alan_fincher

So who is planning to visit the Alvecote event next weekend, then? OK, I know some will be at the Northampton IWA event instead, but we hope to meet some of you at Alvecote. Things have been too tight to make it realistic to take both boats, so sadly "Sickle" will not be there, but we have been going flat out to make "Flamingo" a viable alternative, and I think we have just about made it.......... Enough has been changed that I expect something to break, but what is life with an historic boat, without a bit of risk and excitement!......

This is exactly the kind of thing Chris Pink would have said, were he still posting.... ..... of, hang on a minute!......

Gordon Bennett!.... As an aside, useless fact no 24127 - My mother in law had an artist friend called Gordon Bennett, ad has a couple of signed originals by him hung in her home.....

Many of the ex working boiats built in wood that survive were built maybe about 80 years ago, and expected to last about 20 years if properly maintained. Admittedly the same probably applied to the iron and steel ones, but they just seem to do better at still being able to be made watertight when they are approaching 4 times as old as they were probably first intended to last, I have 2 times 1936 steel built narrow boats, with the larger part of each being original 1936.materials - try finding a 1936 wooden narrow boat where the same applies!

The flue pips and external flue I bought don't carry any branding or have any instructions whatsoever, and are the ones sold at Midland Chandlers, (and nmany other chandlers). However checking Morcos site, they do seem to be marketed by Morco themsolves.... Double Walled Flue External flue The only questionable bit (apart from zero instructions!) is the inprecise fit of the inner flue into te collar lon the top of the D61.

Last I knew Keith Ball at Industry Narrowboats had a DM4, which he had bought possin;y to go in Enceladus. A scary thought, even the HR2 it did receive sounds a lot. I imagine he still has it. Too big for a narrow boat, in my view.

Not sure if all Polystyrene is the same, but based on what I have found so far on Flamingo, heat caused by welding seems to melt it and cause it to become thinner and more solid at the welded points, but no evidence of anything having caught fire. As MTB says bolting a patch on with tapped holes is very feasible. I have done this on Flamingo where a Kabola has been removed. Also for a cat flap!

None of your images will display for me, so it's hard to know exactly what you are referring to. The only flue adapters i'm aware of for the Morco are the ones that relate to swapping D51 and D61 models that I seem to recall have different sized collars. I have used the twin walled flue I posted an image of, and the inner flue sits inside the collar on the hood of the Morco. Mike the Boilerman seemed to imply this was quite normal, so can you please explain why you belive it is not acceptable.

You pat 5% VAT on everything, including the duty, whether this be the duty at the lower rebated "non propulsion" rate, or the full duty for propulsion. By the time the two duty rates have had this VAT added to them, the price difference per litre rounded should be about 50p, if the duty ratesa re as they are when I last did the sums. If an outlet has a price difference that isn't about 50p different between the two uses, as some have suggested, it is effectively charging you a differnt starting price for the fuel before any duty or VAT is added. Probably not illegal, but hard to justify!

Yes, newly listed. Doesn't sound a lot of money, so I assume it might need a fair bit of work, possibly?

It has been past our moorings near Weedon several times, so as has been suggested seems to be based in this area

It does sometimes. I recall a few yeras back Nigel Carton reported on a boat that was overheating following the skin tank having been overplated. IIRC the answer was to remove the overplating where it actually covered the skin tank, (the surviving steel underneath presumably then being declared "good enough" in that area?" A "search" should find it.

More bizarre to my untrained brain is that the inner flue fits, (and not particularly well!) inside the collar on the top of the Morco, rather than over it. It seems far more likely to me that this will result in at least some of the combustion gasses ending up outside the inner flue, rather than passing through it. But as the whole "hood" arrangement at the top is fairly open anyway, I assume that "good fit" doesn't really enter in to it - more a hope that you create enough of a "draw" that the vast majority of the combustion products get sucked up the chimney Pictures of relevant parts.......

Thanks for all advice on cutting hole in roof, but the question now arises "how big a hole do I need ?" I'm using the twin wall flue available at chandlers, and the standard roof outlet to go on top. I could either make a hole of the smaller size of the flue pipe itself, and stop the outer pipe of the twin wall flue just short of the roof. Or I could cut a hole the size of the outer pipe, and pass the whole lot through, so that the outer wall ends just above the roof line. The external part that fits to the roof seems to allow this, as it has a stepped ring near its base. The instructions don't cover this at all, but the second solution seems better to me, as it explicitly keeps the inner pipe out of contact from the cut hole, and hence means if it gets very hot, it is less likely to be trying to heat the roof as well. The only worry in my head, is that whilst I can cut a small hole to be bigger, I can't cut a big hole to be smaller - so have I missed something obvious,particularly as somebody has already told me you don't need to take both pipes through! So for anyone who has done this, did you pass both walls of the flue through, or only cut a hole small enough for the inner one, please ?

There were several in the Braunston store last Wednesday - I doubt they have sold them all. It is the first time I have seen them, and although they share quite a few similarities with the Epping, my untrained eye would judge them to be a better product. I don't know if the sizing is identical, but I would judge it as very similar. Not cheap though!

