noddyboater
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Posts posted by noddyboater
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1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:
I have met Conor several times while he has been moving boats and from what I have seen I would not hesitate to use him, just like the others boat movers I have met on this forum who all seem to take care and have to sort problems on route. I have met a couple who I wouldn't even consider.
I've only met Conner once when I watched as his dog jumped off and had a crap next to the water point.
Maybe he got around to cleaning it up later, (Conner, not the dog) but it certainly wasn't his priority at the time.
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3 hours ago, PD1964 said:
25 years ago, completely different these days.
17 years ago, once again a long time ago. Completely different now. Very little presence if any from the Marina operator, CaRT opened an office for their volunteers, now the boaters can see where their licence money is being wasted, on the towpath and on old women doing craft days.
The Sheaf Quay pub closing was really the nail in the coffin for the area. No free parking anymore for families to come and have a wander around the place.
Plans to pedestrianise the basin to the market area came to nothing so it's stayed out on a limb, circled by busy roads. Sheffield council is concentrating its bizarre plans in the "Kelham Island" area instead now, lucky us.
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37 minutes ago, PD1964 said:
How many years ago was that?
From when the basin reopened as the "Quays" until around 2005 I think.
You could walk in and ask about moorings, book passage down the locks, buy cards for the showers etc.
That was also the time of 24hr security with an office on site. Not that they did much of course but at least it was a deterrent for the local scum.
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26 minutes ago, Alway Swilby said:
I thought the facilities at Sheffield were originally provided by BW/CRT for the use of all boaters including visitors hence the CRT key on the doors.
They were indeed. CRT staff manned (womanned?) the office next door and lived in the accommodation above. Imagine such a thing now!!
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1 hour ago, mark99 said:
Be my guest Bucc. Thank you.
One forgotton Wharf that leads up a hill (Slain Hollow) to Alton Towers.
Is that near the woods with the "chained oak"?
I was trying to follow the line of the canal when we stayed at the station recently but in some places it's hard to see which side of the old track bed it's actually on.
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2 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:
A friend of mine has a washing machine installed backwards in the "useless" corner of an L shaped galley which is accessed from the other side of the bulkhead via the shower room.
Similar principle, and a very good use of space.
Sounds like a less gross variation of the toilet arrangement on a boat I recently moved. That had a lovely new electric flushing loo in the bathroom, as you'd expect. But to remove the cassette involved emptying a kitchen cupboard of pots and pans before pulling out the false back.. delightful.
Why nobody sells a cassette toilet that loads from the front is beyond me.
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6 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Looks like that one has got bridges as they have tied the fenders to them.
I hate handrails without bridges. One of the worst almost falling in episodes of my life was to do with this problem. I just don't get it.
My only head first dunking from my own boat was also due to a handrail gap incident!
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2 hours ago, Andy_B said:
Which one of them is this? (S&W)
I wouldn't say this was a Spencer, the bow and hull height to cabin don't look right. More like a Malcolm Pearson.
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1 hour ago, IanD said:
I don't have any grandchildren -- at least yet, or not that I'm aware of. Doesn't stop me thinking that dropping this whole problem into the laps of our descendents by ignoring it is a bad and selfish idea though... 😞
Though even though banning "lifestyle" woodburners to reduce nasty PM2.5 pollution makes sense for the likes of George Monbiot, it doesn't make necessarily make sense to demonise boaters, since there are probably only about 20000 woodburning stoves on boats compared to about 2 million in Islington (just an example!) houses... 😉
Same reasoning for diesel propulsion (35000 canal boats vs. 35M cars in the UK, so also about 1% of the problem), and a similar issue in that it's difficult (and expensive) for boats to go all-electric just like it is for them to stop burning wood...
But this would all need some thinking by the government to make (justifiable?) exceptions for boaters, and thinking is not something they seem to be particularly good at... 😞
Also there's the court of public opinion to worry about -- I doubt that said Islington resident who has had their cosy woddburning stove forcibly removed will be very happy to look out of their window and see canal boats still burning wood. And it's people like this (ooh, generalisations again...) who have the ear of government (or *are* the government), unlike poorly-represented and disorganised boaters... 😞
It's a minefield isn't it?
We slow cooked our dinner yesterday in the 150 yr old range, fueled by a few lumps of coal and some ash logs. The alternative was the electric oven (our 2nd in 6 yrs, hardly good for the environment), but our local power stations are run on imported gas and coal.
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I loaded the grate with Columbian doubles and dozed off last night, after laughing heartily at your ramblings about looking after the planet for my non existent grandchildren.
Imagine my horror when I awoke to this..
Is it the face of the devil himself? Or one of Ian's escaped emojis?!
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16 minutes ago, matty40s said:
Only once the Reeves started building their shells
Was that also when the welding rod/body filler ratio changed?
