Sandra F

Hi, John and Sylvia, I will pass on your phone number in due course, but I have to say I would hesitate to say you can get a 70 footer in and out. If you look at the map that someone took it upon themselves to publish, you will see that the mooring may be easy to get into coming from the north, and may be easy to reverse out of, providing you don't mind reversing about a mile in order to wind! What complicates things is that you get into the arm through a bridge-hole (takes the towpath over) which is at 90 degrees to the canal, but immediately the arm cranks back towards the line of the canal. Our 50 footer could get in or out from either direction, but not without a certain amount of faffing about, and using the walls to the bridgehole to pivot round. And you are not alone in the arm, which can restrict manoeuverability. Apart from that, it's a great mooring! I will, though, pass your number on, perhaps in a week or two when replies have dried up. Barry F

Sadly having to give up boating for health reasons, my non-residential off-line mooring on the Staffs and Worcs in Wolverhampton will be coming available in April. I have offered to help the site owner by seeing whether anyone on the forum would be interested in taking it over. It is a totally secure private branch (no licence fees in winter!)where not only does the owner live overlooking the boats (and caravans) stored there, but has always-locked gates for road access and onto the canal. The branch currently has two narrow boats and one small cruiser on it, and a water and electricity point is provided alongside the mooring. Our 50 foot boat turns in off the canal with a small amount of shuffling, and the owner tells me that longer boats than that have used the branch in the past. Best checked out though if your boat is longer than 50 feet. Not my businees to get into details of cost, except to say I think it is quite cheap! In the first instance, contact me with brief details (size and type of boat, anything he should know about when you could move in, and so on), and contact telephone number, and I will pass the info' onto the owner.

Has anyone any views on mooring in the Coventry basin? Is it worth detouring from the main line?

When we bought our 4 year-old boat last summer, the radiator heating worked OK on a brief check, but hasn't been used since, preferring the log stove. Now,though, on a chilly morning SWMBO wants just a touch of warmth first thing, and although when switched on there is an initial whirr, nothing else happens. The manuals indicate the glow plug may need cleaning - is this something the averagely practical man can do? If so, how do I get at it, and what do I do with it? Or is this best left to a professional? Help appreciated. Barry F

`Back of Rackhams' was where the ladies of the night could be found! And Lewis's Birmingham used to have a roof garden with an Easter Farm till they had to close it for too many suicides off the roof. Another Brummie!

I'm having difficulty finding out if the Droitwich Canal link between the Severn and the Worcester and Birmingham Canal at Hanbury is now navigable and the restoration complete. All the websites seem to be out of date. We would like to take this route in the summer if possible. Thanks Sandra F

We had a topic back in the autumn as we were newcomers to Charles Sterling's interesting approach to customers. We finally plucked up courage recently to take our faulty inverter back to his place. In the reception as we arrived was another man who had brought something back, who was `unsettled' by the original conversation he had had with the boss, but both he and ourselves were pleasantly surprised by the courtesy and helpfulness of the two gentlemen who sorted out our problems. In our case it turned out to be no more than a dodgy on/off switch, which was replaced whilst we waited, and at no cost (we had anticipated having to buy a replacement inverter at a cost of somewhere between £500 to £1000). The moral of this story? - don't really know; we should all draw our own conclusions! Barry F

After looking around for a new boat for weeks after selling ours, we looked at Ebay in desperation. Our perfect boat just popped up that day and it was an extremely smooth sale both for us and the sellers. Obviously no money changed hands until we were completely satisfied on all aspects of the boat.

Anyone know what has happened to the signwriting stencil supplier CutSigns? I was in touch with them in the autumn, but they are no longer contactable. Barry F

I understand that the choice between a pure sine wave or modified sine wave inverter depends to some extent on the electronic complexity of the equipment to be run off it. As I need to replace my defunct Sterling inverter, I would prefer to buy a modified one for a few hundred quid rather than £1000 or so for a pure sine wave. But the main item to run off this is a fairly basic microwave, bought a year or so ago. So, can anyone tell me whether a Daewoo KOR-6L 15 (700w) (cost about £40-£50) will run quite happily on a modified sine wave? Or, who knows a man that can? Or, is anyone using this microwave - we bought ours from Currys but have spotted it for sale in chandlers, so some boaters are probably using it. Help would be appreciated. Barry F

Advice please on name of the brown plastic faced ply used for cruiser stern decks, and if possible, a retail supplier not too far from West Midlands. And I've seen the edges protected by aluminium channels (?) - anything special about these? Thanks, Barry F

Thanks Chris (and everybody for their suggestions). The Direct Plastics Online people offer PTFE, Tufnol and HDPE, all of which seem to work as well as brass or stainless steel, but appear to be cheaper. I'm thinking of going for the Tufnol, partly because it had already been recommended to me by a retired boat builder (but I couldn't find on Google because he spelt it incorrectly for me, but I do have loads of useless information on Phil Tufnell, the cricketer if wanted!), and partly because their blurb says "Whale Tufnol Sheet is perfect for wear resistant componants such as bearings, bushes, gears, washers, slideways and above waterline marine use.Tufnol Whale Sheet is dimensionally very stable, and can be either run dry or lubricated with water, oils or grease". I reckon enough 3mm (quessing that thickness) + cutting charges + postage will be about £20; PTFE maybe £40, and HDPE about £15. Hopefully all the information provided is of use to others. Barry F

Our recently acquired boat, a Liverpool Boat, has what I assume is a perfectly standard sliding steel hatch, which scrapes on top of steel channels. Which are exposed to the weather, and, of course, when scraped, the paint is removed, and it rusts in full view - there has to be a better way by providing a non-rusting running strip. Who has done what, please ? Barry F

This is interesting, but presumably you need a spare bod at the bow to pass up the rope, so not suitable for a two-person boat. We do a variation on this where we tie using a middle rope, and SWMBO is told to keep the rope tight during the early part of the fill by reversing as the water level rises. Reading the contributions though, we might try out the non-rope idea on GU locks next time. With a 50 foot boat should we stay at the back of the lock? Barry F

Just as an aside, we bought some diesel for our boat from a small chandlery recently, and the owner (no names!) said "I know someone related to a senior revenue man reponsible for amongst other things the tax we boaters pay on diesel, and is quoted as saying that he had neither the time nor the resources nor the inclination to do any checking about what is going on when boaters buy the stuff". Mind you, they'd soon be around if we all started to declare 95% for heating. I'm still waiting for the early morning knock on the door when, in the early days of all this, my wife paid the bill for some diesel, and due to a combination of inexperience on her part and that of the young man who served her, they managed to get the 60/40 the wrong way round. Barry F