Richard T

Not a helpful comment - if you don't know the circumstances of the sinking. That lock is notorious for cill hang ups going both up and down stream.

TRy taking the cover off the heater. Ours had a sheet of printed instructions in it with a wiring diagram and spec. Its a Surecal one and has a 1kw heater which will get used for the firts time when we arrive in Liverpool.

Be prepared for a large bill to cut out and replace the tank. Ours was a stainless one that split. The cockpit floor had to be cut out, the tank then cut up in situ to get it out, New tank procured - ours came from Goodwin at Crewe and is rigid plastic - and then fitted, its likely that the fillling point will need changing and the outlet plumbing sorted out. The cockpit floor has then to be welded back in place and everthing repainted. Think a good 4 figure sum - the tank was about £600 plus vat, there was then a lot of labour!!.

Penkridge is good for shopping. Jaspers the bakery has superb cream cakes. The butcher is also good. Both however are closed on Mondays. There are good moorings opposite the Stafford Boat Club. If taking the longer route via Stourbridge Wightwick Manor is well worth a visit - thinking about it there is a convenient winding hole so it could be a small diversion from the route via Wolverhampton. The manor is a lovely Arts and Crafts house with good gardens and is only 10mins walk from the canal.

I have batteries from Eplus for use with my Makita cordless drill. They work fine but I don't leave them on charge unattended.

There are some positives about the scheme - there are new bollards the Leicester side of the chain bridge which will save the need for moorers to use pins. There is still a grass bank along the stretch used for mooring. Also an aquiantance who uses an electric wheelchair who lives in one of the waterside flats bow uses the topath to get into the town centre where before he had to use roads and not very good pavements.

There is normally no problem with Leicester there are two lots of secure moorings - Castle Gardens and Friars Mill. Its worth visiting the city. Loughborough has quite a lot to offer and there are good moorings - don't go into the basin its a pig to wind in- moor at the junction. On the T&MAlrewas is a good place to stope - it has an excellent butchers.

My first experience of boating was watching the local BW boat at work. It was ex FMC Camel which was based in Loughborough. Our first boat hire was Larch from Willow Wren at Middlewich it was in September 1974. It was a 50ft wooden top with berths for 8 - there were 7 of us so it was cosy to say the least. We went to Llangollen and back. I remember being held up overnight at one of the locks on the Middlewich arm as a hire boat had sunk in it. They had trapped the rudder between the bottom gates. It was the first lock the hirers had done on their own!! The boat was raised overnight and we continued with our journey. We had a great time and became hooked on boating. My next hire was of a very different kind, myself and a fellow leader took a party of 10scouts for a week on Lindsay a camping boat from Union Canal Carriers in October 1976.This was just as the canals were reopening after the big drought. I remember us going up Braunston locks to Norton Junction and then back down them the following day. We then went up the Ashby so avoiding locks apart from Hillmorton and Sutton stop. We had a good time. We then had a few years break whilst our family was small but we returned to boating when the youngest was about 5. Initially we returned to WIllow Wren at Middlewich - they were one of our favourite boatyards. Over the years we hired Larch again, Pine, Beech, Oak, Willow and Holly. We rate Willow as the best swimming hire boat we ever had - it was a Roger Farringdon hull. We spread our wings and started to hire from other bases but we always wanted traditional styled boats. So we went to Union Canal Carriers, Teddesley, Alvechurch on the K&A. The most unusual was a boat called Wake from Associated Cruisers at Wolverhampton. The worst was a little boat from Valley Cruisers at Atherstone - it would not go above 2mph and was badly ballasted so was always listing to one side. In the end we had the bug quite badly and was hiring twice a year - Easter and October. Then the opportunity came to form a private syndicate to own Dasque a 54ft R&D boat, we had this share for 10years before we bought Tyto Alba. It was previously Watermark owned by the Bank of England social club and then a hire boat on Soar with the name Millstream. We've now had Tyto for over 10 years. I have always wanted to own a Willow Wren/ Middlewich Narrowboats wooden top and restore it to its hireboat configuration. There is one moored on the Trent at Beeston that I covet!! I'm still interested in acquiring one.

It is possible that the water tank itself has split. We have just have to have the stainless steel one on our boar replaced because of this problem. It was an eyewatering number of pounds to do this. The cockpit deck had to be cut out and the old tank cut up in situ to get it out a new one fitted and the deck welded back in place. What surprised me was that the tank was made of only 2mm stainless and because it flexed the welds eventually failed. The OP could do worse than start to fill the tank and listen to see if they can hear water coming out of the tank.

