (automatic) bilge pump inside and joined its hose to the existing prop bilge pump hose. It's worked well but make sure the bowl can't move and that the drain hole(s) are properly lined up away from the edges of the bowl. I replaced the bowl with a bigger one when my engine came out a while back because occasionally the previous smaller one didn't always catch the water properly.

We've been doing it for the last 6 years but this will be the first time we will be doing to 5 days a week and have two operations on the go at the same time. Fair play to CRT because despite all their faults they seem to be backing us more this time than they have in the past because, despite the 'free labour' there's still a necessary investment in the equipment and training etc.

They had a Press Association guy there, apparently a relative of an IWA Lichfield member. As a result it went out on most of the internet news channels. Here is one of them https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/news/birmingham-canal-funding-protest-narrowboat-b2392386.html

Every little helps. I carry some shears too, and snip away as we cruise along, or pull/snap branches with my hand. Last week when grabbing a weeping willow as we went under it, a load of black bugs came down with it and we were covered in them 🙁. On the subject of weeping willows, unfortunately we can rarely reach the actual branches even with a long reach pole chainsaw or hedge trimmer. So we are only able to give them a 'haircut' and in no time they re-grow so quickly.