Peter R

No need to be embarrassed Geoff - you'd only just got your first boat, and i've known much more experienced people mess it up much worse than you did! Besides, if you hadn't bumped into me, you probably wouldn't be on here!

I remember meeting you that day Geoff, what a lovely day it wasn't! Picking one favorite is rather a challenge, so here's three of my favourite's from photos i've taken myself :- Leicester Line, looking towards Crick, taken from bridge 14 (I think!) Foxton Locks Inn, loking under the bridge from the 'leicester' side I think this is my favourite to date - it was 'snapped' one-handed whilst driving a hire boat down the Llangollen towards Whitchurch in 2003

Personally, i've got two machines (laptop & desktop), both setup with dual-boot ubuntu/windows. ubuntu is my 'normal' OS on both and I only venture into windows on the rare occaisions that I run into something I can't get to work on linux. When I do, I start swearing about how slowly it's working! The laptop has vista as it's windows, the desktop runs xp. Setting up the dual-boot is easy through the install process, but is a bit of chance - normally it works fine, but occaisionally something can go wrong. One of things i've been very impressed with on the latest issues of ubuntu (i'm running 9.10) is the networking - both wired and wifi have always setup and worked perfectly, it will even auto-setup my 3g usb dongle when i plug it in! Therefore i can't think why it doesen't work on the 'live' cd, unless this is a limitation of running off the cd - I guess there is a limit to how much of the system can be fitted on a cd!. I'm on the boat at the moment so I can't check but if you like I can try running a live cd when i get home and see if the networking will work. In short, I have no plans to go back to windows as 'first choice' Peter

If you're in a hurry and don't mind buying a whole door, you could give Midland Chandlers at braunston a call, they list a replacement door on their website and whilst probably not the cheapest i've found the braunston store does tend to carry quite a good range of stove bits in stock. However at £85.65, it's not a cheap solution. The cheapest and easiest solution is probably to do what was done to the door of the villager heron in my boat before I bought it, which is to carefully drill holes right through the door, and use nuts, bolts and washers to hold the glass in place. I've never tried it myself mind, so I don't know if you need special drills for cast iron? Peter

Barring any last minute panics tomorrow I should be able to join the fun. Peter

Are they expecting to be running short of plates by then??

Being the only person in my household has the advantage of not needing to convince anyone but myself!

Bones - When will you need to confirm the numbers? I'd like to come but I may not know whether it's going to be possible until a few days before. So what - i'm best part of 140 miles away. I don't know, some people, just no commitment to the noble art of banters Peter

On that trip I mentioned we got held by signals coming off the north london line, finally got the 'all clear' at the bottom of brentwood bank at about 15mph - my memory tells me that the controller promtly hit the end stop and stayed there for best part of 30 mins as we climbed the bank and then got up to line speed. I reckon the loco was working flat out for at least half the overall journey. a pair of 37's coming out of felixstowe and charging trimley bank used to be pretty good too - you could hear them for miles!

Thanks for the info Alan I've fitted the proper seal (actual villager spare part) and tightened up the door catch a bit today, which I think has improved the situation, although there is still a gap in one place. The good news is that i've had it lit for over 5 hours and the CO detector (which is presently on a shelf right next to the stove) is still reading zero, so it looks as if nothing untoward is coming out at the moment. I'll have to have another look in the morning, but I think I might be able to 'bodge' it with an extra bit of seal to get through this winter, although I think a new stove is probably going to be on the shopping list for next summer. Looking at it closely, I think you're about right in that it has been somewhat 'abused' by the previous owner (or at least sorely neglected) as most of the sides and top face are showing a degree of pitting due to corrosion, although by far the worst bit is around the door. My suspicion is that the previous owner spent very little time on board during the winter, and left the stove door shut, leading to the seal becoming damp, and the damp seal in contact with the steel then promoted corrosion where it met. I can't think of any other way to replicate the wear pattern i've got. Peter

My worst 'regular' job is changing the fuel filter on the engine. It's not a complicated job - it's just a bu**er to get at!

