Tunnelman51

Many years ago I worked with a guy from Saint Helena, he had not been in this country very long, so was not aware of all the regional accents One day he was sent to the builders merchants by the cockney foreman to get some Common Flettons. You can imagine the look on the faces of the counter staff when he asked for some common flat ones............

Absolutely gorgeous day here on the South Oxford. Yesterday, heater full on, doors closed, wrapped up like Nanook of the North. Today, All doors open, shirt sleeves, wide brimmed hat, shades - what a contrast!

Come through Banbury on a good day and you are treated to the tantalizing aroma of coffee from GF/Kraft/Mondelez or whatever they call it now. Fresh bread from Fyne laydey bread factory. Chocolate from Barrie Callebaut. Come through on a bad day and you get the effluent from the coffee plant, diesel fumes from the M40, and all manner of acrid metallic stuff from the foundry along the grotty bit at the southern end.

All it needs now is a couple of split - end smokestacks and a New Orleans trad jazz band and it is complete.

It is possible to arrange a different layout if you are having a new build though - as did the previous owners of my 30 footer. They came up with a very good arrangement incorporating a double bed (converted from the dinette) larger shower room, and much bigger galley. Plenty of room in the bed, but essentially only a two berth boat, although you can accommodate a third person on an air mattress in the corridor outside the shower room.

The young man in me says ; "Yeah what a laugh, high jinks etc." The old man in me says; "Accident waiting to happen, Weils disease, loss of hire deposit.......

Go for it. I worked for seven different employers up until 1990 when I finally took the plunge and went self employed. OK, you haven't got the security of a regular income, and you have to take on anything and everything, but each week brings fresh challenges and opportunities. You also have that wonderful freedom to be able to say no to anyone who expects you to do something you disagree with - you can't do that with a boss.

Yes you can connect up to shore power to supply the ample provision of twin 230v sockets within the boat. There is also the automatic battery charger/ inverter which puts charge into the batteries, or allows you to 'extract' up to 800 watts of extra 230v from your batteries to boost anything that needs more power than the shoreline provides. The boat has 2x135 amp/hr batteries. This I reckon gives me about 80amps of actual useable power without getting below the critical 50% state of charge. I am not quite sure how long the engine needs to run for to achieve absolutely full charge, probably ages, but there is a monitor with 3 red lights on it and when they are all lit up it is supposedly fully charged. There is also a small solar panel putting something in when the sun shines. I have taken the boat for a six hour cruise, moored it up for the night, gone home, returned the next day (late afternoon) and the water is still hot! And yes engine heated water is only available. You can run the heater all night if you want, it does give off a slight 'roar' when on full chat but quietens down when on 'tickover' mode. Don't worry about emptying your diesel tank, those heaters only consume about 0.15 to 0.3 of a litre an hour - I would be more concerned with amps consumption from the batteries to run it. This can be anything from 1 to 3 amps per hour. Not excessive, but added to fridge,lights, waterpump etc it all adds up. (All without the engine running of course)

These boats don't seem to come onto the market second hand very often, probably because they have only been around for about 4 - 5 years. I did manage to acquire one just over a year ago. Like you, I was considering a standard spec new build 25 footer. It was the minimal maintenance costs and lower mooring fees etc that attracted me. In the end I got a 30 footer. Somewhat less than new price, and only 21 months old, and I'm really pleased with it. As an occasional use, weekend, short trip, day boat it's got everything you need. If there's only one or two of you, it should be fine. The Beta Marine 16 engine is revving fairly hard at cruising speed (1800-1900 rpm), but it is pretty quiet, and at tickover barely audible. It's easy to service yourself too. Reversing I found difficult to begin with, but ,as with all boats (especially short ones with short swims and eggwhisk propellors) once you have found the knack it can be done given no encumbrances like sidewinds. The only thing I have had a problem with is the Eberspacher Airtronic d2 heater, It started to cut out after a few minutes operation. The diagnostic control panel was showing a fault code 31, which pointed to a blower motor failure. Then came the awkward bit- getting to the heater. Anybody that has had to remove one of these things to service will be fully aware of the need to be an anorexic double -jointed dwarf. This is because it is situated in a position restricted by the weedhatch, stern deck drain tube, and engine silencer. The motor had failed presumably through lack of use, (the guy I bought it from had only put 121 hours on the engine). And Eberspacher do recommend that you fire these things up once a month all year round. So maybe the bearings collected condensation and rusted? I dunno, anyway it's working again now. Topping up the batteries also requires the services of the aforementioned dwarf with a mirror and a torch! £2000 a year easily covers my mooring fees, boat licence, insurance and RCR rescue subs I had her blacked in October and it cost me £350. So yes, it is what it is, a good little starter boat to pootle about on, and you can turn it around almost anywhere!

