hughc

"Hell has no fury.....", is not a 'misquote' it is a mis-quotation. Pedants beware. Regards, HughC.

We have recently rebuilt a clutch of AS1 and 2's. There is a gearbox left over for a single if you are interested though it will need a little work. The fuel pumps are becoming a little difficult to source but Peter Slater at Scunthorpe should be able to help.I have two complete AS2 engines without gearboxes for sale without boxes though I can suppply Parsons boxes to suit. Workshop manuals are available from vintagefarmbooks.com. Regards, HughC.

It's easier with a pair. Regards, HughC.

The most effective and easiest method I have found of removing water from tanks, especially where the tank is an integral part of the hull, is to wait until the boat is docked and then siphon out the water and crud into suitable containers stood on the dock bottom below the level of the botttom plate. Regards, HughC.

As Daniel said we raised Hazel when she was lying sunk at Mills boatyard at Trent Lock. The boat was obviously too good to leave to the dredger which was its next step. We paid the then owner £500, towed her to Langley Mill and did some caulking and blacking and sold her on for IIRC £800. The fore end had been rebuilt by John Woolley some time before and the hull was in generally good condition although the cabin leaked like a sieve. the original engine we left at the yard as it was lying in pieces on the ground and the plan was to return the boat to its original condition sans conversion and run it on the camping.We subsequently concentrated on Meteor and so Hazel was sold as a good hull and a suspect cabin which looking at the recent photograph she still appears to have. I do remember that the stern post had been cruelly hacked about to fit the stern gear and as Dan said the helm had gone walkies. £800 to £25,000 in fifteen years. Does that beat inflation? Regards, HughC.

MIRA was on dock at Keay's around that time. I'm sure that there is video of it being relaunched. Regards, HughC

I am a little confused. Surely a standard fuel pump coupled to a water separator/agglomerator will do the same job. Many boats are already so fitted without having bought the very expensive Racor system. Of course a properly designed day tank will achieve a great deal of 'fuel polishing' at no continuing cost.Regards.HughC.

The restoration and preservation of a representative cross section of canal working boats helps to preserve the heritage and culture of the waterways. What they are made of is irrelevant. Some are in such a condition that they are, at the moment, beyond economic repair; that does not mean that they will always be so. The Waterways Trust and the museums are incapable of recognising or caring for historically significant craft and the only effective means of preservation is, as it has always been, the private owner or trust. There needs to be an agreement with whatever body takes over from BW that no more of these boats will be destroyed or allowed to decay without a meaningful discussion with individuals and organisations who understand the history and technology that produced them.The survival of the remaining working river and canal boats and barges cannot be left to the whims of museum directors who cannot see further than numbers of people through the doors. The fleet of decaying boats needs to be removed from their care which will give them more space to install push button displays for school parties. It is sad but not surprising that many boaters including numbers of contributors to this forum see the canals only as they are now and cannot seem to realise that the system has grown over perhaps two thousand years and is was not developed to provide sites for cheap twenty first century housing full of clone craft built by steel fabricators with a bit of spare capacity. Historic craft, especially those built by small yards for specific waterways, have an individuality and fitness for purpose that is all to often sadly lacking in the modern pastiche. Regards, HughC.

The stock and cup are both faced level i.e. no rounding. The stock should be a running fit in the cup and top bearing with very little play if any. Regards, HughC.

I agree that it is all getting scarily reminiscent of 1930s Europe, It isn't just 1930's Europe that springs to mind. During the nineteenth century agricultural wages were so low in southern England that many workers families were starving or seriously malnourished. Rather than pay higher wages the 'Speenhamland system' was introduced whereby starvation was avoided by the Poor Law ensuring that workers, who were still needed by their exploitative employers, were kept alive by subsidies from public funds.Public funds subsidising private employers; it couldn't happen now surely.It was the same period that produced the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were transported for daring to unionise to try and secure better wages and conditions.A good example of Victorian Thatcherism perhaps. Regards, HughC.

The most successful arrangement we have found is to have large diameter, 2" perhaps, rudder stock turning in cast iron bearings top and bottom. These are shrunk into steel shells to aid welding and the bottom one is cup shaped and welded to the skeg at the same angle as the rudder stock so that the stock sits squarely on the bottom of the cup. Regards, HughC.

Wyrd was built twenty odd years ago with a 20 or it might be 22 mm baseplate in order to ensure that we had a 3' water draught over the whole 55' to aid towing. The boat is very stable and certainly gaffers anything hung on the back. On dock there has been no visible wastage of the chine; the edge of the bottom is as sharp as the day GT Boats delivered it. It does mean that we kept the air draught down to 5'1" which was the aim in order to pass through Froghall before the pound was lowered and it has enabled us to get through some very low bridges on the Drains. My sons at 6'2" and 6'3" have ample headroom and I have standing headroom in the back cabin. It seems to me that modern designers are far to timid. Deeper draught boats with longer swims and narrower base plates are more stable, swim better and are warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Nor is speed compromised and we have never been stopped by lack of depth anywhere and that includes the Llangollen and the Chesterfield. Shallow draught boats are not the answer they are only a short term fix. Regards, HughC.

