Richard T

Assuming your boats name indicates where you live whats wrong with mooring on the Soar? Sileby allow work on boats, not certain about Leicester Marina. Then there is Meadow farm at Barrow where liveaboards are allowed and work is done on boats. There are also other smaller set ups like MGM at Thurmastoon and Boons at Mountsorrel. The Soar is a great river - it does flood but so what!!

Another supplier is Aten Lighting https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/boat-lighting I've found them helpful in the past.

According to CRT now open again

We have a Colecraft with the upsweep at the stern. The drain points are over windows so to avoid water getting into the boat we have to keep them shut!! On more than one occasion we have opened the windows then forgot to shut them when leaving the boat and returned to find a wet Mattress!! I would like to find a permanent solution and moving the windows is not it.

Ratcliffe lock has got issues with the bottom gates not being able to be fully closed because of silt in the lock. CRT have issued a stoppage notice asking boaters not to use the lock however many are doing so. The issue is that it is very difficult to fill the lock because of leakage through the mitre of the bottom gates. A long boat shaft placed vertically in the mitre helps a lot but some brute force is required to get the top gates open. There are problems with the top paddles at Lime Kiln lock again it is difficult to make a level. CRT notice states:- Issues with the towpath ground paddle, mean the lock is not equalising as it should and the gates are inoperable. A stoppage is required to repair the paddle frame and our team will endeavour to do this as quickly as possible. Word on the river is that it will be fixed in the nextfew days. It does mean that boats on the river are trapped between the two closures.

Nice canalside property in Mexborough. You get a lot of houde for your money there!! https://www.williamhbrown.co.uk/houses-for-sale/property-details/MXB114279?fbclid=IwAR3kJ6qQg0z7r-ru6bvtmOZy_3KuX59D0vRCA7N7LHPP4Vw43Nyc081gJgE

Another name is Charlie King of Monarch Marine Surveys.

Its now back in. It enjoyed its time out of the water as it got blacked and part painted. It looks a lot better for it.

Our boat has a BMC 1.8 that has over 11000 recorded hours - I think its true. It was an ex-hire boat and it has been well maintained. It doesn't use oil and doesn't smoke so it won't be getting changed until it breaks!! Having said that the alternator bracket broke the last time we were out - it was an odd one as because of the installation the alternator is on the opposite side to a normal BMC. Also unusually the engine is coupled to a PRM 260 gearbox!!

It would help if you could post photos of the boat in question.

Have any of the maps got in the margins a combination of letters thus UM/RE If yes you can date them. The letters relate to month/year of publication using the CUMBERLAND convention where the C=0 U=1 and so on to D=9. Geographia and others used this code for dating maps when they did not want the public to know how old they were!!

Another possible name is Charlie King of Monarch Marine https://monarchmarine.co.uk/

If you like NT properties find time to stop at Wightwick Manor - its only a few minutes away from the canal and is a splendid example of an Arts and Crafts house.

The Soar should be Ok at the present. It does go up and down quite quickly. You also have two sections of the river Trent to navigate. This tends to respond much slower than the Soar as it has a greater catchment area. The short length at Alrewas is not difficult but the section from Derwent Mouth to Trent Lock is more of a problem. When up it can take a long while to go down. The Soar is generally fine especially going upstream - the weirs are well guarded and the bridges are not that low. There are a couple of flood locks which are normally open. There are flood gates at Zouch which are closed when the river is in flood. The Soar is a river to enjoy. On the Leicester line there are few shopping opportunities - its worth going into Market Harbotough which has an excellent shopping centre. Loughborough is also good for shops - Lidl, Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury and M&S plus a good market are all in easy reach of the canal. Remember that there are no CRT facilities between Barrow on Soar and Kilby Bridge apart from a tap at the Hope and Anchor. Sileby Mill is good for diesel and pump out and chandlery.

Its worth reading the Oleanna blog. They have a cat on board https://oleanna.co.uk/ They also post on the forum as @Alway Swilby

Redhill Marina is next to East Midlands Parkway. Sileby Mill Boatyard is 10mins walk from Sileby station. Proctors and Meadow Farm are close to Barrow on Soar Station. Neark Marina gives a choice of two stations depending on where you want to go.

Peter - nice to see a picture of our boat and its sign writing.

When we went up Watford on Wednesday 2nd June ( The day with a closure from 11 til 4pm) The locks opened at 8am - we were 6th in the queue to go up. The lock keepers were very organised in a 3hour slot they planned to work 5 boats down the flight and 11up. They did 2 down to start with the first two boats up moving into the intermediate pounds. Boaters waiting to go up managed these two locks. They then did 11 up to be followed by three down. One of the up boats was single handed so a lockie worked him up the flight. It shows what can be done where there is a will - everybody helped and I'm confident they acheived their target. Foxton the following day was not as organised and speaking to a lock keeper it appeared that only 8 boats up the flight and 12 down would be managed in a 6hour opening slot. I've suggested to Friends who are hiring from Braunston in August that they do not go to Market Harborough and back as it will involve both flights in both directions with the possibility of delays.

When I weighed ours in earlier in the year batteries were £400 a tonne. So got £40 for our set of 4 110amp ones.

Ours has cracked. I filled with fire rated silicon and then put a large jubilee clip round it for good measure.

Also if it is one of those fillers flush with the deck renew the rubber seal annually. Rainwater gets past them and into the tank.

I think that around 150 locos were saved from the gas axe at Dai Woodhams scrap yard. Some have yet to be rebuilt like 7027 Thornbury Castle. After being moved around a few times and having had several changes of ownership it is now at Loughborough Great Central where restoration has started again.

A nice tiller pin. A large bundle of cable ties - they solve a multitude of problems. A yard arm so he knows when the sun is over it and he can break out the bottle of single malt that accompanied it!!

There's no washers on it so it can't be a copy!! I don't like the offset cabin at the front either and the step in the gunwhales - it all looks contrived.

Brian I don't normally carry waders or withies with me when boating!! I certainly was not going to take my shoes and socks off and go for a paddle to put poles in. I've sent a suitably worded email to CRT about it and the one at Stoke on the Trent. Cheers Richard