alan_fincher

It doesn't look much like the GU to me.

Yikes!!

I don't know, but unsurprisingly dogs seem to be larger than pigeons.

The advert reads..... Possibly one to avoid!

Magpie Patrick's explanation is, I believe a correct one. The discontinued lock of each pair was converted to a by-wash weir, something not present in the original configuration. Before this was done lock keepers were required at each lock, and the locks were placed out of use when keepers were not on duty. I have an old 1970s "Canals Book", which clearly states that navigation was not possible at weekends. However there is one oddity I don't understand. Historic pictures of Regents Canal locks often show windlasses permanently attached to the paddle gear, and not obviously removable. If the paddles were not in some way disabled if the lock keepers were off duty, this would seem to have opened up the possibility o the flooding they were so keen to avoid.

Yes they must, I agree.

Hard to say, as air cooled Listers can exhibit a wide range of working oil pressures, and will go on for years with not particularly high numbers. A good one, hot, can usually manage 20 psi at idle, and perhaps twice that at cruising speed. However you should not be alarmed if yours is less. Anecdotally people working for Lister are supposed to have said "as long as there is something on the gauge it will be fine".

I can't really fully agree with that statement. Few of the many types of "vintage" two cylinder engines fitted to narrow boats develop power that comes close to a K2. From memory a K2 develops around 44HP, that being typically twice that of many other engines, which are often rated roundabout the 22HP mark. An engine bed that is suitable for (say) a Lister JP2 or a Gardner 2LW may well prove under-engineered for a Kelvin K2. The only engine bed I have ever had a look at that was constructed to be man enough for a K2 is a massive piece f engineering that makes the engine bed in either of my historic boats look puny by comparison.

I don't know the specs for variants of the AC5R, and in particular for 24 volt variants. We have a 12 volt AC5R, and even if driven fast ours only outputs 60A max, so it could be that the 24V one you have only has a maximum output of 30A. Very much higher output alternators exist, so you should be ale to find one that improves the situation - particularly as it should be easy in your case to avoid belt slip.

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. Carina is a Yarwoods / Northwich boat so would I believe have come with a steel cabin with those bar handrails on short upstands. However many Yarwoods / Northwich boats had their steel cabins replaced in wood- my understanding is that the original cabins were unpopular because of severe condensation problems. If Carina currently has a wooden cabin, I would expect it to have wooden handrails, with no holes in them.

Maybe it is stating the "bleedin' obvious", but when built Harland and Wolff "Woolwich" boats had wooden cabins whereas Yarwoods "Northwich" boats had steel. It wouldn't really be practical to put those Northwich style hand rails on a Woolwich boat, and I suggest Vesta could only really have that style once its wooden cabin was rebuilt in steel. I do think that with the very narrow gap between handrail and cabin that Yarwoods handrails, as originally fitted, pose a danger. Normally this is addressed when any modifications are being made by increasing the length of the upstands, and hence the rail clearance from cabin top. Our FLAMINGO actually has the original clearances on the engine room room, whereas the gap on the accommodation cabin is far less fraught with possible injury, should you slip.(which is not an original) is quite a bit wider, and feels

As far as I can see it didn't sport these when Max Sinclair owned it, so I don't know how it later came to have them. I still love it, nonetheless.

I stood the first time there were elections to CRT council, with Dave Mayall standing at the same time. It's not hard to find the role of Council detailed on the CRT website. Although much of it may seem relatively toothless, it does have powers - for example Council does have the powers, theoretically at least, to dismiss trustees. I doubt it ever will, but those powers exist.

I've not read the entire thread, but, as usual, Tony's advice is spot on Particularly as he emphasises possible issues with the use of a Polar header tank. The available "Polar" rubber end caps are not Polar - they are very poor copies using the original polar moulds, and very prone to frequent failure. To make matters worse the cost of those copies is ridiculously high. I no longer have a BMC, but when I did was eventually able to source a cap of either 3 PS or 4 PSI, (can't remember which), which finally meant I could stop regular replacement of those end caps. A second piece of advice, (if relevant), is that a Bowman end cap can be persuaded with a bit of jiggling to replace a crap "Polar" copy. These may well withstand 7 psi, but I chose to use Bowman caps with a 3 or 4 PSI radiator cap, after which all was fine, and I never had any further failures.

I've just looked at B&Q websire, and for 18mm thickness it is showing at £196. B&Q 18mm Marine Ply

Being pedantic, it is pretty unlikely that floor is made of marine plywood. True marine plywood is very very expensive - often 3 or 4 times the price of the plywoods used in narrow boats. It is far more likely this is "exterior" or "WBP" , (weather and boil-proof) plywood. You would need to give more information about the damage. Is it growing fungus on the underneath? Is it starting to delaminate? It's hard to advise with no more information..

Although I have reservations about random, non-canal related, items being painted in a "roses"style, I actually think those roses are not bad for the standard of this genre. Logic says it shouldn't be worth a lot of money, but it is far from unusual for modern pieces to sell for more than you might realistically expect.

I had a Sterling inverter that suddenly started behaving as described. There was no obvious fix, so I now have a Victron installed in it's place. If you uncover any reliable fix to the Sterling unit, please share it, as I still have it somewhere, I think. I'm unimpressed with Sterling kit, and would not buy anything else carrying that name.

"More dismal reading"? It's Narrowboatworld - "dismal reading" comes as standard!

To me the biggest issue is the sale price of just over £50K, (though I realise you may already have negotiated a lower figure). Obviously how many pits and how deep will be very important, but to me any significant number and depth then I would not like to be paying that kind of price

Cow Roast.

New blacking often just keeps being added on top of what is already there - assuming that pressure washing hasn't brought it off. Hence after a significant numbers of blackings it can really be very thick. One thing to bear in mind is that each new layer of blacking added on top of a skin tank can reduce its effectiveness at cooling. Unlikely to be an issue if the skin tank was sensibly sized in the first place, but if a skin tank is already marginal then further reducing its effectiveness can cause problems - a rare thing, but not unheard of.

???

I must admit I know little of the history, but do recall a lengthy debate, (probably on CWDF), when it was either acquired, (or perhaps about to be acquired), by someone who thought they could sort it out by having access to welders, but not welders who had any connection with boatbuilding. Thy sounded pretty clueless, so hopefully what they were planning for SLOUGH never happened. I believe one ownership change put it in the hands of an ex-working batman, but who passed away. I think I have that correctly.