MoominPapa

Try the River Nene. Dozens of turns to get the gate paddles up and down. If you want to close a guillotine that's emptying a lock, best of luck. Hint: the emergency stop button on the control panel is not the one you want. DAMHIK. MP

Which is why the tabs CRT fit to lock gear to stop the pawl being flipped over into a stable disengaged position annoy me so much. They're safety sops to users who can't be bothered to ensure the pawl is down before winding the paddle up, but cause a much bigger but less obvious safety problem when someone needs two hands to wind a paddle down NOW against water pressure to save a boat. MP.

Could a mitigation for tiller injuries be as simple is reducing the arc through which the tiller can swing? In almost all NB designs the rudder can swing until the lifting eye on the top rear of the rudder hits the side of the counter, and that's close to 90 degrees. It's actually a far wider swing than is useful for steering: the maximum sideways force is generated when the the rudder is about 45 degrees (or maybe a bit more) from straight ahead. Moving the rudder further than that is pointless or even self defeating. If stops could added to the rudder mechanism, maybe in the top bearing, to control the rudder movement over a controlled arc rather that the arc that just happens to be allowed by the geometry of the rudder/lifting-eye/counter then it could be engineered to be less likely to toss a steerer over the side whilst still allowing enough movement for efficient steering. MP.

Fradley locks have a strong forward push. MP.

On narrow canals my main use of ladders is to re-board the boat after opening the bottom gates. Going down at least gives the opportunity to look at the security of the bolts holding the handrail in place before use. MP.

I've never got into the habit of throwing the windlass up before climbing the ladder because I worry that one day a miss-throw or bounce off something on the side will result in the windlass descending again and ending up in the lock, or, much worse, landing on my face/head. MP.

Low level military aviation isn't much of an issue in Ireland, what with the country not having much of any air force. It just needs to keep the Ryanair 737s safe. MP.

Unless you're very close to the turbine the lights are going to be pretty close to the horizon anyway. (or at least to skyline, if the observer is in a valley and the turbines are up high. Is that still the horizon, or does the horizon have to be horizontal?) Interesting how you'd do the radar detection thing in a failsafe manner. MP.

Are marker lights enough to cause significant problems? Our place in Ireland is halfway up a hill that has six turbines along the ridge at its summit and at least a couple of them have red aircraft anti-collision markers. It's still very, very, dark on a moonless night. MP.

A great challenge was enjoyed by all on Melaleuca and, at least for the Moomins, it continued on the way home. I left Melaleuca in the bridge-ole at the tail of lock 8 on the 21 to go back and close the gates and, as is my habit, I took the stern rope ashore and left it on the towpath., just in case the boat should drift a bit. I was delayed avoiding a chap on an electric bike coming through the bridge and by the time I'd closed the gates and got back to the bridge-ole, the boat had drifted off into the pound and I was just in time to see the end of the stern rope disappear into the water. Bad words may have been uttered at this point. The boat drifted to the middle of the pound and then the wind blew it gently onto the mud on the offside, in full view of the bin-lorry drivers queuing to drop loads at the waste incinerator. We tried running water through, but anything we did made a wave that just lifted the boat further onto the mud. The pound was on weir already so no way to increase the level. In the end there was nothing to do but get in. I have to say that the good folks of Wolverhampton were total unfazed by me wandering around on their towpath wearing boots and undercrackers only. No noticeable reactions at all. I grabbed the bow rope and tried pulling, but I couldn't get any purchase at all standing in 3ft of mud, so I had to go to the stern and climb up the skeg/swansneck/button to get back on board. Then it was easy to reverse off and take her into the next lock. Apart from that, it was a straightforward run: I'd say that the Wolverhampton 21 was by far the best lock flight on the trip. It's in a much better state than Famers Bridge or Aston. All the paddles work easily and none of the back gates leak. Diesel at Turners in Wheaton Aston is 83.9 pence per litre. MP.

Hello Aston, my old friend

Our Titford fruit-of-the-prop heavily featured leopard print fabric and zips, so I think single-dogging may have been involved there too. MP.

Melaleuca took two hours from Oldbury top lock to the pools and back, including 45 minutes clearing an engine-stopping bladeful. The Pools are deep: the arm isn't. 25 minutes to get out of Spon Lane Bottom lock and around the junction. Passed David on to Vulpes at Pudding Green. Just passed Rivets on our way to Rider's Green. MP.

By judicious use of the Peril Sensitive Spotlight. MP.

Inflation is 10% and that includes inflation on boat repairs and new boats. I'd say they've given you a £2 discount. MP.

Info from my mate whose hireboat was moored just down from the bridge. The passenger did actually fall out, and presumably landed in the canal, as they were uninjured. The occupants of the hireboat slept through whole thing. MP.

Has anyone successfully booked a passage through the Anderton Boat lift recently? It doesn't seem to be an option in the drop-down menu on the "book a passage" page for me. MP.

A couple of years ago we were in the drydock at Northwich when the control system for the Vale Royal sluices had a bit of brainstorm and emptied the top end of the river in fairly short order. The resulting artificial flood coming backwards through the emptying sluice started to fill the drydock, which caused some consternation. I believe at least one boat was sunk above Vale Royal by the sudden drop in level. MP.

I once met a CRT tug in the middle of Braunston tunnel with a standard tunnel light on the front of it. I'd already met the unlit pan it was pushing 70ft earlier, which was quite a surprise! MP.

All the hire boat operators I've spoken to have problems with hirers running out of power. Many hirers these days are not on a 12-hour day mission; they're using the boat as vaguely movable air-bnb. They expect all the electrical things to work and don't have the knowledge or motivation to manage a set of batteries and do the off-grid thing. The easiest way for operators to avoid call outs for no lights and beeping fridge in the middle of the night is to specify that the engine must be run 8 or 10 hours every day. MP.

I always find that Mars and Jupiter are really difficult to start after a long shutdown. MP.

It's difficult to conceive of a lamp or LED that will pass enough current to light at 5v, but won't be destroyed by 240v when L and N are actually reversed. I think we need more information. MP.

If the indicator is an actual neon bulb, then it is, to all intents and purposes, an insulator as long as the voltage across it is below the strike voltage, which is about 90v. Using an LED or incandescent lamp instead of a neon would be bad, for the reason you describe. If the neutral earth voltage is above 90v then you really want to know about it. MP.