Lee J

Thanks all, Yes it seems you're right about getting a better deal, I've tracked a suitable Aarrow stove down for a very reasonable £509 including flue pipe, register plate, heat resistant gloves and delivery. Lee

Does anyone know when the next freaky friday is at midland chandlers, and if the discount that it offers also applies to wood stoves. I need a small one for my house and I might as well wait until one comes up, if it's going to be fairly soon. Thanks, Lee

Screwfix do a specific "foam" blade for a jigsaw, I cut a standard, fairly cheap (bargain bin at Ikea) Memory foam mattress down myself. Worked really well, just needed to make up the cover again with a bit of extra material afterwards. Lee

Bit off topic I know but have you seen the model Deltic it's increadible. http://craftsmanshipmuseum.com/tomlinson.htm not sure how to make this a link, well worth a look. Lee

Sorry Mr. Hogg, forgot the pedantry rulings. I'm sure Chris would have the intelligence not to take Progress on a 24 hour sea passage when he actually ventures out of a relatively sheltered estuary for a bit and doesn't have the option of putting to port for 16hrs due to all the ports drying. And, whilst I'm sure Progress is the most qualified narrowboat on the water to make these journeys, she still does, in no way, ever belong out at sea and anything other than the mild conditions she has so far faced would pose serious threat to her, surely you must acknowledge that. Finally, you are correct I do not read posts fully, particularly if they bear no relavence to the original question which, unless I'm very much mistaken, was not "Should I take Progress to Chichester" Lee

Tully's in Rotherham and BW's Eastwood moorings might be a goer, There are BW's town moorings in Doncaster. Other than that I'd suggest following the line of the navigation on Google earth, when you come across a row of boats sus out where it is and go visit. There are quite a few private club moorings that lease a bit of towpath that you might be able to get on to. Lee

Is the OP building a boat that is designed to take a slight sea like Progress is, or is it just a normal, everyday cat D narrowboat. All this talk of Progress, whilst fascinating, is not relavent to the original question. I do wonder if even Chris would contemplate taking Progress on a tweny-four hour sea passage. I suspect he has more intelligence than that. A narrowboat on the Chichester is just going to have to get there by road I suspect. Lee

Thanks for you replies.

I've just been reading about these "Purdy" brushes, which seem universally recommended. I've looked them out on a famous internet auction site and there seems to be various ranges of them, so which is the best? Lee

Beatrice is currently pointing the other way, up the canal. If you want my advice, take her up to the top of the Chesterfield while she is still up here, the flight is pure magic and you will have definately got used to locks by the time you get back. Allow 5 days. I knew Adrian was having a tug next, didn't realise it was warrior! Look forward to seeing her. Lee (edited to add a bit more)

It's about 24hrs at 6kts from Hoo (or Ramsgate) to Brighton, Chichester is I'm guessing about another 7hrs from Brighton In terms of time a narrowboat could easily do it. The main problem in any vessel is the lack of safe ports between Folkestone and Brighton that have access at all tidal states. Mr. Hogg has provided us with some great images of Progress battling the high seas, I would suggest that these are relatively calm waters in comparison to what can reasonable expected on the journey, there will be several tides to contend with so "wind over tide" conditions are likely to occur at some points in the journey. I would suggest that even the wake from the Dover ferries would create much bigger seas than the ones in the "Progress" pics. People have taken NB's to sea and got away with it, I met a bloke once that had rowed a bathtub across the channel, and I've even read about people swimming it. It's fine as long as the sea behaves like a canal, the boat will be just fine if that happens. If there is a breeze, and the sea behaves like the sea, that's when you'll have a problem. If you want to go to sea, get a sea boat! or even a cheap 10kt estuary cruiser. Lee

I have a vacuflush remote one on Helena, can't really recommend it. That said I have never had an actual problem with it, except that the pump is just too noisy to use at night. unfeasibly expensive too. I'm probably going to replace it with a more conventional cassette toilet, not sure which one yet, execpt that it has to have a ceramic bowl Lee

I used one of those Johnson bilge pump switches (the proximity ones with no moving parts) to operate my gulper, mounted in a watertight box connected to the shower (and bathroom basin in my case) at one end and the pump at the other. when the bax fills with water the pump runs, when it's pumped it all away, the pump stops. Lee

Does this mean we'll stop seeing adverts for events that happened last year! Lee

Bit short notice, and not essential but if there's anyone who fancies helping an injured boater get his boat from West Stockwith to Clayworth tomorrow, please let me know. I've broke my hand quite a bit with a chopsaw and "single handed" shouldn't be take quite so literally! Lee

Yes, perhaps I should have written "fueling" rather than "fuel" Lee

But surely lamps of the same design will hve the same airflow. I still think it's a fuel problem, the fuel itself or a damp wick as suggested by Tim. Lee

Or indeed on Thursday, if we do end up in Lincoln we'll probably spend Thursday night at Torksey too, though that said it all depends on the tide, I'm picking up crew for the Kiveton trip, and need to be back in Stockwith mid morning. Lee

Why do mine work fine then? Lee

Pop over and say hi, if your Stockwith visit coincides with ours. We've gone about it a slightly different way, and taken the week before easter as well as "the gap", so we've a couple of weeks to go at. We're heading down the Trent, probably to Lincoln or maybe Nottigham for a couple of days, then heading back to be in Stockwith on Good Friday for a trip up to Kiveton. Little nervous about the Trent bit, it'll be the first time out on the river since we brought Helena down from Keadby, where I had a very experienced crew to help. Lee

I've got a couple of ones where the smoke shield is attached to the gimbal mount and I've not had a problem with them. Have you tried since you first filled them, it does take a while for the fuel to find it's way up the wick. I wonder if it could be the fuel at fault. Lee

There are two lockies, Dave and Sue. Haggis, we're moored a w.stockwith, and there pretty much every weekend, I could bring the papers to your boat if you want, if you're at the other end of the cut. Also, should say that we live nearish the Kiveton end of the canal so we drive from one end to the other to get to the boat so non of it is much of a diversion. If you want to have the papers delivered to my house rather than w.stockwith lock, that too, is no problem. Lee edited because I missed stuff out

Getting up really early and not having an audience is a good call. Its not difficult to find your own technique, doing it without the pressure of onlookers will make life much easier. Lee