alan_fincher
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Posts posted by alan_fincher
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Anglesey Arm for Chasewater
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With the engine not running, and neutral selected on the gearbox, can you turn the propshaft (and hence the prop) by hand? If the stern gland is sensibly packed and tightened it should be quite easy to manually rotate the prop shaft.
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1 hour ago, David Mack said:
I think it may have applied both to the Admirals (clothed hoops) and River class (blue tops), both of which had relatively light plating and welded frames, rather than the riveted construction of most earlier working boats (Severners excepted).
Wooden boats also excepted! 😄
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On 26/06/2017 at 09:54, Athy said:
One rarely sees boats with those curved guards - which I know as "bridge bars" but that may not be the right term - these days. I wonder why not.
We knew them as Idiot Bars.....
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2 hours ago, magnetman said:
Ikea stuff is shockingly bad quality these days. I remember when they did some good stuff but these days I would not touch any of their gear with a largepole.
Maybe if I was desperate for some cutlery I would consider one of their forks but nothing else.
Horrid.
I always wanted to go round and Ikea store (against the arrows) with a load of stickers for their silly names.
The Shīte chair. The Cråppe bed. The Brökkēn wardrobe. The Bînnitt sofa. The Rúbbīsche desk. The Jūnkk stool.
Etc. Bit of a a giggle.
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What I don't understand is that I have seen dozens of Alvechurch / ABC hire boats to that sort of design, both elderly ones now in private ownership and also elderly ones still in the fleet.
I can't recall ever seeing one that had ended up anything like that,
One can only guess as to how it has occurred, but personally I wouldn't buy it.-
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Removed unexplained multiple postings
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16 minutes ago, Michael Siggers said:
Here is a picture taken this afternoon.
Blimey - that isn't a normal situation.
Could this boat have been an ex Alvechurch / ABC hire boat? The offse front door with a round window, the general bow shape, and the front button resting against a round steel plate are all characteristics that one finds in that breed of hire boat.
I've never seen one with wobbly sides like that though.-
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Even if you can get a replacement panel at a price you are prepared to pay I would be far from confident it would solve your problems
To me this looks like a wiring fault, not an instrument fault.Are you saying the tachometer isn't working either?
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3 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:
There is a cut off date of the boat build which precludes the fitting of open flue gas appliances in narrowboats. I can't be a***d to check the BSS regs myself, but would suggest you do.
There is no cut-off date in the BSS regs. You can fit one to any age of boat.
The same may not be true if the RCD applies though - that's not anything I know about as both my boats are 87 years old! -
2 minutes ago, squid said:
Thanks everyone. Maybe my original post was unclear, the plumber recommended that I replace the gas boiler and don't bother replacing the calorifier.
I would say it would be best to be more accurate with your terminology.
A "gas boiler" burns gas to produce hot water but that hot water is stored in a "hot water cylinder" (aka "calorifier" in boat terms).
If you have no hot water cylinder / calorifier, then you have an instantaneous gas water heater, where water is heated on demand only when hot taps are opened.
Neither is perfect, but I prefer the latter as, however well lagged, heat will be slowly lost from a calorifier when you are not using it.The problem is that the choice of LPG instantaneous water heaters suitable for boats seems to now be very limited.
The once very popular Morco D61 ha been discontinued for some time now. -
1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:
I think that you need to clarify what is meant by "a better gas boiler". If the suggestion is a true boiler, rather than an instant gas water heater I think you need to look carefully at running costs.
If the calorifier is using the engine coolant, then the heat is essentially free as long as you are running the engine for other reasons.
A correctly plumbed and valves instant gas water heater plus a calorifier is in many respects the best of both worlds. Free hot water when cruising and the minimum gas use when you are not.
Personally I had a gut full of old instant gas water heaters on the hire boats (1970s) so would never have one on my boat, so it was an Alde plus a twin coil calorifier, but that is just me and should not be used to sway you one way or the other.
Exactly what Tony says, other than I have no prejudice against instantaneous heaters, so I would delete his final paragraph.
