Richard T

I guess that you are talking about Sileby Mill. If you are having work done its worth getting them to pressure wash the hull as they have a good high pressure washer. Its not the time of year to be doing blacking even if its under cover - it would be OK in a heated dry dock.

Chris Williams of Ovation Boat Services is good and based on the Soar so is local.

Union Canal Carriers have traditional stern boats - known as Barney Boats. They do not have an engine room or back cabin but do have a solid fuel stove to keep you warm. They are short - 35 and 40ft. https://unioncanalcarriers.co.uk/property/wrekin/

This is the boat that is moored at Harrises on the Soar? Having seen the boat many times I doubt if there is anything really historic about it. It may have been an early pleasure boat that has been modified over the years.

Pillings Lock Marina would be able to get your boat out of the water. It would then need craning onto a lorry and then lifting back in somewhere on the river Lee. None of the local boatyards have a crane on site. It will not be a cheap option going by road. Why not work on the boat over the winter at weekends in the Loughborough area and then cruise to London over the Easter holiday. Have you a mooring to go to in Hertfordshire? If not I think it would be difficult to continuous cruise whilst fitting out a boat.

Crane photographed above Dimmingsdale Lock in August 2014

Tony, Thanks for your comment. I'm not at all bothered by the black smoke when revved hard. The boat generally handles well and copes with varaiable conditions on the Soar and Trent. I will not be thinking about changing the prop. If and when the engine needs changing I will see what the manufacturer suggests for prop sizing. Our BMC is coupled to a PRM 260 gearbox which seems to be an almost bomb proof combination. All the best Richard

Our BMC starts with white smoke for a few seconds which then clears as the engine warms up. We get some black smoke when we have to rev hard for some reason. I'm not worried by this as 99% of the time the engine does not smoke. It is starting to show its age having now done 10750 hours or thereabouts but while it still goes I won't be fixing it!!

Chris Williams Ovation Boat Services is based at Sileby - he is a surveyor, BSS examiner and a gas safe registered engineer. He always does our BSS and did our hull survey as Tyro has reached the ripe old age of 30.

Can you post photos of your cottage showing the chamfering of the corners. I'm member of a Facebook page which gets excited about such details!!

Thw wharf building is Grade II listed structure. Details HUSBANDS BOSWORTH SP 68 SW WELFORD ROAD (West Side) 6/63 Wharf Building II Small warehouse. Circa 1820. Brick with hipped slate roof with overhanging eaves. 2 storeyed, square in plan, of 3 bays with central double doors on each floor in the western elevation, with flanking 4-light casement windows on the ground floor. The north west gable has a wide chamfered angle to ground floor. Listing NGR: SP6441080931 If you have doubts as to what is happening contact the Conservation Officer at Market Harborough DC as I think that it falls in their area being just in Leicestershire the county boundary being the river Avon and the canal is north of it.

I can confirm Sunday 30th December.

Most of the lights on our boat came from Aten https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/boat-lighting So far none have failed after over 5years of use. We replaced 12v flourescent tubes with LEDs using lamp holders and suitable LED array keeping the original diffussers as we couldn't get any new fittings to fit the recesses in the timber panelling.

I have now been to the Paget Arms - it has changed hands and is now an Everards pub. It has the usual Everards brews - Tiger and Old Original- plus guest beers. They have not yet sorted out the kitchen so I was not able to see a menu. I talked to the manager and he is happy to host the banter on Sunday 30th. A couple of weeks before it I need to go and sort out numbers and what sort of food we might want. I guess that this will be fairly simple - pie and chips etc - with veggie options. Please let me know numbers.

The Peter Le Marchant boats are 12ft wide and always moor against hard banks so use tyres as fenders. As they only ever do short runs its a lot of effort to keep putting out and then taking them in.