Boatgypsy

Good idea, I'd happily pay £365 a year for a mooring!

Reds and Greys are different species, and as such do not normally interbreed, if they did/could, the result would be a hybrid squirrel which would not be fertile. It's normal for the Eastern Grey Squirrel to show some russett in it's fur, but nothing like the Red Squirrel.

Has anyone else wondered why they came up with this name when the public consultation made it clear that other names were clearly favoured by the majority of consultees. In fact this name was never even mentioned in the consultation document. It seems that the decision was made long before the consultation took place.

I'm not entirely clear what you are saying. Has the boat had a different engine fitted for the last three years? Has it had a BMC 1.8 previously? Have you had the original engine reconned? It sounds like you might be trying to drop in a different engine, or the same engine with slightly different mounts. Either way, the answer would seem to be the the mounts have to be made up so that the engine is in line with the shaft. This is not unusual, unless you are exchanging one engine for an identical copy, it is not likely to line up. If you are saying that the prop shaft is angled slightly downward, when you were expecting it be level - don't worry, this is normal and not adjustable. It is to help direct the thrust down into the water to counteract "squatting". Ian

I've just done an engine swap and converted from an air cooled to a water cooled - relatively easier to accomplish. The water pick up is via a short rubber hose on the outside of the hull, meaning the boat did not have to come out of the water, as the hole through the hull was above water level. A strainer box was about £10 and the wet exhaust hose was about £30. The most expensive item was a new engine pulley driven water pump at £200. Ian

Also signed and linked on facebook.

These people are quite good too for electrical supplies. clicky

Oh sorry, yes, there was a larger flywheel in that Bowman kit - about twice the thickness of the original. Having said that it needed solid mounts, that can make alignment easier and I haven't really had any problems with vibration, just a bit noisy.

Hiya. I have had a Land Rover naturally aspirated 2.5 lump in my boat for the last eleven years. It's very reliable, if a little basic and agricultural. There are two sorts of these engines, the earlier 3 bearing and the later 5 bearing - the code to look for is 19J. There is also a small difference in the front timing cover between a Land Rover one and a Sherpa one. In terms of reliability, my engine did about 250,000 miles in a Sherpa van and a Land Rover before I put it in the boat. The biggest drawback in my view is that they are not very economical and they do need solid engine mounts as they are not very smooth. I found it very easy to obtain a second hand Bowman marinising kit, comprising bell housing, engine mounts and heat exchanger. I was told that some BW workboats were fitted with these engines at one point, hence Bowman going to the trouble of making a kit. It runs a PRM 260 with no problems at all. BG

I wonder if you realise just how few people actually work on the scheme at BW. As far as I am aware there are about four technical people and one clerical staff. I am sure Rob will be able to correct me if I am wrong. Assuming that you are correct with your 5 points, how many staff do you think that the scheme needs to ensure that 35,000 plus boats comply?

Presumably, if you buy a dongle for cash, don't give out any of your details when buying it and top it up by cash only, you effectively have an anonymous IP address however often it changes. The only identifying information that could ever be tracked is the rough location where you are using it.

I'd love to pop by, but the chat room limit seems to be stuck on 5 rather than 50!!!

Dents can be pulled out by welding a kind of T bar to the dent, with screws at either end of the T. When these are screwed in, the dent is pulled out. Final finishing can be done with welding into any remaining dent and grinding smooth. It all depends how big the dent is though!