Tim Lewis
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Posts posted by Tim Lewis
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On 03/07/2023 at 19:27, Victor Vectis said:
Yes.
And I'm so old I went to a university.
Tell that to Network Rail!
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On 18/12/2022 at 10:16, magnetman said:
Oh dear!
Looks like one of the old Uxbridge hire boats. Tiny little thing with an outboard motor. Worth about £5k.
Currently up for sale at £10k
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4 hours ago, Drizzt said:
Hi All,
My wife and i have been taking narrow boat holidays for a few years now and are very keen on the idea of getting a small 30-40 foot narrow boat for a month or two cruising at a time. We would probably spend 6 months on the boat cruising.
We have been on the T&M and the Bridgewater canals & would love to have a marina mooring that gives us a fair few miles of simple cruising either lock free or limited number of locks.
This is mainly from a health/physical point of view rather than anything. We dont do huge miles when we cruise probably limit our cruising to around 4 hours max a day.
As our experience of the whole network is limited, i would be very grateful if others have some views on sections that we may find suitable.
I have looked at the Lanky & its very appealing (although a bit of a travel for us) but welcome others views and advice.
Many thanks.
Willowtree Marina or Highline on the Paddington Arm, best part of 30 mikes lock free cruising 😀 -
12 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:
Ive emailed them as I would like to get to Birmingham but received a holding message.
The press release has gone into many boating mags, so at least somethings happened to drum up interest. I presume/hope given that it appears to be a coalition the rules over funding will have been straightened out in advance. Im a bit reassured that the former IWA CEO has written a letter in Waterways world about the reason for them leaving (Not enough hours in the day) . Perhaps the slumbering giant will awaken. Time to rejoin I think.
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- Popular Post
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2 hours ago, BoatinglifeupNorth said:Have you massively benefited being a member of these organisations compared to someone who’s not? Any discounts on moorings, Cart License, Insurance, BSS discounts. Just interested in what real world advantages they give.
If you are joining a campaigning charity for what you can get out of it you are joining for the wrong reasons.
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On 17/03/2023 at 20:24, Tim Lewis said:
Its replacement is being craned in this week 😀
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A good weekend to be out on the Tideway 😀
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There are 34 Narrowboat heading upstream though town soon, will be passing Tower bridge at about 2.15
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There are 34 Narrowboat heading upstream though town soon, will be passing Tower bridge at about 2.15
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39 minutes ago, rusty69 said:
To Finish this subject off and impart my new found wisdom onto any other poor fool who decides to save a few quid and go down the DIY epoxy route and who may aimlessly happen upon this thread.
DON'T DO IT.
Take Alan's advice, the very first reply. Pay a man that can.
If you really want to paint 2 pack epoxy on the hull yourself, then by far the best option would be to pay someone to grit blast it first.
Lessons learnt:
1. Bitumen is a bitch to fully remove with the tools we had at our disposal; particularly if your hull has some pitting. The tools we used included a high power hydro blaster, scrapers, wire cup brushes, flap discs, poly discs, and flat wire brushes. We probably consumed 20 scraper blades,12 wire cup brushes,12 flap discs, 4 flat wire brushes, one poly disc and 22 litres of epoxy, 8 paint brushes and 18 rollers. Various paint buckets/trays, some thinners and quite a few electrons.
2. If doing it again, which I won't, then my tool of choice would be a tercoo rotary blaster.
3. A more sensible approach would have been to 2 pack the part from just above the waterline to the base plate where the bitumen had less layers and was easier to remove, and leave the part above.Or to just reapply bitumen.Same with the uxter plate, where years of bitumen had built up.
4. We booked two weeks out in an uncovered yard, which was about right. With the various problems, and dodging the odd rain shower, less than 2 weeks would not have been achievable.
5. A covered area would have been much better. A covered heated area, the thing of dreams.Do not paint outside unless you can predict the weather. The forecast is usually not to be trusted. On our first coat there was a 5% chance of rain forecast, which turned into a huge thunderstorm that lasted an hour as soon as we had finished painting.
6. Temperature wise, we had a good week for epoxy curing, with daytime temperatures exceeding 22 degrees and nightimes in the low teens. The choice of winter grade hardener was a good one. Although the pot life is short, which results in a number of batches per coat being required, the subsequent time to reach fully cured is shortened.
If we had selected standard grade hardener, I would have preferred an extra week.
7. If at all possible, try to vary the colour of the two pack on each coat. It makes it much, much easier to see the bits you have missed. We bought some red tint to add to the Aluminium epoxy, though tinted epoxy is also available.
8. If you can get some extra hands in to help with the prep, things will go much quicker. Ours is a 70ft boat, and with the exception of the hydro blaster and some pit welding, the prep was undertaken solely by me and Mrs R.
9. Our hull is 40 years old, and many people commented that it was in great condition for its age, so we had obviously been doing something right with the tried and tested methods all these years.
