Cinimod

Thanks @Cal Ando Mine is finally out of the water and just been blacked, I have ended up using High Line Yachting on the Slough arm at Iver... John and Neil are a great bunch and they have done a really good job..

Very many thanks

A quick reopening to this topic - who is currenlty recommended near Reading for a 40ft Springer - thanks :)

Me too... so much time has passed that I have now completed my journey down from York and am currently on the 48-hour moorings outside SCC before heading down to Bath this weekend and then on to Hanham so I can say I went as far as I could... I am guessing she found an alternative?

Thank you both for that... I am thinking about sending them back and getting this instead - https://amzn.to/3hh2WVx - 20W Portable LED Work Light Cordless Rechargeable IP65 12v LED Light Hand Lamp Much more flexible in its use and I could have it up at the back with me, so if a boat is coming the other way, I could shield it a bit, or at least turn it to face to the side...

Thank you - I have done so!

I need to put a light on the front of my boat - at the moment it has a 240v lights, which is switched from inside the cabin, and as I am on my own, there is no way I can run into and out of the boat to turn it on and off... I have bought these lights - https://amzn.to/34gEgZr They are 27w, 12v - so now I need to run a cable the length of the boat... From what I can see, using the cable guide, a 4mm cable should be OK as the cable run will be about 11m from battery to light (via a switch) - does that sound about right to you? I am thinking one light will be bright enough for tunnels and as I will be running the engine when I will want to use it the voltage drop should not matter too much as it should be 14v coming from the alternator. My next question is - where do you buy the cable from? The only thing I can see on Screwfix in 4mm flexi is Green/Yellow 7-core - I guess it would do the job, but I should probably use black and red to do it properly... RS Components - appear to have it - https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8114466/ - but do not offer any convenient shipping/pick up options Would 12AGW speaker wire work? (AMAZON) - It looks like it should and £18 for 15m seems like a good price... Pure Copper Stereo Audio Speaker Wire & Cable - Made in Germany - 2x4mm² - 15m - I know it says Audio speaker, but it is copper, which surely would work? One more question - looking at it, I should have a fuse in there somewhere too? Thank you so much for your thoughts - - love this forum (Going to wire up a horn as well!)

You are absolutely correct - is there a way to edit the post, I can not see one? - Thank you

Very happy to share the story... I went out of Keadby onto the tidal Trent with all going very smoothly... It was a warm day and I have an air cooled Lister engine from around 1975 in a 40ft Springer. At the time of leaving the lock, the tide was still on the ebb, so was pushing up river against the outgoing tide. In order to make headway, the engine needed to be going at quite a rate, and as she is a trad layout, the engine is very noisy in the cabin right in front of me, so I had the top of the hatch only partially open... Long story short, not too long after getting onto the river the engine cut out... just before the M180 bridge (https://goo.gl/maps/zjigUeaQD3tNPew16) My first action - was to try and restart the engine, by turning the key... the starter clicked, but nothing happened... As I was heading for the centre column of the bridge, I thought it would not be a good idea to hit it... so deployed the anchor. I had the anchor sitting next to me at the back of the boat for just such an eventuality, as I am 'skippering' on my own (From York to Bath...) The anchor deployed, and lodged - at this point the tide was on the turn, so the flow was reasonably neutral to slightly incoming. I spent the next 10 or so minutes, trying to figure out what to do next... I could manually turn the 'wheel thingy' which has the belt to the alternator on, so the engine did not appear to have jammed... I checked the starter battery was OK, turned everything off and on again... then the engine started up again... By this time the flow was coming in pretty rapidly and even though the anchor was deployed securely I had still been pushed under the bridge (slowly), fortunately away from the centre column. As I had travelled out with a couple of other boats they were kind enough to be waiting to see if I needed help. The issue I had is that I had tied the anchor to the stern of the boat... and with the flow coming in so quickly there was no way I could back up over the anchor to get it up. I did try to pull it up and almost ended up getting knocked overboard as the tiller swing in the current - (I did have a life jacket, but would not advise falling overboard on a tidal river in full flow!) One of the other boats came back to try and help me - the plan being to tie up together and pull me back over the anchor so that I could pull it up. However, that did not go entirely to plan... whilst we got a rope on, the other boat overshot and got caught by the current which swung her round behind me, resulting in their prop slicing the rope to the anchor (good job it was not all chain, or it would have got tangled and who knows what would have happened!) I then spent the next few hours (not sure how many, but it was quite a while) taking it very steady to get to Torksey. The following day I was lucky enough to be able to borrow and anchor to complete the journey up the tidal Trent to Cromwell... From Cromwell to Nottingham - I just took it slow and steady, with no anchor - had anything gone wrong then, it would have been a matter of trying to get into the bank somehow... a very anxious few days boating. So - things worked out alright in the end - just need to replace the anchor, which whilst it is a cost, is a lot less substantial than hitting a motorway bridge or sinking the boat. What would I do differently? - Very definitely have the anchor ties on to the front of the boat. That way, when you are ready to recover the anchor, all you need to do is to power forward over it and pull it up - assuming you can get going again. So on engine failure or other loss of control - get your anchor our ASAP to stop your movement - then take time to assess what needs doing and call for help if you need to.