I like both, but in different ways. Dad was a bit of a railway enthusiast, although his interest waned with the end of steam, so I kind of grew up with an interest in trains (i got my first train set when I was 3, after my brother banned me from his 'cos I sat on his girder bridge!). A friend then got me interested in train-spotting in the mid eighties, and thereafter I often used to cycle a 20 mile round trip on a saturday to watch the trains at Ipswich. Steam had long gone, but the diesels of the day, whilst probably not as spectacular as steam, still had a character and attraction of their own. I find the present stuff pretty boring though, and my railway interest now is pretty much restricted to building model railways. Best railway memory? probably the cab ride a driver friend gave me from willesden to manningtree on a frieghtliner when they were still using 47's - it was a real eye-opener as to just how hard the locos got worked. I discovered canals about 10 years ago, and now if I had to choose between them, i'd probably go with canals. I love the peace, the escape from the pace of 'real life' and above all the people - I reckon that the canals are one of the few places in the country where there is still a real sense of community. Now i would much rather spend a day on the boat than on a station watching trains. Peter

Thanks for your thoughts Alan, it's always useful to get an opinion from someone who's got the same device It's possible that i've been using the wrong size sealing rope - not having any better info to go by i've just been using the same size as was fitted when I got the boat, but there's no guarantee that the previous owner had it right! I've just measured a spare a spare bit of what I have at present and it's about 7-8mm in 'unused' condition. Looking at some new stoves in the chandler's earlier, most of them seemed to have bigger seals than i'm using, but that could just be down to them being different design. Not sure if it shows very well, but photo below shows door with present seal The photo below shows a 'side-on' view with the door closed where you should hopefully be able to see the gap - I reckon it's about 2mm. As another indication of the wear this stove seems to have suffered, you can probably also see that part of the edge of the groove that the seal sits in has also disappeared. I'm not sure if it's entirely original, my catch looks like this I had to replace the bolt that forms the adjustment about 3 years ago as the old one broke when I tried to adjust it! Tightening up the catch might not be that simple anyway as there's an issue with the catch as well, which also dosen't help the situation - there is a LOT of play in the shaft of the catch. If you pull the top of the door outwards when in the closed position, there is enough play to allow a significant gap to be created at the top, see photo below. I haven't managed to get a picture that shows it properly, but i took some measurements earlier. Measuring the thickness of the front plate away from the edge of the opening it appears to be about 4mm thick. However, the part of the front plate that the door closes onto around the edge of the opening is about 2mm - so it appears that i've lost about 2mm of thickness where the door seal meets the front plate! I could get a new door (for £85!) which would resolve the issue with the catch and then with a bigger seal it might seal OK for a while longer. However, given the degree of wastage my feeling at the moment is it would only be prolonging the inevitable and it might be better to put that money towards a new stove! Looking on midland's website (to get the price of a door) i've noticed that you can just get the doorknob and catch for about £16, so I suppose I could try fitting a new catch and bigger seal and see if that works for now. hmmm .... any thoughts as to best course of action anyone? Peter

I last saw Bletchley & Argus up at Welford on the leicester section around end of August. From memory they were taking the 'scenic route' down towards london so I guess they should be around somewhere. You could always try giving them a ring - there are numbers listed http://lock13.co.uk/boats/coaldiesel.htm although I have no idea if they're up to date.

I've got one of the MSC pressure gauges for the water tank, and it works well for me (but then I don't have an odd-shaped tank) Diesel tank gauge - length of dowel as previously suggested, so long as you know how far off the bottom the pick-up is!)

Strange as it may seem, stoves do actually have a power rating in kW - so the simplest way of judging what would suit may be to look at the spec. I also have a 45', and would suggest you probably don't want anything over 4kW. I've also got a Heron, but have been having a bit of a look at new ones in case I have to replace it (as it's suffering a bit from 'wear & tear'). A couple of 'possibles' that have caught my eye so far is the Valor Willow and Aarow Acorn 4, but have no experience of either myself. Try doing a search on 'stove' and settle in for an evening's reading - you'll find quite a lot of opinions! Peter