Steilsteven

A brighter version of the previous NBT one. Keith.

I'll be there for the weekend manning the NBT stand in the canal societies tent.Be nice to meet some of you. No boats this year as their re-painting is not quite finished (already looking good though and a credit to the volunteers who have spent an incredible amount of their spare time working on them). Look out for them when they set out loaded from Alvecote en route for the Thames via Oxford in two weeks time. Keith.

Blimey! St.Pedants' day came round quick again! Keith

But that surely depends on how you define restoration? As the majority of the canal had pretty much dissapeared most of it will be new, just like the ''restored'' houses in the centre of Brussels that were bombed to the ground during the war.Built as exact replicas on the same ground, they were to all intents and purposes new when rebuilt. Keith.

The lock sizes on the Kennet vary a lot, County, Fobney,Garston, Sheffield, Padworth (I think), Aldermaston and Monkey Marsh were restored or rebuilt to original dimensions (Kennet barge size). Southcote lock was rebuilt by G.W.R. to K&A dimensions, Burghfield and Sulhamstead were cocked up and are just too short for a pair of 70 footers. Towney and Woolhampton were rebuilt to K&A dimensions as were some of the others towards Newbury.Monkey Marsh is in fact a concrete mock up of a turf sided lock, Garston is the only remaining true example on this navigation. During the restoration, a lot of the materials and gear was begged or borrowed from the rest of the system, hence the non uniformity. Keith.

Yes, that's exactly how they work. Keith.

The Wey and Arun, to all intents and puposes, will be new and so will the Wilts and Berks. I've heard it said that the Leicester arm is a broad canal with narrow locks so if the inclined plane is rebuilt it would make perfect sense to widen the Watford flight. It would make far more sense than the Bedford-Miton Keynes link and cheaper too I'll wager. Keith.

My point was that it's very British to say that things won't happen. My examples were of projects once considered impossible. Interesting about the W&A though because I always believed that it was 11ft beam. So there's hope of taking my barge through there yet at 66x12! Keith.

How very British, wasn't that said of the Huddersfield narrow, the Wey and Arun, the Cotswolds canals and even Brindleys auqueduct for that matter? Keith.

On that we agree but I didn't say fake did I? Without wanting to upset anyone on here, I have to say that I haven't seen a so-called replica Db that was built in Britain that cuts the mustard. Even the better ones such as Delta don't quite get it right. Keels might be more marketable if they weren't so wide, how about getting out that gas axe and taking a bit out of the beam Carl, It's been done in Netherlands? Keith

Probably because Dutch barges are prettier (personal opinion). Keith.

Well there certainly seems to be a lot of over hang inside the boat, I assumed this was because of wider than usual narrow boat gunwales. Totally agree concerning taking it over to Europe, especially as it has no bollards next to the wheelhouse. This must make life a bit difficult over here aswell. Keith.

Although this one looks quite nice, I can never see the point of Dutch barge style narrow boats. Yes, the comfort of a wheelhouse has to be a bonus but for the size of the boat the accomodation is much reduced by the wide gunwhales. Keith.

Are you really telling me, that a hire boat company is going to let me take a week, to get their boat back to base for what appears to be about 100 quid? I live next door to a hire boat company and my son used to work for one, part of his job was returning boats and this was done even when the river was in spate. The firm next door had all their boats out on hire for a corporate ''do'' in Oxford last year and they had to be brought back to the Kennet by the following morning, fancy paying £100 or so for that? These companies want their boats returned asap because they might get a last minute booking. No, it wouldn't be a cheap holiday, it would be hard graft. Keith.

Sounds like they're being cheapskates to me and doing someone out of a job. Pay for insurance and diesel? Yeah, right! Keith

None of us professes to be an expert and anyone is capable of making a mistake. Anyone who says they're an expert is to be avoided at all costs! The only ''experts'' that I've come accross, are the ones whilst watching someone cock up, are full of how it should have been done. Of course they've never put a foot wrong in their lives, have they? I've met some well known ''names'' over the years, all excellent boaters but not one of them would claim to be an expert. They all tend to use the same phrase, you never stop learning. In the Narrow Boat Trust we have and have had some very good steerers, some were good steerers when they joined the Trust and some developed their skills within the Trust. By its very nature NBT will be seen at times doing things wrong, just like a driving school when a pupil takes to the road for the first time. We are not an exclusive club, we welcome all comers. If we were an exclusive club with only ''expert'' members, then, perhaps, any critisism could be justified. As it is,as volunteers, we are all giving what spare time we can to maintain something we all enjoy and want to share with others. Anyway, I spoke to Trevor last night by phone, he is spending the whole of this week painting the boats, he feels very embarassed for not letting anyone know about the boats leaving on Saturday night and very humbly apologizes to all who were inconvenienced. Unfortunately, because of his location ( about 200 miles from home) he hasn't been able to get on line to do this himself, not even on his Blackberry! I hope what I've said here will help calm the waters a little. Keith.

