kitman

Agree with tat guy about researching your artist first. I find Instagram is really good, as the artists regularly post pictures of their latest work for you to look at. It helps to broaden your understanding of what can be achieved, and what a good tattoo should be. I have three tattoos, they were all 'walk in' type appointments, I'm happy to say that I was sober for all of them, but my first tattoo was a bit of a mistake. The first time I was 19, didn't have a clue, and just went to the nearest tattoo shop. I was pretty strapped for money so I even contemplated haggling with the guy! No haggling happened though, as I thought better of it. I ended up having a tribal design which I choose quickly, because I was just interested in getting inked, whatever. Regretted it about a month later. I was young and stupid, but not stupid enough to get something that could be interpreted as offensive - luckily. Second time was an improvement. I was in Holland, aged 30. I conducted a bit more research this time (which purely involved asking around to find out which was the best tattoo shop) and managed to find a really nice, clean, sensible shop. There was an old lady working behind the counter (who I later found out was just known as 'grandma') and that finally sold it too me! I had my wife to be's name tattooed under a traditional swallow design, her name is short, LUCY, so it looks great in a banner. Incidentally my friend also had his wife's name tattooed on his arm at the same time (good job the artist didn't mix the two names up!). Getting partner's names is always a bit risky, so again this could of been a huge mistake, but hey my wife loves it! Third time around was in that same shop in Holland last year. I was more confident this time so I took my time choosing a theme and the brilliant guy (Bill Loika at 'Tattoo Peter') drew it up for me. The tattoo looks great and I will never regret it, because I took my time and decided I was really comfortable with the design and the artist. Now I have had a bit of experience I would say definitely do a lot of research first (in advance, not on the day you are actually getting tattoed!), and if the shop and the people don't don't feel right then keep looking.

Sounds like one for DC Morse and Fred Thursday!

Thanks Dave, I very much appreciate the support, you have a talent for inspiring others about the folk art specific to English canals! I look forward to bringing some of my historic pieces along for everyone to draw inspiration from, I always find that it helps to channel the spirit of the 'old masters' (so to speak! )

Thought this may be of interest to enthusiasts, we have some traditional canal arts and crafts courses coming up on the 7th and 8th of May. Learn to paint Roses - May 8th - taught by Chris Weston Learn to make rope fenders 7th and 8th May - taught by Phil English The courses will be held at Stretton Wharf CV23 0PR, which is a real traditional working boatyard. You will get to take home what you make! Pm me if you are interested and I will give you more details. Cheers Chris

Poor Bob, he must of been working late on something

Used to be. So was it Bob who fell in?

Nilfisk Compact C130.1-6 P X-tra 130bar Pressure Washer 1.7kW 240V

I bought this Nilfisk a few weeks ago Nilfisk seem to have a good rep on the internet, karcher have come in for a bashing recently for premature failure. It's made a good job of the patio, and the car. Seems robustly built, the pressure is strong. One of the nozzles allows you to increase/decrease the pressure, in case you are worried about blasting your car tyres with a high pressure jet for instance.

Don't forgot all the accountancy side of things as well, you will need to shoe horn time for that in somewhere

I wanted answer because I feel I have something to offer on this. We record atmosphere every six minutes using data loggers when we have a boat in (which is most of the year). The equipment records and stores Relative humidity, air temp and surface temp on a tamper proof computer file. You have to be a bit techie minded to make sense of it all though! Effectively we have a detailed record of the atmosphere of our dock night and day all year round, including all the dewpoints, so we can see at a glance how the dock is performing. Exciting huh?! I can see you all glazing over. In combination with the data loggers, Myself and my staff also use dewpoint meters for spot checks before painting, so we always know when dewpoint temp is 3degrees above steel temp, spot checks get recorded as well but only on an excel spreadsheet. In terms of how many other boatyards or painters do this, well, I'm not convinced data recording is common at all. Again, I monitor thickness as I go to make sure we are creating the specified depth. Results aren't logged at present, but can be checked at any time by measuring the coating. I feel an independent would be better than an experienced peer. But, no, we don't do this, although I agree it is a good idea. They do it with the paint jobs for the super yachts, but then again we are talking £500,000.00 for a super yacht paint job compared to £8500.00 for a narrowboat paint job. Like I said, I think inspection by a specialist is a good idea, I have spoken about this to International Paints before. They have said that for what it would cost it's not worth doing. And unless boat painting prices rise to accommodate the cost of doing it, it's unlikely to ever happen. The phrase International used was 'horses for courses'. In short, boater's aren't paying enough for this level of service. As if the repaints didn't cost enough already huh?! Moving back to atmosphere monitoring and recording. I see the posts you have made in relation to monitoring conditions effectively on this thread and others. I think you are right to recommend customers check their prospective painter is doing this (doing this correctly I hasten to add!). It's important to record the data because it gives the customers reassurance that the atmosphere is being properly checked and maintained. And if a fault occurs later, which it may do, there are records to point to why. However, further to the above it's fair to say that recording temps daily is still not high on the majority of customer's "suitable painter" check-lists. In fact I read on CWDF the other day that a good professional paint job consists of "taking the windows out", but not much beyond that from what I gather!