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5 minutes ago, dave moore said:
I agree entirely with Matty regarding the shell. To my eyes, it’s an ugly bugger!
Unfortunately if the OP pops up to Mercia Marina for a look at new boats that's exactly what they've got to offer. Clones of the same design, wide and narrow. Continue to the used boats pontoon and they might find something with a more pleasing shape.
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While I was moored in J.Wilsons yard in Sheffield a boat fitter bought a shell and completed it on the hard standing.
Once finished and painted "Hand built by (whatever his name was)" was added by the signwriter.
Misleading to say the least.
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5 minutes ago, David Mack said:
That was my initial reaction, but the website shows a shed with two shells being fabricated, suggesting they do build from scratch.
They use "prefabricated" shells. Like many others I'm sure, but a mention of where they come from would be good.
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Finding out whose shells they use and having a look at one in bare metal might be a starting point.
I admit that I get confused by boat fitting out companies calling themselves "Boat builders".
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2 hours ago, spud said:
is this advertised somewhere
Not as yet, but quick sale needed.
P.m. me if interested.
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6 minutes ago, magnetman said:
Thats a nice boat. Would be good to see a picture of inside the hold. Presumablyit is thin due to internal corrosion.
Wear on the outside I believe.
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Butty "Phoebe" for sale. 69', Steel hull, timber fore and back cabins, back cabin fully fitted.
Built in 1979 by Nigel Jackson, used for maintenance work on the Macclesfield.
Requires work to chine areas, priced accordingly at 6k.
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6 hours ago, nealeST said:
I’m going to print these replies out for future reference. I hadn’t given much thought to props until reading through here. Yes many variables. I’ve have noted a number of boats listed for sale these past months with RN DM 2 + 3’s, Lister JP2’s and Gardners 2 + 3. I like that lots of people don’t fancy a vintage engine. I love engine rooms. That is my starting point. I have a strong liking for tug style. I’m in my early 50’s so fingers crossed I can scrabble about sleeping under a front deck for many years ahead. If it’s got the right engine I can sleep anywhere….
One variable that isn't easy to change is the hull shape, which is just as important as cc's or BHP. You can have a Kelvin K4 with 16 litres and 80 bhp, but coupled to a poor hull design you're going nowhere fast.
Short rear swims are common, and need to be avoided. Unfortunately many builders who were fitting vintage engines in the 80's - 2000's were still using them, not all, but several well known builders certainly did.
You might not notice so much on shallow canals but it makes a huge difference on a river.
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4 minutes ago, matty40s said:
My experience too.
I think you mean Comastic....
Dacrylate is very much still available, and do an epoxy 2 pack product called Epidac 16 which goes over the Comastic very nicely
That's a relief, I heard it was unavailable now.
I used it originally after grit blasting, back in '99 I think. It's had another 2 coats since but could get treated this year I suppose!
I'd guess the shape of the bow has a lot to do with how much paint is lost breaking ice, and how quickly you hit it.
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5 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:
Even thin, 5mm ice will strip any blacking including epoxy of any sort if you go more than a few yards, A lifetime of boating tells me this. Do your ice breaking before blacking, not after.
Wooden boats had ice sheets nailed on the hull. They were not worried about the wood rusting but the damage that ice will do to the chalico blacking and the timber. That tells you that ice will cut into a boat, wood, steel, grp, and certainly any paint/blacking.
Not been my experience, having broken ice several times thick enough to walk on the only damage has been across the flat of the stem post.
It does a great job of scraping the greenery off but the epoxy has been untouched. I always used Dacrylate but I don't think it's available anymore.
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43 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:
Still nowhere near as cold as forecast here. -1 this morning with a heavy frost. Forecast reckoned -4 degrees.
BMS on the van battery has now gone into cold weather protection mode though.
You weren't too far from the forecast snow last night. It was settling on the M18 near Maltby at 10.30, but nothing heading down the A1.
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1 hour ago, MtB said:
There are also however, the whacking great big Dormans, 2LB and 3LB with about 30HP and 45HP IIRC. A much better engine for a NB. I was wondering if this might have been a four cylinder version of that, in. which case it is way too big for a NB!
Says the man with an 8 litre twin..
It was in a 45 footer I believe, so a bit overpowered even though it's a little un.
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1 minute ago, magnetman said:
It is a Joint Project Russell Newbery I believe.
Yes, a rare beast indeed.
Not looking good for us
in General Boating
Posted
What about the huge amount of money that's wasted when maintenance actually takes place?
I was on a dredging job last year, down south. First day a massive crane arrives with a team of men, then all the kit arrives on trucks from up north - tug, hoppers, pontoon and 360 to sit on it, at a cost of many thousands (This is for 5 days work).
The job is based at a CRT yard, and guess what's sat in the water where the kit gets craned in?
A CRT tug, pair of hoppers and dredger.
Too many people are lining their pockets from the dwindling pot under the current system.