10. It is very tempting to buy all the epoxy up front and have it delivered. There is a risk in doing so that you don't make it to your destination due to a lock failure or mechanical breakdown. One of the tins we had delivered was split, and the contents leaked.
Whether 2 pack was worth the cost and effort, only time will tell.
Thankyou to everyone who has contributed to this thread, and a huge thankyou to mr @blackrose who has offered us an immense amount of support behind the scenes.
Good luck to all you DIY epoxiers out there.Aylesbury Canal Society has a covers heated (And ventilated) dock at Circus Fields Marina!
Slipway (Dry dock) – Aylesbury Canal Society
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On 19/06/2023 at 08:57, BEngo said:
Depends on the relative levels of Minworth sewage and Braunston summit. Minworth is about 13 locks up from Fazeley so probably higher than the top of Atherstone. If so a pipeline might not need pumping from Minworth to Hawkesbury, depending on size, desired flow rates and head losses etc.
N
A quick look on nils maps shows that Atherstone top lock is on the 300ft contour, the canal at Minworth is also at 300ft with the sewage works slightly lower
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On 17/06/2023 at 21:25, Tony1 said:
Thanks a lot, its very kind of you to give an update, and I'm really sorry to hear about the snags- and I must say I've run into some snags myself.
I'm booked into have a high pressure wash on 15th July, followed by the 2 pack treatment.
But I was in an area with much clearer water recently, and I could see significant patches of visible rust below the waterline.
The boat is about 7 years old so I'm hoping the rust isn't too deep, but with just 4 weeks to go, I'm now in a bit of a jam.
I'm reluctant to cancel my slot, as I don't know if I'll find another (at a decent place) before the cooler weather arrives.
On the other hand, I dont want them to just slap 2 pack on over a rusting surface.
All I can think of the moment is to wait until the pressure wash is done, and then to spend the rest of that day going over the whole hull (below the waterline) with a grinder (and a flap disc), in the hope of removing as much surface rust as possible before they start the primer etc.
I wish now that I'd booked a 2 week haul out and had thus allowed plenty of time to remove any rust from the hull, but now I'm going to be really up against it, with at most 8-10 hours after the pressure wash to do whatever I can in terms of preparing the surface.
I feel like this should really have been a grit blast treatment to do it properly, but their tight 1-week schedule will not allow for any third parties to turn up and spend 2 days blasting. So I'm going to have to revisit the whole thing in another 2 years, instead of maybe 5 years as I was hoping.
Have just spent the weekend helping a friend with her blacking. My job on the first day was to remove the surface rust etc using a 4" angle grinder with a twisted wire cup brush. The boat is 45! (I think) and it took me about three hours per side, we then applied Jenolite rust remover where necessary. A second person with another grinder will obviously be a lot quicker.
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2 hours ago, MtB said:
£1.75m!
Peterborough property is normally a cheap as chips. Never quite understood why.
this house is not in Peterborough -
Somerton Deep lock cottage, includes a boat!
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On 25/04/2023 at 09:28, cheshire~rose said:
Not a boat for sale but a booklet that might interest some historic vessel owners, especially those whose boat was once one of the fleet of British Waterways Hire Boats with "Water" something as their name.
I have been after the corresponding booklet from the same year which covered the similar display of pleasure craft in Birmingham which featured Water Viper in its advertising for their new fleet of hire boats. Water Viper was Delhi. When this came through as a saved search from eBay I contacted the seller to ask if by any chance Water Viper was in it and he said not but there is a LOT of mention of various other "Water" named boats.
If you have one and have any reason to believe it might have been in this exhibition it might be worth a message to the seller to ask if it is included in the book?
Report in June 1960 edition of the BWB magazine ‘waterways’.
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11 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:
Fancy not having "Black Safari" on that list...
1972 classic.
Oops! Must read thread before posting, but at least I linked the film!
Having now wasted an hour of my life watching it I would not call it a classic, it was a joke that could have been done in 5 minutes!
The BBC must have had a L & L fix in 1972, a much better one from Ian Nairn:
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37 minutes ago, granary_bread said:
Having just watched "Painted Boats", I came to the forum to see if there were any other 'vintage' docu's etc, so than you for this
I have listed a few here:
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On 26/05/2023 at 23:16, ditchcrawler said:
I suppose they could always just close the road and leave the canal open while they do most of the work
Today’s stoppage had done both as the bridge failed half open/closed! -
By coincidence this had recently been published:
https://wendovercanal.org.uk/wendover-tring-festivals/
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Pleasant evening in Limehouse Nadin
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I don’t think that I have been to a canal event in the last few years that Richard Parry hadn’t attended!
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The EA have nothing to do with Thames Tideway licensing, the Port of London control navigation but as far as I am aware there is no requirement for a license
Quickly nipping to the shops for a pint of milk isn’t an option for whoever buys this Oxfordshire home.
in General Boating
Posted
Posted a month ago under the 'Another Canal Side Property For Sale' Thread