Knowing that MC get numbers of adverse comments on this forum I thought that I would redress the balance a little. We recently bought a Spinflow Nelson cooker from their Willington branch on their recent 20% off day.The cooker was chosen mainly because I thought that it came with fiddle rails and as anyone who travels the Trent will realise bloody minded water skiers and large planing boats can throw narrow boats around more than somewhat. There were no fiddle rails contained in the box. Midland Chandlers said that they normally sell an inland version of this item and their normal retail price does not include fiddle rails even though the instruction leaflet indicates that they should be there. As we had bought the cooker specifically because of the rails as a good will gesture they supplied us with a set free of charge.We were told that their normal price for rail set was £42. Good service producing a satisfied customer. Regards, HughC.

We have used the trolling valve whilst towing for short periods to avoid going in and out of gear in congested situations or waiting for locks.It is also useful in shallow water allowing the engine to run at a reasonable speed independent of the water depth or channel width.The valve used is ported differently to the standard PRM one and they assured me that as long as large amounts of power were not required for long periods there would be no damage to the box.The PRM 260 is the smallest box on which this valve can be used and when fitted to larger craft they are used for long periods whilst fishing. The engine should be limited to 1200rpm whilst the valve is in use so this may, depending on the load needing to be taken off, mean a fairly powerful engine. We use a Ford BSD3 which gives 42 BHP at 2200 so roughly 23 BHP at 1200 at full throttle.If the sums work out and you are confident about tackling the fitting then it seems to me that this may be a much cheaper and more reliable system than a Travelpower.It is obviously cheaper than a separate generator and the trolling valve can be switched out when the boat is stationary.Regards, HughC.

If you have a PRM box fit a trolling valve which allows the engine to run at a constant speed whilst the prop. speed is varied.You can then gear an alternator to run at 1500 or 3000 RPM connected to the engine via a clutched belt drive. Regards, HughC.

Fitchett and Woolacott, Lenton Lane, Nottingham. Regards, HughC.

Looking at the style of painting, the reflections and hills in particular, it looks as though there were two different painters involved.The pathway on one example appears to have been crudely overpainted. Regards HughC

The maps contained in the 'Illustrated History of Canal and River Navigations' by Edward Paget Tomlinson ( ISBN 1 85075 276 1 cl ) get close. Regards, HughC.

On the timing cover is a square mounting section usually with four bolts or stud locations. This is for the original dynamo fitting. It can be utilised for an alternator mounting. A taperlock pulley can then be fitted to the crankshaft or, if there is no crankshaft extension visible, to the camshaft. The crankshaft pulley can be sized to allow the belt to miss the camshaft extension and still give a reasonable 'wrap around' on the alternator pulley. If your timing cover doesn't have the mounting I have a spare engine that does have. Regards, HughC

The worst lock for rubbish in the chamber, that I know of, is Aston broad on the T&M. We always need flushing in and out of this- and not a gentle flush either. BW have been told on numerous occasions . They have a stoppage this winter to rehang the bottom gates which are inoperable by any one person unless he or she is built like a sumo wrestler.They have tried to correct the gates before but seem to have no one who understands the the way they are supposd to work. I bet that after the stoppage the rubbish is still in the bottom. Regards, HughC.

I responded to the request for information about problems on the Witham because I have had problems on the Witham. I spent most of my career working with young people in highly disadvantaged areas and during that time and afterwards we ran camping boats so I think we have done our share of trying to interest and motivate the young. There are definite limits to acceptable and unacceptable behaviour and many of the apparent and actual problems with disaffected young people stem from the failures of their elders to set , explain and enforce the limits. Boaters are seen as easy targets because they are easy targets many of them preferring to turn the other cheek or look away rather than tell troublemakers that their behaviour is unacceptable. The police often don't help. When we were attacked by chain wielding youths on the Erewash it was five hours before the police responded and then the reponse was a WPC leaning over a bridge and asking if we were ' alright now.' The youths had of course reported us because we had taken their chain off them.On aniother occasion when a group of drunken adults turned out of the Gallows Inn pub and started stoning a newly painted and signwritten 'Avon' I was subsequently given a police warning for stopping them.Surely when behaviour grossly exceeds normal limits then every one has the right to defend themselves and their property. Britsh Waterways will not protect you and the police are often not interested. Regards, HughC.