Theo

the chimneys that I have seen all fit on to the outside of the roof spigot. This is a problem. Nick I had this problem many years ago with my home log burner. It was caused by stoking up and then shutting down too quickly. I always allow the fuel to get really hot now and have no problem at home. On the boat I do not yet have a problem because, a) the glass in the door is broken and lets in lots of air, the door will not shut properly because the catch is broken also letting in lots of air. I will be getting a new stove as we renaovate Theordora but I am hoping that careful management will avoid the tar problem. One thing that occurs to me is that I have a long piece of single skinned flue pipe from the top of the stove to the deckhead. I hope that the smoke will not cool enough on the way up to cause the problem. That remains to be seen. All the best Nick

The engine should function but I will leave it to others to give their opinions as to the effect on the engine. Nick

CamalPlanAC every time. Reading the history of the programe is interesting. IIRC Nick Atty started it as an O Level (Not GCSE) project. there is a version that will stan alone on a lap top but the main onw needs internet connection. Nick I use Firefox at home, but am stuck with IE at work :-( N

I am pleased the Theodora came with anchor all set up. We are venturing on to the Soar next weekend on the final leg back her new home at Raynesway. I will need the extra confidence with an engine that has not been serviced since we bought her. The engine itself seems fine but the gearbox keeps needing to be topped up. I think that we will be going downstream so I will take the anchor to the stern and make it fast there. I can see some merit in being anchored in the middle of the Severn on a balmy summer's evening. Less merit on the Soar in a flood when it is blowing a hooley! Nick

Bow hauling would probably be more efficient but why not use a horse? Nick

There is a good description of how to paint a spiral in the Narrowboat Builders' Handbook. Nick

Lets have a picture, then. I know the excitement! Nick

The license appeared through the post yesterday. Everything fine excet that we didn't get the pstic holders for the windows. All the best Nick

Why on earth would you use white diesel in a heater? It has been taxed and is DERV. I wonder if you mean the kerosene which is sold for central heating systems. YOu can easily tell which is which. White and red diesel smell the same. Kerosene is quite different. Nick

A word of caution. The previous owner of Theodora fitted bulbs which were too powerful for the fittings and damaged them and, possibly, the wiring. Nick

Thanks everyone. It looks like a job for the summer! Nick

I would, respectfully take issue with this. The inert cases are those in group VIII of the periodic table. They are inert because they have full outer electron shells and include Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, Radon. The halogens are the elements in group VII. They are highly reactive because they are just one electron short of a full shell and include Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine and Astatine. I quote from the Wikipedia article on the use of Halogens to make incandescent lights brighter: "One invention that addressed the problem of short lamp life was the halogen lamp, also called the tungsten-halogen lamp, the quartz-halogen lamp or the quartz-iodine lamp, wherein a tungsten filament is sealed into a small envelope filled with a halogen gas such as iodine or bromine. In an ordinary incandescent lamp, the thickness of the filament may vary slightly. The resistance of the filament is higher at the thinner portions which causes the thin areas to be hotter than the thicker parts of the filament. The rate of tungsten evaporation will be higher at these points due to the increased temperature, causing the thin areas to become even thinner, creating a runaway effect until the filament fails. A tungsten-halogen lamp creates an equilibrium reaction in which the tungsten that evaporates when giving off light is preferentially re-deposited at the hot-spots, preventing the early failure of the lamp. This also allows halogen lamps to be run at higher temperatures which would cause unacceptably short lamp lifetimes in ordinary incandescent lamps, allowing for higher luminous efficacy, apparent brightness, and whiter color temperature. Because the lamp must be very hot to create this reaction, the halogen lamp's envelope must be made of hard glass or fused quartz, instead of ordinary soft glass which would soften and flow too much at these temperatures." I hope that I have not gone on too long! All the best Nick

I would not like this a bit! What can I do about it. Nick

We are planning to fit a bath and need to know how much clearance beneat the bath you need for pumps and drains. Oh, yes. And how tall are the sides of the bath. Don't know the model yet but some sort of clue would help so that we can buy the tiles. All the best Nick

That's comforting, thanks. Nick

On Theodora Anodes 2" above the water means empty Anodes 4" below the water means full. Anodes half submenrged means look out for a water point. Nick

Hm... That would dump all of the gunge into the canal. How do I isolate the electricts with the engine running and without damaging the alternator control electronics? Nick It is to do with the very large voltages that a generated by the collapsing magnetic field. Many alternaors have a quenching diode to cope with this but the diode itself is sometimes setroyed inthe process. Nick

We sent our documents and the cheque in about a fortnight ago and have heard nothing yet. Is this usual? Nick

She came to us with a very dirty engine space. At the moment I cannot see how I am going to reach under the engine to clean it up. Any ideas? It qould be nice to have it all clean and painted in a light colour so that when I drop something I have a chance of seeing where it went. All the best Nick

This is marketed by Nauticalia as a pump for sucking oil out of the dipstick hole instead of draining it out. It is brilliant but not called a Sucky Pump but that is how it works. YOu can extract small amounts of liquids from difficult to get at places and I would recommend it to all boaters Nick

I am a little uncertain as to what peole are meaning here. Consumptions quoted are in litres/kW but that is confusing because the kW is the unit of power (rate of working) what we need are units of engergy. Energy = power x time so the unit of energy in this context is the kW-hr. Are people quoting litres/kW when the mean litres/kw-hr? All the best Nick

Funny you should mention the speedwheel and gear shift. I was on a Les Wilson boat a bit ago and found that the "speedwheel" changed gear and the lever altered revs. Is this common? The same boat had a boatmans' cabin beautifully set out and decorated. It is lovely and the engine room is a delight with nice side doors so that the gongoozlers can have a good look. I suppose that you need to choose between what could be called practical and boring and what is very beautiful but uses lots of space. All the best N

12' of open deck space wth the deck cabin floor level. What will we use it for? 1. Extra sleeping space for grand children if we are granted any. 2. Storing bicycles so that they don't make the roof look untidy. 3. Dining out space for about 10 people 4. Sunbathing space out of the wind. 5 And others not yet thought of. It was this open space that made the boat a "must have" for us. One of the major disadvantages of the generality of narrowboat design is the lack of open deck space (IMHO). We have a permanent double bed and a largish saloon big enough to sleep another two. I appreciate that we don't have room for a nice engine space to show off a vintage engine. (I can't think that anyone would really want to look at our BMC 1.5litre!) Nor is there space for a boatman's cabin. (Actually that could have been designed in at the expense of a permanent double bed). I am pleased to say that the stern, although described as traditional, is rather larger than the usual one so with bit of luck Holly (bitch) will not be pushed off by mistake. As with all new owners we think that our boat is the best possible and, with all its scruffiness, and all the work that needs to be done on it, we love it! The main technical bits are: repair and refit the alternator, connect up the engine cooling to the unused coil on the calorifier, sort out some of the 230V wiring which has been done with solid core T&E, get the CH boiler (Mikuni) working, have the gas installation checked, replace the broken solid fuel stove. Then we will start on making her look nicer! I can think of almost nothing else! All the best Nick