NBDensie
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Posts posted by NBDensie
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Same thing happened during the cold weather on our Isuzu for a few years until it gave up completely. The problem seems to be the display, the hours continue to be counted and should reappear in the spring. We now have a simple mechanical hour counter which solves all thge problems.
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5 days at Abingdon
I believe the Abingdon mooring is owned by the council, ie private property, and isnt an official visitor mooring.
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I think you will find that some locks have leaked for ages, perhaps since they were first built. On the Huddersfield Narrow or Rochdale, cant remember which now, a passing BW (as was) guy told us that whilst excavating to track down a lock leak they came across a drain that no-one knew existed. A bit of detective work led to the discovery of an 1850 plan showing the drain with a scribbled note to the effect that it was a temporary fix to remove leaking water. The drain had quietly been doing its job ever since.
Unless such locks are completely rebuilt, which they wont be if nothing catastrophic happens, we have to live with the necessary work-arounds.
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There are 115 locks between Norbury and Crick going via central Birmingham. Another option, 20 miles longer but only 49 locks, is to go north of Birmingham via Fradley Junction and the Coventry and North Oxford Canals. This alternative route has the additional advantages that there are far fewer broad locks which are harder work than narrow ones, it is more attractive avoiding most large conurbations and there are plenty of mooring spots and pubs etc. You can get distance/lock info from the route planner at Canalplan-EU.
If you do want to go through Birmingham I have found it safe and it is particularly interesting for a canal enthusiast but far from scenic. I would advise planning the journey to moor at the well known spots. Near Brindley Place in the centre of the city is an excellent place to stop as is the Black Country Museum at the north end of Dudley Tunnel.
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Perhaps the reason why we have far more narrow boat builders than any one else is that other people dont need narrowboats
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3G Routers are not really much different to normal ADSL/Broadband outers. You put a SIM card in them (usually data only) just like a phone. You can then connect via wireless or ethernet cable just like a normal router. They are a more expensive option though - cost for a reasonably good one by Teltonika or ProRoute are usually £150 or more, and you still have to buy the SIM. But if you need reliability and speed then they are worth the extra cost.
This place is a good start http://www.3grouterstore.co.uk/
Chris
Or get one of these from 3 for (from memory) around £30, certainly < £50. I used to have an aerial with a Huawei dongle but the 3 mifi router works better - in bad reception areas just put it on the roof.
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Silcone spray used to antistat your ironing - available from most supermarkets. (Amazing how two decades in the theatre costume industry can help with boating....)
A blob of silicone grease the size of a match head or two spread over the brass strips worked very well for our hatch. Morris grease got sticky and dirty in a few days, the silicone grease is still working after several weeks and looks clean.
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Mink walking past our boat on the New Junction Canal
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Cheap ones from maplins work fine. There are a few times and places when they are useful such as the single width ex-tunnel at Armitage on the T&M, but very few. Also I guess the single width section on the Llangollen. But not really worth it for a one-off cruise in my view.
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Fair point regarding breaking shoreline cable earth since thinking about it, it will be connected to hull anyway.
I think a more relevant issue though is to ensure that the inverter can't possibly fire up if the shoreline power is present whether relay has failed or not.
I'm not denying the importance of N/E connection either though.
I dont know if it's relevant but dont forget these boxes are inverter chargers. If they are plugged into the shoreline the charger side will trickle charge the engine battery and do clever multistage charging things to the domestic batteries.
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I have received a reply from Victron.....
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What happens when you move the flat cable between the connection and the control pcb?
Move directly on the edges.
There is an earth relay in the unit that in some cases could be to slow in switching if you have a rcd with a fast curve. In this cases you have to cut/ take out a earth lead.
The earth lead is going from the output connector to the connection pcb.
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If Keeping Up or any one else has Victron shore power tripping problems I would be interested in hearing experiences if you feel up to following Victrons suggestions or if there is someone who knows electricals who can comment. Personally I am a bit nervous about opening up a Victron and wiggling things when it is supplying 240V. As to cutting earth leads mmmm.
