Timleech

You must brush it out pretty thinly, then Tim

Our nearest B&Q warehouse seems to have stopped restocking. The one they sold was a fairly 'watery' product, 3 or more coats might well be a good idea with that. What I offer as a commercial service is 3 coats, the intermediate coat is of a highbuild or 'bodied' bitumen (Rytex). That seems to work pretty well. Tim

I see plenty of newish boats which are painted over millscale. The (cabin) paint can last surprisingly well, provided any scratches are fastidiously touched up, but that's not a recommendation to leave the scale on. Doesn't help the OP, though, it sounds as though his is beyond that stage. Dilute HCl is one way to get it off, but probably doesn't do the fishes a lot of good. Tim

I don't know nuffink guv. I've had delivery trouble with my usually very reliable supplier, saying he can't keep up with demand. Of course there may well be more to that story, but I've heard nothing. Tim

The problem there is that Bitumastic is a trade name, & not used for just one product. They make bitumen and tar-based coatings. Essentially bitumen-based and tar-based coatings aren't compatible with one another, but more or less any bitumen paint will go over any other bitumen, & the same with tar. Comastic and Coflex are tar/pitch based, bitumen paints won't adhere well to them. Tim

It probably is. Florum, a flower?? Tim who gave up Latin in the 3rd year, well over 40 years ago.

I'm working on a 2 yr old boat at the moment, a reasonably comprehensive fitout in a budget hull, was staggered to discover that the steelwork seems to have had not even a hint of paint on the inside. It's slab insulation, not sprayed. Tim

Your anodes won't waste much if they're zinc, in fresh water Tim

I've always believed 'heartbreak hill' to be an invention of early (1960's?) pleasure boaters, boatmen that I knew always talked of them as 'Cheshire Locks' After all, they're not really 'heartbreaking' compared with some other lock flights! Tim

I can understand the need to keep back from the cill with a plastic cruiser, but not with a steel nb. Tim

Why do you want to hold the boat back when going uphill?? Tim

I didn't think the Beeb had anything to do with it? I've never seen the programmes, mainly because they went out on some obscure cable channel IIRC?? Tim

To save us trying to do the maths, can you tell us what the plate thickness requirements for the ISO standard are, for a typically framed narrowboat with 2m wide bottom? Also is the CBA requirement for extra thickess just a way of being able to say that 'our members build superior boats' or does it have real merit? There are some oddities, or statements of the obvious "All continuously welded joints to be watertight." and B11 & B12 seem to say more or less the same thing:- "B11 - Butt joints in bottom and side shell plating 6mm thickness or greater to be edge prepared or back welded to provide full penetration. B12 - Those over 12mm to be edge prepared and/or back welded." Thanks Tim

Actually the lines aren't quite authentic 'Town Class' (large Woolwich) anyway I bought her from BW at their big Northwich auction sale years ago, I'd gone there to try to buy a work flat but they were too much in demand! She'd been to Goole some years before for a 'BW rebuild', I had actually passed her on the M62!! They had replated the counter apparently by removing the plating & allowed the framing to sag before welding up new plating. I decided to remedy that, & reshaped the counter to give a bit of lift almost like a small Woolwich, rather than the original flatter counter of the large version. I'm told that when the new back cabin was put on for the TV people, it was done following the original Large Woolwich lines & it didn't look right with my reshaped counter, so they redid the whole thing The stern looks quite good now, to my eye more pleasing though it's not 'authentic' & apparently it goes very well, but I wouldn't give tuppence for the conversion. Tim

That sounds like a Horizontal engine to me. Like the Gardner HLW, HLX etc, built mainly to go under bus floors, where the 'H' is for Horizontal. If Gardners called tham Horizontal, that's good enough for me Tim

That's the usual approach, though there is another argument along the lines that the anodes have a limited 'range', so the further forward you can get them within the physical protection of the counter, the greater the area of the hull that will be protected. The anode manufacturers would probably like you to do both Bigger boats/barges often have them on the rudder itself. As for water flow, don't worry about it, I don't think you'll notice any difference. Tim

They look like 2.8 Kg anodes, about right for the size of boat. That's the condition I would expect after maybe 5 years, not two. You may be right to suspect that there's 'something going on', & I don't think it's just an unpainted bottom plate. Tim

It's now an Indian restaurant. Tim

I think that's the design used as the basis for the Commer TS3. Just trying, feebly, to get somewhere near back on topic, I think Junkers did produce a marine version of the design in sizes down to two cylinders, which would almost have fitted into a narrow boat. Tim

Well it's from the makers' manual for a Suzuki RGV250, which on page 1-9 says "Engine type - Two-stroke, watercooled, 90deg V-TWIN" http://www.suzukirgv250.co.uk/ServiceManua...n01/jpg_1-9.htm Ah, it says so in Wikipedia so it must be true I must admit that I'd never been aware of that distinction, but it sounds as though most people ignore it anyway Your original post was referring to V-twins, but were they really (according to your quoted definition)? Tim

Look at http://www.suzukirgv250.co.uk/ServiceManua...03/jpg_3-29.htm Clearly shows a 2-throw crank and divided crankcase. Tim

I don't understand that contention. If there are two cylinders in a vee formation, then it's a vee twin, surely? Some makers use in effect a 2-throw crank to try to get smoother running, but they're still vee twins. Or am I missing something? Tim

Maybe they're just too small for the size of boat? Some builders, and indeed some owners, will fit the smallest & therefore cheapest available, I've seen 1.5 Kg anodes on 70' boats. They won't last very long if you do that. Tim

I certainly wasn't thinking of a Cummins 2-stroke, in fact I wasn't aware that they ever made one. Maybe you are thinking of the GM/Detroit Diesel 2-stroke? That certainly used a ROOTS blower, as did the TS3 Here's a link to info on the Rootes-Lister:- http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel/technical/TS3.htm I wasn't referring to your motorbike engine (Suzuki based?), though I don't see why a divided crankcase shouldn't be contrived, more about the older marine 2-strokes such as Bolinders. I don't understand the suggestion that a V-twin must use a shared crankpin? Edited to iclude a link Tim

Not always. The Bolinder, Widdop, Petter 'S' & other similar 2-stroke diesels & semi-diesels used crankcase compression. Multiple cylinders? No problem, just use a multiple or divided crankcase. Rootes were certainly working on a turbocharged version of the TS3. And Listers marketed a marine version of the TS3, the Rootes-Lister which like the commer TS3 had a *Roots* (no 'e') blower. Tim