Mad Harold

Sod's law says "if something could happen,sooner or later it will"

As lock 1E is padlocked ,you now have to book passage through.So yes, a great "improvement"

Sounds like a recipe for a long and happy relationship.

I have read somewhere that most engine wear occurs starting up. Many years ago I remember looking at an old engine (can't remember if it was aero or boat) but it had a pre-oiler pump which pumped oil through the bearings prior to starting to minimise "cold starting wear"

I've heard it's quite nice at this time of year. Will you bring us some rock back?

To propose that your licence only allows you to put your boat in CRT waters but not confer a right to navigate is scary. If navigating the cut becomes at the discretion of CRT and trips need to be pre booked (as something similar to the Bridgewater ) although they say it is to help plan maintainance,then I think it is the beginning of the end. CRT seem to want to maintain the canals as countryside water features for the general public,and if boating is discouraged or made really troublesome, then that will cut their maintainence costs considerably.

Me too,R.Calder 20ft Norman,8hp outboard and according to the Sumlog thing, 8 knots!!

Some good examples of recycling

The rich will always choose to live somewhere nice.They have the power. Those of modest means have to compromise. The area may be rough and polluted now,but pollution is under attack thank goodness,and we will in the future live in a less polluted world. I am thinking of the Hull docklands.When I was a lad the streets around the docks in the city centre were awful.Crime,violence,prostitution,and stunk of fish,rotten fruit diesel etc. On a recent visit,I didn't recognise it as the same area I had known when I was younger.Old warehouses converted into rather swish apartments,and the whole area looking clean and fresh. Don't know if these apartments are "affordable"or not,I would hope that they are.

That was a mistake by a previous government.The present help to buy scheme is not helping much either. First time buyers on a new build,can buy with a 5% deposit.Most lenders are asking for a 15% deposit on older houses. As a result developers have hiked the price of newbuilds as they are now easier to sell.

Cheap housing would be a good use of brownfield sites. Sadly,that doesn't usually happen. Cheap houses don't yield much profit for developers even when thrown up using orange box quality timber and reconstituted stone. They would prefer to build for maximum profit taking account of house prices in the area. A new developement near me had prices starting at £195k, and a month later the same houses had gone up to £210k. There is no easy answer to the problem of young people being unable to afford to buy their own house.Private rents are too expensive and reflect property prices making it practically impossible to save for a deposit. We really need to build low rent council houses as used to be done in the seventies. I won't be holding my breath though.

It looks very smart.Looks like a widebeam from the photos and rather like a broads cruiser. I wasn't aware that dawncraft made such a boat.Apart from the Highbridge Crusader and the Dawncraft Rover,which were "traditional" narrowboat style,they were known for a range of grp cruisers .

I used exhaust putty to seal the flue joint on my old boat.I think it was Hylomar. It does set hard,but it was done some three years ago and still seems ok.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I only like "proper" bread. I usually buy it from the Handmade Bakery in Slaithwaite on the HNC. They bake a wonderful selection of traditional breads.

Er, what's the third way? Elderly ladies?+

You're giving your age away if you remember No Hiding Place. I was still at school then,and remember Superintendant Lockhart chasing along in a Wolsley with a bell on the front. Just had a look at the picture above.The car looks to be a Humber. Memory getting dim?

Just looked up the price for a replacement battery for a Nissan Leaf. Are you sitting down? American website $ 6000 E bay UK £4500. Reading various reports on the Nissan Leaf,it appears that for various technical reasons,this car is particularly hard on it's battery.

The instruction book that came with mine,says kerosene is ok. However it is a Chinese copy of a Russian copy of an Eberspacher. So the instructions have gone from German to Russian to Chinese to English.So you can now not make head nor tail of the instuctions. I know you are not supposed to run diesel engines on kero without adding some lube for the injector pump,and I don't know if this applies to the fuel pump on a diesel heater.

I bought a cooker top toaster.It's a serrated stainless steel plate with collapsible upright wires that you place on your hob and will take four slices of bread. It works if you are prepared to wait about twenty minutes for your toast. To speed the job up,I collapse the wires onto the plate and put two slices of bread on the wires.This is quicker,but the toast is rather two tone.Black in the middle and light brown on the outer edges.

Perhaps the censor is giving your posts more scrutiny than others.?

If you are living aboard in a marina with electric hook up,the simplest heating would be a radiator or fan heater.

Yes,inboard driven and also 7'-6"" beam if that is important to you. A diesel or gas blown air heater (Eberspacher,Webasto or Propex) are the usual heaters fitted to small cruisers. It must be fitted to comply with BSS rules,and if you are not familiar with them or are not handy yourself then it will have to be fitted by a yard or a tradesman. Cost,about £600-£800 depending on the model of diesel heater.Propex gas heaters are a bit cheaper£5-600,but are rather heavy on gas use. There are much cheaper Chinese diesel heaters,but need to be modified to comply with BSS rules. I would guess 4-5 hours labour to fit a heater.

You are probably right .It's proximity to lots of traffic has probably caused CRT to close it for health and safety reasons.

I presume you mean the only excercise a gentleman should take. I'm afraid that gave me up some time ago.