We have a 62ft boat fitted with a BMC 1.8 so a nominal max HP of around 38. This would be acheived at high revs. The reality is that the skin tank is undersized so running at max revs for more than a few minutes would cause the engine to overheat. However we do boat on the Soar and Trent when they are in amber and we know from experience how to manage the engine to avoid overheating. For example on leaving Beeston heading upstream we keep the revs low enough to make fair progress with the knowledge that as you approach Cranfleet the river narrows and is shallow and you have to increase the revs to counter the increase in current. Because we manage the revs we do not get overheating. It is really about getting to know the charecteristics of your boats power train.

The Nene is not the only river to have problems with bridges -they all do to a greater or lesser degree. Take for example Barrow bridge on the Soar going downstream, you have very little space to line up for the navigable arch especially with a wide beam. A few years ago a widebeam trip boat ended up broadside across it and the fire brigade had to rescue the passengers who were disabled!! If the OP wants to cruise a widebeam he would be better off on a canal such as the Grand Union.

Away from beer Nantwich has an excellent butcher, baker, fishmonger and cheese shop and its a lovely walk into the town from the canal. Penkridge has Jaspers bakery which in our opinion is only matched by Wedgies at Hockley Heath for cream cakes!! The butcher at Penkridge is also good note they and Jaspers are shut on Mondays. Audlem is a must for the Mill shop which has all things relating to canal books etc. There is an honesty box at the top of the flight which sells good cakes. We prefer to go down the locks from Harecastle to Middlewich as the locks are very fierce fillers and boat control can be difficult - you might be OK as you only have a short boat. and can stay at the very back of the locks - we can't do this with our 62ft one.

Have you made it as far Clifton bridge?

I made a wooden dipstick for our boat with the marks transposed from the original one. It has a stepped end so it can't accidentally be dropped into the box. I also have an 18mm spanner kept for the gearbox.

We booked before the charges were introduced. We were then charged but because of the way CRT had handled this we were later refunded!!

Upton is worth stopping at on the Severn and if you are interested in old buildings Ashleworth Tithe Barn is lovely. Moorings at both places are rrestricted and you may well end up rafting to other boats. Upton has several festivals when it gets very busy. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/gloucestershire-cotswolds/ashleworth-tithe-barn https://visituptonuponsevern.co.uk/

From memory the bridge into Hawne Basin is a little lower than Gosty Hill tunnel. The best way of entering the basin with a long boat is to put the noe into the winding hole opposite the bridge and then reverse in.

It was about 5.30pm and getting dark. There was no hope of another boat coming through to help us and the family could not face the prospect of being stuck overnight in the tunnel. So the only way of getting help was to walk out hoping that the water wasn't very deep and that there were not too many nasties on the canal bed and ring the emergency services and BW.

We got stuck on a hire boat in Gosty Hill - a railway sleeper got jammed between the boat and the tunnel wall. It took a lot of effort to clear it - I ended up using the gang plank to bludgeon the sleeper down past a rubbingstrake. We then picked it up and took it to Hawne basin where it went in the back of a BW truck. The family were starting to panic and i was getting ready to walk out and ring the emergency services.

The Peter le Marchant Trust in Loughborough have a floating polytunnel which is used for boat painting https://www.peterlemarchanttrust.co.uk/ You will need to phone them for availability. Also MGM at Thurmaston on the Soar have one.

Where abouts in the country are you? When we know we may be able to come up with some suggestions for help.

try Howard Williams based at Sileby on the Soar. If you are on Facebook you can find him as ecofuelboat.

The cottage by the top lock at Atherstone http://markwebsterandco.co.uk/property/coleshill-road-atherstone-26/

The towpath by the moorings is actually quite muddy so due for an upgrade.

Having looked at the listing and putting my building conservation hat on that house wants serious amounts of money spending on it to remove its horrors!! For example I would guess that the exterior is painted with a modern paint - this will need removing back to bare stone/brick, that in turn will want repointing using lime mortar before repainting with lime wash. Inside the black beams want all the paint removing, the walls taken back to bare plaster, any gypsum based plaster replaced with lime and then repainted and so on. I would guesstimate somewhere in the order of £200k.