alan_fincher

Yes "cold cranking amps" (or "CCA") is what is most important for a starter battery. Amp Hours (or "Ah") is far less relevant. This is because you want it to supply very (very) big currents for a short period only, being quite different from a leisure battery which needs to be able only to supply very much smaller currents, but continuously over a number of hours. A starter battery ranging from (say) 700CCA to 900CCA should be far more than you need,

Yes, I'm sure spud has it. I was also coming up with Mindon Marine.

Great photo Ian. I don't think I have ever seen one that shows the actual tanks until now. I assume they may have been travelling empty in this photo - they look too high out of the water to be carrying a meaningful load.

That sounds about right to me....

I'm not sure this is correct - I don't think HYDRUS was ever a Willow Wren boat. I think it was a BW boat that was sold directly by them into private ownership, then converted.

Boom! boom! From memory I think not a lot of Achilles ended up in this boat.

OK. I own up - I was wrong! The tug TYBURN did indeed work on the Wyvern Shipping hire fleet, under the name of PERSEVERANCE. Sorry for any confusion!

I thought I had a reasonable memory of what "historic" boats had served in the Wyvern fleet. I certainly don't recall ever hearing about TYBURN, although it is perfectly possible I am wrong.

People seem to keep referring to this as riveted. Is it? Does it? It loooks like the flat(ish) room has large holes in it.

Errm yes....... The article linked to is clearly the work of Allan Richards, (or at the very least he has had strong input to it). It is typical Allan Richards; sensationalism - produce a story, but be "creative" to beef up the headline!

Unless I'm confusing it with something else, then the carrier was Birmingham & Midland, rather than Midland Canal Transport. I think only ex Grand Union Canal Carrying Co boats were used for that traffic- I can't think of any FMC boats likely to have been involved. I think the traffic was very short lived. Here you go! Brimingham & Midland's YEOFORD and PICTOR on the Duckham's Oil Traffic in 1970 (or so it says!)...

The Lister HA2 now in SICKLE was reputedly from a standby generator set, but I don't know whose. Small correction - the very famous hospital in Oxford is the John Radcliffe.

Thanks to Captain Pegg & RayT for their explanations. From memory her early life afloat was with horse boats. She, her parents, and her siblings are the subject of the biography "A Horse A Boat And you". It gives a very good insight to those born on the boats, and who stayed with them to the very end of long distance carrying. She could hardly have been more embedded in the boating tradition. Two of her sisters, Vera and Ann married Ken Ward and Ted Ward, who were themselves brothers, although I am fairly certain she has outlived all of these. I didn't know her well, but did converse with her from time to time. Her brother-in-law Ken Ward and her sister Vera Ward (nee Wain) operated our boat FLAMINGO for Willow Wren CTS in the late 1960s.

Agreed 100%

For those who are interested, but don't do Facebook... Sadly Alice Lapworth passed away yesterday. No small number will no doubt be saddened by this news. However, I suspect if you don't recognise the name you probably have little interest in this news. Photo lifted from Facebook

Looks to be a great gathering - some of those boats have come up from places very large distances to the South. We have always hoped we might get our boat.s up there, if only for just one year. We have never managed it, and our circumstances now make it quite unlikely we never will. A shame, but we need to be realistic.

The estimated value of the boat has doubled. The actual value only doubles if and when you manage to make a sale at the estimated figure

I'm no fan of the NBTA. Having met and had conversations with Panda Smith and Marcus Trower I long ago formed my own opinions of what their agenda is. HOWEVER, unless I'm missing something the 25% is not the amount by which their mooring fees will increase over 4 years, it is the amount that the surcharge will increase IN ADDITION TO the amount amount that licences will increase generally. That is they will still pay the same increase as you or me, and this 25% will be in addition to that. Not quite the same thing at all. Of course you also have the wide beam surcharge, so it seems that a "continous cruiser" with a fat boat gets a double whammy.

Indeed. Buying direct from Morris generally seems to be one of the most expensive ways to buy their oils!

Good call! You can see small loops both at the top and at the bottom of each upright, so looks very much like it is to hang three pennants from. Just one thing though - Why on earth would you?

AFAIK Morris don't do a 15W/40 in their Golden Film range - a shame as it meets the API CC requirement. I've not re-checked, but over the years I have used Morris 10W/40, 20W/40, and straight monograde SAE 30. I thing those are your only possibilities for Golden Film API-CC.

I don't know if Ed Boden still includes the Southern Oxford in his patch - he certainly used to advertise that he covered it. If he still does I would highly recommend him - he has a habit of sorting out what other engineers have missed, and prices are competitive.

Exactly this! ^^^^^^^^ It was a good paint, and very easy to use. However the Woolworths that I used to buy from seldom had more than about 3 fairly small cans in any chosen colour. Painting an entire cabin would usually involve you visiting multiple stores!

An a previous boat the "ceiling" above" quite a small and enclosed shower was the same as throughout the whole boat - 9mm oak faced plywood. This suffered no damage at all from hot and steamy showers.

Perhaps you could persuade them to relabel the items listed as "Bargeware"! As far as I'm concerned that is bad enough to keep encountering on eBay, without actually finding it turning up in a museum.