If I were to run to my boat pushing my bike carrying a fishing rod with the dog in tow, where would that put me ? Ps -leaving t'motorbike at home in the shed of course!

Castle Quay went down the pan with the demise of Hood's- the ironmongers,- it was the sort of place that you call walk into and ask for a Left Handed Thingummy Sprocket for a 1949 Treacle Mill. To which the assistant would reply; - "Certainly sir, Would you like a Green one or a Blue one ?" A real gem of a place, and staffed by folk that knew what they were selling.

Perhaps Pownall's idea of a new Grand Contour Canal to supply the dry south east from the wet north west wasn't a bad suggestion. Continental style barges for freight, lessening motorway traffic, an effective water distribution network, what's not to like?

It'll be even better come January 8th, when several locks in the Napton flight are closed for about ten weeks. I can then pootle along and birdwatch without constantly looking over my shoulder for something pushing a huge bow wave. Also none of those hire-boats-just-set-off-to-do-a-ring-but-still-learning-how-to-steer to avoid. Luxury!

Out on the South Oxford summit today for three hours. Didn't see one other moving boat in all that time. That's got to be a record!

All canal boats should be fitted with what my old dad had on his boat during WW2. An Oerlikon gun. That'll stop 'em.

Good to hear of volockies on the Claydon flight, when I saw it at the weekend someone had almost drained the pound between the two bottom locks.

And no widebeams!

Two guys reversing their narrowboat into the diagonal pontoons opposite me in Fenny Marina. One guy on tiller, one with warps to secure. They disappear behind other boats. Couple of minutes later desperate cries of HELP! HELP! I look up, see nothing. Another boater on the opposite pontoons looks out. We both scan the marina. He clocks the problem first and runs toward it. By the time I had legged it around half the perimeter of the basin, tiller guy and the other boater had just managed to get warps guy half onto dry land. He had missed his footing, and gone in, severely gashing his head as he did so. He was bleeding profusely, confused, delirious and flailing wildly. Luckily the ambulance arrived pretty quickly. I hope he's gonna be OK....... As a mostly solo boater myself this brought home the thought- If he had been on his own he would have stood ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE OF GETTING OUT. Stay safe - Happy boating.

Thanks for that Mtb, I will look out for some. Couldn't believe that someone is selling Cornish conkers as a spider repellent on ebay for something like 10p each! Hand picked though...... Err, How else would you ?

Having been inundated with the pesky things for sometime now, I thought I would give this a try. So off I sauntered to the nearest Horse Chestnut tree, ignoring the local kids' call to 'leave some for us'. As most of my spiders seem to congregate in the windows/curtains, I came up with the bright idea of dangling a couple of strings of conkers in each window, three or four on each string. I duly drilled them out, threaded them up, cor, it was like going back sixty years, [only then I used a skewer]. Right, I thought, that'll stop the little blighters, Aesculus Hippocastanum versus Arachnid Horribulus. Let the battle begin. It might take a little while though, as now I am wondering whether I should have used old conkers or new ones. After a while, on returning to the boat, I was sure I could hear a 'clacking', coming from inside. On entering, there in the corner was the usual amount of spiders, presumably discussing the merits of soaking in vinegar or baking in the oven. Only time will tell I suppose - if it does not work I might try mangling some up [conkers that is, not spiders] and arranging them in pot- pourri fashion spread around the boat Seriously though folk's - Has anybody EVER come up with a surefire way to stop 'em ?

It is probably Teak. Sapele and Utile are very similar to each other with that stripey alternating grain, and, as a joinery apprentice back in the late sixties when we were using a lot of Utile for shopfitting, I always thought that Utile seemed harder to work. Mind you, we did only have a standard circular saw blade complete with it's complement of blue spots, due to the gaffer not wanting to fork out for a decent tungsten tipped jobbie! I can still smell it now- a combination of burning Utile, burning/slipping drive belt and the puffs of pipe smoke from the old fella's briar.......

Concur absolutely, also, when using the correctly sharpened and set up smoothing plane, to use a circular motion and take a very fine cut.

Now now, no fighting on the Ribble link!

Speaking as a boater, a cyclist, and also a walker, whatever particular hat I am wearing at the time I always try to show deference to the other two.......

I have the old fashioned Briiiing Briiing bell on my bike. If they don't hear that, a light application of the brakes results in the most awful honking noise of which a flock Canada Geese would be proud.