Dave, Very sorry to hear your news, but am hopeless with words in these situations. Of course you should be doing exactly what you are doing - family comes first, no question. I, of course, hope you both get the best outcome you can, given where things are now.

I'm not sure, but I think you may find some people advertising Eppings do not actual;y have stock of them. It's worth checking that any particular place advertising them actually has one to sell you.

Unless it has changed since last time, you are only allowed 150 words for your election statement. You are going to need to do quite a lot of editing on the above, if you were going to use it as a basis for yours!

Chalice had an arrangement with a large mushroom vent over the Morco. instead of a conventional Morco flue. It always passed a BSS spill test without problems, although I always felt some unease about the rrangements, particularly as the Morco was in a very small bathroom - something you are specifically advised not to do. Whilst I realise a normal Morco terminal may be at risk when cruising, I intend to try one, as I feel it id the properly designed thing for the job. If I crush it on the first trip out, I may have to think again. Back to the original question, I have arranged to borrow a more substantial jigsaw than the one I own from another forum member. I didn't fancy being thrown into the cut, or having my wrist broken when a hole saw jammed, and, anyway, I don't have one, and will probably never need one again!

I actually meant meetings involving any of what you have previously called "quangos" - that would include things like NAG, as well as any partnership based groups. I actually feel that a typical meeting note from any of these is seldom a sufficient record of the meeting, (although after several requests I do think those for the group I'm involved in have got somewhat better). I think we will have to differ on whether it is OK for CRT not to publish meeting notes from the associations meetings, then. However my take on it is that if CRT sit down with a number of "association" reps and then consider them as representing the views of boaters more widely, then notes for those meetings should be available to us all. We have all previously criticised BW/CRT quietly agreeing things in their "club" with the IWA, for example, and I can't see the big difference here, other than the "club" involved here is somewhat larger, but probably still not covering the majority of boat owners. One of the problems now seems to be that each some association representatives are each telling a different story about who said what, so it is impossible to be clear what actually was said in the meetings that may (or indeed may not!) have affected any outcome on winter moorings for 2015/2016.

Thanks all - some good advice.... I have full access from both sides - the roof lining is down, and I know I'm cutting an area not on ny roof nbeam or reinforcement, well away from any gramrails at the edge, as well. Correct - I have also just had the kind offer of a loan of a more poweful one from a forum member. Thanks Roger, but we hope to be at Alvecote on theBH weekend, and would dearly love to get this thing installed before we set off, (possibly about a week before), as we currently have no hot watewr source when away from a land-line I think I can handle it - I just want to take best advice before I try.

I'm busy dealing with a boat that has used 230 volt cabling in both the 230 volt runs and the 12 volt runs, and I I would say absolutely don't do it. If it is 12 volts DC, use only stuff with red and black insulation. (That said many of the 12 volts runs I'm dealing with, and removing, are in red and black, but unfortunately it is red and black with single solid conductors, intended for 230 volt use! )the correct ) Note previous comments about volts drop. If you run mains cable designed for up to 16 amps thewhole length of a decent sized narrow boat, and try and draw anything approaching 16 amps through it, you will find the voltage there will be nowhere like 12 volts. Without doing some sums, and making some assumptions, I'm not sure what you might see, but I would suggest there is a reasonable chance that more volts will be lost inn the cable than you actually end up "seeing" at the end of it!

Well there have been published meeting notes for previous associations meetings, and it was implied to me that there were some in draft for this last meeting, available on the CRT extranet to attendees. It seems that on this occasion, for whatever reason, they have not been made public, (or at least not yet). Are you happy to have meetings taking place between CRT and associations that represent different groups of boaters, where those groups hope to influence CRT policy or actions, but where what was discussed at those meetings is not made available to boaters generally, even in a summary form? That seems to me to be more or less what you have complained about in respect of other meetings involving CRT staff and non CRT staff?

NABO have published their own notes, but I have not seen any official agreed meeting notes issued by anybody. As NABO is being criticised for either its actions or lack of actions, it would be interesting to see some official notes for the meeting. Unless someone can produce them, I'm starting to think that even if they have ever existed they are not in the public domain. In view of the name ping-pong of blame now being handed about, and responses from people that contradict each other, I am finding it very hard to know what to believe! I doubt I'm alone on that matter.

I'm planning to install a Morco shortly, which will require cutting the hole to pass through the steel roof of the main cabin. This is assumed, but not yet proven, to be 4mm steel, (I guess it could even be 5mm). I know there have been previous threads on this, and I thought it was possible to do this slowly with a jig saw with a large supply of metal cutting blades. However some of the family are now laughing at the idea I'm even thinking about it, and I'm wondering if I am being over optimistic! So who has actually tried this, and how easy or difficult was it? What did you use to lubricate the cut? How long did it take, and how many blades did you get though? I have also seen a suggestion that a minimum power rating is required for the saw used. I have no idea what mine is rated at, as I'm at home, and it is on the boat, but it was not an expensive one, and I'm guessing quite low powered. I'm prepared to buy something more brutal if I need it - what would people recommend as a minimum, please?