richardf

I live very close to the Stroudwater - around 200m away (near The Ocean) I quoted recently about the damage at Dudbridge locks - the gates only lasted about 3 weeks before the site flooded and massive damage was caused to the lock infrastructure - it was quite clear to me that this was due to a really poor design of the culvert underneath the adjacent main road - with no screen cleaner, the culvert may have been able to take the flow (debatable), but without one, it was always going to block up. I appreciate that it was after heavy rain, but the Frome has been nowhere near as high as it has been over the last few years (it comes up my garden, so I am well placed to comment). The rainfall on the day of the damage was less than half of that bad day in 2007 when everything went under - I hear talk of a 1in a 100 year rain scenario, but this was nowhere near that. Lots of residents are against it as it costs them money in their council tax - its a large borough and many people who are simply not near enough to get the benefit. What benefit for instance does someone living in Wootton under Edge get from the canal? I think with Stroud District Council in charge, there is a very poor chance that the canal will be restored properly. A good example is the swing bridge at The Ocean - this project ran massively over time and (presumably budget) - SDC sat back and watched their contractors build the bridge at the wrong angle - meaning that any high sided vehicle would impact nearby property. The remedial works to this cock up took several months. In addition, they put the control mechanism on the non towpath side where there is no mooring (I know this is not unique, but it is inconvenient and they could have done it right). Probably worst of all, they allowed a mechanical/hydraulic system to open the bridge to be wrongly designed and constructed - to the point of being almost unusable. This was acknowledged and a better solution sought - but I understand that it has been recently signed off as being acceptable. Incredible!. I should also mention the tunnel under the adjacent railway - I have some experience of tunnelling under Network Rail assets and can only say that the red tape and the massive delays may well scupper the whole thing. Network Rail are not interested in the canal - if they even allow it to be rebuilt, they will probably insist on managing the whole project themselves and will use their own contractor - but to get to this point may well take years and you can only guess at the price. I think this project may be decades away, but sadly, I think that many parts of what have been done are simply not up to standard.

The river floods like this on a regular basis - it runs along the bottom of my garden, so I keep a good eye on it. It's not been as high in the last two weeks as it has over several occasions in the last 5 years - with of course the 2007 floods being the worst. The lock gates had only been installed about two weeks before - so this was the first time they had been tested. I think this is a tad more that 'teething issues' myself. Surely someone must have considered that the steel grid over the culvert would block up quickly and when it did, it would back up very quickly. A screen cleaner as used in many hydro schemes would have stopped this from happening

http://www.cotswoldcanals.com/pages/posts/storm-damage-at-dudbridge-611.php The link above explains the problem. Locally there are a few issues being discussed....... The overflow weir around the lock has been culverted through quite a small culvert of around 6 feet diameter, but the steel mesh panel that sits in front of it has not been fitted with a screen cleaner and hence when the flood occurred, the culvert blocked and the site flooded It does also look from the pics that the brickwork damage to the wall of the lock shows that it fact, very little new brickwork is evident, the old stuff just appears to have been skimmed over with a course or two of bricks. Is that normal?

I have been meaning to ask this for a while. On a leisure boat left unattended and unseated over the winter, do most people fully empty their main water tanks? I always do, but it's a bit of a pain and it drops my counter just into the water and the paint always suffers as a result.

I dropped mine into one of those sawn off french toilets once.................

It was true - some years ago, we were living on our boat at Bill's yard and went into his floating dry dock - access with a youngster of about 5 years of age was quite tricky via a ladder - but we thought it would only be for a few days. That was the case until Bill was rushed into hospital with heart problems - and there we stayed there for several weeks! I must admit I was very pleased to see him back on his feet as he was the only person on the planet who knew what valves to open and in what order! It did seem to go down slowly at first but with a sudden drop about ha;f way through - very scary to watch!

Looks identical to my 30A Numax - which has always been great

Blimey - did I miss the vote?

I once had a David Piper hull that had poured concrete bilges - carpet was simply laid on top. Unfortunately, there was a layer of polystyrene between the steel and the concrete (quite how and why they did that I never did find out) - but of course it had got damp over the years. New bottom required!

Not mine: however despite the paint job not being as good, the internals might be a whole lot better!

Isn't that a P4.?

I agree about the friendly welcome at The Bridge. We ran out of time on a trip up The Shroppie and not wanting to miss out on a trip to Audlem, grabbed a taxi in order to have a mooch around the village and mill. We popped into The Bridge for a pint and asked the landlord if he had a taxi number - but without hesitation, he offered to run us back in his car. I have always wanted to publicly applaud this - and I guess this is my chance!

I bought 3 photos at a flea market yesterday, they are clearly new reproductions from an old negative - but each of them was marked Droitwich. Can anybody shed any light upon them and confirm they are Droitwich - was surprised to see the masts still up on the barges!

I agree - 100%

LImekiln Chandlers at Stourport - I think they will rent out their wet dock

I have recommended this guy before - but Richard Milligan is a mechanic specialising in RNs. Top bloke, normally found on the S & W or Lower Shroppie - but sure he would travel to give you an expert opinion on the RN. It could be an expensive thing to get wrong. PM me for his number

When I visited them as a potential buyer, I was given a key and told to go and look around for myself. This was fine for me, but wouldn't suit everyone. When I went back to ask if we could have the engine started, I was told that this was possible if 'I was really serious' They started the engine and it was fine - I then asked if it was possible to arrange a test run and was told that this was only possible if I paid a deposit. Why would anyone place a deposit on a boat without having steered it? On that basis, we walked away and I decided that if we ever came to sell our boat, I would not go there!

Hope you are enjoying your new job. Great Haywood Marina is not the same without you!

To those who are considering attending - go for it, it's a great two days. For me, it taught me that I would never be brave enough to do my own!

I live close to Dursley and yesterday, whilst shopping in Sainsburys, saw a poster advertising a talk on the huge fire that engulfed a lot of the plant back in 1983 I looked it up this morning and found this information http://www.dursleyglos.org.uk/downloads/miscellaneous/gloucestershire_fires_1983.pdf Does anyone remember it?