BigRoj

You'll have to elaborate on that one Daniel. The two steel windlass' I have are welded up commercial things, ie bit of bent rod welded to a bit of box section, whereas the ally windlass is a casting, epoxy coated and nice to use as its smooth, light and warms up quicker in the hands when its cold. Most sober people with proper tuition and instruction from the boat skipper shouldn't have any trouble with lock paddle winding.

Thanks John. Had a look on here, www.jim-shead.com/waterways/Listboats-RA.htm , but without knowing whom the builder was its a bit difficult.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, here are a couple of pics of a working boat, Seagull, returning light after unloading at Colwick. An interesting thing told to me by one of the lock-keepers on the Trent, Seagull used to be petrol carrier from Immingham to Colwick back in the days when the Trent was full of commercial craft.

Thanks Liam, I shall be interested to know whether this boat exists as the person who told me ought to have the surname Mitty, given name Walter!!!

Some of the "slowdownyou'regoingtoofast" lot should take a trip upstream from Gunthorpe lock on a saturday/sunday afternoon at their preferred speed. They would soon find out what backwash/breaking wash is from the Wakeboard and waterski boats that operate from the Unicorn slipway. We arced through 60 degrees last sunday as we cruised along there when the speedboats came past, but its great fun watching them close up, the boats are awesome. And they are allowed to do it. There are a number of places on the Trent that allow waterskiing, and it can be very entertaining one way or another cruising through these stretches of the river. Don't suppose there are many places on the canals where water skiing is allowed!!

A colleague at w**k was telling me today about a Narrowboat that he and his workmates at Boots bought and fitted out for a charity. Apparently, they had a charity day every year and on this particular occasion they bought a new shell (with the companys' blessing) and fitted it out in their spare time (also with the companys' blessing). I'm told it had a wheelchair lift and was generally kitted out to assist disabled people. This colleague was a bit vague about the length, he said "about 40ft" which sounds too short to me for a boat with that use, and it was called "Rainbow" and had the Boots logo on the side. I have to say that the person who told me is not always completely accurate with his facts (interpret this as you will!). Does anyone know the whereabouts of this boat (if it exists) and if it is still used as a respite care vessel?

I have an aluminium windlass that I've used extensively for 4 years now, and it shows no sign of wear or corrosion even though it's fallen in a few times, once in 8ft of water. But with a 10ft pole with a home made stainless boathook it has been retreived. Of course, the thing to do with these ally winders is put a jubilee clip or a couple of self tappers in it so you can fish it out with a magnet-simple!!

We had a long weekend out on the boat, went to Newark with a stopover along the way. However, it all very nearly ended in Holme lock at the very start. I have never seen such appalling behaviour from boaters before. We were first into the lock at the front, and as such, I assumed, would be first out. After all, we were waiting the best part of 50 minutes! All in all, there were 7 boats in the lock, 2 nbs and 5 cruisers. When the gates opened, I gathered the ropes in, put it in gear and set off, only to be beaten by the 2 nbs and a cruiser! One of the nbs, WEE BLUIT, opened his throttle fully, and never let off until the next lock, the bow was almost out the water. Everything else shot off too, overtaking each other, forcing others, me included, to take avoiding action. Very unsafe, very bad behaviour. And for what? to wait at the next lock for the last boat of that penning to catch up. So I made the buggers wait! It was the attitude that got me though, the " I must get there before you so I get a mooring and sod you" attitude. Those of you who were around Gunthorpe this weekend will know what it was like, three deep saturday night I'm told, must have been dreadful! It was very quiet at Newark, there was even room on the floating visitors pontoon, but why o why are there no facilities at Newark anymore, not even a toilet. The journey back was delightful if a little windy. All in all, it's been a very good weekend for cruising.

And the big bonus this time Malc was that you didn't add the contents of your stomach to the sea!!! Glad you had a good trip, sounded almost perfect!

Posing Malc? Never!! That pic brings to mind the post on the forum about cruiser stern safety and Taff seats, a sort of 'before' pic, as in ' just before Malc fell in, he was posing for me on the stern '.

Nice one Malc, I suspect the wind didn't help the steering much either. Plus you can't zigzag so much on the T&M/Coventry as you can on the Witham, eh?

