LEO

Lovely spot and historic crossing of the Thames, the pub used to be good (35 years ago with some excellent mounted locally caught specimen fish on the walls), used to be a large WW11 gun emplacement close to the bridge. I would have to get rid of all the moorings though.........

Hi, Historically BW canalside mooring were cheap, when I started in 1975, they were much cheaper than say, Thames side moorings my mate moored a boat at Wallingford, This situation remained for years, I recall my attention was drawn to an article in the waterways press about 15 years ago, which suggested BW were becoming much more business minded and someone in the upper echelons asked the question 'why are floating moorings in estuaries so much more expensive than inland waterways'. They quoted examples such as Hamble on the South coast. this set the cogs in motion and mooring costs started to rise. BW changed to CRT, boat ownership and demand increased dramatically and the 'leapfrog' situation rapidly crept into pricing of moorings and boatowners reach the situation we are in now. Introduce the liveaboard situation on CRT leisure moorings and you realise why prices have gone ballistic.

Bit more detail needed here, is the hatch square or tapers like a traditional hatch. If square it's easy to match up brass to the runners and the slide. If it tapers a bit more care is needed. I recently made a new slide, and glued the brass strip to the runners, to the tapering slide I carefully worked out the area of cover needed to mate brass to brass and cut a rebate for the strip and glued it in. It's worth dressing the brass over the front end of the runner as it makes the cover slide more easily. Works well.

One wonders if a BMC 1.5 can now be classed as a 'vintage engine', that would fit under a back deck............why pay a premium for a vintage 'lump' and hide it away?

Hi, Looks a neat installation, but I would check the installation instructions carefully as most pumps require a section of flexible pipe between the pump and the fixed piping. I think this is to avoid 'cracking' the pump head when the unit cycles, hairline cracks cause water leakage and re-cycling.

Interesting, as soon as I saw the picture I though of CRMc........nice design....

I varnish my pole and boat hooks, look good and store them inside......

I found a leaking water pump caused a slight list to my boat very quickly, tracing the problem took a while and bear in mind many marinas have been locked down with owners unable to visit boats for a while, marina staff keeping an eye on boats. Access to the marina near me has been restricted to residential boaters for some weeks, this restriction only being lifted last weekend......

The water was from the restaurants washing up sink, did look like a rather thin soup, the 'roaches ran so fast they were difficult to catch and they dropped on to the banking counter making transactions tricky......

Fair comment. and including those by MtB removal and investigation is the answer, having found this, perhaps include Mr K and ask his opinion...........tracking leaks on my boats and houses over the years have taken up lots of time over the years. The worst was Cockroaches and water from a Chinese restaurant above our office in Oxford.

Interesting pictures, a couple of the exterior fitting would be helpful. Bee's comment about tools and skills is the quote of the week. L.

Yo Mark, Looks good, shame original painting was so Skimpy!. No Boating for me - I broke my left Femur in early Feb. difficult repair as it was badly broken in 1966..........unlightly to be fully 'repaired' until mid July. Keep good. M.

Hi, Not sure where you are on the system but I have a new cage available on the boat, the existing one did not need changing. I am unable to get over there for a couple of months though. I doubt your fire will need a new 'ring'. Cost of the cage about £70. I got my new one from Holland (manufacturers) via Karunda (google for UK address), the Kabola and Refleks cats are interchangeable (I think) - I can get someone to check measurements if you want - when access is permitted.

I fell awkwardly on 4th Feb broke my left femur badly and had an intramedullary nail inserted, spent about 3 weeks in hospital (nursing superb but 'doctoring' in latter stages appalling). Now home and enforced home isolation going well. Good home delivery schemes, no problems or shortages. Telephone consultation yesterday about leg indicated that a safe repair will not be completed until mid July, so it's going to be a long lay off. Interestingly I broke the same femur 50 odd years ago and the repair took about 6 months then (Stymens pin and traction). Interesting comments about working from home, I did this with my last job and found that output and profitability increased substantially. Have fun and take care.

I would take care filling up at Marinas, you really want to use somewhere which has a high turnover in fuel and adds a suitable additive (costs a few pence more per litre) Jules fuels are good on both counts.