frahkn

You might have something there! That would explain the occasional mark on the floor in the morning - step ladder feet - now I'm going to have to apologise to the dog.

As above - this is of no importance but a bit strange. The ceiling/deck head in my boat is 3 inch boards which run longitudinally. These are on transverse supports at 14 inch centres and each board is painted white in an eggshell type finish. Recently I can see darker bands where the supports are. These cannot be removed by cleaning but presumably will have to be painted over. My question is what explanation can you propose as to why the discolouration should be where (and only where) the underlying supports are?

Welcome to the forum. Interesting first post.

Yes, happens all the time. It doesn't help if your boat is low with 12 feet of tug deck which they apparently just don't see at all.

I think part of the problem is that it just doesn't look 70 feet long, not even to me! I once had to tell someone that we couldn't share Bishops Meadow lock with him. Only after standing and watching did he believe that we had to be diagonal in the lock if we were going to get out without raising the fenders.

My Orien tug is far from historic but is is 70 feet long and quite deep (31 inches), so needs some space on twisty or shallow canals. The trouble is that the boat doesn't look at all unusual so I don't get the benefit of the doubt from some boaters.

Thanks for the link Jen, I had no difficulty downloading the Severn guide from your link but still cannot get to it via the CaRT website. It's very odd.

Perhaps it's because I'm on the boat but I can't get the CaRT website to work properly. What are the opening times of the locks between Stourport and Worcester at this time of year? Anything which I should watch out for when using them? Thanks.

My boat spends about a third of the year on land line. At the moment mainly in the winter months but we are exploring the possibility of changing this to a better mixture of winter and summer. I treat my lead acids as disposable but expect to get at least 3 years out of each set. I rarely stay in one spot for more than 2 days but even then, have to run the engine for showers etc (we have a gas water heater but don't tend to use it). I doubt (but of course am not certain) that LiFePos would help me much. I am however watching these threads with considerable interest.

My tank has an isolator right by the exit pipe and before the pump (which in my case is at the tank). If you turn off this isolator and then fill the tank, you can just wait. If there is no pool around the step you will know that the tank is not leaking. This is a simple test and you will at least be confident that your tank is/ is not to blame.

Right, not for me then. Thanks for replying.

Despite being unlikely to beat Manchester or Liverpool at football, Birmingham treats its canals better than either.

In eleven years - so say 44 weeks - we never once used the gangplank on Honeystreet. Couldn't get the dog to walk down it! She seems to be still looking well.

I'm not far from the Cuttle Bridge Inn, could you say a little more about it's oddness? It might be worth a visit.

OK, I know when I'm beaten!

Maybe I misunderstand you but don't her strides go down to her ankles?

There are threads on here which make "war and peace" seem like a short story.

In my experience if you can remove the rust, vactan will have nothing to work on so will be wasted. I would certainly use a rust converter before/rather than priming. There are several to chose from - I would pick vactan.

Bit of a contradiction there??

That's fine but if it is conflicting, which advice do you treat as "good" and which as "bad"? While I fully agree that 'that person' is self opinionated and 'not nice', his advice is often good if you care to separate it from the casual abuse. I can take any amount of 'not niceness' if as a result, I get informed advice. A little drivel mixed in doesn't bother me.

"He's never happier than when he's whinging" - a phrase I've heard often, it can't always be hyperbole.

Not absolutely sure that you always succeed.?

I have not worked it out but all three of the cross pennine routes - the Huddersfield, the Rochdale and the Leeds and Liverpool have too short locks to be passable to boats over 62' . Similarly the Lancaster canal (though lock free) cannot be reached via the Ribble link. So, in practice, the only access to the Northeast waterways is via the tidal Trent. The experts will be along shortly with more precise limits.

I don't find the depth much of a problem - ok there are places where you see boats moored and find it too shallow to get in yourself but you will always find somewhere else. The length is an absolute bar to most of the northern canals and may reduce the choice of winding holes but it's not really a problem. Once you are over 60 feet you may as well be 70 and have the extra space.

For my Beta 43 the Beta part no. for the domestic alternator is 214-00497. If you phone Beta with the engine number and WOC number they will tell you the part number.