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Who was the builder of this1988 62 foot narrow boat please?
I would have thought that a 13mm baseplate was pretty unusual back then. -
Am I correct in thinking this attended the Braunston show this year, (or have I invented that)?
I feel sure I have seen it somewhere. -
1 minute ago, blackrose said:
Is there a bleed screw above somewhere so that the water would come out more "cleanly"?
I don't think so.
Your only options for getting water out are removing the drain screw at the bottom and/or disconnecting the water feed and outlet pipes. I never see the need to disconnect an outlet pipe, as surely turning hot taps on will achieve the same thing.
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58 minutes ago, magnetman said:
The proper item is one of the old Calor gas screw-on valve protection caps. Cast iron so nice and heavy and won't ever blow away.
Oh trust me they do if you forget to remove them before firing up the engine!
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September 2014.
SICKLE shares Cosgrove lock with Bantam Tug and ARGUS
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46 minutes ago, merline said:
Is this the one that used tow ARGUS around after it was in Pete's ownership?
5 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:Is this the one that used tow ARGUS around after it was in Pete's ownership?
Edited to add:
£5,000 ??? It can't be that rough, surely?
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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:
I think we need so photos to have an idea what you are talking about
Agreed! I have no idea what this "stack/chimney" might be.
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16 minutes ago, CIEL said:
If you have got that much water/oil down there why has the bilge pump not done it's thing.
Because oil and water from the engine ought to be going into a contained area separate from the rest of the bilge.
The bilge pump should not be able to pump anything from that area, or you would be disgorging oil and grease into the cut.
Unless of course it overtops the containment area into the general bilge, (which is a bad thing to allow to happen).
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Can you please also confirm that the engine is installed above an area that is bounded on all sides so any fluid lost from the engine is contained, and cant flow into other areas, such as the area under the stern gland.
Mind you, if you are right about the 40 litres that amount is nearly 9 UK gallons - a huge amount, and I'm not sure it wouldn't start to overflow out of the dedicated catchment area under the engine.
If it is getting there when you are running the engine in gear I would have thought it might be coming in so fast you could see where it was originating from.
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When I log on to CRT licencing the first page I see says they have temporarily removed sightings data from the options available.
QuoteSightings Information
To support customers accessing their data, we have recently made sightings of boat movements available via your Web Licensing account.
Unfortunately, the format of that data has caused some customers concern about the location their boat has been sighted and left them with questions.
The Trust is currently compiling supporting guidance and information, as a priority, to help boaters best understand this data and help answer any questions they may have.
Whilst we prepare this guidance, we are pausing access to the sightings data.
We anticipate this pause will be brief, and sightings will be available again soon. We thank you for your patience and ask that, unless urgent or you do not have access to the your web licensing account, you do not make requests for your boat sightings. We are working to have the boat sighting information available on your account soon. This will be quicker than a typical request for sightings made to our information team.
If you have already made an enquiry about your sightings, we will provide you with the supporting guidance and information as soon as possible.
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The 2 pot Sabbs are rather nice little units and their approximately 18-22 HP will push a well shaped boat along very well indeed. In the 1970s a boat named Japonica was particularly well known for it's turn of speed, and other boats struggled to keep up with it.
I'm not sure why you would want to box it in and silence it though - these are definitely engines that need to heard - suppressing their excellent bark would be a great shame! -
2 minutes ago, Colin b said:
Thanks Alan, the gunwales are only about 3” wide and not really practical to walk on! You are probably right in that it was designed by a lunatic with a welder!!
I didn't mean to sound disparaging! There are all kinds of boats out there and in my time I have owned one that had similar width ones to your new purchase, (this was in the 1970s). .
However I can't immediately think of any boats with a recognised branding where this applies, so my gut feeling remains that is is a one off, and you are unlikely to find another one similar.
Alan Firth
in History & Heritage
Posted
Am I misunderstanding your post, but surely coal is about the only thing the Ovaltine boats did carry.
i should add that I also like the Alan Firth paintings, an we have several framed ones on Flamingo. My all out favourites though are by Garth Allen