Jen-in-Wellies

The gravel traffic stopped between 2013 and just now. Kellingley Collliery, which was right beside the canal, was still working up till 2015.

If you travel along that bit of the Aire and Calder, it is on an embankment above the general ground level for long distances. The canal edges are crinkle cut piling driven in. Good evidence that the general ground level has dropped and the canal banks have been built up to stop it breaching. You would drop the canal in a lock to near the local ground level to minimise earth moving when building it in the first place. These are the same boats that have been used to trade along there for many years before the hiatus. If they used to get under the bridges and now struggle, then what do you think has happened? Mining subsidence is a real thing. That area of Yorkshire was hollowed out underneath in recent decades/

Er the gravel barge has trouble getting under them without getting the stern to squat down? That is pretty good evidence. There has been a lot of coal removed from underneath that whole area. The last deep mine only closed around five years ago. A lot of bridges on the BCN were built so the deck could be jacked up to clear the canal as the land dropped from subsidence.

Without consistent test methods you are left with marketing claims, which can vary from optimistic to downright deceitful. I suspect your idea of tying a spring balance to the mooring and seeing what your current engine can do is actually the best way to compare with the electric outboards.. Maybe tie a rope to your boat, run it through a pulley on land, then see if your boat can lift a weight the same as the quoted thrust of the electric outboard. Horsepower is most likely the horsepower of the engine alone, calculated from the measured torque at the highest rpm. Thing is the engine is usually running at much less than max rpm, so power is a lot less. The thrust quoted on the electric outboards might be typical, or maximum, but is at the prop, so a much better comparison. Jen So the boat is ready when battery tech improves and/or gets cheaper and there are more charging points around.

Once things reach a critical point they can happen very fast. Remember when there was a Blockbuster, or other video store in every small town? A few years later Netflix and the like removed the lot. Building a new boat with electric drive, even if at this stage you have a built in diesel generator to charge the batteries and supplement the solar in the absence of a charging network is starting to be a sensible idea. Zero emission capable, and easier to make fully zero emission, once the infrastructure is there. In only a couple of years it will be usual. Jen

The screw is hidden behind the fuse, so no pic. Feels like a cross head. Located here, so you'll gave to go by feel to get a screwdriver to it. Not sure if there is more than one screw without taking it apart, which I don't want to do. I think it should remove the bracket that holds the fuse and the reed switch, as well as carrying the flush water pipe. From there you should be able to replace the reed switch and crimp on the wires of the new one. For easier access, the toilet may just lift off a mounting bracket at the rear. Depends how it was installed, but try lifting it upwards. Will be a lot easier to work on. Empty the water tank, or disconnect the flush water too, depending on the exact model you have. Jen

I have this mental image of a bunch of 18th century engineers meeting up in the back room of a pub in Staffordshire and after a few bottles of port too many deciding that 70' long and 7' wide would be the ideal dimensions for boats on their new Trent and Mersey canal. Unfortunately they remembered this decision the next morning and that is how we ended up with sewer tube boats. Jen, who has a narrow boat.

Free to not work in a mill, or factory and starve to death, vs free to run away from the plantation and be hunted down with large dogs. Yay freedom!

The are limited by ambient temperature (needs to be reasonably high) and relative humidity (needs to be low), so work better in some countries and seasons than others, but they do work. I've been tempted to have a play making one for the boat. In winter with the stove on, then the temperature and humidity could be suitable.

Still 25mm2 minimum in the BSS requirements for private boats.

You can make a fridge that works on the same principal for a lot less than £50. Less than £4-17-6 even.

My first starter battery lasted ten years without being connected to the Victron multi spade connection. This was in a marina most of the winter, so sometimes months between engine starts. The replacement battery has since been connected to the Victron starter battery charger outlet, but it isn't really needed. Jen

Good advice from @Mike Adams. Take care when working around the engine taking voltage measurements while trying to start it. Keep away from drive belts and so on. Jen

If something is restricting the power the engine can produce, then something like this will result. The extra load of turning a prop in gear restricts the speed it can reach, compared with out of gear in neutral. Similar to how it is possible to pedal a bike faster on the flat than it is going up hill. Jen