FadeToScarlet

Got passed last weekend by the first hire boats from Ely. That's a sure sign spring is here!

Check the thumper, from the dumper. Or the Lister, from the pisser!

I tried taking the pump off the JP2 in the tug because the coupling is worn- there are a few types and so I wanted to measure it. Annoyingly, it is held on with studs and nuts, rather than bolts. So the nuts can be removed and all the pipes disconnected, but with the studs in place the pump can't be lifted vertically to be removed. The space available is very small, for a stud remover. Access to one end is limited because of the flywheel and the body of the engine. Maybe the put-two-nuts-on trick to remove the studs? Might even replace them with bolts afterwards......

True, but not in this case. HNBC hasn't, as far as I'm aware, accepted any pre auction offers. I believe the vendors have withdrawn a couple of items before the publication of the catalogue, but the very vast majority are still going to be available.

Well, it'll make it significantly easier to get through both in a day! Never quite managed it before.

My personal favourite moorings are Cambrian Wharf. A little noisy from the pub on weekend evenings, and if you've a full length boat you may need to use a mudweight off the stern because of shorter pontoons- but I love it. And you can take a nice photo of your boat from the Library top floor.

Even better value on the Great Ouse, where the EA pumpouts are free.

So which forum member is involved in enforcement? I see an opportunity here.... Pitchforks! Flaming torches! Stakes! Get them now, before demand increases!

Not tried Smethwick yet. Will be able to do a comprehensive report after the BCN challenge! Minworth and Curdworth I found tighter than some BCN locks, Farmer's Bridge was OK going down and coming up with one tipcat and no bow fender, but it was all fenders off for a few.

We shall see how well a 72' (or 71'9" gauged length) boat copes on the BCN challenge this year! I have a photo of Willow going up, will have to see if we can get back down again forwards or backwards.

Where did the BCN company gauge the length? At the waterline, or at the furthest forwards part of the stem?

Yes, there are boats now that could get up in the 50s, 60s, and 70s that can't now- with fixed widths in places, such as engine room bulkheads. The lock has certainly moved, the reservoir side wall was rebuilt in I think the 80s but since then has moved in. There are some old photographs of the bottom lock which show the walls curving out away from the lock; nowadays, they visibly curve inwards.

It's actually the 39th gathering, not the 40th, as they missed a year.

I can recognise quite a few of the locations, when I get time I'll go through the videos and note them down.

More than that because of Peukeurt, surely?

I'd lay the concrete slabs on something, e.g. cable offcuts, lengths of pipe, running front to back so they won't trap water

I bought a second hand, low hours EU20 from a forum member and it is excellent. Paid £500. Afriend bought the Kipor version and it seems almost identical apart from the colour! All the innards look the same.

I suspect anyone with only a 5 mile range for most of the year would start getting CC1 "non compliance" letters fairly soon, particularly if they were in an area like London or the western K and A where there is lots of focus on enforcement and lots of pressure on moorings. I find myself torn between two opposing ideas on this. On one hand, if you have something like children needing education in one place, then you're not truly CCing in the original meaning, and ought to get a mooring. But, on the other hand, it's easy to say that but harder to do; there are no affordable or available moorings in many areas, and it's all very well saying to someone "get one" but if they can't afford to, they can't. Benefits may be in theory available, but are often very hard to get, particularly without a postcode, and an attitude of the bureaucrats of "computer says no". I'm not sure what the solution is. I don't think there is one that would be applicable to all. Perhaps a roving mooring permit for an area, available monthly; so the hypothetical family could pay an affordable amount to stay in one smaller area during term time, but cruise more widely afield in the holidays. I suppose the problem that CRT would point put would be their status and not being able to offer moorings very much less costly than others in the area due to the competition regulations, hence a roving mooring permit to allow a smaller cruising range, rather than a mooring.

Mine is 1m/36" long. It's a simple piece of commercial flue pipe, which sits snugly inside the (custom fabricated) roof collar, so no tar drips. I had a nice stainless steel one, but it blew off, so now I have a section from Machine Mart with two wire guy ropes. I can leave it on when boating around here on the Cam and Ouse, but when venturing further afield it xomes off

I quite fancy getting one. On the upper arm, where it is easy to cover with a shirt if I end up working somewhere again with a "no visible tattoos" policy. I'm quite taken by the Severn and Canal Carrying Company logo- a stylised and interlocking S with two Cs. The other half is considering an "IW" Inland Waterways badge, as the "Idle Women" had.

I'm afraid that wasn't me.

Does it come with a mooring in Gloucester? That might explain the nosebleedingly high price.