Balliol

Hi Pete, Thanks for the correction. You are right of course: “Betty” was the header. Yes, got your pm and replied. Email me directly, just google my name for email address.

Yes, agree. I recall the term “Runcorn Header,” and “header” does refer to the situation where certain timber hull frames have been left long, extending above gunwhale level to form mooring posts or belaying points. There was what I believe was a “Runcorn Header” moored as a houseboat at Cowroast in the seventies, then name “Widdicombe Fair” as I recall. Also as I recall it was referred to as a “seven planker,” presumably therefore seven planks, but I will stand corrected.

OK, so do the calculation for an Engel under counter fridge (about 3.3 amps) at 8 metres run from distribution board, 2.5 ring. Please show working.

If that is a recommendation, unfortunately it is not valid and could cause huge problems with volt drop. Not in my experience.

We used to use 44/0.30 (3 sq.mm 27.5 amp) multi-strand single core cable for all domestic wiring circuits in our narrow boats and barges (lighting, fridge, water pumps etc). Here are links to one company found at random: https://www.electricalcarservices.com/tinned-multi-strand-single-core-29a-2.5mm²-cm2.5/p-168-259-486-4142 https://www.electricalcarservices.com/tinned-multi-strand-single-core-39a-4.0mm²-cm4/p-168-259-486-4143 The first cable should be fine for a shorter boat up to say 50'. The second for >50.

Also no smelly food factory (General Foods? Now Kraft), but this shows in the OP’s original 1970’s(?) photo. Grimsbury reservoir is a water company reservoir, not canal company, and was built in the sixties.

Which fits with the Northern Aluminium factory opening in 1931.......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7643742.stm

I’m not sure that I am up to speed on the conversation but if you are talking about the alloy lift bridge that used to be north of Tooleys then I had always assumed that it had something to do with Alcan aluminium (can’t remember what they used to be called) who used to have a factory there. Perhaps an access road to them?

I am amazed that BW/CRT have not banned the use of these hooks years ago! Piling or campshedding is there to protect the banks from the wash from motorboats. Even in its earlier common form, long thick concrete piles with re-purposed railway lines as whaling (most often seen on the Grand Union network) the big problem was stopping ground and hydraulic pressures from pushing the piling over towards the canal. In numerous places you can see where these very substantial concrete piles have bowed over towards the canal. Modern light interlocking sheet steel piles are much weaker, and very often much shorter, so not driven into the ground so far. They are the waterside equivalent of your wooden garden fence, and can be subjected to undue stress by boats pulling directly on them. Piling is usually tied back at intervals, usually nowadays to short offcut lengths of the same sheet steel piles, driven in some 2 metres back from the bank and connected to the piling with steel tie rods, but these ties are not infallible especially in wet ground, and also the modern whalings are usually just light duty steel pressings with little innate strength. The problem could be reduced if boats were tied up properly with long lines extending at least 2 metres fore and aft of the boat, i.e. with an included angle to the bank of less than 45 degrees, preferably nearer 30, such that the mooring ropes are pulling more along the line of the bank, but most people seem now to use the equivalent of short breast ropes at near on right angles to the boat's dollies which mean that the principle component of the pull on the piling is more directly towards the water. Obviously longer lines at suitable angles also reduce the risk of a boat surging as other craft pass. The clank-clank of rattling piling hooks on a badly moored boat is usually the preface to unwarranted shouts of "slow down!" The suggestion of using a cabin centre line with these hooks can be even worse, since the pull is then almost vertical. If the water level changes the buoyancy of the boat can try and lift the piles. The alternative is that it can cause the boat to list, which, if the boat has other underlying health issues (buzz term!) such as dodgy skin fittings, can cause a boat to sink. It happens! I dealt with one case only a couple of months ago where a boat sank simply because the centre line held the boat down as the canal level rose during the recent storms. For the above reasons centre lines, whether to the piling or proper rings or bollards, should never be used for anything other than short term mooring. There are also potential stability issues if using these for anything other than hand control of the boat when locking, but that is digressing from the topic.

Our first narrowboat was a 36’ Springer, purchased privately in 1974 as a bare shell which had been used as a bit of a test bed for steam engines, as I recall on the Severn. It had apparently been fitted with side paddle wheels driven by one steam engine, and a second steam engine drove a conventional propeller for steerage. I never saw these, or any photographs, but the boat still had all the holes in the side for the paddle shafts, paddle wheel support frameworks etc., and a large hatch in the roof, which was access for the boiler and also formed the funnel. By the time we bought it a 1.5 BMC was fitted.

I don’t remember Sam Springer selling kits, but will stand corrected. Are you sure you are not thinking of Hancock & Lane?

Lapwing (50’) was one of the ones where we re-skinned the cabin with ply and epoxy scrim and changed the windows, so the cabin might have lasted, although that will be >35 years ago. The interior was completely rotten so we stripped it and did a basic “cabin camper” fit out, but it wasn’t popular. The kids, even then, were getting too used to home comforts!

The fundamental problem with gas in boats is that LP gas is denser than air. In a house it runs out through the doors and in a caravan there should be vents in the floor. Neither happens with boats. Houses still explode occasionally, but the risk is much greater with boats and denser LP gas collecting in the bilge. Other downsides? All the obvious ones like space for gas lockers, obtaining gas etc. Less obviously, burning gas in a cooker produces water and thus dampness. Increased fire risks from open burners . In Europe we have to pay ca. 200 euros every three years just to have the gas system tested. The alternatives? I plan to take out our gas installation when the cooker next needs replacing and will replace with an induction hob and a combi microwave oven/grill. Not ideal for some types of cooking ( I am told!) and it will need a bigger inverter and more batteries, but we have a largish boat so that is not a problem other than the cost. Why do installers make a fuss? Because they get frightened by some of the ludicrously dangerous things that people do with their gas systems, and a gas explosion is a serious risk to other people and property.