Very many thanks for the replies - all very useful... I am considering going with this - https://www.marinescene.co.uk/view/13245/claw-bruce-style-15kg-galvanised-standard-anchor-kit As it is on a narrowboat, I think that I only need enough chain to get the anchor to lie flat on the bed and dig in... then the rope. This is the arrangement I had - before I had to deploy, then cut it loose on the Trent a few weeks back when the engine cut out on the tidal section just before a bridge! I was unable to retrieve as it was tied off at the stern and not the bow. I believe it should do the job? The only river I am planning on being on now is the Thames between Oxford and Reading, and the K&A where it has river stretches, between Reading and Bristol.

Hi Iain - the suggestion was to NOT HAVE A CHAIN - just the anchor and rope... then instead of the chain you have a couple of 10kg weights...

Hi - I am about to go out on the Thames from Oxford to Reading and need to get an anchor for a 40ft Springer. I have read through numerous posts on here and my head is swimming! Please, can someone suggest - very straightforward - what weight of Anchor, Length of Chain and length of Rope I would need for this? I will also want to go from Bath to Bristol at some point, but am hoping that would be about the same. Also - where is a good place to get it from, and get it delivered to - most likely around Kidlington. It was suggested to me by someone who used to run tugs to NOT have a chain - instead get some weights to run down the rope and hold it horizontal... with a retrieval line connected to the weight and one to the back of the anchor, to make it easier to pull up in stages. What are peoples thoughts on that? Many thanks in advance

Very many thanks for these Mike

Thank you for your comments Magpie... I am currently headed down to Bath from York - I was initially considering how I would get on as a CC, but from what I have seen and read elsewhere this is looking increasingly unlikely... I am looking to live-aboard the majority of the time with occasional trips for business - I have a 40ft Narrowboat - so any suggestions and recommendations on places to look would be much appreciated, or is it best to get down there and then look around for a couple of month and speak to people locally? (My ETA is around the end of August to Mid September) Would it be worth considering just setting up a winter mooring, or is that like hen's teeth too? Is there an online forum anywhere for discussion just for the area from Bradford-on-avon to Bristol? Many thanks in advance.

I came up through Cromwell today - I did not arrive at Cromwell until 16:40 and the lock was shut, with a red light. I moored up and walked up to the control tower and no one was in (as they finish at 16:00) Fortunately the lock keeper was just coming out of his house and very kindly did the lock for me. He said that they are short staffed, which is why the locks are on limited times and even he has had problems getting hold of the other locks. He also said that he thinks as of the start of August they will be back to full staffing with the tides. Here is hoping for those traversing the Trent soon