ALDEBARAN all fine, I think the problem was further up

Mike, I will be down there at 3pm today, I will have a look for you. Is Broadmoor Lock what I call Appletree Lock, by Ian Staples place?

I searched my emails as soon as I read your post. You were sent an estimate for the work on the 6th of June 2014 from OBPCo, ref FIR1858. And I know you received it, because you replied to it.

Morelli have a branch in Loughborough and they mix Mason's P-Type to order. Sit down before they tell you the rrp per litre though

From memory, Atlantic Blue is a kind of 'cobalt blue' colour. International may do a similar cobalt blue shade in there Toplac range. What about using Mason's?

International over Mason's will be fine, just stick to the respective company's recommended window/time frame for overcoating. edit: as long as all the paint involved is single pack. (International make 2k as well)

^ What he said Owatrol is a good all rounder as I've used it with Epiphanes, Craftmaster, Masons P-type and International paints, although it's good practice to use the paint manufacturers own brushing additive if they make one that works (I'm referring to International and Mason's here!). Not sure if Rylard have they're own. Epiphanes and Craftmaster have brilliant ones. International and Mason's have a thinners or white spirit type brushing additive, which I guess would be absolutely useless on a hot day, and would actually decrease flow rate rather than increase it. I would say that their thinners are really best for spray application only. However don't get too worried if your chosen paint manufacturer doesn't supply a useful product, I would say that in a DIY situation all the common 1k products used in boat painting are fully interchangeable. For example you can use Owatrol in International Toplac and you can paint that over Epiphanes multi marine primer if you wish. If sticking with a system is not a priority, you're at liberty to pick and choose. Alternatively ring the companies technical department if you want their take on it. Someone once told me that clean engines oil works as well??! Not tried that one yet, never will either!

Whose paint are you using?

It's not something I would do, it sounds risky. If a serious accident occurred (due to overloading the boat for instance) there would be a full investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch and you would be more heavily fined than £500. I turned 1 member of a family group (numbering 13) away last year. The boat is only licensed for 12 passengers, end of story. The guy was ok with it, he had to walk to the lock instead! The Skipper's word is law!

Out of interest, is Ian Clarke staff or is he a directer of Pennine Cruisers? Reason for asking: I was always told that the boatmaster on duty(staff), not the owners/directors, would be held directly responsible and fined for any breach of the rules, is that what has happened here? I just re read the OP, he was the skipper on duty, and he is also a director.

I was told often that the original plan was to have the shop frontages looking over the canal and create a shopping plaza there. However the businesses on the high st were worried that it would draw shoppers away from the centre of town so the mall was focused in the direction of the high st, making the canal 'the back' end of the shopping centre.

They started to build Castle quay in around 99/2000, it's tacked onto the existing Castle Centre (our older mall). I remember breaking into the building site with some mates one night after the pub around xmas time. The half finished building was all lit up inside with fluorescent lights, the stairs for three levels were in place and beyond that scaffolds reached up the very top where the sky lights are now. We climbed all the way to the very top of the structure and looked down over the town. Stupid students eh?! Re. the new development. I think as you say the worry will be that the existing businesses will suffer and the beautiful buildings in the old town, that they occupy, will fall into disrepair. The Olde Reindeer on Parson's St, for instance, has been a pub for centuries. Cromwell was said to have planned his siege of Banbury castle from the Globe room which is at the back part of the pub. Where near Banbury did you work? Banbury is a superb small town, personally I wouldn't live anywhere else. I've lived in a few other places when I was a student, but mainly Banbury and surrounding villages for 30+ years.

It's a good point, but I think the canopy will be too high to be effected by fumes, it looks like it will be coming off the roof of BHS. My Grandad attends various Cherwell Council meetings, I will ask him whether he knows much about it. It seems like it will be a nice development for the town, I love what they have done with Spiceball sports centre, so hopefully this will be in the same style. It will add some diversity to that part of town, it will be good to have a modern cinema in town and some new restaurants and bars. One thing though, GF Social club is a useful part of the town, it's used for weddings, parties and the like. If that goes then it would be nice to have a similar place in the town to fill the gap. I shouldn't think that this development will happen for a good few years anyway. There will be the same sort of arguments going back and forth as there were when they planned Castle Quay in the 90s. i.e. the new shops will detract business from the high st shops. In this case it will be the restaurants in Parson's St that will be objecting. Parson's st is a superb part of the town with restaurants, pubs and bars. In terms of it effecting Tooley's, I don't think the Dock is part of any new development.

Couldn't agree more. One of the main obstacles to improving the situation is the reluctance of boatyards and painters to introduce the practice of record keeping when applying paint. These records document the environment, date, time and type of paint. This practice has been recommended to me by all paint companies because it actually helps research into why paint fails occur. I can remember being advised to do this by epiphanes, blakes/hemple, international and craftmaster, in fact they have been recommending it for years. However I only know two painters who actually bother, and I'm one of them! So not much take up on that one. The paint reps and techs do give good advice, but whether painters listen or not is up to them. So in regard to the statement 'no advice was given', I've just passed on some good advice right here. If you are serious about narrowboat painting in the 21st century then take records. If more record keeping was done then paint companies and painters might be closer to a workable prevention of microblistering.