Fair comment, thanks Carl. I do not aim to upset, contradict or annoy anyone, just present an alternative view seen from a different angle.

Quite possibly, but as that was the first thing I did, download the B2B-2007 pdf, then found it relates to the 50amp upwards chargers, I decided to contact them instead!

You, sir, are lucky. You don't appear to live in an area with any sort of anti-social behaviour problems from any form of the human race. Some of us are in contact with it every day through no fault of our own. When you have to put up with it day in, day out, your general view of a certain sort of people can become seriously disjointed. Don't blame Redfastlad for voicing what a large majority think but don't say. The problem, as always, must lie with the governing body within this country not taking a firmer hand with, well, almost everything, from law and penalisation to immigration and human rights. I am not defending racism or bullying, I detest both with a vengeance. I also realise that when you are on outside looking in at a problem and are not affected by it, you see things differently from others who are affected.

Some people have absolutely no sense of adventure!!!! Seriously though, whilst what Sterling are saying may be correct, when you tested the replacement and that was normal (wasn't it?) it proved there was a fault. Sterling are not the most communicative of companies. I aquired a 1220 charger and needed a manual for it. Asked them if I could purchase or download one, not heard a thing!

Nice one!!

I have passed a number of these people, mentioned above by RedFastLad, and I do not feel at all safe near them. There were about a dozen boats of very dubious origin occupied by semi permanent foreign visitors on the Beeston canal near Lenton Industrial estate a couple of months ago. Non had valid licences. They are now in Nottingham near Castle Boulevard. And the canal bank near them has turned into a rubbish dump. And before anyone jumps about spouting, the police have issued a warning to businesses around Lenton to be aware of "Gypsies" in the area. So they know there's a problem with them Some of these 'foreign' visitors have also been helping themselves to the local swan population too. Swans aren't protected in eastern Europe, so unlike in this country where we shovel bread into swans, over there they shovel swans into bread! Lets hope they don't realise there are turtles in the canal as well.

Yesterday I removed the two engines that came on my boat and put a 30hp on it I had on my previous boat. It all went remarkably well, two off, one on, connect up, check everything, then check it again and slip it. Engine fired up first turn, and that should have told me something 'cos it's never done that before. So, with tell-tale squirting nicely, I set off back to the marina. It was when I was in Meadow Lane lock that I noticed an awful lot of steam coming from the back of the boat. The tell-tale was chucking boiling water out, but the overheat light remained off. I decided to carry on back to Colwick, albeit slowly, and kept an eye on the tell-tale. It was erratic, very temperamental. So today I had a good look to see what the problem was. I had perceived it to be either the thermostat or the impeller, as the engine had been dry for 6 weeks. Both these were fine. What I think has happened is this: Colwick marina has a bit of a rep for mussels growing everywhere. You have to scrape your hull every year, to get them off. In the past I have had to clear them from out of the water strainer, as they get in as embryos or whatever the equivalent is, latch on to the water gallerys and feed on the muck going through the engine. There must have been quite a few in the inlet when the engine was taken off my old boat for storage. As it was out of the water the mussels died and released their hold on the gallerys. So when it was struck up for the first time, not only was water going through the engine but mussel shells as well, which eventually clumped and blocked the cooling circuit. So, do you just put your engine in the water only when using it, leaving it tilted the rest of the time, or leave it in the water all the time. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Does anyone know the life cycle of the river mussel, and how to discourage it from squatting in your engine cooling system?

Absolutely Fantastic Thread...............a definitive cure for insomnia!!!! Mind you, Hollywood could make a mini-series out of it.

Oh dear!! Just took someones (can't remember who, sorry, I'm too shocked) advice and Googled my username. Apart from a few websites I'd forgotten about, it appears I'm also a member of some well dodgy swingers sites which unfortunately are in this area. It ISNT me, honest, I'm not called BigRoj because of THAT, it comes from schooldays many moons ago when I was the biggest in the class!!

To put WW into perspective, have a look at MBM and all the new 'Tupperware Tarts' in that, it will make WW look positively brilliant!! I used to take MBM regularly, but the condescending attitude of the editorial staff got on my wick, whizzing about in brand new £400k boats and saying they were worth every penny just smacked of crawling to the makers. Nah, I like WW, at the moment anyway!