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I have recently installed a Victron for someone on their boat, and it is showing the same symptoms. It was OK for the first 24 hours but now it trips the RCD at frequent intervals.
Amazingly it even trips the RCD which I fitted to the output side of the Victron, can anyone make any suggestions as to how this can even be possible? Particularly as there is at the moment nothing plugged in to any of the sockets, and also it is being operated in "Charger only" mode.
All is fine if the Victron is removed from the equation (by pulling out the 240v input and output plugs, and plugging them together) which seems to confirm that there is no fault anywhere else.
In this case it is a fairly old unit, model 12/800/35, but it has spent most of its life packaged in its box.
Interesting. In my case it has never tripped the internal RCD. Anyway I have sent a link to this thread to Victron Energy BV in the Netherlands. If they reply with anything useful I will post it.
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Found out yesterday that the boatyard at Wyvern won't pumpout your tank unless you use Blue.
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I dont use blue but they pumped out mine when I passed by in August. The question never came up. I do remember somewhere on the GU did have a sign up insisting on blue'd tanks but it wasnt Wyvern.
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A cupful of vinegar should remove the ammonia smell and the urea crystals and is a lot less harmful to people, wildlife, and the workings of toilets than bleach.
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1) When opening Stoke Bruerne top lock gates remember to push from the upstream side.
2) After lighting your stove remove your plant pots from the top before it gets hot
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120 days in 2013. We are both retired (early!) - it was either working or boating, one of them had to go. Difficult decision.
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Yeah, well , I think this is the result of pursuing battles with BWB - CRT to the point of obsession, you start to see plots everywhere, However one does have to view the `Authorities`, be they CRT or the local council or anybody else who has the power to make rules and regs. with a very careful eye indeed as the mindset of the bureaucrat is to continually make legislation for people to comply with. When I think back to the 1970`s when there was nothing like the weight of legislation on boaters, drivers or life in general I can`t recall boats blowing up all over the place or anarchy breaking out everywhere, certainly not a `golden age` but a lot less sniping at people who wanted to live on boats by the smug and well heeled who could afford to comply with the rules - am now looking for somewhere to hide.
Richard Cooper
A key difference between the 1970s and now is the numbers. There are far more boats active on the system and there has been an even greater increase in the number of people who see living permanently on a boat as a viable housing option. In the 1970s boaters could largely do their own thing without disturbance or inconvenience to others. This is is no longer the case, at least in some parts of the system. Unfortunately in any area of life there are always a minority of people who will do what they want to do irrespective of the effect on others. Hence regulation.
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Superb post and one of the clearest explinations i have seen.
Agreed completely. To see the RMP in context is very helpful.
Hopefully some equally clear thinking can resolve the question as to what constitutes bona fide navigation.
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I dont understand why genuine navigators want to remain at one place for weeks at a time. We normally move most days with occasional stops of 2-3 days. After a stationary week I really would be twitching and jabbering.
I agree with the "state of mind" answer. If you are wandering around because thats what you want to do you are probably acting within the letter and spirit of the rules. If you are moving on the 14th day for the minimum distance you think you can get away with you probably arent.
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I think and hope you will find that in the event of a freeze-in or circumstance such as a major break-down preventing movement CRT will be reasonable. But it seems to me its not just an extra voluntary option. Its the clear removal of, and the provision of a reasonable paid-for alternative to, the current de facto option of simply staying put for the winter on any mooring which happens to take your fancy.If you are a CC-er and get "frozen in"... do you have to stash some money in your mattress in case a CRT enforcement office knocks on the boat and says...."do you have a permit to be moored here for 5 months?"
If the answer is NO, then yes CRT are offering CC-ers an extra voluntary option for winter.
If the answer is YES then the winter mooring permit is a method for CRT to extract more money from boaters.
