richardf

The Ocean - back of the Stonehouse Court Hotel

I'm not in a strong position when it comes to talking about former butties though

Aren't there 2 'working' boats named Lynx on the system?

If you go to Sankey Marine, have a look at the position of where the bar is - and then image the water rising until it is half way up the bar. That is a very scary prospect indeed; also have a look here - http://www.andrewdyke.co.uk/evesham_in_flood_july_2007.htm

I live very close to the Stroudwater and have to cross a swing bridge every day - this has been closed for rebuilding for many months. Initially it was supposed to be closed for 14 weeks, but we are approaching double that. The Local Authority who are in charge of the project seem to have no real idea of what is going on - and indeed the new bridge has been incorrectly aligned and will cause problems for traffic. The rumour is that all the works are running late and may not be ready for the festival weekend. For a project that has serious impact on the council tax payers of the borough - as an attempt to win 'hearts and minds', it has gone seriously wrong in my opinion.

From what I understand (and I am happy to be proved wrong), the reality of a wooden bottom being removed is that the boat has to have a lot of the interior stripped as it is the bottom that ultimately supports it - so not a job to be undertaken lightly

Thanks - that's really interesting. All that trouble they had knocking the bridge down, just makes me wonder how they built it in the first place!

How about this one www.tugswallow.co.uk Its a beautiful tug moored on the G & S

Yes - the fuel pump is self lubricating with fuel oil. It is the governor end which came as a surprise to me and is currently confusing me! As you can see from my pics, there is a point on the pump where you can imagine the dipstick would be on the pump itself ©, but just below this is a tapping - mine has a fitting screwed into this and a small bore copper pipe attached - I have a horrible feeling this might just drip into the engine tray! As a matter of interest, what engine do you have? Would be interested in what others use the BPE pump (although mine is a 4 cylinder and hence will be more of a rarity in a canal boat)

I always thought my fuel pump was self sufficient in terms of lubrication - in the absence of a dipstick, the overflow fuel simply overflows from point C on the images. I have recently found out that the governor (the big lump on the RHS) should receive attention every 300 hours, an oil change with 5/8th of as pint of engine oil. The manual is full of warnings about overfilling, but is devoid of details of where exactly it is filled through and drained from! With that in mind, I undid the plug ( that seemed most logical and - shock horror - nothing came out. So either it is empty or it is the wrong drain! My understanding is to fill through the big brass plug (A) and drain through ( Does anyone have one of these pumps and can assist please Thanks

Namaste in Stourport - right by the moorings in the top basin - awesome

It's a long haul in a day to be honest and there is nowhere to moor between the Severn and Droitwich - you generally won't get near the bank. Once on the Severn moorings are also pretty much non existent - what pub moorings there are have moorings that are not at ideal narrowboat height. Avoid the moorings at Holt Fleet - there is a really horrible pub with a traveller camp behind, moor there overnight at your peril. What we did was to turn left at the river and drop through the lock, there is a good pub there with adequate moorings, it is also acceptable and sanctioned by the lock keeper to moor overnight on the tail of the lock landing - it is a couple of hundred of feet long. I think it would be polite to move off early the next day though. Normally I would not say moor at a lock, but this one is equipped for it.

Its a scabbler

Last year a bought a cheapish 30A Numax charger - it has performed well just connected to my leisure batteries (2), but there looks to be a spare connection and it has been suggested (in the absence of instructions!) that this can be connected to the starter battery. I only have a vague understanding of chargers, but I was under the impression that the charging current varied with relation to the state of the batteries. So if I have one set nicely charged and (say) the starter battery needing charge badly, how does the charger compensate for this - is there no way it can overcharge the other bank?

My bit should probably be called Marsellus!

Brilliant - thanks

You can get pumps that fit onto an electric drill - so that and a cordless drill would work

I had a couple of gaskets made by link he is very much a 'Fred in the Shed' character but produced a good gasket from the original I sent him

I am in touch with one of them and I've forwarded your offer

In my opinion there is only one way to fix windows back in - and I know that John Sanderson does it this way. The problem of leaking windows is often caused by the screw that holds them in being a clearance fit through the steelwork and then fixing to the wooden frames behind. In time the wood shrinks and the screws become loose (or not quite as tight as they were). The solution is to run a tap through the steel cabin and then attach the windows using stainless machine screws - they look much neater and will stay as tight as the day they were fitted. It's a bit long winded, but worth it.

Awesome video. We spent a few days with the crew from Spey at the Droitwich reopening. They have recently renewed pretty much the whole front half of the boat and are training their children (aka The Tar Babies!) how to repair wooden boats. A great bunch of people.