alan_fincher

Yes, I would be amazed if there were multiple shortened wooden tar boats called Conway. Please bear in mind that when boats like this get very substantial, or perhaps even total, rebuilding of the front end this often results in a very different shape from what went before. For example our local wooden boat restorer is Jem Bates. It has been suggested that whatever the original boat, each rebuild leaves his yard with a distinctive Jem Bates bow! I can kind of see this.

And for much more recent news... I note Fenny now shows as Sale Agreed - is that correct, please? Renown from the early 1970s, before it lost its wooden cabin conversion to be replaced in steel.... |Note how in those pre-BSS days requirements for gas installations were considerably more lax,

Hmm! Another one with no pictures of the bow - often the best clue to a boats real identity. I'm very suspicious of the Tyler claim, and if it were early 2000s, the presence of a BMC 1800 takes some explaining. The stove looks probably beyond redemption. I don't think I'd want to use the toilet(s) without a bit more privacy. Treat with caution I would say!

If it is the Renown I remember from back in the 1970s, then it is an ex LMS Railway Boat. Like all such boats it has a really pleasing hull shape, with a long bow, so odd if it is that boat, but they have chosen not to show that. If it remains as I remember it, then it retained its horse boat elum, and never acquired a counter conversion.

Yes, fully accepted.

I would have thought that even if the canvas tube was "floppy" once the engine was started the air being pumped through would cause it to swell out, and not be an impediment. That said, neither of our boats currently have any ducting whatsoever and pump out their hot air in a manner that must mean a lot of it just gets recycled into the inlet fan on the flywheel. Clearly less than ideal, but so far never a problem. And these a full sized deep draughted working boats. A shallower leisure boat would be less likely to have issues.

It looks like you have raised around half a dozen threads in recent months or years trying to establish contact with its present owner. Some of these threads reveal at least one possible name. Did you follow any of this up? Presumably without success? if that's the situation Im not really sure how we can help. At least make sure you have explored all avenues from posts like this

£33,500 On the face of it a quite reasonable price. But it's a bit of a niche market - not for everybody, I feel.

I wonder if this is the same, (or at least similar to), the Heart inverter/charger that one of our boats came equipped with when we purchased it? Our unit behaved well for a large proportion of the time, but would suddenly throw wobblies for no apparent reason. It may have played a part in the untimely death of a battery bank which was of no great age We reluctantly came to the conclusion that the unit, which was long since obsolete, was never going to be reliable enough for us, and hence it was scrapped. Removing it didn't actually upset the trim of the boat, but I reckon it was heavy enough that it might nearly have done! 😄

Did Morcos ever progress too the point where they didn't rely on a pilot light ? I have had 3 in a row all of which had a pilot light. I have never tried a scientific attempt to measure the rate at which they gobble gas. However my unscientific opinion is that they are very heavy on gas, and hence for some time I have tried to live with the hassle of shutting them down when not needed, and relighting them when they are.

No, I don't think you are. It is not generally beneficial to pus the rudder over to the point it comes up to the end stops. But no two boats are necessarily alike, so it isn't really realistic to come up with "one size fits all" rules about best practice. Another much debated topic is how useful is it to "pump" the tiller whilst turning. Some will tell you it achieves nothing, (or close to nothing), but I have experimented with both our current boats, (historic working narrow boats), and have no doubt that this practice can get you around turns that would not be the case if you simply held the tiller at one angle.

Highly bizarre this one isn't it? It sure as hell looks like an R W Davies boat - it's very hard to see it as anything else. What "game" is the broker playing? It would be unusual to broker a boat at this level of build quality without saying who the builder was - yet that seems to be exactly what they have done - they have told us only who didn't build it, but neglected to tell us who did.

I can attest to this being an absolutely gorgeous little boat. A few years back we encountered it at the top lock at Etruria. I got the impression it is actually rather more practical than you might at first assume.

I think unless you are very lucky, you will not successfully heat as much water in a horizontal calorifier as in a vertical one. That said, I agree with Tony that "rotational adjustment" of an horizontal one might well improve its performance.

Severn Dolphin is a boat that has been under renovation at Brinklow Boat Services over an extended period of time. From memory I think it was overplated on parts that had already bee overplated! It is one of several "Middle Northwich" motor boats that were on the BW maintenance fleet in the South West, and I believe is one of those for which the original GUCCCo "Star" name cannot be known with certainty. (Unless I am no longer up to date on this subject).

Like some have already said I also (much) prefer Vactan to Fertan. In fact I don't know where I went wrong trying use Fertan, but it was an unmitigated failure.

David ?

Yes, I've just worked that one out! Back in the days when every Marsworth lock had a full set of balance beams. Last time I walked up the flight only one lock had 4 genuine balance beams - every other one had one horrible temporary" 😂 alternative arrangement. If this is true for much of the rest of the GU then it really is disgraceful The CRT archive claims these to be 1955 images, so only about 7 years after nationalisation. Dates on the archive are sometimes wrong, but from the presentation of the boats 1955 sounds well plausible. There was probably around 15 years to run before they ended up with Blue Line, I'm guessing.

I'm confused/intrigued.... I can only see a post with this image, and not a series of photos that can be attributed to the Marsworth flight. Can you please provide a link to the post that shows multiple images. Thanks. EDIT: A bit of a look at the CRT archive throws up other images of Renfrew and Belmont

I'm not sure if that is meant to be slightly tongue in cheek, but... Most originally steel or iron working boats have long since had to have had an all new bottom. Both my 1933 built boats have replacement undersides.

You would have no problem on the Leicester section at Watford and Foxton - these locks are significantly wider that a typical ex GUCCCo motor.

Good info here about boats shortened for use in the North...

I'm reasonably (say 80%) certain that I may still have an old manual for a Kestrel controller. Unfortunately though, if I do, it will be on the boats, where I currently am not. I have no plans to be there for a week or two (I think), but when I do go, I'll have a look around. For what it's worth I'm firmly of the view that if you have a Kestrel you should get rid of it ASAP.

Just one thing - it says "gas boiler" was new in 2022. Assuming they mean the instantaneous water heater, I'm struggling to believe you could buy one that looked like that 3 years ago. To me it looks a great deal older, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.