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I used an aerial from the Boaters Phone Company for some time on my 3 dongle. It worked very well and could almost always get a usable signal. However I found that the aerial socket on the dongle is not sufficiently robust to withstand repeated plugging-in and unplugging and I trashed 3 dongles. I have now moved over to the 3 wifi router which works brilliantly. It seems to provide better reception and it can simply be moved to wherever reception is best - eg the roof. As it uses a wifi connection to the laptop there is nothing to break and I feel, though have no proof, that the power load on the laptop is less. However you do need to recharge the wifi router every few days.
Ps using the wifi router means that we can use his and hers laptops/ereaders/tablets at the same time.
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That isn't my intention at all
I don't have any personal opinions I intend to introduce or gain support for. I'm actually offended that you think I might be doing this for some kind of personal advancement
I do, however want the forum to be taken seriously, and one of the ways of doing that is to be able to demonstrate that we are a large group
Richard
And, I'm sure much of the discussion in the Steamboat Association is of a technical nature
Apologies if my comments came across as doubting your integrity. That was not my intention at all - I have full confidence that you will act appropriately and believe that what you do at the NUF will be very helpful.. I would just like to be very clear as to the basis on which you are attending. As I see it now you are attending in a similar role to say that of a journalist from one of the canal mags. Is the meeting open to journalists? A justification for being there is that what you write will be seen by a large number of boaters and will assist CRT in its aim for openness and transparency. CWDF "representatives" do not attend on the same basis as those from the membership based organisations. CWDF membership number is equivalent to, say, Waterway World's circulation numbers rather than IWA or NABOs membership totals. From that point of view it makes more sense to use the total CWDF membership.
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I am very grateful that someone is willing to attend these meetings and provide a more insightful report on what happens than is available elsewhere. I am much less happy with this idea of talking at coffee breaks and trying to gain support for one's personal views by the "my organisation is bigger than yours" argument. If you want to use that argument then I suggest you only count the readers (or pehaps active contributers) of the "General Boating" forum. The fact that there are many people posting on the Maintenance forum asking why their dodgy Lister keeps on breaking down or swapping recipes on the Living Aboard forum IS surely irrelevant to the numbers.
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I think this is quite a useful exercise to get peoples opinions on what they think an active user is I know for example my Son comes on here now and again and tells me I am as usual spouting a lot of nonsense, i am not even sure what name he uses on here.
As far as the NUF is concerned it actually makes no difference as the NUF is not a policy making body or even a lobbying group. It is a way for CRT to update various groups on what they have been doing since the last NUF meeting. It is useful and some parts can be very interesting but it is not a debating shop, in other words there is no discussion Forum. If time allows people are allowed to ask questions for clarification on issues raised.
This is an open Forum with many different views that is why I like it so much so it would be impossible for anyone to represent CWDF we do not have a constitution that we sign up to before joining. We have a representative going to NUF as the Unaligned Boaters, I was going to go but will be with my Mother when the meeting takes place so the person going instead simply goes to the meetings and then reports back to all the various groups that are interested on what was said by CRT. This meeting will be of special interest as it will be the first one addressed by Richard Parry and we might get some idea of his vision of the future. As I have said before I think Richard Parry is the right person at the right time and I hope I am not wrong,
You are correct in that no one could represent the views of CWDF
You do not get a chance to forward your views at the NUF it is not a debate. What people do is report back and then if you have any issues you request a meeting with CRT to discuss these, as I have said it is an update of what CRT are up to and there vision for the future.
Thanks for your explanation. I feel reassured and look forward to the factual report on what CRT are saying.
Understanding James Brindley
in History & Heritage
Posted
One possible reason for the excessive winding of some of the early canals could be the bridges. I dont think I have ever seen a very early skew bridge. Some skew bridges are known as "Skew Bridge" indicating that they were unusual. So my theory is that the early canal builders deliberately routed their canals to cross existing roads at right angles because they did not have the technology to do anything else. Any thoughts?