bargemast

Not if he likes to be seen as the boss, which seems to be the case here. Peter. ps this was an answer to ditchcrawler.

When this chap comes out for his ranting, can he still walk properly, as houses like that normally cost an arm and a leg. But if he's such a pillock, he may have used someone elses arm and leg to pay for his place. If not he must be stinking rich, and thinks that he's the boss whenever-and wherever he wants. Peter.

Thanks a lot for that link Tim, they're all really beautiful photographs. I could have easily fallen in love with about any of these lovely hard working boat-loving girls. Peter.

The exact weight of a narrowboat, or any other boat and object is precisely twice 50% of the total weight, and that's with-or without Archie Medes on board. Petrer.

Just managed to find an old publicity video of the "Water Wanderer" (that ended up in France) from the days she still belonged to British Waterways. https://youtu.be/iIIBHAJDql0 Peter.

I think that the "Water Wanderer" you're talking about ended up in France sometime during the 70's, where she worked as an hotel-barge, last time I saw her was in the early 80's not looking well cared for tied up at the Port of Beaucaire in the South of France. Peter.

Hello Judith, I was just reading your posting again, and I'm ever so worried that you only bought this boat because she was cheap to buy, and you sy that you have a budget. What good is it to have a budget ? (unless it's unlimited) if you don't know much at all about boats, and you seem to be somewhere where they know about as much as yourself, talking about replating from the Inside, I've never heard anything as crazy to do on such a boat, and I can assure you that I've been around boats for a long long time, and been on (an to) many yards where I've never ever seen jobs like that been done. Do what ever you want to this boat, but my advise is not to invest any money at all on replating of the hull, try to find a piece of land where there's no risk of flooding and put the boat there as an accomodation for guests, as a summer house, shed or whatever, on some decent supports to be stable and safe, and look for a better boat to go cruising in. It's too bad that lots of people get into boats by buying a cheap one to do up, all fine if you can do all the work that's needed yourself, and that you enjoy doing that, but when you have to pay other people to do that work, the cheap boat will end up costing more than the boat you could have bought if you'd been prepared to pay the total amount the one you bought will end up costing, and that most likely will not really satisfy you anyway. Don't think that I'm only a moaning pessimist, I've seen too many people like you, dreaming for a while, until they finally realised what they were doing. But it's your boat and your money, and your life, so you're free to do as you wish, but don't say that nobody warned you. Good luck with making the right decision, Peter.

There was no concrete in the original position, there was only (healthy) steel. Peter.

That is a very good decision, I would have said exactly the same. Peter.

You have to be careful with these boats, and only get expensive replating done after having studied the possibilities of the use of this boat after all the work is done. To start with, they were built to transport manure and horticultural produce on the tiny ditches between the pieces of land where they were working, they weren't motorised to start with and were moved with a boom, as these ditches weren't deep. As you have noticed their sides are low, they were open boats, and the fairly light cargo went in the hold, and not on top of it. Now with a steel superstructure added, and that by the sound of it, you want to raise even more, to create a bit more headroom, a boat like this will become quickly top heavy, and won't be a safe and stable boat. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to scare you off, but only trying to make you realise that this may not be the ideal boat to pump your money in, and then find out that your not happy. As we all know, it's so much easier to get rid of your money, than get some coming in (or is that only my case ? ) Good luck anyway, Peter.

Your friend must have been not only a good welder David, but also a very good fairy tale teller, these rods were quite special, but not that special, at the time if I remember rightly, they cost a bit more than twice the price of the more sort of standard rods that were used at the yards. For the price he told you the rods will have to be a mixture of superglue and golddust Peter.

In my younger years I've owned several Dutch built working barges made of iron in the late 1800's and early 1900's, and I've been around many others too. In the 50's and 60's many of these old iron barges were lenghtened with a welded section in the middle, which was welded on both sides of the cuts to the old iron sections. They had to use special rods, but I've never seen or heard of any of these barges sinking- or breaking because of problems with the welds. The only week point of an iron barge is that the iron becomes more brittle in the winter, and instead of denting when they hit something too hard, the iron will crack. Normally these old barges are less likely to rust, one I owned that was built in 1897 still had her original bottom plating, she too had been lenghtened in the 60's with a steel 10meter section, she's still well afloat now near Venice. Peter.

I can't get used to all these modern abbreviations. Peter.

It's only because of the way bizzard often tells us about his trics, but I have discovered already a fairly long time ago that he really knows the subjects he's writing about, starting with his simple and most effective showerdrain strainer. If you read his advises and solutions about mechanical matters you'll see immediately that bizzard is a wizzard. Peter.

Great, thanks a lot for all this clear explaining of DIY cheese making bizzard, I'll keep it in the back of my head, and give it a try once my other projects are finished. Peter.

Just a short question bizzard, is it necessary for this old sock to be a clean one, or will any old sock (even a holy one) do ? Peter.

I sincerely hope that there were no other victims aswell that didn't get in touch with the justice, as it will be very difficult having to tell what happened to you when you were abused by this terrible bast..d. 8 years doesn't sound long for distroying some elderly single womans peace and quiet, they will suffer from sleepless nights and nightmares for the rest of their lives. Peter.

As usual Tim, many thanks for the posting of your beautiful photos, they make it easier on the fact that I couldn't go there myself, I still have a taste of the happening like this. Peter.

Well Athy, I knew that you are a well educated man, but never expected you to know so much about the Dutch Train- and Tram history. As a child we used to go from Amsterdam (were we were living) to visit the grandparents that were living in Enkhuizen, a very picturesque old fishing town on the IJsselmeer, formerly the Zuiderzee where my grandfather (mums dad) used to be a professional fisherman. We used to go there with this Steamtram: http://www.stoomtram.nl/en which is still occasionally running for the tourists. Peter.

That's pretty close to what these trains were called in Dutch "Boemeltrein". Peter.

If they run their genny for so many hours a day, their batteries are probably dead, it also most likely means that they're liveaboards. On such a small boat, it may not look pretty, but it surely will give them some extra covered space for some of their gear. For the rest, it's their boat, and they are free to have a pramcover if they wish to have one, if you don't want to see it, just look the other way. Peter. What a very sad sight ! Peter.

It would be far from the ideal barge to CC with. What to do for the surveys, as it has to go into a drydock, or be craned out on hard standing somewhere. If for every move you'll need a big crane and a pretty huge flatbed trailer, it will be a very costly business. I wouldn't accept it, if they offered it to me for free. Peter.

Their installation doesn't take up any valuable space Inside, as it's all fitted on a sort of turning platform at the stern, prop is always getting an easy arrival of water, being far behind the boat, and in case of fauling, easy to clear, but as you say they are lethal. Peter.

45° horizontally or 45° vertically will always be an angle of 45°, and is way too much as a permanent angle for the CV's of a prop shaft. Peter.

As long as it was done (on a regular base) either by you or a mechanic, as breaking down always happens in the worst situations. There is a lot to say for doing this kind of maintenance work yourself, the most important is that you know your engine better, as a bonus, you know that filters and oïl etc have been changed, and that the filters not just had a wipe with a clean rag. Peter.