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.

I am a great fan of Springers for their no nonsense sheer value for money and proven longevity. My first narrowboat was a Springer. However, as with many other “narrowboat” builders in the sixties/seventies you got the distinct impression that the builder had never really sat down and looked at a narrow boat. Nor had they actually used one and appreciated why the design features were what they were. You see the same today with some so-called “Dutch barge” designs, which bear absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to the real thing. It is quite possible that Sam looked at a Dawncraft or any other typical canal cruiser of the time and simply assumed that a v bottom was the norm. Folding the plates was no problem to an established fabrication shop and saved a certain amount of welding.

Some colleagues and I owned Willow Wren Hire Cruisers (WWHC) in Rugby from 1981 till 1993, having bought the business from the late Dennis Clarke. WW Kearns (later Middlewich Narrowboats) was an independent company until and beyond 1981, using the Willow Wren name under licence from WWHC, with WWHC building their boats and supplying bookings, before our time. We had the same problems with all the old wooden top boats that we inherited at Rugby. Every week boats came back up our arm with busted cabin fronts. We tackled the problem on the biggest boats by fitting steel extension roofs to the cabins, extending over the well deck, tapered and supported by an access ladder at the fore end, a bit like the hotel boats of the time. Leaks were cured by re-skinning most of the Lino-clad cabins with epoxy scrimmed ply, and the old wood framed hopper windows were replaced with alloy framed units, all until we could afford to replace the boats, which happened very quickly! The root problem was that the overall height of the boats, from bottom plate to cabin roof, was too high, the obvious reason being that the cabin floor was raised some 9 or 10 inches off the bottom of the boat, making the cabins higher than they needed to be. I once asked Dennis why this was. His response was that the cabins had to be that high to give enough headroom over the floor. The floor had to be high to accommodate the necessary ballast. Why did they need so much ballast? To get the height of the boats down so they could get under the bridges! Simples! It reminded me of the old one about the Irish barge horse and the bridge in Dublin, but it may not be PC to repeat that now.

The BW Index No. 64968 was issued to a boat that was in existence in 1980/1 or before, that licensing year being the first in which index numbers were issued to all boats licensed on BW waterways. ........ and I now see that the cabin corners are press braked rather than rolled, that change being in about 1973, so that dates the boat to between say 1973 and early 1981.

The rather sharp bend in the cable just above the cable clamp will not help. Try and lose the bend.

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It may not be reasonable or the most reliable course to expect a marina to keep an enhanced watch on all boats given that they may be short staffed with a set of other problems to address as well. We keep our barge in a small town in Belgium, and currently there are some eight other UK owned barges there, either wintering or permanently moored, with most owners locked down elsewhere. Fortunately we have one English neighbour locked down on board but able and willing to keep an eye on the barges. Another owner has had the forethought to set up a Whatsapp group so that all owners can communicate easily and exchange contact details, advise the location of emergency keys etc. where necessary. It might be that where there are close communities of boats, whether in a marina or on other moorings, that others could think about setting up similar groups to help each other out if a potential willing “caretaker” is on site to help. For example in a week or so’s time I might ask my neighbour to kindly go on board my ship and plug in the power for a day, just to top the batteries up, since it will be six weeks since I last attended on board and everything is normally left disconnected (except the pumps!). Any such group requires the “caretaker” to go out and about a bit, but I think that could be defended as reasonable movement, perhaps indeed essential movement since if a boat sinks there could be significant environmental consequences. In respect of insurance I would think that any good insurance company will understand the difficulties and react accordingly if there is an incident. That might not be the case for all insurers, but you pays yer money ..……. ! It might not be a bad idea however to email your insurers and notify them of the measures that you have taken to keep your boat safe. I certainly would not stick my head in the sand, particularly if you are in knowledge that your boat could, for example, fill up with rain water!

Picking up on the discussion regarding gas hoses I would like to pass on a couple of experiences regarding incidents that I have been involved in investigating (as a marine surveyor investigating insurance claims). I do not intend to get bogged down in specific standards or BSS checking points, simply to highlight a couple of issues that seem to receive scant attention when a boat is inspected for BSS purposes but which have caused serious incidents. 1. Gas hoses and split level hob/oven cookers. Many people have installed these with the hob directly above the oven. Often flexible hoses are used to connect the hob and oven. These hoses should not be used because the units are not regarded as portable, or gimballed. If used the hoses should be accessed for inspection throughout but in my experience often they are not inspected throughout because the hob is screwed down. Often metal braided hoses are used, the braiding being regarded as an enhancement, but in essence the braiding only serves to help reduce mechanical damage and in units which do not move there is no reason for that. Those points are just a broad pre-amble to the main point, which is that where hoses are used then in many types of these units the oven hose passes over the top of the oven / grill, and the hose to the hobs does the same. This often in a poorly ventilated area. In general hose manufacturers do not certify their hoses for use where ambient temperatures are likely to exceed a certain figure, usually in the range of 50 to 70 degrees centigrade. Ovens are normally used at 180 to 200 degrees centigrade. It doesn't take any great feat of imagination to imagine that in some cases the hoses will be exposed to temperatures in excess of say 50 degrees. The result is that over time the hoses denature, they soften and turn to a sticky mush (often not evident to inspection if braided), they can fail in themselves or simply blow off the swaged end fittings. I have seen two recent incidents where this happened, one an explosion and fire where the occupant miraculously escaped unharmed. In the second case the unfortunate occupant died. Do not use flexible hoses where they may be exposed to excess heat. Both boats had recent BSSC's. 2. Gas ovens. Gas ovens in free standing cookers have a flue outlet somewhere at the back to vent the combustion gases from the oven. If the flue is too close to combustible materials then this can cause a fire. This happened last year on a boat with a recent BSSC. In both cases BSS seemed to take little interest. Balliol.

.........but Prince Charles is at his holiday home........