NBDensie

Disagree - IMHO the NBW reporting on BW finances is highly biased and is written by someone who apparently has no understanding of basic company accounting, or if he does understand it is more interested in Express type headlines than in providing accurate information to the boating community. It's very sad, knowledge and understanding means power, NBW will be just laughed at by the people who will decide the future of the waterways.

I think Burton is surprisingly attractive and clean by canal - certainly much less grotty than by road. However I would go to Nottingham and then up the Trent to Newark. The journey to Trent Lock is quite scenic and interesting. Nottingham is worth a visit, there are plenty of moorings. And then the journey down the Trent provides yet more variety. Newark is an attractive destination. If you have time the Erewash is worth a visit, though the first half is through the industrial outskirts of Nottingham.

In my view the objective of a news organ should be to provide accurate news and informed comment. However some seem to regard maximising readership and promulgating an agenda as far more important. Fair enough as long as people dont actually believe what they say. I think I see where Allan gets his 38% as the boarter contribution - he appears to take total boater income and divide it by the money spent on maintenance. Unfortunately that omits a lot of expenditure: HQ and Centralised Services (£33M in 2009-2010)- I believe this will include activities such as payroll managment, HR, Public Relations (eg press releases), Legal, finance, contract management (increasingly important as more work is outsourced), purchasing, IT, reception/telephone, senior management and I am sure people with experience of large organisations will think of others. These sort of thing unfortunately are essential and must be paid for. Although there are undoubtedly savings that could be made there is the problem that each is a specialised activity often requiring reasonably well paid professionals and so is a lot more difficult to cut than waterways maintenance. Property and leisure income support (£18M in 2009/2010) - Collecting leases, rents, licence fees, mooring fees, chasing up on non-payers. Again something that presumably could be made more efficient but is essential. BWML costs (£6M in 2009/2010) - Again essential to get the income. BWs expenditure on waterways maintenance was about £100M in 2009/2010. If Allan's analysis is correct and BW are losing £10M in government grants and £20M in property income it seems to me remarkable that the planned drop in waterways maintenance is only £10M.

I think this type of reporting is more Daily Express than Daily Mail. BWs figure of gross income from property of 45M from property dates from the 2008/2009 accounts. The figure for 2009/2010 was £33M, the difference between 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 being apparently due to a special one-off event in 2008. It would be interesting to know why they expect a drop to £14M for 2010/2011. As to boaters contribution rising to 38% I would suggest that this gives some indication of the loss of funding we might be expecting. Put it this way: in 2009/2010 the total income was £187M of which boaters paid about £34M - 18%. (Note that this comprises gross income from licences,moorings,BWML and retail sales. For a full analysis you would need to take off the costs of these). Now if you are projecting a rise in boaters % to 38% that would suggest a drop in total income to about £88M, unless of course there is a major increase in the charges on boaters. So Allan's figures (if they and his analysis of them are correct) suggest, not a triumph for boaters, but a complete disaster for the waterways. What a pity this is being seen as a stick to beat up BW rather than a campaigning focus to ensure the waterways are properly funded.

Thanks - how do you get the old bits out? Mike

I am a member of the IWA and regularly attend its meetings. Reasons: 1) It is the only national organisation accepted by and able to talk authoritatively to government and the non-governmental organisations who will become increasingly important to the waterways as the canals join the "third sector". 2) It provides a route for boaters to become part of the solution rather than act as a permanent opposition. 3) It is the only organisation with the resources and infrastructure to operate nationally and organise major national canal events. 4) The talks at the monthly meetings can be interesting. 5) A national organisation for boaters is needed. The IWA exists - creating something else from scratch would be immensely difficult and divisive.

The solid metal vertical bars in the front corners down which the front grill slides (if you see what I mean) are both cracked. Recently one has broken in half. Any ideas why? Does it matter? There is still sufficient to hold the front grill. Thanks Mike

We moor at Kings Bromley and had our boat blacked at Shobnall last year. They did a good job BUT they didnt have any room to moor the boat after blacking for more than a day or two. The problem was that Comastic appears to take several days to harden properly and we therefore had some bad rubs going through the 13? locks between Shobnall and Kings Bromley. For that reason we may consider Great Haywood next time - only 2 locks.

(20/60) * (100/88) * (180/12) = 5.68 amp. So if it was running for 24 hours the drain would be 5.68*24=136 amp-hr

My Vetus water lubricated stern gear needs occasional greasing with silicone grease. This seems rather hard to get hold of (other than as a spray which is of no use here). The nearest I have found is "Silicone Lubricant" made by Marley for use with 'O' rings in drains. Is this OK or is something apparently more appropriate available - if so where? I have tried mailing Vetus but with no response, so hopefully someone here knows - thanks for any info.