They were there on the Saturday as they had been for some weeks. Due to the inclement weather, it was decided to move them at the end of the day to Grendon dock to carry on with the repaint under cover. This was a snap desicion and totally unplanned. Apoligies to all those who turned up on Sunday, it was unfortunate that Trevor didn't think to post the info Saturday night. Sorry for your wasted journeys. It's a pity some people feel the need to, once again yawn, yawn, see this as an oportunity to knock the Trust but I guess that says a whole lot more about them. Keith.

This subject always amuses me, can't say I favour one side or the other apart from the appearence point of view. Who was it that decided it was bad boatmanship anyway? I once read that leaving fenders down was never done in The Netherlands but have since found this not to be acurate having seen at least one 60mtr barge underway like this. Perhaps I should have caught up with the skipper and pointed out his error, I think not. On my own barge I sometimes leave them down and then regret it when they catch on to something when entering or leaving a lock, sometimes I take them up and then regret it when the current or wind catches me out as I'm mooring against concrete. Of course, I suppose, the proper way is to have a member of crew standing by ready to deploy fenders as and when necessary.Trouble is, sometimes I'm on my own and when I do have crew, they're not always aware of where a fender would be needed. The type of fenders I use are the French zig-zag hard black rubber ones.They're about three foot long and hang horizontally.In my opinion, they look the biz even when under way. If these weren't available and the only option was cruiser style plastic fenders I'd definately not leave them down as I think they'd look silly. Another barge owner told me he had one explode when going against the side so they're not really sutable anyway. Can't say I'm a fan of narrow boats with the sausages on strings dangling when under way and I can't see that they afford much protection, as they usually get snagged or roll out of the way. I also feel that the smooth lines of cruisers are spoilt by balloon fenders dangling all around but perhaps some people think they look good, if that's your bag then fair play. Sometimes they're a blessing, sometimes they're a curse. We all have differing opinions of what looks good or bad but I once saw two narrow boats jammed in Buckby top lock because one of them had car tyres hanging either side, now that's just plain stupid. Keith

Most likely the raw water pump, any competant mechanic should be able to fix this. Try Steve at Oxford Cruisers 01865 881698. Had my Whisper 6 for 5 years now and it's done many hours without a single problem, thoroughly recomend them. Keith.

Wheelhouse up 10ft, wheelhouse down 6ft 6ins.Headroom inside wheelhouse 6ft 6ins. With this set up we're able to do all the southern wide waterways apart from up stream of Guildford (R. Wey) and the top end of the Basingstoke canal. A fixed wheelhouse with higher than 7ft 6ins airdraft would be very restricted in choice of routes. Keith.

This all sounds well and good but the problem is that sanitation hose is 38mm bore and domestic waste pipe is 40mm bore. Any ideas on how to couple them up? Keith.

I have an electric copper kettle which I came by a couple of years ago and use it daily. A freind was quite alarmed at seeing this saying that I'd get copper poisoning from it. I think this is a myth, probably brought about by the dangers of using copper exhaust pipe ( not too sure about that one either). I pointed out that nearly all houses are completely plumbed with copper so it's highly unlikely that using a kettle made from the same material would present any risk. The o.ps kettle could present a health risk as the solder probably contains lead which, for plumbing use, has been banned for many years now. Having said that made me inspect mine to see if there's any soldered joints and I've found just one where the spout is joined to the body, so I might not use it any more. Keith.

Take a look at www.barging.co.uk/vat.htm for up to date info on this. Qualifying ships need to be minimum of 15 gross tonnes and not to have been built or adapted for leasiure use. From what I can see, you'd need to prove that it was built solely for residential use. Another stumbling block could be that it must be seaworthy, it's not clear how this is defined. I expect Colin Stone will be along shortly with the definitive answer. Keith.

. Exactly and i would put my money on the small cruiser passing quicker than the gin palace (i hate that phrase ) Me too, Noddy boat is much better Keith.

I don't doubt the intelligence of either of you and I'm sure you fully understood each other but going by the links provided by Idleness, it's possible that the VAs' interpretation of the rules could be flawed. I'd like to add that I have no axe to grind, it makes no difference to me what the outcome will be as it doesn't affect me whatsoever. You posted on this forum asking for opinions and I've offered mine.If what I say is not to your liking and, if turns out to be true, not what you were hoping for, then I'm afraid, that's life. Keith.