hughc

Yes. Star and Wyrd as a push me/pull you pair in the nineties. Three foot draught was then possible but getting the eel traps of the blades was a bit of a problem. HughC.

The BSD3xx is not the smoothest of engines but its problems are solvable.It has a pronounced residual nodding couple at certain speeds and does not lend itself to mounting on flexi-mounts. It is better to remove them and solidly mount the engine using Tico pads between the bearers and full length engine feet. Put a vibration damping water pump/alternator pulley on the front end. Adjust tickover to the manufacturers recommendation, do not run too slowly. Fit a propeller which puts your water speed out of the engines worst vibration period. From memory we use 24" x 13" on a PRM 260 2:1 box. The exhaust note we reduced to a hiss at the stack outlet by using a large expansion chamber upstream of the silencer. It took some time to decide on these mods. but they do tame the beast and it has been very tractable for the last 28/30 years. Follow this recipe and you will save yourself a great deal of money. HughC.

Langley Mill Boatyard is within 1/4 mile of the railway station.

High Peak Junction

If it has an off centre stem post then it is the original.

In the early seventies Tranquil Rose was to attend a rally on the Erewash in Ilkeston. In spite of the best efforts of numerous people it was not possible to get through the bridge below Stanton lock; dropping the pond put her on the bottom and on weir there was insufficient clearance. Things have improved since then.

I bought the last lot from e-bay. It is marketed by amongst others Maxolen Ltd. who are based in Armley in Leeds. IIRC I paid around £26 for 5 litres. Amazon , when they have it, want £42 for Langlow which I think is the same product. It is better used on cool steel otherwise it dries out before completely softening the paint.

We are half way through this job . The roof has been overpainted many times in the last tirty years using Dacrylate non-slip which incorporated iron oxide. A scabbler will not remove this it melts the paint and clogs almost immediately. The only method that works has been by using industrial strength paint stripper, Langlow is good or the slightly less expensive Strip-Away Pro from Maxolen.Buy plenty, if you need to hire a scabbler and genny it's going to be cheaper anyway. Stanley 4" replaceable blade scrapers are also good allowing the multiple layers to be peeled away.

Over the years numbers of people have experienced problems with engine mounting systems. To use the adjusting nuts on a flexible mount on any but very minor differences in height is a very poor solution from an engineering point of view. They will fail sooner or later and the higher up the mounting point the engine sits the sooner will be the fail. In this instance because of the use of hydraulic drive there is no need for a drive line height to be matched and the engine can sit on the plates on top of the 'rubber' element of the mounting. It is worth exploring the use of Tico pads and mounting bolt isolators coupled with substantial engine beds to avoid the problems with marine fleximounts. We use Tico on the Ford BSD3 engine in Wyrd and this engine is notorious for resonant vibration and nodding couple dance routines. It works and is a better mounting solution than a large vibrating mass suspended on thin threaded rod and held in place by nylocs. There are no significant increases in engine noise or vibration through the hull and the engine sits rock steady at all speeds.

We ran Avon privately as earning a living got in the way of anything else. Once we had raised our family we did run Meteor and Banstead with Wyrd as campers. Avon was a beautiful boat to steer, very fast and manouverable with a HB2 which had replaced to original Bolinder which I think had gone into Aster. She was built, I believe, up the Burslem Arm in 1943 and when empty always had a slight list which seemed to be built in.

I can't help with Sirius but we bought Avon from Kim McGavin in 1975. This was in 1975 and she was in fairly poor condition but we needed a boat and so didn't haggle too much. Over the years we did a considerable amount of work on her including replanking and de-hogging. After we sold her she started the inevitable slide into wooden boat decrepitude with numerous owners doing little or no maintenance. It was finally broken up at Puttenham in lieu of monies owed.

It is buried at the back of my workshop. Tom has broken his wrist so it may take me a while to extricate it. Once I have I'll post a photograph.

Tom designed and built a device which puts a Kelvin positively into gear. It is a fairly hefty bit of kit but it does avoid the movement of the shaft and allows a thrust block and splined cardan shaft which is in my opinion a btter engineering solution than the standard one albeit with a small degree of added complexity.It does make for simple installation and avoids some wear on the shaft bearing.This was for an F4 but the same principle applies. We were going to use it on Judith Ann but this now has an AS2 fitted. Regards, HughC.

We used, with good reason, to know the hire fleet as Barrington bashers. At least one was sold to a school from, I think, Chesterfield.

I would not trust any one who uses that much force to fit a prop. There is no guarantee that the report you get will truly determine the cause of the problem since the 'engineers' involved have no idea of how to approach the job. Have they tried to fit a prop. with the wrong taper and forced on as far as it will go? If you have a weed hatch can you see if the retaining nut has been screwed all the way home and has a split pin fitted? I would seriously consider taking the boat to the nearest competent yard and asking them for a report on this before you let Calcutt anywhere near it? As a general point why is it that anyone who can handle a spanner is allowed to call themselves an engineer?

Having replaced an insulated return starter with an earth return one on Wyrd this is exactly what we did to ensure insulated return once the engine is running.

A friend, who is a luthier of some experience, swears by the aquatic plant 'mare's tail' for the final finish.

We came though Star lock with four camping boats and the well respected if forthright steerer of the pair we had hired asked the people on the boat moored on the water point if they were filling their tank. They weren't and in response to it being pointed out that they should therefore not be there they just shrugged. She then breasted the pair up to them and indicated that there were two very large tanks that would take a while to fill. To reinforce the lesson twenty four children then trooped across their back deck to stretch their legs in the park alongside and then as children will were on and off the boats until he tanks were filled. Such fun.

And PRM comes from Percy Riley Motors the first boxes were adaptations of the Riley Nine gearbox I believe.

What was daddy's car doing on the towpath? How did it get there? If there is vehicular access the next thing in the bridge hole will be a stolen car.

There is soon to be a tripboat on the Derwent in Derby going upstream as far as Darley Abbey Mills. This was previously used by boats working off the Derby Canal. There are signs that at sometime in the past there was a lock to take craft above Darley Abbey weir.

It is possible to get a pair round. We did this with B&M campers and Banstead and Meteor. B.W. did bank protection work by laying gabions on the offside which reduced the width.

If the engine is the marine version of the AS then it should have a lever attached to a bracket fastened to the fan shroud. This can be operated with a single lever and cable. If the engine is an industrial conversion then it probably has a simple plunger working on a spring connected to the governor inside the timing cover on the front of the engine. This needs a horizontal push mechanism (the spring will return it to the off position). The operating system for the gearbox depends entirely on the gearbox fitted. Have a word with Daniel(stagedamager on here) who is my son and has what is probably the largest known stock of AS parts and is based at Langley Mill Boatyard at the top of the Erewash. Regards, Hugh.

I don't remember any of this fuss when we went through in 1974. Getting in and out was a bit of a problem though. HughC.

Perhaps, with the latest crop of completely avoidable stoppages, most of which are the result of lack of maintenance and of which CART have been aware of for some time those who have leapt to the support of this totally unfit for purpose organisation might now consider signing this petition.