As a very happy NBC/Aqualine owner.... The New Boat Company used to sell their own labelled boats based on Liverpool shells which do not seem to have a very good reputation and appeared to me to be pretty basic. For the past 3 years or so they have only sold Aqualine boats built in Poland (and are the only company to do so) - I believe they partly own the company. The Aqualine quality, particularly of the fit-out, is very high. In terms of a car - perhaps a VW. Mass produced, not quite at the Merc/BMW level, but better than Vauxhall/Ford and in a totally different league to a Kia. I would suggest that one useful indication of quality is second hand prices of 1-5 year old boats. The boats from the better manufacturers, including Aqualine, would appear to have asking prices for much the same amount of money as their original cost. Others can drop considerably.

Thanks for all the replies - most helpful. Further info from talking to my local boatyard.... My boat has a PRM120 mechanical gearbox, which clunks when put into gear, and Vetus water lubricated stern gear, which doesnt provide the support you get with traditional stern gear. Both these can lead to vibration of the prop shft - nuts coming loose in these circumstances is a well known problem. I will try with thread lock and new nyloc nuts and see what happens. If this doesnt work something rather more expensive will be called for. The coupling is solid stainless steel and there is no obvious lateral movement with the bolts, so fortunately some of the direr warnings do not seem to apply in my case.

We did both the main canal and the Leek Branch a couple of weeks ago in our nb which has a similar draft to yours - no problems at all and a glorious trip once you get out of Stoke. Incidentally you now need an antivandal key for planet lock (lock 3).

The nuts/bolts on the coupling joining my nb's propshaft to the gear box shaft keep on coming loose. I can tighten them all securely one day and they are loose again 2 days later. Running with loose nuts/bolts doesnt seem to do any harm - they must have been loose for a year or two before the problem was noticed. Any suggestions on a cause or a cure greatfully received. Thanks.

I would be grateful for any advice people have on this... We have solid ash floors. When the boat was new, the floors were varnished. Over the years this has worn, though it still looks good. Should we revarnish, which seems a somewhat arduous and messy job or would a simple wax polish work well enough? Thanks.

The technique I use is to line the boat up well outside the lock. So when approaching the lock at an angle, if possible from the left, aim for a spot well outside the lock and when the bow is some way past the centre point do a fairly left sharp turn. I guess it doesnt sound that convincing but it works on the whole for me! What never works is to try to go in at an angle, then you will hit one side, bounce off and hit the other.

Thanks for the response Thanks - will try I would have thought if nothing is connected to your batteries they should remain fully charged for several weeks. We turn the Victron off when we are not on board and run any winter heating directly from the landline, NOT via the inverter.

As our batteries were a bit low after 4 months non-use I connected the boat up to the marina power supply. As soon as I turned the inverter on the red error light flashed and the pontoon power supply tripped. I repeated this several times. I guess it could just be condensation but I didnt see any obvious damp when I removed the inverter front panel. The inverter works fine when driven from the batteries. I know the marina power supply is fine as we run a small heater directly from it. Any suggestions on what to do next? Many thanks.

Sorry dont remember. It must have been affected by cold weather within 500 hours and spent most of its time in non-display mode within 1000. Havent had any rev counter problems - its 1500 hours since new.

We always use the cheapest "basics" supermarket 2-ply. Havent had any blockages during our 3 years X 5 months/year boating.

I get reasonable results using a TMobile dongle on the end of a 1m USB cable. The dongle can be hooked over the curtain rail. Note that as USB is digital you wont get the sort of problems mentioned above with a long aerial cable. My experience from many places all over the system is that the connectivity for wireless broadband is rather better than that for the standard Orange mobile phone network. It is patchy though - I have been in the wilds of nowhere and got a fast connection and in the middle of Nottingham with nothing.

I have what seems to be a common problem with Isuzus. The electronic hour counter only displays when the weather is exceptionally warm and dry - about 5 days last year. At all other times the back light is on but there are no visible numbers. The problem has steadily got worse over time. A boat yard has offered to replace it with a mechanical display, but it wont readily fit on the control panel - its not plug-compatible. Does anyone have a solution? I could simply get the display replaced with a new one but I dont know whether this would provide a long term fix. Does the problem still occur with new engines/displays? I have tried getting info from HMI (the UK agents) but without success. Thnx. Mike

For the past 3 years we have used the cheap "basics" 2-ply supermarket paper. No problems at all. Its certainly not worth getting the very expensive thetford paper assuming you can find any. If you have any doubts put a sheet into a bowl of water - if it falls to pieces it should be fine.

We are planning to visit Newark for a short break later this month. I have read somewhere that navigation lights are required on the Trent, though cant find anything on waterscape. Are they required? If so, as Densie is not so equipped, is it possible to get magnetic battery-operated ones? Thanks

We met the same match - according to one of the anglers with whom we had a quick chat, there were 480 (!!) in the competition. It was like being royalty as each rod was raised and lowered as we passed. None of the anglers was belligerent, and many responded in a friendly way to our "hellos" and "good afternoons".